j66 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



various objects of nature and arts of human life were 

 not meant to be exhaustive and exclusive, but com- 

 prehensive and representative, showing that the king- 

 dom of heaven is like everything that God has made 

 and instituted in the natural and human worlds ; so we 

 may, by parity of reasoning, believe that the sayings, 

 "I am the true bread," "the true light," "the true 

 vine," are similarly comprehensive and representative, 

 and that Jesus is in reality, in the highest and com- 

 pletest form, what all the flowers of the field are in ap- 

 pearance and in subordinate and shadowy representation. 

 Every flower-face with its limited capacities expresses 

 some thought or quality or feature of Him who, while 

 He is the image of the invisible God, is also the first- 

 born of every creature, for He is before all things, and 

 in Him all things consist. The human nature in which 

 He became incarnate is a nature that up to a certain 

 limit is shared by the lilies which He bade us consider 

 as most significant interpreters of the mysteries of our 

 own life. The face of the blossom anticipates the face 

 of man ; it is an intimation and prefiguration of what in 

 the human countenance is realized and fulfilled ; while 

 that human countenance itself is the image of the 

 Deity, and the sufficient medium prepared for the 

 visible manifestation of the Father to the world. And 

 while we gaze upon the lowly Shechinah blossoming at 

 our feet, a cloud from heaven overshadows us, and a 

 voice proclaims, " This is my beloved Son " ; and we 

 realize that God has now made known to us the 

 mystery of His will, that in the dispensation of the 



