should come unto us; searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." It forms a prominent article of that faith for which the Christian is to contend. It is that doctrine which can alone administer comfort to the weary and heavy-laden mourner, convinced of his guilt and wretchedness; for, while he is led to acknowledge his own unworthiness, the impossibility of cancelling the heavy bond that is against him, the convinced sinner rejoices to find that there is redemption through the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins. It is that doctrine which most powerfully manifests the glory of the divine Being, while it calls forth the most lively feelings of gratitude on the part of man. And there can be no view of scripture truth more derogatory to the Saviour's dignity, more paralyzing in its effects on the heart of man, than that which reduces the Lord to the level of a created being, and which leads us to regard his death as in no way meritorious further than it was indeed praiseworthy as setting forth an example of the most perfect obedience. There can be no view of scripture doctrine more pernicious in its consequences than that which, so far from humbling the sinner and exalting the Saviour, teaches man to build his hope of acceptance on the sandy foundation of his own deservings; which leads him to regard the gospel in any other light than as a message of unmerited compassion, the revelation of the divine purpose of mercy, through the Lord Jesus, to man ruined and undone, and totally destitute of any right to heaven's glories.

II. But we may remark, secondly, that the apostle, in the text, argues the extent of the love of God, in sending his Son to die for us, from the consideration that it was while we were yet sinners that this love was testified towards us. "Scarcely," says he, "for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." Human affection generally springs from some admiration of the object for whom it is felt, some admiration of the good qualities possessed by that object; and any willingness which has ever been testified by one man to lay down his life for another must have arisen from some feeling of the most devoted attachment, of the most ardent gratitude, the deepest affection, the greatest love. And even such are of rare occurrence: the apostle speaks of them as such-"scarcely," "peradventure." But reflect, with profoundest humiliation, that there were no such amiable qualities on the part of man, to require such a merciful interposition; no such

love to God, to call forth such love in return; no desire to seek him, that he should condescend to seek us. It was "while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us;" that, in due time, he bowed his head upon Calvary. It was while there was nothing in man to claim the divine favour-for there was nothing but obstinate perverseness and wilful rebellionthat the counsel of peace was revealed, and that the Lord laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. While we were yet sinners! What a humiliating picture of the human race! "Sinners;" sinners, without one solitary exception; sinners, all gone out of the way, alienated from God, devising only evil continually; sinners, not one of whom could stand the secret searching of that God who is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity."

As, on the one hand, it is necessary that we should believe that the Saviour who died for us was indeed divine, so, on the other, is it essential to our forming any thing approaching to adequate notions of God's love that we should admit the fact here insisted on, a fact not stated in one or two isolated passages, but interwoven throughout the whole texture of scripture. And yet, perhaps, there is none more unwillingly admitted; for there is none which militates more against man's natural pride, self-righteousness, and self-sufficiency. We may be assured, however, brethren, that it is essentially requisite, for our own cordial reception of the offers of mercy so freely made in the gospel, that we should be led to the humiliating conviction of our sinfulness, that we should feel that we are wholly unworthy of the interposition of God in our behalf. If there be any selfjustification, any unwillingness to admit the fact that we deserve nothing but the displeasure of the divine Being, any vain supposition that, when weighed in the balances, we shall not be found wanting, that we have many claims, as having done all that we were required, to the divine favour and regard, then there will be no cordial reception of the great doctrine of the atonement. There may be a decent and laudable observance of the ceremonials of religion, a spurious profession of faith on the lips, and there may be a cold acknowledgment of the divinity of the Son of God, and there may be a formal assent to the doctrines of the gospel; but the stupendous love of the Lord Jesus will not act as an operative principle, leading to the performance of all Christian duties. There may be the form of godliness, without one atom of its power. There may be the name to live, while the soul is dead in trespasses and in sins. There may be the outward show of churchmanship, whilst there is the most lamentable ignorance of

the church's doctrines. There may be a clear orthodoxy of the head, and dark heterodoxy of the heart. There may be a zealous energy for the scrupulous adherence to ritual observances, and a total paralysis of spiritual activity. There may be a formal observance of such holy seasons as the present, while, in fact, they are felt to be a weariness. And there is no error from which we should more earnestly pray to be delivered than that of resting contented with a mere speculative knowledge of divine truth, a mere partisanship in religious profession, while our natures are unchanged, our souls unenlightened, our hearts unsanctified, our wills and affections not brought under entire submission to the gospel of Christ. There can be no delusion more pernicious in its effects than that which leads a man to regard himself as sure of heaven, while there is no rational evidence that, being spiritually born again, he is savingly united to that Saviour through whom alone an admission to heaven is to be obtained, and who regards as his true disciples those alone who implicitly look to him for salvation, and testify that they are his by being transformed into his image, imbued with his spirit, and following his example.

