i oo THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



individuals, whose number from the first was fixed and 

 perfect. They came direct from the hand of God ; and 

 thus were the sons of God, but were not the sons of one 

 another. They had no father, or son, or brother no 

 blood-relationship. And therefore we can understand 

 how the Lord Jesus could not have taken upon Him the 

 nature of angels. Between Him and these beings there 

 could be no federal tie through the possession of a 

 common nature acquired by hereditary descent. And 

 we can understand with what profound interest the 

 angels would desire to look into the mystery of the 

 creation of a being who should be so different from 

 themselves, who should inherit the Divine blessing of 

 being fruitful, and multiplying and replenishing the 

 earth, with all that it involves of sorrow and joy of 

 spiritual education and probationary discipline. Through 

 the social relationships of man a way was prepared for 

 the incarnation of the second Adam, " the Lord from 

 heaven," in whom creation and the Creator met to- 

 gether not in semblance but in reality in whom all 

 fulness dwells the fulness of the creature as well as 

 the fulness of the Creator. And through this rela- 

 tionship resting on a participation of our flesh and 

 blood, man has the hope of nearer and more blessed 

 communion with God than even angels or archangels 

 know. 



Regarding the organization and the highest social 

 well-being of man then as the ultimate end of creation, 

 and taking specially into account the manifest uniformity 

 and continuity in the plans observed by the Creator 



