THIRD ANNUAL FLOWER SERMON. 35 



life ; but for man those radiant gleams which tell of the 

 other world and the life eternal. 



See, God says, into what poetry this prose may be trans- 

 lated, — for a fog you shall have a rainbow and for dirt you 

 shall have roses. And if God so clothe the transient mist 

 and the fading grass, shall He not much more clothe men? 

 If insensate matter is thus glorious what robes and 

 crowns must be possible for humanity ! Beauty is spiritual, 

 is sacramental, is divine. Wherever we find it we find a 

 pledge to assure us of God's love and a means whereby to 

 receive God's grace. 



The Transfiguration of Jesus is a supreme proof of the 

 vital connection between the beautiful and the good ; the 

 Perfect Soul irradiates with splendor the Bodily Vesture. 

 I conclude therefore that beauty is the highest revelation 

 of God, which is made through nature; that by it the 

 Infinite Wisdom declares Itself to the human mind and the 

 Infinite Love to the human heart ; and that this revelation 

 is one which also declares the dignity of man, for it assumes 

 his likeness to his Creator; they can enjoy the same noble 

 delights. The revelation is written large and plain. All 

 about us are its symbolic letters needing only faith and love 

 for their decipherment. But its most common and most 

 obvious utterances, most legible in their simplicity and most 

 attractive in their sweetness, are " the lilies of the field." 

 He must be dull indeed who, in considering them, does not 

 behold " the wisdom and goodness of God." 



