THE GOOSEBEEEY AND CTJEEANT. 135 



every other substance to which a portion of th'^j power 

 is permitted. Let sensuality and intemperance pervert 

 it as they will, it is in itself a good and not an evil, and 

 was given by the Source of all good to " cheer the heart 

 of man " and gladden his spirit. It is too true that the 

 gift has often been abused, so much so that legislators 

 have sometimes attempted wholly to interdict it ; and it 

 is said that the grape has once or twice been entirely 

 rooted out of the land of China by imperial decree. 

 Nature, however, cannot be permanently thwarted, and 

 it has mostly been found that where the vine has been 

 banished something worse has taken its place, it being a 

 significant fact that wine-growing countries are really the 

 least intemperate. Next, indeed, to the corn which sup- 

 plies our daily bread, we may truly say that by the greater 

 part of the world no gift of Heaven has been more valued 

 than the grape. In enumerating the honours of the vine, 

 we must not forget that it afforded one of the earliest 

 offerings to the Deity, for " bread and wine " were brought 

 forth to Abraham by Melchizedek, "the priest of the 

 Most High G-od." Consecrated too to the most sacred 

 rite of the religion of Jesus, it has thus been made to us 

 a link between heaven and earth ; and though we look 

 not with the heathen or the Mahometan to an actual 

 quaffing of grape-juice as part of the bliss of eternity, yet 

 every Christian must feel that there is something hallowed 

 in the symbol which reminds him of his future hope to 

 drink hereafter " new wine in his Father's kingdom." 



CHAPTER X. 



THE GOOSEBEEEY AND CUEEANT. 



WHILE every bright-tinted blossom still slept within 

 its bark-built cell, and only the first faint streaks of spring 



