Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
A Sermon for Spring
The works of creation are pictures to the children of God of the secret mysteries of grace. The very seasons of the year find their parallel in the little world of man within. Each particular season has its duty. The husbandman finds that there is a time to plough, a time to sow, a time to reap; there is a season for vintage, and a period for the pruning of the vine; there is a month for the planting of herbs, and for the ingathering of seeds. To everything there is a time and a purpose, and every season has its special labour. It seems from the text, that whenever it is springtime in our hearts, then Christ’s voice may be heard saying, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Whenever we have been delivered from a dreary winter of temptation or affliction, or tribulation,--whenever the fair spring of hope cometh upon us, and our joys begin to multiply, then we should hear the Master bidding us seek after something higher and better, and we should go forth in His strength to love Him more, and serve Him more diligently than aforetime.
I. First, with regard to the Universal Church of Christ. The history of Christ’s Church is a varied year of many seasons. She has had her high and noble processions of victory; she has had her sorrowful congregations of mourners during times of disaster and apparent defeat. Commencing with the life of Christ, what a smiling spring it was for the world when the Holy Spirit was poured out in Pentecost. The bride arose, charmed by the heavenly voice of her spouse, she girt on her beautiful garments and for some hundred years or more, she did come away; she came away from her narrowness of spirit, and she preached to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ: she came away from her attachment to the State, and she dared to confess that Christ’s kingdom was not of this world: she came away from her earthly hopes and comforts, for “they counted not their lives dear unto them that they might win Christ and be found in Him: “ she came away from all ease and rest of body, for they laboured more and more abundantly, making themselves sacrifices for Christ. Alas, alas, that season passed away, the Church grew dull and sleepy; she left her Lord, she turned aside, she leaned upon an arm of flesh, courting the endowments of earthly kingdoms, then there came a long and dreary winter, the dark ages of the world, the darker ages of the Church. At last the time of love returned, when God again visited His people and raised up for them new apostles, new martyrs, new confessors. The time of Luther and Calvin, and Melanchthon, and of Knox was come--heaven’s sunny days when once again the frost should give way to approaching summer. Then it was that men could say once again, “The winter is passed,” priestcraft has lost its power, the rain is over and gone; false doctrines shall no more be as tempests to the Church; the flowers appear on the earth--little Churches; plants of God’s right hand planting, are springing up everywhere. Oh I would to God that the Church could then have heard her Master’s voice, “Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.” And now, brethren, in these days we have had another season of refreshing. God has been pleased to pour out His Spirit upon men again. He speaks to each denomination according to its need, but to the same import, “Rise up and come away; leave deadness and coldness and wrong-doing and hardness and harshness, and bitterness of spirit; leave idleness and slothfulness and lukewarmness; rise up and come away. Come away to preach the Gospel amongst the heathen; come away to reform the masses of this wicked city; come away from your little heartedness; from your coldness of spirit, come away: the land is before you; go up and possess it.”
II. Methinks the text has a very special voice to us as a Church. We must use the Scripture widely, but yet personally. While we know its reference to the universal Church, we must not forget its special application to ourselves. We, too, have had a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. A glad period of abundant increase in which there has been as many converts as we could receive, till every officer of the Church has had his hands full in seeing enquirers, and we have only had time to stop now and then and take breath, and say,. “What hath God wrought?” Well, what ought we to do? I hear the Master saying, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” I hear Jesus speaking to this Church, and saying, “Where much is given, there much shall be required. Serve not the Lord as other Churches, but yet more abundantly.”
III. Whey the time of the bridal of the soul has arrived to each convinced sinner, they also there are special duties. Young convert, young believer, in the dawn of thy piety, Jesus says, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” He asks thee to come out from the world and make a profession of thy faith in Him now: put it not off; it is the best time to profess thy faith whilst thou art young, while as yet to thee the days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, “I have no pleasure in them.” Make haste and delay not to keep His commandments. Arise, and be baptized, Come ye out from among the world, be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; follow Christ in this perverse generation, “that you may hear Him say at the last, Of you I am not ashamed, for you were not ashamed of Me in the day when I was despised and rejected of men.” In this your early time, dedicate yourselves to God.
IV. It may be that you and I have had winters of dark trouble, succeeded by soft springs of deliverance. How have we our assurance back again; and Christ is near to us, and we have fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Well, then, what are we to do? Why, the Master says to us, “Rise up, and come away.” Now is the time when we should mount up to be nearer to Himself. Now that the day dawns and the shadows flee away, let us seek our beloved amid the bed of spices, and by the lilies where he feeds. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Spring
should remind us of--
I. The introduction of the Gospel dispensation.
1. The Jewish dispensation may fitly be compared to winter.
2. The opening of the Gospel dispensation resembled the advent of spring. It was caused by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness.
II. Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.
1. Seasons of awakening in the experience of individuals.
2. Seasons of reformation in the history of the Church.
III. The glorious resurrection of the saints, and the full realization of the Kingdom of God and Christ. (Evangelical Preacher.)
