THE MICE. HE other form of Jewish avarice which has been referred to (under "Swine") is that represented by mice.1 It is a love of pilfering and hoarding, not so much for the sake of greatness and power, as for the sake of an indolent and luxurious life. There is in it an utter want of trust in Providence, which is replaced by trust in one's own acquisitions. There is also an aversion to productive industry, and a disposition to beg and steal and hoard. I think we feel the same sort of shudder at the idea of petty thieves around as we do at mice and rats. This sort of avarice applies as well to knowledge as to property, and an idle love of reading for the sake of possessing much, is represented by mice.2 Also the love of sly indulgence of appetite, which we should be ashamed to have exposed; and, again, the pilfering of affection from others by sly insinuations and flattery1 are forms of the avarice represented by mice. Because this avarice is a common Jewish vice, therefore it is said of them, "They that sanctify themselves... eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse, shall be consumed together." (Isa. lxvi. 17.) When the Ark of the Testimony was taken by the Philistines, and carried down to their country, wherever it went it caused plagues of emerods and mice. The Philistines represent those who believe themselves saved by their faith, and freed from the obligation to attend to their lives. The presence of the Ark represents the power of the truth of the Word to show their real quality. And the mice are the sly habits of self-indulgence, thus exposed. 1 D. S. vii. 4. river "brought forth frogs upon their land and in the chambers of their kings." (Ps. cv. 30.) By those plagues were represented the evils that come upon those who are wholly natural; and one of them is the swarming of such falsities as frogs represent. John saw "out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs." (Rev. xvi. 13.) The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet are they who teach the doctrine of faith alone. These talk merely naturally, denying spiritual truth; not, indeed, the particulars mentioned above, but these,—that our Lord is God with us; that heavenly life is to live from His good Love; that He conquered the hells, and now holds them subdued for those and in those who hate evil, and look to Him to save them. These essential truths they deny, and reason discontentedly against them, from their love of being let alone in their natural pleasures. FROGS. FROGS they are young, live in the water, and resemble ugly, useless little fishes. As they mature they learn to breathe air, but still live mostly in the water, coming to the surface to breathe and croak. In early spring, which is their breeding season, they croak almost incessantly, and are vile. They correspond to affections which grow up in an atmosphere of merely natural thought, which they do not love for any useful purpose, and, when they mature, think about spiritual things only to deny and slander them. They deny the Divine Providence, they deny that there is a heaven or a hell, and talk croakingly about getting all the good you can out of life as it goes." It was one of the plagues of Egypt that their 1 A. C. 7352. |