FLOWERS. 



Flowers, of all created tilings, are the most innocent and simple, 

 and most superbly complex; playthings for cliildren, ornaments for 

 the grave, and the companion of the cold corpse in the coffin. 

 Flo\N ers, beloved by the wandering idiot, and studied by the deep 

 thinking man of science ! Flowers, that of all perishing things are 

 the most perishitig ; yet of aU earthly things, are the most heavenly ! 

 Flowers, that unceasingly expand to Heaven their grateful, and to 

 man their cheerful looks ; partners of human joy, soothers of human 

 sorrow; fit emblems of the victor's triumphs, of the young bride's 

 blushes; welcome to crowded halls, and graceful upon solitary 

 graves ! Flowers are, in the volume of nature, what the expression 

 " God is love," is in the volume of Revelation. 



What a dreary, desolate place would be a face without a smile— 



a feast without a welcome ! Are not flowers the Stars of Earth, and 



are not Stars the flowers of Heaven ? One cannot look closely at 



the structure of a flower w ithout losing it. They are emblems and 



manifestations of God's love to creation, and they are the means 



and ministrations of man's love to his fellow-creatures, for they first 



awaken in his mind a sense of the beautiful and the good. The 



very inutility of flowers is their excellence and great beauty : tor 



they lead us to thoughts of generosity and moral beauty, detached 



from, and superior to, all selfishness, so that they are pretty lessons 



in nature's book of instruction, teaching man that he liveth not 



by bread, or from bread alone, and that he hath another than an 



animal life. 