A Spring Sermon
I. Some of the natural characteristics of spring.
1. Life will be felt to be a predominant feature. The sap is rising, with its quickening energies, through every plant and tree. The buds are opening with the elasticity and glow of life. From the nests of birds are issuing the first quivering strains of the young feathered host whose liquid music shall soon be heard rippling through all the woods: “the time of the singing of birds is come.” But amongst men death is still to be seen in dark contrast. There is bodily death; the passing hell is tolling through all these spring days. There is mental death, where ignorance, blind prejudice, and superstition prevail. And, worst of all, there is spiritual death. Men are “dead in trespasses and sins.” To such the cry comes, “Awake, thou that sleepest.”
2. Beauty shines forth in spring. We see it in unfallen blossoms and opening flowers, in the many hues of early foliage that soften and relieve each other, in the cloud-dappled sky and its moving shadows on the earth, and in the fresh clear landscape that looks as though the rain of winter and the sun of summer had combined to clothe it with rainbow radiance.
3. Beauty consists in due proportions being maintained between each part and the perfect harmonizing of them as a whole. Does your soul present this picture of spiritual beauty, or is it deformed and distorted by alienation from God? Spring proffers health and strength. The sick yearn for its balmy breath. It ministers additional vigour to the robust. But how does it find you--weakly yielding to besetting sins, victims of vices that will hurry you to the gates of hell, poor, hapless slaves of Satan, crying out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Oh! to you thus groaning in impotence and sin comes a reviving strength in the beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
4. Joy and gladness distinguish the spring-time. The winds laugh as they play through the bowing trees. The leaves rustle as though the feet of fairy dancers were pattering on them. A chorus of joy rolls up to the clouds from “a thousand voices full and sweet.” Is your heart glad too? Accept the offer of mercy that is made now by Christ, who cries: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
5. We are impressed at this season with the proofs of riches and wealth that are manifest around. “Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness, and Thy paths drop fatness” But yet with all this external plenty there may be leanness in the soul. The spirit may be poverty-stricken, starving, because it refuses to be fed by the hand of God, preferring the husks of this world to the corn that may be eaten in the Father’s house.
6. Lastly, we notice youth and promise as characteristics of spring. We look forward to a further development of what we see. The green blades of wheat shall become golden stalks of corn. The blushing blossoms shall give place to ripe mellow fruit. Nature is but young. It has yet to glow with maturity and to droop with age. The dew must glisten through many mornings and the sun must shine through many moons ere the moaning winds of autumn sweep the leaves to their graves. Some of you are in the spring of life. You are hopeful, and afford promise of great things. But are you beginning life “looking unto Jesus,” as your Saviour and example--seeking to grow up into the perfect stature of man in Christ Jesus? If you are not yours will be an aimless, fruitless life.
II. The revelation concerning the Divine nature which spring affords.
1. Spring testifies to the faithfulness of God. Never do the seasons cease to recur at the appointed times. The snows of winter do not forget to melt. The ice-bound rivers do not remain for ever held in silent rest. He that never slumbers nor sleeps rolls the earth on, without any exercise of care or thought on our part, until the sun’s rays can warm and revive the forms that winter’s cold has benumbed. Surely the frequent manifestations of His faithfulness in nature should inspire us with a nobler confidence, and cause us to cry with Job, “Though He slay me yet will I trust Him.”
2. But not less plainly revealed is the goodness of God. With how many hands do we see God, in the spring time, promising to supply our coming wants! The lowliest fruit of the earth proclaims that God is love. And this regard is manifested to all alike. The sun shines on the evil and on the good. But how do you regard this goodness when it is revealed in the form of mercy towards you who have sinned so greatly against God? What think you of the statement--“God so loved the world”?
3. How many evidences of the wisdom of God we may gather up at this spring time! Take that leaf, and mark the wonderful system of veins by which nutriment is supplied to the remotest part; or that flower, and see what wonderful provision is made for the propagation of the species; or that bird’s feather that lies on the ground, and see how its cylindrical pen gives it lightness and strength designing it for flight. In these minute objects that are scattered all around now we may trace Divine wisdom. But in general results we may see it equally. It is wisdom that arranges the gradual transition from winter to summer, thus adapting the change to the human constitution. It is wisdom that provides that man shall be tasked with ploughing and sowing before the reaping season comes, for were there not these healthful labours, idleness and sin would soon enervate and destroy the race. And this wisdom is that in which we invite you to confide rather than in your own erring judgments. May you learn to discern the wisdom of God in redemption, and be able with adoring faith to adopt the language of the apostle, and cry, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
4. Lastly, we will advert to the resources of God that are made known to us in the spring. We see them in the provision made for the support of the myriad living creatures that awaken to life as the spring opens. We find them also in the arrangements made for maintaining the fertility of the soil. The leaves of last autumn as they decay render the earth more rich this year. Let us learn then to trust in Him who invites us by His love, and encourages us by His wisdom and infinite power, to rely upon Him.
