TEE LEAF. 47 



the greatness of the Assyrians, do you remember what image 

 he gives of them ? " Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in 

 Lebanon, with fair branches ; and his top was among the 

 thick boughs ; the waters nourished him, and the deep brought 

 him up, with her rivers running round about his plants. 

 Under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth 

 their young ; and under his shadow dwelt all great nations." 



31. Now hear what follows. "The cedars in the Garden of 

 God could not hide him. The fir trees were not like his 

 boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches ; 

 nor any tree in the Garden of God was like unto him in 

 beauty." 



So that you see, whenever a nation rises into consistent, 

 vital, and, through many generations, enduring power, there 

 is still the Garden of God ; still it is the water of life which 

 feeds the roots of it ; and still the succession of its people is 

 imaged by the perennial leafage of trees of Paradise. Could 

 this be said of Assyria, and shall it not be said of England ? 

 How much more, of lives such as ours should be, just, labo- 

 rious, united in a : m, beneficent in fulfilment, may the image 

 be used of the leaves of the trees of Eden ! Other symbols 

 have been given often to show the evanescence and slightness 

 of our lives the foam upon the water, the grass on the house- 

 top, the vapour that vanishes away ; yet none of these are 

 images of true human life. That life, when it is real, is not 

 evanescent ; is not slight ; does not vanish away. Every noble 

 life leaves the fibre of it interwoven for ever in the work of 

 the world ; by so much, evermore, the strength of the human 

 race has gained ; more stubborn in the root, higher towards 

 heaven in the branch ; and, " as a teil tree, and as an oak, 

 whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves, so 

 the holy seed is in the midst thereof." 



32. Only remember on what conditions. In the great 

 Psalm of life, we are told that everything that a man doetk 

 shall prosper, so only that he delight in the law of his God, 

 that he hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor sat 

 in the seat of the scornful. Is it among these leaves of the 

 perpetual Spring, helpful leaves for the healing of the na- 



