3 2 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



But amid this extraordinary diversity, the most con- 

 spicuous as well as the grandest feature of the Book 

 is its unity. There are a thousand golden taches 

 linking together all the parts of the fabric ; and, from 

 Genesis to Revelation, we have the gradual unfolding 

 of only one scheme of grace, the slow manifestation 

 of the same kingdom of heaven. The great thoughts 

 which the latest books contain had their roots at 

 the very gate of the Garden of Eden, in the earliest 

 book. The promise of the seed of the woman given 

 at the beginning develops more and more of its 

 germinant fulness as the ages and generations pass 

 on, until at last it flowers and fruits in the life and 

 death of Christ, in the formation of the Christian 

 Church, and in the organization of a perfected Christian 

 society. The Gospel is cast into the mould of the 

 law ; the New Testament is the complement and 

 explanation of the Old ; and in the book of Revelation 

 the circle of sacred doctrine and history is rounded 

 and completed, the latest developments of grace coal- 

 escing with the earliest dealings of God with man, 

 and the paradise lost is restored. It is this wonderful 

 unity that constitutes the grandest evidence of its 

 inspiration. Like the artists employed in the manu- 

 facture of the Gobelins tapestry, who work behind 

 the upright loom and do not see the pattern which 

 they are producing, the sacred writers themselves 

 could not have had before their minds the complete 

 plan of the Divine operation which they were partially 

 working out. They inquired diligently, indeed, what 