III. The relation of spring to the doctrine of resurrection. Spring presents the most appropriate figures whereby to represent resurrection. The forms of animal and vegetable life that lived through the last slimmer, and which either died or passed into a torpid condition at the approach of winter, now arise again in all their wonted beauty and vigour. The insect breaks forth from its chrysalis state, and spreads its bright gauzy wings in the sunshine. The seed decays, and from it arises a stately stem to wave with joyous life in the breeze. It is not without interest that the period of the resurrection of our Lord is coincident, at least in our country, with the spring-time. Let us rejoice as we read the record of that wondrous event, which confirms our faith in the Divine character of the Saviour, which proclaims His sacrifice to have been accepted, and which celebrates His victory over death and hell. This spring-time points us also to a more general resurrection of which our Lord’s was the first-fruit, when through earth’s valleys, and in the caverns of the deep, the trumpet-call of the angel shall be heard winding, summoning buried millions to the judgment-seat of Christ. In that resurrection we must take part. To the judgment-seat of Christ we must come. If you should now begin to live a life of faith in the Son of God, it will be the brightest spring that has ever blossomed around you. It will be spring in your soul. All the latent powers you possess of knowing, of loving, and of having fellowship with God shall awake to life. The lost likeness of God shall be restored. Your soul shall feel the harmony with extended nature renewed. The thrill of holy joy, and the glow of Divine life, shall be felt, with new and spiritual meaning you shall sing, “The winter is past. (R. S. Harington.)
Spring
I. Spring an emblem of youth. Winter, of age.
1. Spring is the season of hope, the dawn of the year. Looking forward. So youth is the season of bright anticipations.
2. The season of preparation. Ploughing, sowing, etc. So youth. Laying foundations of character and success.
3. The season of activity. So youth.
4. Fleeting. Youth soon merges into manhood, care and trouble comes.
II. Spring an emblem of conversion. Winter, of the unconverted state. Cold, dark, dreary.
1. The season of renewal. “Thou renewest the face of the earth.” Conversion is the renewal of the heart. “Renew a right spirit within me.”
2. The season of joy and gladness. “Time of the singing of birds is come. Conversion produces joy. Eunuch “went on his way rejoicing.”
III. Spring an emblem of revival. Winter, of declension. Spiritual barrenness. A revival needed both in churches and individuals. “O Lord, revive Thy work.”
IV. Spring an emblem of resurrection. Winter, of death.
1. Resurrection of Christ. Then the Winter of the world indeed. The race was filled with hope, joy, gladness.
2. Our resurrection at the last day.
V. Spring suggests heaven. “There everlasting Spring abides.” May the Winter of our spiritual apathy be past and the Springtide of a new life he ours. (E. Ashton Jones.)
Spring and Summer
We shall be following the example of Christ, and shall do well, when we take the words of the royal lover and apply them as the words of Divine invitation to human souls; making spring and summer, with their flowers and grass, trees and fruits, and the birds and beasts, speak on behalf of God and Christ, of Divine love and mercy, of perfect righteousness and justice, and of human activity and life.
I. Returned spring and coming summer reprove and condemn our sinful souls. Jesus Christ was sent into the world to live, and suffer, and die for human salvation; the Holy Spirit is given to quicken our spiritually dead souls into newness of life; the Church was established by Christ to preserve, and perpetuate, and extend the Gospel of salvation; the Sabbath-day and the ministry of the Word, and the public services of religion, are divinely appointed to bring the truth, and the power, and the love of God, with living energy from living hearts to cold and dead souls. This is the spiritual order of God for the regeneration of men. And this order is as powerful and effective on willing minds and obedient hearts, as returned spring and coming summer make the flowers to appear on the earth, the trees to enrobe themselves with foliage, the grain hid in the soil to grow, the birds of the air to sing, and all animate nature to join in the universal enjoyment of the world.
II. Returned spring and coming summer, with their silent processes continually and unchangeable at work, prove the Divine power and wisdom of God. Divine power and wisdom were no more visible in Christ creating and multiplying food for the hungry thousands from a few loaves, than in those slow, silent processes by which the seed springs up and bears the full corn in the ear during the course of spring and summer and autumn, and is multiplied some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundredfold. The power and wisdom of God would no more be seen in a bare, leafless, flowerless dell or grove instantly clothed with foliage and blossom of every variety of form and colour, than in the same results gradually achieved by silent, hidden, but interesting processes extending over weeks or months. The processes are the same in the first case, though accelerated or made to act in a moment of time, instead of being spread over weeks. No power other than the infinite power and Wisdom of the Divine Creator could combine the influences and forces and agencies necessary to produce in either case such a scene of beauty and sublimity.
III. Returned spring and coming summer diffuse a sweet, soothing, and sacred influence. The fields and dells and hills, the air perfumed with the breath of flowers, the bursting of buds, the spreading of luxuriant foliage bearing every shade of green, the light of heaven shining down,--all speak of the perfect goodness and the sweet loveliness of God. Even the names by which flowers are commonly known have a language of their own, by which they give utterance to pure thoughts, kindly feelings, and generous words, and speak of sympathy and affection, truth and goodness, peace and love. How beautifully, yet how marvellously, has God revealed Himself in nature; how sweet, how clear, and how lovingly does He stamp His presence and the attributes of His character upon all things, for He has made all things for beneficent ends. Even through Nature, the door of the future world is opened to our view. The forms and colours and substances of things are perfectly adapted to preserve and promote our earthly comfort and life; and may we not assume there will be in glory the same natural, pleasing, and perfect fitness of all things to preserve and promote our glorious life in the likeness of Jesus Christ? The same God who rules and reigns on earth also rules and reigns in heaven I
V. Returned spring and coming summer, in awakening the energies and activities of nature from their winter’s sleep, call us to arise to active work. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure; and yet we must both will and do as He works in us by His Word and Spirit. The energies of our spiritual nature must have opportunities of exercise until they form gradually in us habits of grace and goodness. We must carefully form and actively maintain habits of piety, such as prayer, faith, love, self-restraint, reverence, and decision. We must sustain a conscience void of offence, and sensitive of evil. We must abhor selfishness, pride, and immorality. We must cultivate close attachment to Jesus Christ, and love Him as our Saviour for His love to us. We must live in sympathy with every good work, and with all good men; and we must give full play to our living activities in doing good. (W. Simpson.)
