STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



selves able to show native flowers and shrubs and fruits 

 rendered equal to the imported kinds by our own culture. 



We might compare these wild plants to the neglected 

 children of our poorest classes. In the degradation arising 

 from their uncared for state they become as moral weeds in 

 the great garden of life, neglected and passed by, left to run 

 wild, and shunned. But remove these children to a more 

 genial atmosphere; let them be taught the value of their 

 souls, for which so great a price was paid by their Redeemer; 

 let them be clothed and fed and cared for, made to feel that 

 they are not despised in the eyes of their fellow men; then 

 their useful qualities brought into action, and their vices 

 and evil passions controlled, like the wild plants they will 

 rise in value, and beauty, and usefulness, becoming precious 

 trees bearing fruit to the glory of Almighty God sought 

 out and desired of all men. Who will cultivate and iuipro\e 

 this garden of human growth? Must it continue a wilder- 

 ness, rank and injurious, full of deadly poisons and unripe, 

 crude and bitter fruits, while within it, choked and hidden 

 from view, are the germs of usefulness, beauty, and happi- 

 ness that only require the better soil, the fostering care and 

 gladdening sunshine of Christian love and kindness to make 

 them what their Creator would have them all to be? Truly 

 " the harvest is great, but the husbandmen are few." 



Allusions to the grape-vine and vineyards are of fre- 

 quent occurrence in Scripture. Many and beautiful are the 

 pt^ssagos where the ancient Church is symbolized by the 

 poetical figure of the vine and the vineyard. How touching 

 is the appeal made by the prophet to the rebellious and 

 idolatrous people in the fifth chapter of the book of Isaiah : 

 " And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, 

 judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What 

 could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not 



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