68 
BEAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
Almighty fingers, it also illustrates the parti-coloured 
structure of the human brain, which draws its know¬ 
ledge from far sources, and spreads abroad ten thousand 
busy hands to grope and gather from darkness many 
sources of light and power. 0 moist palate! longing 
for luscious fruits. 0 dainty eye! seeking festivals of 
colour. O heart! panting for a lovely ministration, and 
expanding in the bliss of this hushed beauty, seek your 
joy in the garden, where the voice of God may still be 
heard among the trees, and a deep sense of peace shall 
possess thee. 
A garden is a Divine institution, a Biblical reminis¬ 
cence, a present solace, a refuge, a retreat. It is a joy 
all the year round, it keeps the mind active in invention, 
the hands diligent in labour, and the heart warm in its 
capabilities for love. It is the first hope of childhood, 
and age clings to it as an anchorage to earth, for in its 
presence it seems as if w r e could not die; for we talk of 
“ next summer,” when Death is already clasping our 
hands in his; and, as the chill of mortality freezes up the 
sources of life, the sight of a flower seems to dispel the 
darkness, and bring light and warmth from the very dust 
unto which we shall soon return. If I were to recount 
all that is comprised in the joy of a garden, I should 
have to sketch out a complete catalogue of human plea¬ 
sures, from that highest and first of all, the contempla¬ 
tions of the Deity as He is revealed in His word and 
His works, to the hopeful labour of an infant planting a 
garden for a doll. 
But, apart from things too high and reverend to be 
treated lightly, or things too trivial for a grown man to 