The Risen Christ the Church’s spring
I. A Syrian spring-time.
1. Winter past, and rain over. In Syria, winter rains descend in torrents unknown to us, but at a certain time spring at once succeeds, and for months clouds are never seen (1 Samuel 12:16-19; Proverbs 26:1).
2. Change marvellous. Tender grass springs out of earth (2 Samuel 23:4). Ground enamelled with lovely flowers. Fig-tree puts forth her green fruit, and vines their fragrant smell.
3. Singing and voice of the turtle heard. Its presence a sure sign of the return of spring (Jeremiah 8:7).
II. Christ’s resurrection a spiritual spring-time.
1. History of early Church. Contrast apostles as seen in the Gospels and in the Acts--winter and spring.
2. History of religious revivals. Churches for a season in wintry state, Scripture pastures snow-covered, spiritual streams ice-bound. When, however, Christ is preached, not only as a pattern of life, not only as propitiation for sin, but as the risen Saviour pleading at God s right hand, then the Spirit works a wondrous change. Barren winter and dark days no more, the Sun of Righteousness shines, spring returns, pastures are green, waters flow softly, fruits of righteousness abound. Converts grow in grace, as willows by watercourses.
3. History of individual believer. May have felt dark and dead; but when the Spirit quickens this truth in him then day breaks, shadows flee away. Realizing in Christ’s Resurrection God’s acceptance of the finished work on his behalf, he henceforth walks in holy peace and liberty,--each day a Sabbath, a sacrament in every meal; he loves to break the costly spikenard in the ardour of spiritual love and joy.
III. Christ’s return will be a never-ending spring. At His coming all things will be made new. The winter of sin and sorrow will be past, and there will be no more sin and no more tears. Then the dew of herbs (Isaiah 26:19). When, at the voice of the Beloved, the Bride comes forth from her wintry grave, and enters with Him the garden of God, then creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption (Romans 8:21); then mountains and hills will rejoice, and trees will clap their hands, whilst the Church serves its Lord with gladness, and comes into His presence with a song. (Bp. Bardsley.)
Spring
The most obvious analogy which the spring suggests is--
I. The resurrection of many forms and kinds of life, which for a period of time were dead.
1. Spring represents us with a marvellous example of the sufficiency of means to produce, in a short time, a great change in the appearance of the earth. The existence of this power is calculated to remove all doubt from the mind regarding those agencies which shall be employed to awaken the buried inhabitants of Time from their wide-spread places of rest.
2. As spring brings back to us familiar objects, so the resurrection will re-unite us to those we loved and from whom we had parted on earth, with sorrow. As then, we visit the resting-places of those clear to us on “God’s acre,” as the Germans term the graveyard, and see the violets blooming above their tombs, and the buds appearing on the trees, the heart is comforted by those emblems of hope, and feels that those from whom it has parted are not lost, but gone before, and that they shall meet them on the resurrection morn.
II. The renewing of the face of the earth is a type of a renewing of the soul. AS the day comes out of night, or as the spring emerges from winter, so the soul passes from death into the flesh light of a new life by the power of the Holy Spirit. “Old things pass away and all things become new.” And as spring gives a tone to the sky, the cloud, the air and the fields, so the new life of the soul, being diffusive, gives a tone and colouring to the thoughts, the feelings, and the actions of the Christian.
1. This progress of the soul in the Divine life is, like the progress of the spring, gradual. Sin does not easily relax its grasp; old habits are not thrown off at will; so that the virgin joys of the new life of the soul are often chilled by the cold influences of sin, striving to renew their reign like the winter.
2. This progress of the soul in the Divine life is, like the progress of spring, irresistible. Winter must give place to spring. So faith, like a grain of mustard seed in the soul, will germinate and expand, and progress, and establish itself in holy desires, fervent affections, and correct thoughts, under the life-giving influence of the Sun of Righteousness.
3. This progress of the soul in the Divine life is, like the progress of spring, pleasing. As spring introduces us to new pleasures; the renewing of the soul leads us to fresh delights.
III. Spring is illustrative of youthful life. Spring is a period of importance to the husbandman; so is youth. (Homilist.)
“I will arise--I who have resisted so long--and go to my Father.” It may be so with them there; but here there is but little chance for them. “The moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall devour them like wool.” (Stopford Brooke, M. A.)
