190 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



" We have short time to stay as you, 



We have as short a spring ; 

 As quick a growth to meet decay, 

 As you or any thing ; 



We die 

 As your hours do, and dry 



Away, 



Like to the summer rain, 

 Or as the pearls of morning dew, 

 Ne'er to be found again." 



May these, then, instruct us, and may God fl so 

 teach us to number our days, that we may 

 apply our hearts unto wisdom !" 



But if this constant decay and death should 

 vividly impress on our minds the fact of our 

 own mortality, how beautifully does the ap- 

 proach of spring illustrate the doctrine of the 

 resurrection ! It has been well remarked, that, in 

 some tropical countries, where winter does not 

 come, and where the leaves do not fall as 

 with us, the want of the vivid beauty of spring, 

 when the trees and flowers burst from a state 

 of apparent death into all the loveliness of 

 foliage and flowers, is painfully felt by an 

 English traveller. We, to whom such a scene 

 is familar, can understand how beautiful a 

 picture it gives us of the day when the dead 

 shall arise, and when we shall all be changed 

 the corruptible bodies of the righteous to in- 

 corruptible ones, glorious like their Saviour, 

 purified from every deadly stain, inrirmity, or 

 passion. Nor must we omit to notice a fact, of 

 which the apostle Paul makes so sublime an 

 application the growth of the seed. " That 

 which thou sowest is not quickened, except it 

 die : and that which thou sowest, thou sowest 



