That is the last lesson from these metaphors. "His beauty shall be as
the olive-tree." Anybody that has ever seen a grove of olives knows that
their beauty is not such as strikes the eye. If it was not for the blue
sky overhead, that rays down glorifying light, they would not be much to
look at or talk about. The tree has a gnarled, grotesque trunk which
divides into insignificant branches, bearing leaves mean in shape, harsh
in texture, with a silvery underside. It gives but a quivering shade and
has no massiveness, nor symmetry. Ay! but there are olives on the
branches. And so the beauty of the humble tree is in what it grows for
man's good. After all, it is the outcome in fruitfulness which is the
main thing about us. God's meaning, in all His gifts of dew, and beauty,
and purity, and strength, is that we should be of some use in the world.

The olive is crushed into oil, and the oil is used for smoothing and
suppling joints and flesh, for nourishing and sustaining the body as
food, for illuminating darkness as oil in the lamp. And these three
things are the three things for which we Christian people have received
all our dew, and all our beauty, and all our strength--that we may give
other people light, that we may be the means of conveying to other
people nourishment, that we may move gently in the world as lubricating,
sweetening, soothing influences, and not irritating and provoking, and
leading to strife and alienation. _The_ question after all is, Does
anybody gather fruit off us, and would anybody call _us_ 'trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified'? That
is lesson four from this text. May we all open our hearts for the dew
from heaven, and then use it to produce in ourselves beauty, purity,
strength, and fruitfulness!

* * * * *

AMOS

A PAIR OF FRIENDS

'Can two walk together, except they be agreed?'-AMOS III. 8.

They do not need to be agreed about everything. They must, however, wish
to keep each others company, and they must be going by the same road to
the same place. The application of the parable is very plain, though
there are differences of opinion as to the bearing of the whole context
which need not concern us now. The 'two,' whom the Prophet would fain
see walking together, are God and Israel, and his question suggests not
only the companionship and communion with God which are the highest form
of religion and th