in. THE HOSPITALITIES OF NATURE. 57 



the blessings of their favoured condition, and were heed- 

 less of the Divine charter by which they held their 

 peculiar privileges, that in them and by them all the 

 families of the earth should be blessed, God deprived 

 His people Israel of their heritage. The barren fig-tree 

 that had yielded no fruit to satisfy the hunger, no shade 

 to cool and refresh the weariness of other nations, but 

 kept for its own selfish leaves only all the blessings of 

 heaven and earth might be cut down as a cumberer of 

 the ground. 



From every lonely, hungry soul Jesus seeks hospitality, 

 standing at the door without, waiting patiently for the 

 opening of it ; and when He is welcomed in there is a 

 mutual feeling of love, and the guest becomes a generous 

 host. And what His thoughts of hospitality to the race 

 whom He has come to seek and redeem are, is strikingly 

 seen in that most beautiful parable where the feast is 

 spread, and the servants are sent first to individuals 

 favoured by fortune, and then to the poor and the 

 outcast, to bid them all come, for all things are ready. 

 However full, there is yet room in the Father's heart 

 and in the Father's house ; and not till He has gathered 

 all the dispersed wanderers from the four corners of the 

 earth, and made them to sit down in the everlasting 

 kingdom, to satisfy the mighty longings of eternity with 

 the meat that endureth for ever, will He the Great 

 Giver, the type and source and end of all hospitality 

 see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied 1 



