And the last suggestion that I offer to you about the significance of this symbol is one that I freely admit to be fanciful, and yet it strikes me as being very beautiful.  Noah’s dove came back to the ark with one leaf in his beak.  That was the prophecy and the foretaste of a whole world of beauty and of verdure.  The dove that comes to us, bearing with it some leaf plucked from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God, is the earnest of our inheritance until the day of redemption.  All the gifts of that divine Spirit, gifts of holiness, of gentleness, of wisdom, of truth—­all these are forecasts and anticipations of the perfectness of the heavens.  To us, sailing over a dismal sea, the Spirit comes bearing with it a message that tells us of the far-off land and the fair garden of God in which the blessed shall walk.

Dear friends, remember the one condition on which is suspended our possession of the Spirit of God.  It is that we shall have Christ for our very own by our humble faith.  If we are trusting in Him, He will come and put His Spirit within our hearts.  Without Him these hearts are cages of unclean and hateful birds.  But the meek presence of the dove of God will drive out the obscene, twilight-loving creatures that build and scream there, and will fill our hearts with the tranquillity, the purity, the gentleness, the hope, which are ‘the fruit of the Spirit.’

THE VICTORY OF THE KING

’Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2.  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. 3.  And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4.  But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5.  Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6.  And saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down:  for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee:  and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. 7.  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8.  Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9.  And saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10.  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan:  for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. 11.  Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.’—­MATT. iv. 1-11.

Every word of the first verses of this narrative is full of meaning.  ‘Then’ marks the immediate connection, not only in time but in causation,