of religion will avail. Beware, lest any of us resemble the lobster: We are all familiar enough with this strange fish. How often do we go after what we take to be a lobster, when, to our disappointment, we find it to be only a shell, the lobster having escaped. How it shell, which has no apparent opening or know not. But so it is. living inhabitant has gone. better than a mere shell, got out of its flaw in it, we There is the empty shell, the Let our religion be something Let it be real, that the Great Master be not disappointed with our professions and con duct at our final day of account." adi boer ed 20 Mangaia. M. L. G. sidt kahong treat adt gazie odz to'd F you please, sir, give us some e flowers to hang in inthe school!" said a band of little girls and boys, a band out another on to looking half shy, and pushing one 701 916 unit eid is لرزه speak. Now the gentleman they asked was in his garden, talking to his children about the pretty things that grew there. They could see him through the gate in the laurel hedge just below where he was, zina un sad-donelyguy"; hotivmilja ovis uz agris vi-th And what flowers do you want?" he asked good naturedly; 'surely you can find enough in the fields.”w z4gque öd}" Then they laughed and looked at one another, and didn't answer. **Can you tell me the names of all you have in your a he said; for he saw they had been gathering many. your aprons? "These are cowslips, sir," said one; “and these are cuckoos, sir," said another; and one showed dog-violets, another campions, another marsh-marigolds, &c. "There are none in my garden that are prettier, though they are brighter colours, and larger," said the gentleman. "Don't you love the flowers of the field?" "Yes, sir-yes, sir-yes, sir!" said all the little voices. "Do you know who made them, and gave them to you?" "God made them all, sir," said a little girl; "I learnt it in a hymn, sir:- "Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, "And what did he make them for?" asked the gentleman. But the children could not tell; they had not learnt it exactly in any hymn, and they had never thought about it. Now little Dick Foster, seeing the cowslips, thought he knew ; so pushing before the others, he said, "To make cowslip balls, please sir." But his sister, Sally, pulled him back, and said, "Please, sir, to make cowslip wine." Then Jane Harman, seeing the gentleman smile, said, “Please, sir, to make daisy chains." "Please, sir, isn't it for the bees to make honey from?" asked the eldest of them, who looked more thoughtful than the rest. 66 'Now, my little children," said the gentleman, "you have told me two parts of the truth-first, that God made them to be pleasures to us, and second, that he made them to be useful to us; the bee can gather his honey, and medicine can be made from the flowers of the field; but they are something more than pleasant and useful. Can any one say what I mean? No; no one could. 'Why, then, all these little flowers are preachers! They tell us our duty.' The children were greatly surprised; they looked at one another in silence, and Dick laughed behind Sarah's back, for he thought it was so funny to call flowers preachers. But the gentleman took up a violet and showed them how it grew in the shade, and hid itself under its leaves to teach us humility. Then he showed them how the daisy always looked straight upward, with his little face to the sky, teaching us that we should ever be looking up to Him from whom all our happiness comes. "And see," he said, "how kindly they all grow together one by another, without strife or envy, and how they are without sorrow or care, examples to you of gentleness and contentment. Can any of you tell me of a sermon that He who made them preached about them ?" Then the thoughtful child said directly, "Consider the lilies of the field: they toil not, neither do they spin and yet I say unto you, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these!" How pleased the good gentleman was! He opened the gate and had them all into the garden, and gave them many pretty flowers; and when his kind wife heard that they were preparing for a holiday treat, she brought them some gay ribbons, and showed them how to tie the flowers into garlands. Often after that they would say to one another, as they played in the fields, "What does this flower teach us?" How many thousands of children in large towns there are who have never seen even a daisy? Those who can rejoice in the fields, may profitably remember the words of a poor old woman in London who kept a strawberry plant in a broken tea-pot on her window. sill at the top of the house. When asked why she took so much care of it, she replied, "Well, sir, I'm very poor-too poor to keep any living creature; but it's a comfort to have that living plant; for I know that it can only live by the power of God; and as I see it live and grow from day to day, it tells me that God is near." |