MORAL OF FLOWERS. 69 



Telling us to be grateful for these abundant 

 manifestations of His attention, not only to our 

 actual wants and necessities, but also to our 

 comforts and enjoyments ; opening to us this 

 source of pure and innocent gratification, in 

 order to strengthen us against the allurements 

 of folly, and wean our hearts from the guilty 

 pleasures of sensuality, into which they are 

 but too apt to be drawn : 



" God might have bade the earth bring forth 



Enough for great and small, 

 The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, 



Without a flower at all. 

 He might have made enough, enough, 



For every want of ours, 

 For luxury, medicine, and toil, 



And yet have made no flowers. 



Our outward life requires them not, 



Then wherefore had they birth ? 

 To minister delight to man, 



To beautify the earth ; 

 To whisper hope to comfort man 



Whene'er his faith is dim, 

 For whoso careth for the flowers 



Will care much more for him !" MART HOWITT. 



