1 50 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



the cure of the world's evil is the revival of personal 

 agency ; the touch of hearts sore with pity, the look of 

 eyes full of tears, the voice quivering with the pathos of 

 tenderness and hope; the humble, loving, devoted 

 Christian life, in which the teaching of the Master is 

 embodied in a living, breathing human form. This 

 would succeed when all other methods would fail. 



Let us never lose sight, then, of the great truth that, 

 in the husbandry of souls, it is necessary that the sower, 

 alone, solitary, individual should scatter the seed 

 with his own hand, and the reaper gather each ripe 

 stalk separately into his sheaf as he cuts it down. 

 In the blessed labours of the Cross, it is required that 

 there should be a real crucifixion with Christ; that 

 His servants should even "fill up that which is be- 

 hind of the afflictions of Christ for His body's sake, 

 which is the Church." Every Christian who has him- 

 self been saved by the coming of Jesus into his own 

 nature and taking upon Him his sins and sorrows, 

 should imitate Christ in this should seek to save 

 others who are still dead in "trespasses and sins "by 

 bearing, through sympathy and solicitude for their 

 welfare, their sins and sorrows. Every Christian should 

 endeavour, by personal contact with the evil of the 

 world, to remedy it by the influence of personal faith 

 and living love. Every Christian, who is a debtor to- 

 all men, should go home with the poor, and the 

 ignorant, and the miserable, and make their trials his 

 own, that thus he may truly relieve and bless them. 

 In the first creation God acted alone ; but in the new 



