THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 81 



short-lived duration of many of the beauties around 

 him, he may learn the transitory nature of all human 

 glory, and the little reason there is that any mortal 

 should pride himself upon those distinctions which at 

 the best are fleeting as a lovely flower. It is a favorite 

 metaphor with the sacred moralist when they speak of 

 man and of his brief existence here, to compare him 

 to a flower. *' Man," says Job, ** coraeth forth as 

 a flower, and fleeth as a shadow, and continueth 

 not." So also the Psalmist, " As for man, his days 

 are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. 

 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the 

 place thereof shall know it no more." To the Christ- 

 ian who contrasts with this, the mercy of- his God 

 which is from everlasting to everlasting, and who has 

 learnt with St. Paul to " die daily," the ephemeral 

 character of many of the flowers which he most ad- 

 mires, suggests no mournful impression. He walks by 

 faith and not by sight ; and thus learns that while the 

 things seen and temporal are always uncertain, the 

 things unseen and eternal can never deceive him. Thus 

 instructed by the fleeting beauties of the Flower Gar- 

 den, he acquires the heart of living above the present 

 world while he lives in it ; pants after a more durable 



