32 AN EASTERN VINEYARD. AN EASTERN VINEYARD. BY RACHEL E. G. UR picture shews us what an Eastern vineyard is like. We read so much in the Bible about vineyards, and they are so often used as an illustration of some truth which God wishes to put before us, that I think we shall like to know as much as we can about them. The vines were generally planted upon heights and steep crags, and surrounded by walls or hedges to defend them from the animals, which would otherwise make inroads on them. This is alluded to in various passages of the Bible: Ps. 1xxx. 8-13; Prov. xxiv. 30, 31; Cant. ii. 15; Matt. xxi. 33. The whole process of preparing the vineyard is described in Isa. v. 1-4-" My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." Then follows the pleading question: "What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes ?" Is not this vineyard a picture of many a life? The Great Master has bought our souls at an untold cost. Like the vineyard in the parable, we have been placed in favourable circumstances. We have heard of the exceeding great love of Christ, who loved us even unto death. His voice has been heard pleading tenderly with us to give ourselves to Him. What more could He have done? and yet what fruit are our lives bringing forth? Only wild grapes, worse than no fruit at all. If there is not good fruit, there will be bad. Every day of our lives we are living for the service of Christ or of Satan. It was needful to have a tower in the vineyard for a watchman to be stationed at, and for vine-dressers to live in. We read of this in Matthew xxi. 33, in our Lord's parable of the vineyard, let out to the wicked husbandmen, If animals broke through the wall of the vineyard, they committed sad havoc among the vines by treading them down and eating the grapes. This is referred to in the verse : "Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes" (Cant ii. 15). 34 AN EASTERN VINEYARD. Can we not see what this may mean in the Christian life? Are not the sins of selfishness and of temper (little sins as we sometimes call them) the "little foxes" that are spoiling the beautiful fruit which our daily life should be bearing to the glory of our Master? How are they to be kept out of the vineyard? We cannot make it secure against them. All our trying has failed utterly, but there is One who has promised to do it if we will let Him-"In that day sing ye unto her, a vineyard of red wine. I, the Lord, do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Who can refuse such a Keeper ? The vine-dresser must twice a year send the plough through the vineyard to loosen the stones, gather out the weeds, and train the growing vines in the right direction. We now come to the vintage, the making of the grapes into wine, of which we have here the illustration. The ripe fruit was gathered into baskets and carried to the winepress. It was placed in the upper one of the two vats, or cisterns, of which the vine-press is formed, and trodden upon by four or five men, who with bare feet and legs squeezed the grapes, dyeing themselves and their clothes with the red juice of the grape, which ran down into the vessel beneath. There is One who has trodden the wine-press of God's wrath against sin, and He has trodden it alone. "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with Me" (Isa. lxiii. 3). 66 'Here alone, Treading the mystical wine-press full of woe In the last passion of His agony." Yes, for my sin; left in His agony alone on the cross; deserted by His Father, because He had been smitten for my iniquities; forsaken of God, that through all ages to come He might "never leave me nor forsake me." We give the following subjects this month: The testimony borne to Christ that He was the Son of God. Matt. xvii. 5; John i. 49, Trace "good works" through the Epistles to Timothy. TO OUR SISTERS IN SERVICE. 35 words: TO OUR SISTERS IN SERVICE. ANY of you know how you were loved by Frances Ridley Havergal! and your hearts will all be stirred by reading the following incident, which her sister has sent me with these touching "I herewith send you a most precious paper which my darling sister had copied out on her type-writer to send you. She must have met with the incident and doubtless laid aside other pressing papers to copy this. It shows her constant and kindly care for servants; she knew how many a maiden felt lonely and uncared for and hence she always warmly spoke to them. She so wished servants to feel their Sisterhood with her and with us in Christ Jesus, and so in writing her Memoir I was careful to mention her consideration for them as well their devoted love to her. The incident is headed: FOR LIVING WATERS." 1 ""A poor servant girl came to me with two sixpences, wishing to give one to the Bible Society and the other to the Church Missionary Society, and to continue that sum every month. On my remonstrating in consideration of her slender wages, she promptly replied: "O, I can afford it now, for since I have seen the evil of sin, I have seen the evil of finery; I can easily save that sum now, and what I save by Christ I ought to save for Christ.'"-Rev. Hugh Stowell. Let us thank God for such true servants of Christ, and let us follow them as they followed Him! TRUST. Phil. iv. 19. SOPHIA M. NUGENT. 36 MISSIONS IN INDIA. TESTIMONY OF A NON-CHRISTIAN HINDU GENTLEMAN TO MISSIONS IN INDIA. HE following extracts are from an account in the "Friend of India" of a striking lecture delivered in CALCUTTA by a Hindu gentleman to a very large native meeting:"I am not a Christian, I have not been brought up by Christian teachers. The country in which I live is not a Christian country; nor is my home a Christian home. Yet must I speak of Christ. For is not a new and aggressive civilisation winning its way, day after day, into the very heart of the people ? Are not Christian ideas and institutions taking root on all sides in the soil of India? Who rules India? What power is it that sways the destinies of India at the present moment? You are mistaken if you think it is Lord Lytton in the Cabinet or Sir Fred. Haines in the field. Armies never conquer the heart of a nation. No! If you wish to secure the attachment and allegiance of India, it must be by exercising spiritual and moral influence. And such, indeed, has been the case with India. You cannot deny that our hearts have been touched, conquered, and subjugated by a superior power. "That power is Christ. British Government. Christ rules British India, not the "England has sent us a tremendous moral force, in the life of that Mighty Prophet, to conquer and hold this vast empire. India is unconsciously imbibing the spirit of this new civilisation, succumbing to its irresistible influence. It is not the British army, I say again, that deserves honour for holding India. If to any army appertains that honour, that army is the army of Christian missionaries, headed by their irresistible Captain, Jesus Christ. Their devotion and self-abnegation, their philanthropy, their love to God, their attachment and allegiance to the truth, all these have found, and will continue to find, a deep place in the gratitude of our countrymen. "It is needless for me to bestow eulogium upon such tried friends and benefactors of our country. They have brought unto us CHRIST. They have given us the high code of Christian ethics, and their teaching and example have secretly influenced and now influence thousands of non-Christian Hindus. Let England know that, thanks to the noble band of Christ's ambassadors, sent by her, she has already succeeded in planting His banner in the heart of the nation. God's blessing and India's gratitude will, therefore, ever |