WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 57 



SEVENTH WEEK. 



A GARDEN is an awful responsibility. You 

 never know what you may be aiding to grow 

 in it. I heard a sermon, not long ago, in 

 which the preacher said that the Christian, 

 at the moment of his becoming one, was as 

 perfect a Christian as he would be if he 

 grew to be an archangel ; that is, that he 

 would not change thereafter at all, but only 

 develop. I do not know whether this is 

 good theology or not ; and I hesitate to sup- 

 port it by an illustration from my garden, 

 especially as I do not want to run the risk of 

 propagating error, and I do not care to give 

 away these theological comparisons to cler- 

 gymen who make me so little return in the 

 way of labor. But I find, in dissecting a 

 pea-blossom, that hidden in the centre of it 

 is a perfect miniature pea-pod, with the pea? 

 all in it, as perfect a pea-pod as it will 



