5 6 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



places before us, in the kind shelter which the larger 

 and more richly endowed objects afford to the smaller 

 and poorer, a silent picture of what should be our own 

 conduct in the intercourse of human life. And in the 

 added beauty and charm which the exercise of this grace 

 of hospitality imparts to the objects that bestow it, she 

 teaches us that, by receiving strangers, we too may be 

 entertaining angels unawares. In the few exceptional 

 cases where her dumb and soulless things maintain a 

 dignified exclusiveness, and give to all comers a haughty 

 refusal of admission, we have, in her own hieroglyphic 

 language which is so expressive, teaching eye and heart 

 at the same time, a rebuke to that human selfishness 

 which would confine to itself all the benefits which it 

 enjoys, and refuses to carry them over into some higher 

 usefulness. As nature is ever defeating the plans of 

 selfishness, by making all her objects mutually de- 

 pendent, none being allowed to live entirely for itself, 

 so God, by the arrangements of His Providence, is 

 breaking down all human monopolies, and enforcing a 

 wide hospitality, allowing no man to live for himself 

 alone. 



In the plan -of religion His intention is still more 

 manifest. The growth of His kingdom on earth is like 

 that of a mustard-tree, which, springing from the smallest 

 seed, develops into the grandest form, covering the 

 earth with its shadow, and lodging the birds of the air 

 among its boughs, protecting the poorest and feeblest 

 things which men may despise. And because of their 

 want of hospitality, because they confined to themselves 



