84 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



And is not life, in its real flight, 



Maik'd thus — even thus on earth, 

 By the closing of one hope's delight, 



And another's gentle birth. 



Oh let us live, so that flower by flower 



Shutting in turn, may leave 

 A lingerer still for the sun-set hour, 



A charm for the shaded eve.' — Mrs. Hemans. 



If our contemplations in a Flower Garden thus re- 

 mind us of things which are of such inestimable impor- 

 tance, we shall walk there at this delightful season with 

 new sensibilities and hopes. To see God in these his 

 beautiful works, is one object which a true Christian 

 will ever keep in view ; and to see Christ, the God- 

 Man, in the glory of his Church, is another, which 

 every thing in nature will assist him to do, if he views 

 it rightly through the glass of Scripture. Our blessed 

 Lord himself, in the days of his flesh, looked upon the 

 flowers around him, with as deep and intense a feeling 

 of admiration as any of his followers are capable of ex- 

 pressing : " Consider," said he, "the lilies 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. Wherefore, if God 

 60 clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and 