Spring
No wonder is so wonderful as the birth of spring. Music, painting, and poetry, all art and every artist has felt its power to quicken life and warm emotion, and has striven to express its charm and thrill of joy. Every year we are moved by its coming, morally and physically. No one who heard the warm west wind of this April flowing through the trees and felt the secret stirring that was made in blood and brain, but knew the influence of spring upon the body. As the sap ran upwards through the flowers, so the blood went swifter through the veins, and the physical emotion sent its message to that immaterial life of thought and feeling which we call the spirit. And the spirit receiving the impressions, took and moulded them into ideas by the imagination and sent the ideas forth to give motives to the will. The first thought that occurs is the abounding life of Spring. Through all, there ran, as the first mark of life, the sense and power of love. All things that lived seemed to sacrifice their best in colour, beauty, and life for one another; I could not think of any one leaf or plant without thinking of the rest, so deep was the impression of the brotherhood of all, so strong was the feeling of ceaseless intercommunion that came to me from the universe of spring, and told me that love was its spirit. And not only love lived there, but joy that was intense. The face of every flower was like that of a radiant child. The air shook with the joyful thoughts of the birds, the dance of insect life had begun, and the airy ravishment of the butterfly born too soon, was the expression of the life that trembled with delight through every animal. Life, love, joy, what are these in their tale to the spirit, as spring sends them flowing into our hearts? They are a revelation of the Being of God. Its first attribute is infinite life. Decay, death, sorrow, dulness, the wearing out of feeling, they are only the accidents of our trial time, and in themselves part of life and not of death. Let them touch us as they will, they cannot last for ever; for they are weaker than life, when life is God. Again, this life is Love-love in God, the same as goodness. What else can it be but love, for it is creative? That there is such a thing as creation; that life and joy come out of death and pain; that the wonder of the spring is born out of the travail of the winter, is proof enough to those who feel how impossible creation is to evil, that it is goodness--goodness that stream forth as love, love that is lifo in all things, that is the spirit of the universe. And, again, if life and love be one in the being of God, that being must also be joy, infinite, self-exultant, varying through every phase of quiet and of rapture. Words would fail to paint one moment of its triumphant fulness; joy is the glory of God. True, it is dear to us who need sympathy in pain, who know so much of pain, to feel, through Christ, that God can be touched with sorrow for us, that it pitieth Him to see us in the dust, but that is not of the absolute in His Being. The essence of His Being is, on the contrary, joy, intense, overflowing, streaming in rapturous life through universes of life, material and immaterial. These, then, are the three thoughts of God’s Being that we bind up with the woods and fields and streams of spring. We take the same thoughts now and bring them to touch on our own life. Spring is the image of our youth, and the lesson we learn from it is--that our youth should be Life, and Love, and Joy, and that these are its natural companions. Life lives with youth, and its first rush is wonderful. Thoughts break out into leaf, feelings into blossoms; a single day in that time of sun and rain may make the whole heart like a woodland; when the foliage of sweet thoughts first appears the grass is not seen for flowers. The first touch of love, the touch of a new aspiration, the winning of one new knowledge, may loosen the bonds of a thousand seeds of thought, and set them shooting upwards into growth and life. We are often born in a day; life then begins, and I hold it our duty in youth to put our whole force into living. There is yet another lesson. Along with the leaves is born the cup of the flower, and with the flowers are involved the seeds. In all true life future life is hidden; provision is made for that production which is the first mark of life, for continuance of life and for its flower. Think of that truth as the spring moves your blood. Is there the element of continuance in anything you do? In your life are there seeds which, when decay comes, will insure a new outburst of life? Have you some certainty that you nave life enough to flower? Is the true flower of a beautiful or useful life already formed in you? Are you showing forth already the beauty and sweetness and charm which tell that the flower is coming? If these things be so, then you are living the fullest and the quickest life, the life of which spring is the image, of which God is the reality. But you cannot have in youth the life of spring without also having its love. Make the brotherhood of the flowers, their intercommunion of good, their joyous sacrifice of all they have in order to give joy, the example and impulse of your youth; make your springtide the reflection of the spring in love. Pour forth all the odour, colour, charm and happiness you have to all your friends, to your home, to your daily society, to the poor and sorrowful, the joyous and prosperous. Charm the world by love. Brighten darkened lives, soften the rude, make a sunshine of peace in stormy places, cover the faults and follies of men with the flowers of love, And, finally, this will be joy. Not the wild, self-exhausting joy of wild persons wildly wrought, but something which, though quieter, is even more intense, only it is not over tense. The strings of life are in tune, not stretched almost to breaking; and music comes, not discord; music in which others rejoice, in which we ourselves rejoice. Life led by love has as its child the radiancy of joy. It is a joy none can take away, because it has its roots in the joy which we make in others, because it has its deepest root in the joy which life and love make in the being of God. (Stopford Brooke, M. A.)
Spring-time in nature and in experience
Nature teaches that to every season of trouble and overthrow there comes resurrection. In the deepest January of the year there is a nerve that runs forward to June. Life is never extinguished. That which seems to be death reaches forward and touches that which is vital.
