one, independently of those great and important educational changes, the approaching shadows of which are already visible. All honour to the men who, whether by public advocacy or more private labour, successfully opposed so monstrous a blunder as the taxation of voluntary Christian effort!

It is pleasant also to mark the increasing efforts which are being made for the culture and preparation of Sunday school teachers, on the part of local unions and individual schools; but the need for action is still great, and we trust will be more fully recognised during the coming year. It is one of the chief objects of this Magazine to promote, to the utmost that its capabilities allow, the improvement of the teacher and the efficiency of the school; and it is hoped that the volume now completed will be found to contain a large amount of matter adapted to these ends. Having been unexpectedly called to undertake its management in the spring of the year, through the retirement of their able friend and predecessor, the Editors have not been insensible to the difficulties of comparatively new work, commenced under such disadvantages. They have sought, however, to keep steadily in view the ends for which the Sunday School Teacher was established, and they have been favoured with the assistance of a circle of ready helpers, by whose aid, and that of others, they hope to render the coming volume yet more useful and acceptable to their fellow-workers throughout the world.

56, Old Bailey, December, 1869.

THE

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER.

The Vine and the Branches.

BY PROFESSOR PORTER.

CORN, wine, and oil were the three chief products of Palestine. The fulness of temporal blessing is thus described by Moses: "He will bless the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil" (Deut. vii. 13); and the prophet Hosea, when predicting a time of extraordinary prosperity to Israel, says, And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil."-(ii. 21, 22.)

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The wine was especially selected by the sacred writers not merely as an emblem of the greatest temporal blessings, but also as an illustration of the most precious spiritual truths. It was an emblem of peace; "And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree (1 Kings iv. 25)—of wealth; Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes" (Gen. xlix. 11) -of joy ; "And wine that maketh glad the heart of man (Psa. civ. 15) -of fruitfulness; "Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine" (Psa. cxxviii. 3). The most terrible national and social calamities were prefigured by the failure or destruction of the vines; "Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth." Again, "Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab. For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting; the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease."Isa. xvi. 10, 11.

It must seem strange to many in this country that the vine should thus have been singled out by the sacred writers as an emblem of national wealth, prosperity, and peace. We are accustomed to consider wine as the chief, if not the only, product of the vineyard; and JANUARY, 1869.

B

wine, from its intoxicating and brutalizing effects, when used immoderately, might be considered rather as the emblem of a national curse than of a national blessing. A knowledge of Eastern life and customs gives us more enlightened views on this subject, and enables us fully to appreciate the appropriateness and force of Bible metaphors.

In Palestine the fruit of the vine was one of the chief articles of food. Only a small fraction of it was converted into wine. Instead of being the most important, wine was probably the least important of the objects for which the vine was cultivated. In a great variety of ways the fruit of the vine was in ancient times, and still is, used as an article of daily food by all classes, from the highest to the lowest. It may be interesting to enumerate some of the ways in which it is now used or prepared.

1. The fresh ripe grapes, eaten with bread, constitute the principal food of the people in the vine-growing districts, during three months of the year. Different kinds of grapes, different qualities of soil, and different modes of cultivation, cause the vintage to extend over this lengthened period. The grapes are extremely cheap, seldom more than a halfpenny a pound even in the large cities; and they are wholesome and nutritious. 2. When the season of fresh grapes is past, dried grapes, or raisins, take their place. They are also used largely in various forms of cookery, and in confectionery. I know a small village in Lebanon where no less than 180,000 pounds are annually prepared, and chiefly for home consumption. 3. Syrup of grapes is made by expressing the juice, and boiling it until it is reduced to about one-fourth of its original volume. It resembles molasses in appearance and taste, and is used with bread as an article of daily food. Its name in Arabic is dibs, and it is probably the same as the debash of the Bible, which is translated "honey" in our version (Gen. xliii. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 17). When to these we add wine, which was not, as with us, a rare and expensive luxury, but a wholesome beverage within reach of, and used by, all classes-we cannot wonder that the vine became the emblem of national prosperity and wealth.

And, besides, the vineyards were places of common resort for enjoyment, revelry, or quiet repose. After the ingathering of the harvest the fields were bleak and bare, and the surface of the country assumed an aspect of dreary and desolate whiteness. The vineyards alone retained their spring verdure, and thus presented great attractions to the pleasure-seeking inhabitants of the East. Vines, too, are extensively trained over trellis-work in the gardens and courtyards of that sunny clime. There is scarcely a house in town or village, throughout the vine growing districts of Syria and Palestine, which has not its arbour of vines, where, during the intense heat of the long summer days, the people are wont to recline in the grateful shade. Many a time, when looking on whole families,-parents and children, host and guests, picturesquely grouped beneath the dense foliage of a vine-draped bower, have the words of Zechariah been recalled to my memory; "In