270 ANXUAL KEPORT 



complished will never be fully kaown or realized iu this life; it is like 

 sowing seed which is to spring up and bear blossoms that may never 

 perfectly unfold here, but which in that heavenly clime where there 

 is no frost or snow, or chilling winds, will open up in loveliness and 

 beauty of which we cannot now conceive. Some years since a city 

 mission was established in the city of St, Petersburgh, Russia, which 

 was to labor in various ways to elevate the poor and wretched. One 

 special work given the ladies to* do is visiting the hospitals and carry- 

 ing comforts of various kinds to the sufferers. It is narrated of one who 

 had been on this errand of mercy, and was returning with an empty 

 basket, in which she had taken .flowers to brighten the sick rooms 

 and cheer the weak ones, that in passing a church she found a poor 

 girl asleep on the steps. Her basket was ransacked for a single flower; 

 the result of her search was one modest violet, and this she laid on the 

 bosom of the sleeping one. The girl had worn such a violet as she 

 received the parental blessing when, two years previously, she had left 

 her father and mother for service in the distant city, where, alas! she 

 had fallen before the force of temptation and had become a poor 

 soiled daughter of the street. On waking the unexpected flower 

 stirred all the old tender associations, which ended in the resolution: 

 "I will arise and go to my Father," and in his boundless love she 

 found peace and a Savior. And she who did so small a thing for the 

 Master's sake may never know in this world the result of her loving 

 act, but what a glad surprise awaits her when in the "beautiful home 

 over there" she greets among the redeemed ones the sinful girl who lay 

 asleep, alone, in that great city and waked to newness of life, through 

 the instrumentality of a simple heart's-ease laid on her bosom by the 

 hand of a pityins/, loving sister. Such illustrations of the salutary 

 influence of flowers prove that they have not been created exclusively 

 for our own personal gratification, but that we may share them with 

 others, for their cheer and encouragemnt, and adding new zest to our 

 flcricultural studies make us feel that they are well worth the time 

 and labor we devote to them. 



On motion of Mr. Harris, a vote of thanks was given Mrs. Van 

 Cleve for her able and interesting paper. 



