Zhe jfragrant IRote Book 



/ 



^M' 



phecies of Daniel of his coming unto " Shushan The Palace " '. 

 Were we versed in ancient Hebrew we should understand 

 that this was merely another way of calling this beauty spot 

 "The Palace of the Lilies," for Shushan means simply "a 

 lily" and was taken by these ancients as a suitable name for 

 their magnificent capital. If we recollect the tragedy of 

 Haman, it was in this very Shushan The Palace where Vashti 

 made "a feast for the women in the royal house which 

 belonged to King Ahasuerus." In the palace of The 

 Lily. 



LiHes there are too in Palestine and ever have been. 

 Lilies red and lilies white. When St. Matthew refers to " the 

 lilies of the field," ah! what lilies they were, for of all gor- 

 geous sheets of flame, sure none were ever more beautiful or 

 more conspicuous than the hUes to which he referred. "And 

 why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lihes 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." That Solomon's glory 

 would not have been satisfied with mere white is at once 

 understood and has been more than once raised as an objec- 

 tion by those who had not stopped to consider the royal 

 colour of these tender lilies, of which Solomon says, "His 

 cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, his lips like 

 lilies." Lips mind you. Red, red lips, like red, red lilies. 

 And how beautifully, gloriously red a field of these can be, 

 only one who has looked on them in their riot of blooming 



;/ 



