Six Sermons on the Olive - 1. The Beauty of the Olive Tree

Extract

Six Sermons on the Olive
C. H. Spurgeon

1. The Beauty of the Olive Tree

“His beauty shall be as the olive tree” Hosea 14:6.

Our present object will be to bring out the resemblance in point of beauty between the godly man and the olive tree: but please to note that the parallel does not hold good of all who profess and call themselves Christians; it is only true of those whose backsliding has been healed, to whom the Lord has been as a refreshing dew. It is the believer in a healthy, growing, and useful condition whose beauty is “as the olive tree.”

Things of beauty were evidently intended to be gazed upon. God created beauty on purpose that it might enchain our eyes, rivet our attention, and command our thoughts. Whether it be the beauty of a tree or the beauty of a man, it was meant to be a joy for ever; and this it cannot be if it is left unnoticed. Beautiful objects are intended to be thought upon, and spoken of; and we shall not be doing ill if we now consider and commend a Christian. We shall be doing no dishonour to the Master if we admire the disciple, if we confess, at the very outset, that our whole intent is, not to magnify believers, but to glorify God in them. There is no beauty in anything which charms our eye but what the Creator has put upon it; and, assuredly, there is no spiritual beauty about any man but what the Holy Spirit has wrought in him, “for we art his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” If the olive tree be beautiful, we are not so doting as to fall down and worship it; and if a man be made comely by the grace of God, we do not worship the man, but we praise the Lord on his behalf. Glory be to God who has done such marvellous things for poor human nature that he has made it lovely, so lovely that even he himself beholds a beauty in it; for be it remembered that the text is not the word of a prophet alone, but the word of Jehovah himself, who says, “I will be as the dew unto Israel; … and his beauty shall be as the olive tree.”

Having spent many months under the olive trees of the Riviera, …