As a subject at all times deeply interesting, I have thus imperfectly directed your thoughts to that most stupendous event, wherein God did chiefly commend his love towards us. Reflect on the intenseness of the Saviour's sufferings, the death, even the death of the cross; on the character of those for whom he suffered, "sinners;" on the blessings resulting from this sacrifice-present peace and future glory. Reflect with humility, gratitude, and earnest anxiety to improve for your spiritual and eternal benefit the truths which have been advanced. The more thoroughly you admire the greatness of the Saviour's compassion in giving his life a ransom for your souls, the more powerfully will you feel yourselves constrained to glorify him "in your bodies and in your spirits, which are his," and the more thoroughly will you deplore your utter inability to render any adequate return for that wondrous love which led him to pour out his soul an offering for sin, the more fully will you admit that, as his professed disciples, you are bound to make an entire surrender of yourselves, your souls and bodies, to his service. And reflect, moreover, on the unspeakable privileges of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive him as their only Saviour; the privileges of present peace and of future glory; the privilege of viewing God as a reconciled Father in time, and the sure and certain hope of dwelling with God

through eternity.

"He that liveth and believeth on him shall never die." And surely you would not barter these for all that the world can bestow.

But it may be that this subject, in all its important bearings, may not hitherto have affected your hearts. Immersed in the business or pleasures of the world, other subjects than that of "Jesus Christ and him crucified" may have engaged your attention; and you may be fast hastening to an eternal world, without one solemn thought as to the medium by which you are to be presented, without spot or wrinkle, before the throne of that Jehovah in whose sight the very heavens are not clean. Some vague notion of the divine mercy, some delusive hope that, on the whole, you are not justly amenable to the divine displeasure, some indefinite purpose of giving more earnest heed to subjects connected with salvation before you die; these have a tendency to whisper a soul-destroying peace, to suffer you to remain at ease in a state of spiritual insensibility. But, if there be one way alone of obtaining admission to glory, one fountain only where the stain of guilt can be washed away, if there be none other foundation on which the sinner can build with safety than that which is laid for us in Zion, none other name given among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus, can there be folly to be compared to that which may justly be laid to their charge whose lot has been cast in a Christian land, to whom the saving truths of the gospel are preached in all their freeness and all their fulness, and who yet will not come to the Saviour, that they may have life, to whom the volume of God's inspired word is a sealed book? If such there be present here to-day, O let me expostulate with them, with all the earnestness which the most affectionate desire for the welfare of their souls can impart. Let me beg of them to read with humility and prayer the volume of God's revealed word. Let me assure them that salvation is a matter of far too great importance to be neglected or to be bartered for the fleeting objects of earth, and that it is only to be secured by the cordial reception of that Saviour whose glory shall be the song of the unceasing adoration of the redeemed, when they shall "cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created," and by whose meritorious death upon the cross, "even while we were yet sinners, God commended his love towards us.'

TREES AND SHRUBS.

No. XV.

THE WILLOW.

(Salix).

THE varieties of this tree amount to upwards of thirty, or, according to some writers, to seventy. The principal are the common white, the crack, the weeping, the sallow, and the common osier, &c. It grows with great rapidity, and it is on this account that of true believers it is said, "And they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the water courses." It may be observed, also, that at the feast of tabernacles they were carried with other branches, while the people sang, "Hosannah, save, I beseech thee."

