248 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



Lord in the Gospel all these symbolical incidents and 

 objects point back to the trees of Eden, and forward to 

 the candlesticks of the seven Churches of Asia. They 

 combine the two ideas of the tree and the light, the fire 

 that vegetates harmlessly in the foliage and bloom of the 

 summer tree and the fire that blossoms destructively 

 in the flame of the lamp and the furnace. They prepare 

 the way for and are shadows cast before of the final 

 revelation in the fulness of time. He who communed 

 with our first parents among the trees of the garden ap- 

 peared to Moses on the Mount, in the midst of a bush 

 burning without being consumed and manifested Him- 

 self to the last of the inspired witnesses at Patmos, in 

 the midst of the seven golden candlesticks made in the 

 form of the stem, branches, and flowers of a tree, 

 preserving in this form the memory of the primitive 

 revelation. He connected with every Theophany, the 

 cherubim, the symbols of creation, indicating that the 

 revelation affected nature as"well as man. The cheru- 

 bim that guarded the lost Eden for man preserved it 

 in its original purity and beauty for the purpose of re- 

 storing it to him when he should become worthy of it, 

 the new Adam in the new Eden were transferred to the 

 tabernacle and appeared above the mercy-seat, beaten 

 out of the same solid mass of gold in token that the 

 Mosaic dispensation was only a continuation of the 

 Adamic that our Creator became our Redeemer, and 

 that our redemption was the fulfilling of a purpose 

 deeply and mysteriously interwoven with the whole 

 history of the world. The Lamb was slain from the 