I. Nations seem to have their periods like the year. Neither in civilization nor in Christian elements do they seem to mount up with steady growth. They move, rather, as it were in spirals. They often return as if falling back, and yet their progress, on the whole, is onward.
II. Deep convulsions and embarrassments of all industrial pursuits are wont to go along with national trials. So it has been with us. To all those whose wheels of enterprise are blocked; to all those whose past growths are withering; to all whose roots are locked in the icy soil; to all whose leaves are touched by the frost of disappointment--to them I say, the winter is past; the time of the singing of birds has come. Wait a little; some more snows may fall, and there may be some more frosts; but the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our affairs.
III. There are the same experiences in families as in nations and industrial communities. There are some families that seem compelled to go to the promised land, as the Israelites did, through a desert. There are many that, having experienced long years of toil and suffering, come out only at last. But there are many that, having been prospered and happy, lapse into a state of want and trouble. The streams that swelled with prosperity, swell no more; the birds that sang of prosperity sing no more. They come from wealth and comfort into distress and poverty. But are there no spring-like days that come upon the winter of troubles in the household? Is it all blast, all blight, all burying? Is there nothing but pale, white, enwrapping snow? Are there no birds that ever fly athwart the sky of the bereaved family? Is there an utter absence of everything like comfort and cheer? Blessed be God, even though trouble may abide, joy comes too.
IV. The same is eminently true of individuals. They know not why things have gone against them. If you were to hear some men’s experience, you would think that they grow as the white pine grows, with straight grain, and easily split--for I notice that all that grow easy split easy. But there are some that grow as the mahogany grows, with veneering knots, and all quirls and contortions of grain. That is the best timber of the forest which has the most knots. Everybody seeks it, because, being hard to grow, it is hard to wear out. And when knots have been sawn and polished, how beautiful they are! There are those who have fought the fight of great trouble in sickness. Not all the soldiers of God are in the battle-field. There are those there who are strong-backed, whose muscles are like brawn, whose bones are like flint, and whose faces, for zeal, are like the face of January, and for enthusiasm are like the face of July. But these are not God s only soldiers, nor his strongest soldiers. Some of God’s most heroic soldiers are the bedridden. If sickness be God’s will, even so. His will be done, not mine. The time of the singing of birds has come to such a heart. To such a heart spring has come, and summer is not far off.
V. There are applications innumerable to spiritual conditions. Many of you have cast your leaves. You have seen November, and gone wading through the cold winter of backsliding. But March has come round to you. A little bird began to sing right in your family. Before you thought of such a thing, you heard the singing of birds. It was your daughter that sung; or, it was the little child of your next-door neighbour. There is beginning to be a warmth in your heart. You are beginning to think of your declining days. You are beginning to yearn for the old love. You are beginning to say, “Is it not time for the winter to be gone, and for the spring to have come in my heart?” The time, oh! backsliding Christians; oh, wandering professor of religion; oh! child of God, beloved of Him, and yet forgetful of your Father and your Saviour--the time of the singing of birds has come to you. Rise up and rejoice!
VI. We are all of us going through life as a kind of winter. We are as we go towards age, dropping our hair, and losing, one by one, our senses. We are drifting towards autumn. Then come the vacuous days of the winter of seeming uselessness--declines which men dread. How many hate age! This is the winter of human life, to be sure: but just beyond is the rising of that bright immortal spring where the birds of heaven sing, and which, when it has once begun, shall never be followed by winter, and shall never be visited by storms. We are all of us drawing near to the sweet spring of resurrection. (H. W. Beecher.)
The joy of spring
Spring is the season of resurrection, the period of renewed hope and quickened sensibilities, when the gloom of winter is forgotten in the anticipation of growing brightness and life The spring is a season that awakens hope, that revives deadened sensibilities, that gives a man a new sense of life, and makes him feel young again. Milton tells us that the muses always came back to him in spring. He could not sing very much as a rule, in winter, but when spring came back the muses came. He caught the youthfulness and hopefulness of spring: he looked round, and saw life springing triumphantly out of the grave of winter: he saw the feeblest growths rejoice in a new life and beauty. Then, too, his own intellect, under the blessing and inspiration of his God, just as the flower under the blessing and inspiration of a spring sky, began to blossom anew. Spring, therefore, is a season that comes to all sensitive men with special freshness and inspiration. It is something to feel that after all death is not the mightiest thing even in this physical world. When the spring comes, life in its tenderest, loveliest, and most delicate forms springs out of the cold and lately frozen earth. Look at the little bud as it opens. What so delicate as the flower? Take it up and carry it in your hand; you have to guard against withering it by the warmth of your hand. And yet there it is--it has sprung up, almost before you knew it, out of the cold and bare earth. The sun came in the brightness of his rising, and, under the genial effects of his warmth that little flower sprang up out of the clammy soil. Is not that a message for us? Can a life so exquisitely tender and so beautiful spring out of the desolate earth? Then I have learnt once more that all along the line, even in the physical world, life is triumphant. That even in the revolving year death only reigns for a brief season, and even then to answer the higher purposes of life in its rich and varied developments and outgrowths; so that when the proper season comes, life asserts itself anew, in new forms of beauty, that surprise the eye, and delight, the heart.
