1900-1901.] 623 



one ?" " Of no use?" That is a question not for us to solve. 

 At any rate are many of your employments more useful ? 

 Are all so innocent? Ask the worn out, heart-wearied man 

 yonder, who has escaped for one short month from his stool in 

 a city office; ask him if there be not a use in the exquisite 

 and various forms and colours of the sea weeds he is turning 

 over on the beach. He will answer, "It does me good to look 

 at them ; it refreshes my soul ; it makes me young again !" 



Of no use ? That is too easily assumed, and implies surely 

 a forgetfulness of him that made them. It does not necessarily 

 follow that a thing is useless because we happen to be ignorant 

 of its use. We ought to believe, we ought to be sure, that the 

 lowliest flower or insect has, though it may be unknown to us, 

 a real use in God's economy. 



'' Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow !" These gaily 

 dressed flowers had their use. It was their mission (could they 

 have a higher ?) to become preachers to men, of reliance on 

 God for meat, drink and clothing. Who will deny the fascina- 

 tion which flowers of the choicest kind exercise over all ? But 

 to how few are they accessible ! 



The costly greenhouse, the highly-paid gardener, are requisite 

 for their possession ; but what do the wild flowers cost ? Only 

 the trouble of picking them ; and they, if people take the pains 

 of looking for, and examining them, have quite as many, 

 though more humble, charms than their more aristocratic 

 relations. 



" Here ! smell this bunch of Butterfly Orchis. Did ever a 

 greenhouse produce a flower with more exquisite scent ?" 



" But where did you find it ? I never saw it before." 



" Good friend, I plucked it by the side of a road you have 

 passed a hundred times. Look at these daffodils ! Where 

 will you find colour more brilliant, texture more delicate ?" 



" But they are such vulgar flowers ; they are so common !" 



11 My friend, I fear you are very vulgar, for men and women 

 are very common on the earth." 



So the sum I have to add up of what I have written about 



