2i6 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



future are seen in perpetual flux. And these objects 

 are typical and representative. They indicate what 

 the nature of the scenery and of the life of heaven 

 will be. 



The changeless asphodel and amaranth may form the 

 adorning of the pagan heaven ; but they have no place 

 in the Christian's fields of living green beyond the river. 

 We are begotten again unto a lively hope a living, life- 

 ful hope of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and 

 that fadeth not away. That phrase, " fadeth not away," 

 is the translation in our version of the Greek word 

 amarantos, from which the name of the amaranth is de- 

 rived. And that very word " inheritance " tells us that 

 it is no strange, unknown realm into which we shall be 

 ushered by death ; but a familiar scene, which we shall 

 be prepared by our acquaintance with earthly things, 

 which are the draughts and shadows and foretastes of its 

 heavenly things, to enter into and enjoy, as the heir 

 who has grown up on an estate enters into his inherit- 

 ance when he comes of age. Our Christianity teaches 

 us by the ascension of Christ's body and the resurrection 

 of our own, that the whole scene with its circumstances 

 and objects must be accommodated to the tastes and 

 character of man, as he now is, only purified and glori- 

 fied, to the mortal immortalized. It is not a world of 

 shadows, but a world glowing with all the infinite beauty 

 and variety of life. The tree of life, with its twelve 

 kinds of fruit every month, will be its appropriate sym- 

 bol, and not the dry, changeless amaranth. And all 

 who here have worn the white flower of a blameless life 



