Puslapio vaizdai
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this structure should be considered as a mere protection for the seeds, it would be a very superfluous one; and the real intention is not less visible. In the case of the cashew, externally resembling the apple, the fruit is an absolute superfluity; since it does not even enclose the otherwise fully protected seed.

The cherry and the peach are examples under that class of fruits which botany terms drupes. Here the superfluity is very striking, because the seed is completely protected by the stone, as in the case of the walnut and filbert, where there is no fruit. And here, also, we must admire that cellular structure through which the purposes already named are accomplished; while in the peach, in particular, the firmness is very remarkable, when the actual quantity of fluid in the total bulk is considered. A fluid was the thing to be produced in all the instances mentioned; but that was to be rendered transportable and durable; and by means that, as our author observes, almost appear magical, it has been made to assume the form of a hard and resisting solid.

There are some fruits which are naturally, or on account of their uses in the vegetable system, very transitory and perishable. If these had all ripened at the same period, as might have been expected, seeing that they all depend for their progress towards maturity on the advance of the seasons, we should have been overwhelmed with their numbers for one short period, and should, during all the rest of the year, have been destitute of this means of enjoyment. But a provident Creator has arrranged otherwise. Like flowers, which are also formed for human enjoyment, they have been commanded to appear in succession, so that, as one vanishes, another is ready to supply its place. We experience this, even in our own short summer: It is more extensively the case in tropical climates, where these productions are far more numerous, and their uses both to man and the lower animals much greater.

But there is another, and not less beneficent, provision

with regard to fruits, which belongs more directly to our present subject, as connected with the autumnal season; I mean that there are some kinds so formed as to admit of being stored for future use. This is particularly the property of some kinds, which do not ripen till this late period of the vegetable year, a fact itself indicating a providential arrangement, as providing a supply for the winter months. It is worthy of remark, that of those which are thus destined for future use, several do not ripen on the parent tree, a property which, while it presents a great chemical difficulty, was necessary, in accordance with physiological principles, to the preservation of the fruit, which, as soon as life becomes extinct, must rot. The stored apple is not less alive than its seeds: Its principle of vitality remains,-one of those inexplicable detachments, like the sap, from the general life; and it continues to act on the fluids which the vessel contains. Thus does it convert the mallic acid into sugar; while, in the same manner, various other conversions are effected, not one of which extra-organic or common chemistry has been able to perform.

There is a contrivance similar to this in some of the perishable or truly summer fruits of a hot climate, which must not be passed over. The lemon and the orange ripen, like the apple, at a distant time, without the aid of the parent tree, without light and without heat; giving us, in the regions of snow, all that in this tree could have been derived from a tropical sun. An object so familiar is, as usual, little considered; but independently of this power of delay, of the extraordinary conversion of the citric-acid into sugar, in this little and strange laboratory, and of an investment which, appointed for the defence of the interior, is, moreover, so contrived that it shall furnish the greatest resistance when that is most needed, there is a beautiful mechanism, already alluded to in regard to other fruits, through which the enclosed fluid is preserved under a great chemical difficulty. Had the rhind inclosed nothing but a fluid, as

the cocoa-nut does, it must, according to chemical principles, have fallen into fermentation, and been destroyed. But this is guarded against, and in the precise manner which science would have suggested. Each compartment is so small, that fermentation cannot take place, a structure which was not necessary, as regards either the vegetable or the produce.*

Before concluding this article, I may allude in a single sentence, to the power of preserving fruits by art. The fig, the date, and the grape, are preserved with little aid from human industry; and the principle which secures these from decay, points out the means of preserving other fruits, naturally more perishable. The fundamental provision for this, is laid in sugar. Incapable of change itself, this remarkable, and almost universally diffused substance, preserves not merely the vegetable, but even the animal organizations from chemical destruction; and, where Nature has not added it to the fruits in sufficient quantity, art is enabled to supply it with the same useful results, in modes which are as familiar as they are numerous.

* Macculloch's Attributes of God, vol. iii.-" On the pleasures provided through the senses of odour and taste."

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In the preceding papers, the reader's attention has been directed to the goodness of God, as displayed in the wonderful provision which has been made for the support and refreshment of the human frame. It is most interesting thus to trace the hand of a Father in such wise and beneficent arrangements, and to be able so clearly to discern his providential care in the articles of food which we daily consume, but which nevertheless we are so apt to receive and to enjoy without one thought of Him.

But there is a subject still more deserving of grateful acknowledgment on the part of man, which the foregoing considerations naturally suggest for our meditation on this day. I allude to that provision which a merciful God has made for the support and refreshment of our immortal part. As soon as the new birth takes place, the soul begins to require means of subsistence, just as much as the body when the child is born. This has been furnished in inexhaustible abundance. Even as in animated nature the mother abounds with sweet and nutritious aliment for her offspring,-so, in the kingdom of grace, the most suitable nourishment has been tenderly provided by our Heavenly Father for all who are born of Him. There is what is called in Scripture, “the sincere milk of the word," viz. the simple truths of the Gospel in all their native plainness, and sweetness, and efficacy,-uncorrupted, unimpaired, pure as they originally came from the Divine mind. This is the heavenly aliment which has been prepared for the "new-born babes in Christ," of whom the apostle Peter

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speaks, this they are taught to "desire," that they may grow thereby," and its nourishing virtue is derived from the blood of Christ, which alone gives efficacy to every thing that the Gospel has revealed.

But just as a child, when it arrives at a certain age, requires food of a stronger kind than milk,—so he that is born of God, when he has been taught the simple truth as it is in Christ, longs for a more accurate and extended and intimate acquaintance with his nature, person, character, and finished work. Nor is he precluded from attaining to this, his more mature desire. "I," says Jesus, "am the bread of life, he that cometh unto me shall never hunger."

Bread has well been called the staff of life. In all nations it is the principal article of food. Now, to Christ this similitude may well be applied, inasmuch as it is from Him alone that the Christian derives any nourishment to strengthen and sustain his spiritual existence. Deprive him of Christ, and all his holy affections, devout feelings, heavenly aspirations, and pious resolutions, must be as if they had never been. Deny a man the bread that perisheth, and he may have recourse to some other kind of food, perhaps more nutritive than itself. But let him be prevented from feeding on Christ crucified," the bread of God, which he gave for the life of the world,”—and, whatever other supposed means of spiritual subsistence he may have recourse to, it will impart to him no nourishment at all,—it will leave him as feeble and unsatisfied as before. From the moment he ceases to receive support from Christ, his spiritual decline begins, and with sure and gradual progression it goes on, the soul becoming fainter and fainter every day, and sinking into its original state of death, till again it feeds on the bread of life. But, on the other hand, how feeble soever the soul may be, if Christ be received and fed upon as its only sustenance, it must live. Nothing can prevent its growth in grace. Christ proves at once its antidote and its support. The deadliest poison that Sa

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