THE OLIVE LEAF. 



in a more wonderful way still, the moral world by the 

 ministry of Him upon whom the dove descended at His 

 baptism, and who bore our sins in His own body on the 

 tree, and in so doing brought in an everlasting right- 

 eousness. And not only does His salvation balance 

 the evil of the world, convert baneful and noxious things 

 to good and noble uses, change sinners into saints, and 

 cause all things to work together for good to them that 

 love God ; it does far more than produce a moral 

 equilibrium. It is a victorious principle, and is destined 

 in the end to overcome all the evils of the world, and to 

 make of this sin-ruined creation a new heaven and a 

 new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 



2. In the second place, the green leaf is the source of 

 all the life of the world. It is by its agency alone that 

 inert inorganic matter is changed into organic matter, 

 which furnishes the starting-point of all life. Nowhere 

 else on the face of the earth does this most important 

 process take place. Everything else consumes and 

 destroys. The green leaf alone conserves and creates. 

 It is the mediator between the world of death and the 

 world of life. The crust of the earth was once 

 like a burnt cinder ; and the reason why it has not 

 continued so, why, unlike the moon which revolves 

 round the earth a great lifeless desert of solid 

 lava, it has been peopled with all kinds of living things, 

 is owing to the ministry of the green leaf. It is because 

 of this ministry that in a world once burnt up is found 

 an abundant supply of combustible materials for all our 

 wants. During the long geological periods the silent 



