The owner, in the parable, found no fruit on his fig-tree; and so he gave the order that it should be cut down. I tremble, my friends, lest so it should be with some of us-no fruit! no holiness of life! no zeal for God! no earnestness about our souls! I tremble lest God's patience should be tired out with some of us. I tremble for you who are living in sin, unpardoned, and unsaved. You are trying God's patience to the uttermost. You are daring him to strike the blow. Oh, in one moment he may strike it, and then you will be hurled into eternity. Say not in your heart, "I wish all men well; I have done harm to no one." This is not the point. The fig-tree did no harm. There was no poison growing upon it; no prickly thorns, instead of figs. No, its fault was that it was

fruitless, useless, a cumberer of the ground. Just so, every man who is not active in God's service, is a cumberer of the ground. What a mistake to suppose, that the Lord's work can be all done by his ministers; and that it is enough for other men to spend their time as they will, to eat, drink, and be merry, to gain their livelihood, and to pass creditably through this world. Oh, has not each man and woman among us a soul to be saved, a God to be served, a hell to escape, and a heaven to win? I leave it then to the conscience of each one of you, to say whether or not God might with justice give the order in your case, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?"

But, brethren, let us stop a moment, and admire the great mercy

and forbearance of our God. We have been spared. We might have been cut off long ago. But the Lord waiteth to be gracious. There is something which seems, as it were, to check his uplifted arm. His tender love still bears with us. How is this? If we go on with the parable, we shall find out the reason. How was it with the barren fig-tree? The dresser of the vineyard comes forward and intercedes with the owner:

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Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then, after that thou shalt cut it down."

And is there not One, who, when we were sinning against God, and knew him not, and cared little for him, was perhaps all the while interceding for us? Who can tell the value of Christ's prayers and interces

sions for sinners? But for Him, you and I might now be in that place, where there is no repentance, no forgiveness. Our day of grace might be over; our time of punishment begun. Perhaps in the last few weeks, our heavenly Father may have seen in us enough, and more than enough, to lead him to "swear in his wrath, that we should not enter into his rest." But Christ has prayed for us,

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Spare him yet a little longer :" “Let it alone this year also, till I dig about it and dung it, and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down." You will observe, he does not pray, "Lord, let it never be cut down"-but, "Lord, not now: Lord, do not remove the careful dresser from it; do not withhold the dews; do not pluck up the tree." It is a solemn thought, that

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this year may be with some of us our last year, our last season of trial, our last year of grace. If we bear fruit, well; but if not, then it will have been better for us never to have been born, and never to have been planted within God's vineyard.

But what can we make of those words, "Till I shall dig about it and dung it?" What does that mean? We know that a gardener who has a fruit tree which is not thriving, sometimes digs a deep trench round it, moves away the bad earth, and puts some rich mould or manure in its place, in order to make the tree more vigorous. And are we not sometimes choked up, and checked in our Christian growth, by the cares and pleasures of the world pressing upon us? Are we not earth-boundtoo tightly held by the things of this