III. Flower Voices. HARK! the lilies whisper, Hark! the roses speaking, Telling all abroad Their sweet, wondrous story Buttercups and daisies, And the violets sweetFlowers of field and garden All their voices meet, And their Maker's praises To our souls repeat. Let us then be trustful, See how fair they grow. 66 FLOWER VOICES. "Consider the lilies."-MATT. vi. 28. PHEN Jesus Christ was in the world, He loved the fields and woods, the green trees and sweetly singing birds, and the beautiful flowers. I have already told you how He pointed His poor disciples to the fowls of the air, saying, Your heavenly Father feedeth them." But God not only feeds His children, He also clothes them. So Jesus told His friends to look at the flowers that were blooming all around them. They did not fret and worry about what they should wear. "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." In this way Jesus made the flowers as well as the birds to teach sweet, solemn lessons to His disciples. We too may learn something from them. If we listen right, we may hear a voice in every leaf of the woods, and in every little bud and flower of the gardens, that shall whisper to our hearts some blessed truths, The flowers teach us many things about God and about ourselves. I. What do they teach us ABOUT God? First, they say to us, There is a God. A little boy was once walking with his father in the garden, when he saw a wonderful sight. There was his own name growing out of the ground in small green leaves. Every letter of it was there, and he spelled it out for himself James Beattie. He wondered very much how it came there. He knew that somebody must have sown the seeds, for they could not have come up so by chance. He asked his father to tell him all about it. 66 Well, my son," said his father, "look at your own body think of your eyes and mouth, your hands and feet, and all your limbs. Did they grow by chance ?" ' No, papa; somebody must have made me." Then that father told his little boy about the good and great God who had made him and all things. So when we walk abroad, we should read in every flower and leaf and blade of grass the name of God who made them, and thus learn to trace everywhere "The bounteous hand that deigns to bless The garden, field, and grove.” Another thing that the flowers say is, God is wise. |