1. The spring delights the eye--“The flowers appear on the earth.” What are the uses of flowers? Surely one is the joy they give to life. It is as if God said to Nature, “I am about to give thee reviving power: see to it that the first things thou bringest forth shall be things of beauty, a joy to the child’s eye, a solace to the heart of the invalid in the sick room, and a delight to the bedimmed vision of the aged ere the realities of another world dawn upon them. See to it that thou puttest on thy loveliest garb--not the useful for the moment so much as the delightful, which, however, shall be the promise of the useful by and by.” Nature responds and sends forth its lovely flowers--“flowers appear on the earth.” But God has also higher motives than that. It is His will that the flowers should take their humble and doubtless secondary part, but a very important one, in our and in our children’s education. He has not merely intended that we should be hard at work from morning to night, and see the buildings which our hands and other hands have erected, without seeing a field or becoming rapturous over an opening flower. No, He bids us go forth to the fields, as opportunity offers, and see how happy God would have His children be, “for the flowers appear in the earth.”
2. But not only is the eye appealed to by the beauty of Nature, but also the ear by its music--“The time of the singing of birds is come.” Out of the fulness of the heart the bird pours out its harmonies. This is the safety valve, or the bird would die of compression. It sends out the music because it cannot keep it in. This is the instinct that God has put in the heart of the bird, bidding him “tell out the joy that is in him.” This is a blessed privilege. And as it is true of the bird, it ought to be true of the Christian. The Christian must sing out his joy like the bird, not for the sake of effect, but for the joy and relief that the very act gives. Wendell Holmes tells us that there are some men and women who “die with all their music in them.” This is spoken of as one of the saddest possibilities of life. There are circumstances in life which have so oppressed them that they grow sullen, hopeless, and despairing. There is nothing more sad than such a sight. The Christian surely should be beyond that. O man, touch the strings of thy lyre, and out of those finger tips shall go forth harmonies into every string thou touchest. Do not sit down in the dust; lift up thy voice withal, to and for God. Speak for Christ, and sing of His love; and out of thy soul, even in trial and in affliction, shall inspiring harmonies go forth.
3. Not only does the spring gratify the eye and the ear, but also the smell. This is the third gate of which Bunyan speaks. Here we have a perfect picture of a peaceful home in the East. We have already read of the eye being gratified, and the ear charmed, and now we read of the tender grape giving a sweet smell. And so God speaks to us through the avenues of even our physical senses. It is His wish that we should all be happy on this bright spring day, and that, like the flowers and the birds, and sweet smelling blossoms, we should be full of praise to His name. (D. Davies.)
The spring and its voles
Spring has a great deal to say to us that may be worthy of our attention. She speaks to various characters.
1. We will, in the first place, listen to what spring has to say to the aged Christian. It is pregnant with hope, joy, and immortality, because God has put these precious things into his heart.
2. The spring has also something to say to the young Christian. The spring to you is pregnant with promise, full of hope. And when you look around on this wide-spread-picture of Divine benevolence, and remember that all these things have come into existence at the voice of God, and reflect upon the fact that the God, who has again covered Nature with beauty and glory, is the God you serve and the Saviour that redeemed your spirit, spring may well teach you the importance of a strong and vigorous hope. What cannot He do for your spirit who can thus adorn Nature? But spring also teaches you that in connection with your religion there should be toil. How concerned the husbandman is to get in the seed on which their hopes of a crop depend. So it must be with you. Now is the time to grow in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. These bright and fair opportunities may never return. Remember, moreover, that you are bound, as Christians, to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints”; but, in order that you may do so, you must understand what that faith is. You must love the Word of God, and ponder often and deeply over the precious Gospels, and study, also, the writings of good men. Get into your minds a goodly store of precious truth--a kind of bread-house to which you shall repair in other days, and get that spiritual nutriment which you will need.
3. The spring also speaks to the afflicted Christian. There may be some one here greatly tempted in soul. It may be there is winter within. Thou art ready to come to the conclusion that God hath forsaken thee; that there is death and destruction in this winter. But it is not so. Winter precedes the harvest-home; and so this spiritual winter is not intended to destroy, but to do a necessary work, as in Nature. God frequently brings winter into the hearts of His people that He may teach them His will. This winter may have come upon thee in love. It may be that roots of spiritual pride and presumption require to be rooted up, which have stifled the meekness and tenderness of thy love towards Christ. It may be that He has brought this winter upon thee to teach thee the vanity of the creature, and that without Christ there is no enjoyment, but that with the presence of Christ, even winter can be a joy to thee; while summer itself without Him, without Christ, would be a miserable desert--a winter of desolation.
4. Spring also speaks to the slothful Christian. And what is the voice of spring to him? Awake, thou sluggard. Every green leaf which surrounds thee, all the various forms of life which encompass thy path, the very birds of the air reprove thee; all Nature speaks, and calls upon thee to arise from the dust, and shake thyself. Has not thy soil been waste long enough?
