LILY OF THE FIELD. 



Lilium chalcedoHieum. 



HE lily of the field is not of 

 necessity a lily of any kind that 

 will correspond to our defini- 

 tions; it may be understood as 

 a flower, and that is sufficient. 

 To make a serious botanical 

 study of the purport of the im- 

 pressive lesson of the lily in the 

 Sermon on the Mount would be 

 to put our paltry views of nature 

 on a level with the most homely 

 and searching of Divine admo- 

 nitions. It must suffice, there- 

 fore, to say that the frail flower 

 painted by the creative hand 

 surpasses in glory the greatest 

 works of man, and teaches him 

 the sources of his benefits and 

 , his dependence on the bounty 

 of Heaven. But associations 

 have their uses to the mind of 

 man, and it is neither irreverent, 

 nor unreasonable to ask if any particular lily might be 

 associated with the lesson that has sunk deeper perhaps 



