really had sense it might have been shown in divesting itself 
of the capacity of suffering ! 
If it be said there is no capacity for sufferings which I 
freely grants then of what advantage to the plant can this 
ajppearance of shrinking sensibility really be ? 
I do not think we can arrive at an explanation without the 
above conception of typical unity. If nature be the manifesta- 
tion of the glory of God, and if it all is, as the Duke of Argyll 
asserts^ a Parable for our instruction, why should we not learn 
lessons of instruction from the sensitive plant as well as from 
the lilies of the field ? 
And the lily. Why was the lily made so beautiful, specially 
the lily of Palestine, — the beautiful Hiileh lily, the flower, as 
I believe, mentioned by our Lord in that delightful exhortation 
to trust in the kind care of our Heavenly Father: — ^ 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."’ This lily is very large, and the 
three inner petals meet above and form a gorgeous canopy, 
such as art never approached and king never sat under, even 
in his utmost glory * 
Again, I ask, why was it made so beautiful ? You are 
mistaken,^^ says the Agnostic, it made itself beautiful in 
order to attract attention.^^ Then, it seems, vegetable vanity 
met with its reward; for the gazelles delight to feed upon 
them, so that they are safest among the thorns. You can 
scarcely ride through the woods north of Tabor, where these 
lilies abound, without frightening them from their flowery 
pasture.^^ 
Our Lord walked the earth with his eyes ever open to the 
poetry of nature. He comprehended at one glance, not the 
outward only, but the inner or supernatural side. The effect 
of this is shown in His inimitable teaching. Never man 
spake like this man. He knew how from man^s surroundings 
to raise and to elevate the character of man. He could give 
His disciples power to tread on serpents and on scorpions, 
and over all the power of the enemy.f Nature has its dark 
as well as its flowery side. He taught us truly how to look 
through nature up to nature’s God. I am tempted to trans- 
gress the limits of my paper, and say something about the 
disseverance of education from religion, but I forbear ; only 
this I will say, that all the great achievements of the mind of 
man, whether in letters or art, whether in poetry or painting. 
^ Thompson, The Land and the Boole, p. 256. 
t Luke X. 19i 