The common white willow (Salix alba), has the leaves lance-shaped and serrated; both sides covered with silky hairs, imparting a whitish colour. It is considered the finest of the species, and grows large. It is met with in moist woods and hedges, and on the sides of brooks and rivers, marking out their course. The wood is very white, though not durable; but its cleanly appearance adapts it for milk pails and similar articles, where peculiar cleanliness is desirable. It is readily propagated by cuttings. The best are the shoots of one or two years old, from one to two feet long, though older wood will root. Branches from six to eight feet long, and from two to three inches in diameter, will root readily; but the smaller cuttings produce the finest trees. This species is often found as a hedge-row tree, particularly in low and sheltered districts. While young, or growing as coppice-wood, it is formed into hoops, light handles for hay-rakes, &c.

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The crack willow (Salix fragilis) has the leaves oval and smooth, with toothed glandular footstalks. The leaves are wider than the lastmentioned variety, but it is in many respects similar it becomes a tolerably tall tree, and called "crack," from the brittleness of its small branches, which, if struck sharply, break off at the year's shoot. Its leaves are long, and of a shining green on each side. The wood is of a pink or salmon colour, and it is sometimes called the red-wood willow.

The weeping willow (Salix Babylonica) is the most elegant and ornamental of the whole willow tribe. The leaves are narrow, spear-shaped,

smooth, and serrated. From the pendulous nature of its branches it derives its name; which also makes it an excellent ornament to a still, retired piece of water. Drops of water distil from the extremities of its branches in misty weather, and justify its appellation. It is of comparatively recent introduction into this country. It grows to a large size, and attains a considerable age. Pope with his own hand planted one in his garden at Twickenham; but it was cut down some years ago: it is said to have been the first planted in this country. "This, however, cannot be correct," says Mr. Loudon, "as it is included in a catalogue of British trees, published in 1692." Pope is said to have been with lady Suffolk, when she received a present from Spain, or Turkey, and, observing some of the oziers bound round it about to vegetate, planted them with success.

Napoleon's weeping willow has obtained some celebrity. It was not indigenous to St. Helena, but introduced there among other trees, when general Beatson was governor. Under one of the species he had a seat placed, where he often sat. A storm, in 1821, about the time of his death, shattered it; when madame Bertrand planted several cuttings of it around his grave.

Another is the duke of Bedford's willow (Salix Russelliana). The foliage resembles that of the crack willow. It grows to a great size. The wood is equal, if not superior, to that of any of the willow species: it is tough, and possesses strong lateral adhesion. At Woburn abbey are five noble specimens. Dr. Johnson's, at Litchfield, was a special favourite, which he invariably visited when in that city. It was blown down in 1829, but a small branch of it was planted with great ceremony, and has become a fine tree.

The goat willow, or large-leaved sallow (Salix caprea) may be distinguished from all others by its large ovate or orbicular leaves, which are pointed as well as serrated: underneath they are of a pale glaucous colour, but are dark green above. It has numerous and nearly sessile catkins, which expand much earlier than the foliage. It sometimes attains the height of thirty or forty feet. It will grow in almost any soil, but prefers dry loam. Its boughs are still used on the Sunday before Easter, a remnant of popish superstition, in lieu of palm branches, as commemorative of our Lord's entry into Jerusalem; hence that day

is termed Palm Sunday. On this Sunday there still is, in popish countries, a procession to the church, with tapers and palm branches. Stowe says, that in the week before Easter "had ye great shows made for the fetching in of a twisted tree, or withe, as they termed it, out of the woods into the king's house, and the like into every man's house of honour and worship."

The following are lady Calcott's remarks on the willow :

"The white willow is pre-eminently the willow of the brook; and its large branches are well adapted for the purpose enjoined in Leviticus, where, along with the boughs of other thick trees, the Israelites are commanded to make of them tabernacles, in which they were to celebrate one of their most solemn feasts.

"The children of Israel still present willows annually in their synagogues, bound up with palm and myrtle, and accompanied with a citron. And it is a curious fact that, during the commonwealth of England, when Cromwell, like a wise politician, allowed them to settle in London and to have synagogues, the Jews came hither in sufficient numbers to celebrate the feast of tabernacles in booths among the willows on the borders of the Thames. The disturbance of their comfort, from the innumerable spectators, chiefly London apprentices, called for some protection from the local magistrates. Not that any insult was offered to their persons; but a natural curiosity, excited by so new and extraordinary a spectacle, induced many to press too closely round their camp, and perhaps intrude upon their privacy. This public celebration of the feast of tabernacles has never been renewed; and, in our time, the London Jews of rank and education content themselves with their own houses; while the Jews who hold more to the letter of the law construct a tabernacle either in a garden or court-yard, or on a housetop, with planks covered with trellis, so as not to shut out the stars, and decorated with boughs of willows of the brook and other thick trees, to which are hung citrons, apples, pears, and other dried fruits, gilt over and intermixed with artificial flowers. Those who have no space to erect a tabernacle are generally invited by some hospitable neighbour to eat, at least once during the feast, in an open dwelling.

