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provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.' Isaiah xxx. 24. In these words he foretels a season of great plenty, when the cattle shall be fed with corn better in quality, separated from the chaff, and (as the term rendered clean in our version properly signifies) acidulated, to render it more grateful to their taste. The evangelist clearly refers to the practice which was common in Palestine, of ploughing with the ass, when he calls him a creature subject to the yoke, Matt. xxi. 5.

In rice grounds, which require to be flooded, the ass was employed to prepare them for the seed, by treading them with his feet. It is to this method of preparing the ground that Chardin supposes the prophet to allude, when he says, 'Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass,' Isaiah xxxii. 20. They shall be blessed under the future reign of the promised Messiah. In times anterior to his appearing, their country was to be made a desolation; briers and thorns were to encumber their fields; their sumptuous dwellings were to be cast down; their cities and strong-holds were to be levelled with the dust. But when Messiah commences his reign, times of unequalled prosperity shall begin their career. The goodness of Jehovah shall descend in fertilizing showers, to invigorate their fields, and to swell the streams which the skill and industry of the husbandman conduct among his plantations, or with which he covers his ricegrounds. Secure from the ruinous incursions of aliens, and in the sure hope of an abundant harvest, he shall scatter his rice on the face of the superincumbent water, and tread it into the miry soil, with 'the feet of the ox and the ass.' Prosperous and happy himself, he will consider it his duty, and feel it his delight, 'to do good and communicate,'—to succor the widow and the fatherless, to open his doors to the stranger, to diffuse around him the light of truth, and to swell, by the diligent and prudent use of all the means that providence has brought within his reach, the sum of human enjoyment.

But the services of this useful animal were not sufficient, even in times of primitive simplicity, to save him from every kind of abuse. At one time he suffers from neglect, at another, from oppressive labor; and seldom experiences from ungrateful man the kindness and indulgence to which he is fairly entitled. From the watchful care of the Creator, however, he has not been excluded : even to his subsistence, comfort, and ease, the gracious attention of heaven has been directed. See Exod. xxiii. 12; Zec. xiii. 5; xiv. 5. The man of benevolence, who treats even his ass with kindness, shall not lose his reward: besides the approbation of God and his own conscience, he shall be attended with the affectionate attachment of the animal itself. Dull and stupid as he is, the ass, according to Buffon, sinells his master at a distance, searches the places and roads which he used to frequent, and easily distinguishes him from the rest of mankind. An equal degree of gratitude is not always to be found among rational beings towards their greatest and best Benefactor. The

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