i6 2 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



are said to have been imprinted by means of the sweat 

 and blood of the Prince of sufferers upon a material 

 that speaks of the nakedness of the curse and the toil 

 in the sweat of the face to which sin condemned man, 

 and is itself the product of toil. The face of the flower 

 veronica has developed without labour or sorrow; it 

 has never sinned, it cannot sin, but perfectly fulfils 

 God's purpose in its creation. There is no crown of 

 thorns on its brow, no sweat of labour on its calm, un- 

 ruffled face, no blood of anguish coursing through its 

 veins, but a green sap, the very milk of the grass, 

 and the leaves, the showers, and the sunbeams, and all 

 the sweet and tender things of the summer world. It 

 toils not, neither does it spin ; it is wrought in a loom 

 not made with hands ; it has no other reason for its 

 existence than its beauty, and in its beautiful idleness is 

 fulfilling the highest ends of existence. The likeness 

 that we discern in the countenance of the veronica 

 is not that of Him who was weary and heavy laden and 

 found no rest under the awful burden of Calvary ; but 

 the image of Him who walked with our first parents 

 among the trees of the garden in the purity and bliss of 

 the unfallen Eden. It has the clear, open, fearless eye 

 of the young child that knows no sin or care, and has 

 no self-consciousness of an anxious restless life different 

 from that of the birds and the flowers. And to those 

 who gaze upon its innocent beauty with eyes that tears 

 have dimmed, it seems like a little glimpse of the 

 fathomless blue of heaven that opens up amid the dark 

 clouds that usually cover the sky of the world. 



