THORNS 133 



of Gideon and other emblems of the Virgin, in 

 the fifteenth-century renderings of the Hortus 

 Inclusus and in the background of the essentially 

 German allegory of the Incarnation, known as 

 the ' Hunting of the Unicorn.' There are some 

 fine embroideries and tapestries of the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries in the Bavarian National 

 Museum,' in which the burning thorn bush, 

 with the other symbols of the Virgin's purity, 

 are worked with most careful detail. 



The burning bush, not particularly a thorn 

 bush, but the * bush ' of our Authorized Version, 

 is now the chosen emblem of the Church of 

 Scotland. 



There were neither thorns nor thistles in 

 Eden. It was not till the day when Adam fell 

 that God laid a curse upon the ground: ' Thorns 

 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.' 

 Therefore thorns and thistles are in general the 

 symbols of sin and death. A little German 

 woodcut expresses eternal death with gruesome 

 completeness : a skull, with the apple of damna- 

 tion between its bare jaws, has round its brow 

 a wreath of twisted thorns. 



' Munich. 



