I. THE OLIVE LEAF. TI 



air and sunshine, another joint with its pair of leaves 

 is formed ; and then another joint with its pair of 

 leaves is formed, and so on. The whole stem con- 

 sists of a mere repetition of these single elements 

 joints and leaves. And as all the vegetable kingdom is 

 thus built up of leaves, so the animal kingdom is con- 

 structed on the same model. All organisms, whether 

 animal or vegetable, are similar in their elementary 

 structure and form ; and the most complicated results 

 are attained by the simplest conceivable means, and 

 that without the slightest violation of the original plan 

 of nature. The palm of the human hand and the back- 

 bone of the human form are both constructed upon the 

 model of the leaf. Thoreau has said that the whole 

 earth is but a gigantic leaf, in which the rivers and 

 streams resemble the veins, and the mountains and 

 plains the green parts. And did not He who sent the 

 dove with the olive leaf to Noah, thereby assure him 

 that out of that leaf would be evolved the whole fair 

 world of vegetable and animal life, which for a while had 

 perished beneath the waters of the flood ; that it would 

 be reconstructed upon the old type and developed 

 according to the old pattern ? And did not He who 

 developed this great world of life out of the single 

 leaf, develop all the great scheme of grace, all the 

 wondrous history of redemption, out of the first simple 

 promise to our first parents after their fall ? Amid all 

 the varying dispensations of His providence, He has 

 been without variableness or shadow of turning, unfold- 

 ing more and more the germinating fulness of the same 



