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III.

THE LESSONS OF THE LILIES.

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."-MAtt. vi. 28, 29.

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HE works of God are words of God: they speak to us. The works of God are mirrors, reflectors of God: they show God to us. They are not voices sufficiently strong to arouse from spiritual death, or to awaken from spiritual sleep; but to such as are quickened and awakened they are voices which are audible. They are not reflectors of sufficient power to fix a wandering eye, or to impress a dull and sleepy organ of vision ; but an eye fixed and sensitive may see the Maker in his works. There is a voice which awakens the sleepers, and stirs the dead. It was heard in Paradise after the fall. It was heard by patriarchs, and by Moses. It was heard and echoed by prophets and apostles. It is the glad tidings of great joy, that unto us men is born a Saviour. There is a mirror whose strong reflection opens the closed eyelid, and arouses the dormant sight-power. It is that mirror of which John spake, when he said, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of

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grace and

the only-begotten of the Father, full of truth."* Above all other objects, we will ever consider him who is the word of God and the image of God. But we cannot afford to be deaf to any voice which may teach us, or blind to any object which may instruct us. While, therefore, we look unto and look upon Jesus the Son of God, we will also at his bidding "consider the lilies."

We have heard men speak as though they thought that Jesus Christ would be jealous of consideration directed to other objects. While all objects are kept in their proper place, and while no one object is excluded for the sake of another, observation, attention, and appreciation are more likely to please the Saviour than to displease him. We are sure we shall not displease him by considering the thoughts and lessons suggested by flowers; and I trust when we have finished our meditation we shall not find ourselves at a distance from Jesus Christ and his Father, but nearer to them both. Making for our present purpose "the lilies of the field" representatives of all flowers, we remark:

1. The lilies of the field, as God's workmanship, reveal the fountain of life and being. Flowers taken alone cannot make manifest to us the depth and breadth of that fountain, but they may show us its quality. A cup of bright and sparkling water brought to us from a well tells us nothing of the quantity of water in that well, and nothing concerning the force of the spring or springs constituting the well; but even a cup of cold and pure water may * John i. 14.

In like manner,

demonstrate that the well is pure. flowers show nothing of boundless might and of high wisdom, but they do reveal the calm beauteousness of the source whence all living things flow. It is often said that there cannot be gross vice in a man who, delighting in flowers, cultivates them. May we not, in harmony with this remark, observe that there can be nothing harsh or hard or repulsive in the God who has made the lilies of the field?

2. The lilies of the field embody and express divine conceptions-thoughts and ideas of God. The image of every flower was in the mind of the Creator before creation. He designed the lilies of the field and the glorious company of their kindred. He designed form and colour, root, stem, leaves, bud, and bloom. Flowers come to us not only out of the life-giving ability of God, but also out of the form-designing power of God. mind, can think of the form and fragrance of flowers as undesigned? If this be accident, and if so-called accident can produce this, then verily accident is God. Not more certainly have paintings and sculpture been preconceived by the artists, and buildings of renown designed by architects, than flowers have been in the first instance mental creations by God.

Who, in his right

3. The lilies of the field are God's workmanship. In the fine arts the conceiver is the worker. In other departments one designs and plans, and others execute. Flowers are the work of God's fingers. The first of every kind is a distinct creation, with seed in itself, and the rest the offspring of this seed.

The seed is the second cause. God is the first cause. The laws of life and growth are God's mode of working, but in these laws there is a strong, skilful, living hand. There are rules of working in every handicraft, but no man denies the existence of the craftsman, because his productions are made by the established and recognised laws of his craft, and by tools adapted to the materials upon which he works, and to the object which he has before him. By laws of production and by various agents God brings forth flowers; but they are still his workmanship. As salvation, including regeneration and sanctification, restores man to his primitive character, so, it may be, the cultivation of flowers develops, not some fresh floral features, but the primitive and original design. The lilies of the field are God's care. This is not manifest to the eye of the body. No man, like Adam, has seen or heard the Lord God in any garden. And sometimes things happen which tend to exclude the idea and sense of God's care. The scythe of the mower cuts down the flowers. The wind passes over the flower and it is gone, and the place thereof knoweth it no more. The flower is consumed

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by some animal. A careless foot treads it down. Some hand-perhaps a wanton hand-plucks it. The flower has not grown without human culture. And thus, that which has reared the flower, and that which has cut short its day, alike hide the care of God. But care does not involve perpetual existence, or freedom even from that kind of injury which terminates being. In the providential sense there are no wild flowers.

There are children without father

and mother, or with evil fathers and mothers, who are destitute of human care; but there are no flowers without divine care. And the proof of divine care

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is in their perfection. They toil not, neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The flowers which man has not touched are the most beauteous illustrations of the all-sufficient care of God. How perfect and unassailable the inference, "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

5. The lilies of the field exhibit God's bountifulness. All flowers alike of the field and of the garden render some ordinary service-are of some use. They furnish food, medicine, clothing, shelter, to innumerable living things. And they render in part this service to man. But are they not created, in part at least, to be pleasant to the eye? Surely they are made to be things of beauty and sources of joy. God does not provide for us according to the rigid rule of that which is necessary. He adds to that which is necessary that which is pleasant to the senses and agreeable to the soul. The cup of supply is not only filled, it runs over. There is no waste in God's providence, but there is no niggardliness. Not an atom has ever been lost, but the earth as a dwelling for man is full of God's riches.

6. The lilies of the field are propagated and developed by the working of various natural laws. There is a tendency in some minds to look only on the hard and rigorous side of law. But law is good. It

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