8 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



antagonism like the force of the fire that burns every- 

 thing to ashes, and the force of the green leaf that builds 

 up life and beauty out of the ashes; and God has 

 suffered sin to continue because He knows that grace 

 can conquer it, strip its spoils, and convert its ruins into 

 higher and nobler forms of life. 



3. In the third place, the green leaf is the best con- 

 ductor of electricity that most powerful and destruc- 

 tive of all the forces of the earth. To guard our homes 

 and public buildings from its destructive action we erect 

 our lightning-rods whose sharp points quietly drain the 

 clouds, or, failing to do this, receive the discharge and 

 bear it harmlessly to the earth. But ages before Frank- 

 lin pointed the first lightning-rod to the storm, God has 

 surrounded the dwellings of man with a protection far 

 more effectual than this; for since the creation of 

 organic life every pointed leaf and blade of grass have 

 been silently disarming the clouds of their destructive 

 weapon. A twig covered with leaves, sharpened by 

 nature's exquisite workmanship, is said to be three 

 times as effectual as the metallic points of the best 

 constructed rod. And when we reflect how many 

 thousands of these vegetable points every large tree 

 directs to the sky, and consider what must be the 

 efficacy of a single forest with its innumerable leaves, 

 or of a single meadow with its countless blades of grass, 

 we see how abundant the protection from the storm is, 

 and with what care Providence has guarded us from the 

 destructive force. And was not that green leaf which 

 came to Noah in the ark God's lightning conductor? 



