io THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



harvest, and of a pleasant and useful home for man, 

 would be present as of yore. And is not the Heavenly 

 Dove bringing to us in the ark of our salvation a leaf of 

 the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the 

 nations, as a token that beyond the destructive floods 

 of earth, beyond the final conflagration in which all 

 things shall be burned up, the river of life will flow 

 again ; and amid the green fields of the paradise 

 restored, the Lamb shall lead us to living fountains of 

 waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from our 

 eyes ? The chaos of this weary and disordered earth 

 will be re-arranged and moulded into fairer forms and 

 brighter hues, as a fit home for renewed and glorified 

 humanity, by Him who will do what Noah failed to do ; 

 comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, 

 because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. 



5. In the fifth place, the green leaf is the type upon 

 which the forms of all life are moulded. All the parts 

 of a plant are but modifications of the leaf. The stem 

 is a leaf rolled up tight; the blossom is a leaf trans- 

 figured for a higher purpose ; the fruit is a leaf changed 

 into a receptacle for the seed; and the seed itself is 

 a leaf packed together in a case to protect it from 

 unfavourable weather, and furnished with a sufficient 

 amount of food for its unfolding and growth into a new 

 plant in more favourable circumstances. Take a pea 

 or a bean, and if you strip off its envelope or skin, 

 you find that it consists of a short joint and a pair 

 of leaves; as it grows in the ground, another joint with 

 its pair of leaves is formed ; as it still grows in the 



