the early fig, is full of local colour. A fig in June is a delicacy,
which is sure to be plucked and eaten as soon as seen. Such a dainty,
desirable morsel will Samaria be, as sweet and as little satisfying to
the all-devouring hunger of the Assyrian.

But storms sweep the air clear, and everything will not go down before
this one. The flower fadeth, but there is a chaplet of beauty which men
may wreathe round their heads, which shall bloom for ever. All sensuous
enjoyment has its limits in time, as well as in nobleness and
exquisiteness; but when it is all done with, the beauty and festal
ornament which truly crowns humanity shall smell sweet and blossom. The
prophecy had regard simply to the issue of the historical disaster to
which it pointed, and it meant that, after the storm of Assyrian
conquest, there would still be, for the servants of God, the residue of
the people, both in Israel and in Judah, a fuller possession of the
blessings which descend on the men who make God their portion. But the
principle involved is for ever true. The sweeping away of the perishable
does draw true hearts nearer to God.

So the two halves of this prophecy give us eternal truths as to the
certain destruction awaiting the joys of sense, and the permanence of
the beauty and strength which belong to those who take God for their
portion.

Drunkenness seems to have been a national sin in Israel; for Micah
rebukes it as vehemently as Isaiah, and it is a clear bit of Christian
duty in England to-day to 'set the trumpet to thy mouth and show the
people' this sin. But the lessons of the prophecy are wider than the
specific form of evil denounced. All setting of affection and seeking of
satisfaction in that which, in all the pride of its beauty, is 'a fading