COUNTY REPORTS. 349 



I am one of those who believe that the ministry of flowers may lead to mate- 

 rial improvement, to a higher civilization. 



That a bright potted plant may demand of the mo3t degraded woman a 

 cleaner pane, the cleaner pane reveal tbe dirty surroundings, and so on until a 

 new sanitation takes place, and from this grow happier homes and improved 

 lives. 



Think of one lying shut in with pain, surrounded with all the ill conditions of 

 poverty, nothing to brighten or alleviate lonely hours, and of what it would be to 

 have a tender-hearted woman or a bright-faced young girl come with a little knot 

 of something white, something bright and something sweet— my rule for making 

 bouquets — and lay it on the pillow or in the hand. 



They that can wander at will 



Where the works of the Lord are revealed, 

 Little guess what joy can be found 



From a cowslip out of the field. 



We might bring many incidents to illustrate the blessed mission of flowers, 

 but there are none more touching than the following pathetic story of a white rose, 

 emblem of womanly grace and purity. 



A lady once visiting a prisan, had distributed all her flowers but one perfect 

 white rose. She inquired, ' ' have I seen all the prisoners ? " ''No, there is one 

 you cannot see ; her language is too vile." "She is the one who most needs me." 

 Being greeted with curses, she made no jeply, but left the rose in the woman's cell. 

 As she turned away she heard a heart-breaking cry and the one word, "mother, 

 mother, mother." As she told the visitor her sad story, she said: "That rose 

 was just like one which grew by our door in Scotland — my mother's favorite 

 flower." And so the dawning of a better life came to this erring one, through the 

 ministry of one pure white rose. 



Rose of the desert! thou art to me 



An emblem of stainless piirity; 



Of those who, keeping their garments white, 



Wdlk on through life with steps aright. 



In the children's hospital many pathetic incidents could be told — how they 

 reach out their little waited hand^ for the buach of mignonettes, the pretty rose- 

 bud or dainty sweet pea, and spell out the gospel texts, tied on the bouquet with a 

 white ribbon, emblem of purity and peace. 



Sometimes the flowers have been found in the little hands after they were cold 

 and still. The greatest beauty of the work is that it makes children of grown 

 men and women, and gives wisdom beyond their years to little Qhildren. 



If more young people would engage in flower-mission work, it would enrich 

 and mellow their own lives, and add beyond all telling to that faith in human na- 

 ture which, alas I does not very richly grow in the soil of poverty, intemperance 

 and crime. But it is the heavenly instinct, and which can be planted even in the 

 least fertile places, and has not failed to yield a rich harvest. 



Even into the slums the flower-mission has found its way, where a rose is as 

 rare as a star, and many homes have been brightened and hearts cheered by its 

 blessed ministry. Many touching stories have been told of hardened criminals 

 who wept like children at sight of flowers like those which grew by their mother's 

 door in the days of their innocent childhood, and who received, with penitent and 

 believing hearts, the message of salvation which accompanied them. 



