! 1 2 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



broad base and enormous bulk and fixed limits, re- 

 presented the primitive civilization of Egypt. The 

 human-headed bulls, and the other huge idols strangely 

 combining the human and the brutal, for which Nin- 

 eveh and Babylon were distinguished, were expressive 

 symbols of the state of Assyria, in which the mental 

 freedom and independence of men were still held in 

 bondage by the lower powers of nature. When the 

 light of history dawns upon these empires they are 

 seen to be completely organized ; uniform and universal 

 law, education, government, moulded all their subjects 

 to one type of character, and trained them to an un- 

 questioning obedience. Unassisted human nature had 

 reached in the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Roman empires 

 its utmost limits, and disclosed its fullest capacities ; 

 and we see how incapable it was of bringing any- 

 thing to perfection how stunted and stereotyped all 

 its mightiest efforts were. China has lived for two 

 thousand years upon the work of five centuries; it 

 has never got beyond the doctrines of Confucius as 

 explained and unfolded by Menucius. Five or six 

 centuries cover the whole ground of Greek history 

 from the rise of Sparta to the fall of Corinth ; while 

 Mahometan civilization in all its essentials completed 

 and stereotyped itself in the first three hundred years 

 of its existence. 



In striking contrast with the fixed limits and de- 

 finite proportions of these human civilizations is the 

 indefinite size and shape of the kingdom of God. 

 The stone is an appropriate symbol of it, the rough 



