68 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



And it is a sublime thought that He quenches His 

 thirst day after day, not only from the streams which 

 man frequents, but also from the central sea, over 

 whose vast solitude no ship has ever passed, and 

 from the little spring that wells up on the lonely 

 mountain side where human foot has never trodden. 

 All their beauty and their glory minister to the thirst 

 of God. 



What, too, is the creation of man, but the satisfaction 

 of a want of God? He who said of Adam, " It is not 

 good for man to be alone ; I will make an helpmeet for 

 him," must Himself have had the same feeling, wished 

 not Himself to be alone, unrevealed and unloved. He 

 desired, so to speak, to find an helpmeet for Himself, 

 to surround Himself with intelligent and moral beings 

 on whom He might lift the light of His countenance, 

 who could in some measure understand His thoughts 

 and sympathize with His ends, who could obey Him 

 not from the necessity of their being, but from the 

 spontaneous affection of their heart. And therefore 

 He made man in His own image, endowed him with 

 the marvellous gifts of reason and liberty, reflecting the 

 spontaneity of the Divine will not the slave, but the 

 servant and friend of God. God's Spirit could not find 

 rest in the creation of sun, moon, and stars, or in the 

 creation of rocks and seas, plants and animals ; He 

 could not rest in dead matter or in physical life ; He 

 rested only when He had made man, another spirit like 

 Himself with whom He could hold communion, in the 

 mirror of whose being He could see His own image 



