66 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 



Having now acceded to youi" wishes, and to those of my 

 friends, and having brought my " Gleanings on Horticulture" to 

 a close, I cannot dismiss the subject without expressing an 

 earnest hope that the Divine blessing may attend my weak 

 efforts to make the labours of my friends in this pursuit inter- 

 esting and profitable, and the means of leading their minds 

 from these familiar objects to Him who has so lavishly furnished 

 them for the sustenance and enjoyment of his creatures. 



" Not to regard the works of the Lord, nor the operations of 

 his hands" is to manifest a degree of insensibility to his creative 

 wisdom, power, and goodness, with which He is righteously dis- 

 pleased: and, on the other hand, to trace his footsteps in the 

 garden, to see how beautifully his skill is developed in every tree, 

 " from the cedar of Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of 

 the wall," with all their variety of fruit and foliage, and from the 

 loftiest to the lowliest flowers, is to show a grateful reverence 

 for Him who " openeth his hand and satisfieth the wants of 

 every living thing;" "who makest the outgoings of the morning 

 and the evening to rejoice ;" who visitest the earth and waterest 

 it;" "makest it soft with showers, and blessest the springing 

 thereof ;" " who crowneth the year with his goodness, and his 

 paths drop fatness." 



In the narrative of the redemption of man, as well as in the 

 works of creation, our attention is frequently excited and 

 enlivened by a reference to the same topics so interesting to 

 horticulturists. It was during the mysterious humiliation of 

 our adorable Redeemer, that He said to one whose devotions in 

 the garden were known to Him — " When thou wast under the 

 fig-tree, I saw thee" — and to all his faithful disciples, he thus 

 announces Himself — " I am the vine, ye are the branches," " as 

 the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; 

 no more can ye, except ye abide in me." 



The care He bestows upon his suffering people is beautifully 

 manifested when he says, in language so touching and encou- 

 raging — " Consider the lilies how they grow, they toil not, they 

 spin not ; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory 

 was not arrayed like one of these." And in that future state, 

 the circumstances and glory of which are but imperfectly dis- 