"Of the willows on the banks of the Jordan a singular use has been, and still is, made. A divining rod was in ancient times a necessary implement of both priest and physician, nay, of every head of a house; and these rods were generally of willow.

"It is difficult to say at what period the custom began among the Jews; whether they carried it with them from the land of Canaan, or whether they adopted it in Egyptt. The present customs of those Jews who profess to adhere the most closely to their ancient traditions show the willowstaff to have been a divining-wand in truth. At the feast of tabernacles each person has a bundle

The old act of banishment passed in the reign of Edward I. was still in force, though it would be easy to show that there were Jews in England under both Tudors and Stuarts.

The rods of Moses and Aaron, and of the Egyptian scothsayers, were certainly divining-rods; and, as traditional customs are apt to outlive even written history, the divining-rods wherewith the miners of France and Cornwall detect the existence of metals under ground, and the German adept finds out the watersprings in the barren field, are indisputably descended from the divining-rods of Egypt and Arabia.

of willow branches in full leaf, one of which he strikes against some part of the house, so as to shake off the leaves. If they all, or nearly all, fall at once, he augurs that his sins are forgiven: if not, he lives in fear of misfortunes, or even death, until another year brings a fresh divining season. Some use the willows to inquire whether such or such an event as they wish shall come to pass; and some preserve them carefully, and by the falling off of the leaves divine concerning the duration of the lives of those who are dear to them. In the preface to Sale's Koran some curious facts are stated concerning the customs of the Arabs, who, like the Jews, cut willows with which they divined, and which they kept for a year, drawing various prognostics from the state in which the rods continued. This practice is spoken of in the apocryphal gospels; where we are told that, when the virgins brought up in the temple were marriageable, the unmarried men of the tribe they belonged to were commanded to bring their willows to the high priest, and lay them on the altar, where a prayer of consecration was said over them, and the rod which appeared freshest after the prayer entitled the owner to the principal virgin. Now, when the Virgin Mary was of age, and the rods of the young men of the tribe of Judah had been offered, that of Joseph, the most advanced in years, appeared to have budded and broken into leaf, upon which the priest performed the ceremony of marriage; and Joseph received Mary, while the other men of the tribe broke their rods for spite and envy *.

"The salix viminalis, or osier, is most probably the willow of the book of Job, wherewith he says Behemoth is compassed about. The osier, as well as the white willow, is common on the banks of Jordan; and it must have been of considerable importance, while the offerings of first-fruits were yearly carried to the temple, because the lawful vessels for such offerings were baskets (Deut. xvi. 2), which the people generally wove of peeled osiers, while the rich and ostentatious conveyed their offerings in baskets of silver.

"The beautiful salix Babylonica, or weeping willow, was surely that on which the people of the captivity hanged their harps, as the psalmist sings in the most touching elegy that was ever indited+.

"As to the safsaft, it is mentioned as common in Syria and Palestine, by Bruce and other travellers, particularly Hasselquist, who says that, like our sallows, it grows in dry and sandy places, as well as by the water.

"Maundrel says that the flat ground on both sides of Jordan, which probably formed the ancient bed of the river, is so covered with thickets of oleander, tamarisk, and willow, that you do not discover the river itself until close upon it. Pocock and Hasselquist also talk of the willows of Jordan, and mention that, at the annual pilgrimage made to the banks of the Jordan, the pilgrims cut staffs of them.

"Two places on the river are yearly visited,

Christian painters, down to the time of Raffael, attended to this point of what we may call costume. In his beautiful early picture of the marriage of the Virgin, a young man is breaking his staff over his knee.

↑ We believe there is no foundation for this idea.-ED. Ezekiel xvii. 5. The word translated willow is tzafzafa. Salix caprea. The modern English Jews prefer the sallow

to all other willows, for their ceremonies.