THE MUSTARD-TREE.



THE mustard is a tiny seed, which, sown in favorable soil, shoots up, and becomes, to all intents, a tree; so that there is no longer any proportion between its "shadowing shroud" and the germ from which it sprung.  Such is the kingdom of heaven; such is the history of real religion in an individual mind, in a community, in the world at large.

The one copy of the Scriptures which had been brought from the ship 'Bounty,' and which at last changed into a Christian community the mutineers and their children, was a mustard-seed.

So was the gospel which Columbia and his companions brought from Ireland to Iona, and which, transferred to the mainland, became a mighty tree, so that the hills of Caledonia are now covered with the shade.

The little text, "The just shall live by faith," in the mind of Martin Luther, was the mustard-seed from which shot up the glorious Reformation. 




Selected.