The JNIusic of the Marsh 



across my way, singing "Good cheer! Good cheer!" 

 I inimediatel}^ feel so full of power that I dream 

 I can accomplish something worth doing. 



Red is the love color, but M'hite is the holy one; 

 and aboA'e all other white flowers the lily is em- 

 blematic of the holy of holies. Of all lilies not the 

 proud ascension nor the lowly lily of the vallej- is 

 so serenely, pearly pure as the arrowhead lifting 

 its jewels above the mire of the marsh. If only I 

 were a poet and had the gift of rhyming, or meas- 

 uring stately periods, I know the story well 

 enough. There are many things in nature that 

 bring the same thought to every heart. The com- 

 pilers of the Bible knew that M'hen they epito- 

 mized the xevy Spirit of God in a dove and com- 

 pared the Prince of I'eace with the white lily. 

 Above all else, white, unspotted M'hite, is the em- 

 blem of truth, purity, and holiness; so this is the 

 song a poet should sing. 



The lordly ascension lily was set high in the 

 fields as a perpetual reminder to men that Christ 

 gave His life, and ascended to heaven to inter- 

 cede for them with God the Father. The humble 

 lily of the A'alley was placed low among the grasses 

 of untraveled ^vays that any wanderer there might 

 see the emblem, so precious that it was said of 

 Jesus, "I am the lily of the valley." Then to the 

 muck and mire of the marsh the Almighty gave 

 the whitest and sweetest lily of all, that any lost and 

 ^5 38.5 