5. Spring also speaks to the backslider. All Nature is coming back to her original beauty and glory--coming out of the womb of winter. Does it not speak to thee, backslider? Thou hast wandered from the Lord, and it is now winter with thee. Thy soul is miserable. The smile of God is not upon thy spirit. But does not spring speak to thee, and say, come back again? By the remembrance of the past, by the patience of thy Lord whom thou hast pierced and wounded, return again. He says to thee, “Return, oh, backsliding children!”
6. Spring also speaks to the sinner--to the man who has been altogether unconcerned about the state of his soul. Dream not of heaven you who treat the Gospel as a fable and bring forth no fruits of contrition, of faith, hope, love, and meekness. Unless men have their Springtide here, they will not have it in the paradise above. (W. P. Balfern.)
The Springtime call
Each succeeding season comes to the world with a new and peculiar influence. Spring has a different language from winter. She stirs different forces within the human frame. She evokes different feelings within the human heart. She hath a gladsome voice, and her step is altogether light and joyous. And men change under her influence; then they will come to bear the impress of summer’s hand, and then again grow sad and contemplative with autumn. And the Christian lives in this world and under these varying influences; and they, like all the multiform forces which he feels, should prove religious,--favouring breezes to swell the sails of his Christian life; drawing powers to draw towards happiness and peace, and purity and God. Hence Christ’s exhortation to His Church in the text.
I. He calls unto her through the beauty of the spring-time. His exhortation hath for its emphasis, or one of its most beautiful settings, the blossoming flowers. “Arise, come away, for the flowers appear on the earth.” Scattered throughout the earth; blooming now upon mountain top, and now in deepest gorge; now lifting up its tiny form from out the crevasses of the ice-fields, and now painting itself in gorgeous hues beneath a tropical sun; now blooming in lonely desert, where no eye save that of God may note its beauty, and now upon the beaten thoroughfare lifting up its spiritual face beneath the rude gaze of the passers-by; now, in rich profusion, heaped upon the casket of death until its ghastliness is well-nigh abolished, and, now, in wreaths of orange and snow, lending the last charm and grace to animated beauty,--the flower, wherever it blooms, is a smile of God lingering upon the earth; the most delicate earthly blossoming of that spirit of beauty which God has breathed into all the works of His hand. And spring is full of flowers. She stretches forth her wand over the earth, and forthwith they start up in innumerable ranks of loveliness. She calls with her voice, and they come trooping in beautiful array to her side. She cries out that the winter is gone, and assured of safety, as an angel ambuscade, they lift up their smiling faces over all the earth. She breathes with the breath of the south wind over field and garden, and at once they rise up from their wintry graves, their spirits of life laden with ten thousand odours. And so God calls unto men through the voice of the spring; for this is the voice of flowers and of beauty. With the beauty which is external He would call unto that which belongs to the soul, and which is the beauty of holiness. As, then, during the coming days, and amid the opening glories of the spring-time, your Nature shall feel the softening influence, and flow out in warmer and swifter currents towards the lovely, the beautiful, and the good, know that all this is the voice of your Saviour speaking unto you, and saying, “Arise, come away.” Open your heart to the gentle and purifying influences which, at this season of the year, fill the air; for they will do you good and not evil. They will have for you a voice from God speaking of the beauty which is unfading,--the beauty of holiness, which blossoms perennially in the world above.
II. The call of the Saviour is through the joy of the springtime. There is joy in the vernal season as well as beauty; and this joy is made the organ of the Saviour’s call: “The time of the singing of birds is come. Arise, my love, and come away.” As the Creator of all things, He is the Author of all the joy which fills the world, and which meets in a royal crown upon the head of spring. Birds sing because He, the Good One, has created them so full of joy that they cannot help but sing. The waters laugh in the sunshine, and join in merry music as they flow, because lie has made the sun so bright and water so clear. Children disport themselves in the streets, and fill the air with their merry voices, because children are fresh from God,--freshly filled with joy at an infinite fountain. God is the joy of this world. Forget not the joy-fountain, while you bathe yourself in the joy-streams! While gladness streams into your heart, let grateful love flow out from it and upward. And, oh! if perchance you are a dissonant, jarring being within this world of joy and gladness; if the waves of the spring-time joy, as they roll over this world, reach not your dry and thirsty and unhappy heart,--still is the voice of the Saviour unto you through all this unshared flood, which, Tantalus like, you reach after, but may not drink. Listen to His words, “Arise, come away.” God has the joy which you need also,--enough for all your cravings, and to fill you too. Pray Him that by His renewing Spirit He would create spring-time within your soul, and fill you with this joy of His which rolls and flows throughout His Being and throughout His realm.
III. The call of the text is unto men through the fruitful life of the spring. The winter has been the night of Nature, and with spring comes the morning, in which, as in a gradually awakening city, begins the hum of life, swelling louder and louder into the full activity of midday. Spring is life from the dead; resurrection, reanimation, restoration. And God speaks through it as such, proclaiming Himself as the Life-giver, and through it He also calls for life within His followers. Some of you, it may be, have been hibernating in the Church: you have not been dead, but torpid; hoping little, feeling little, doing little. Come away; leave your winter-quarters; throw off their imprisonment, their constraint, their dull routine. Forth into the field where your Saviour calls; go, to ramble with Him through the flowery fields and beside the still waters. Drink of the fulness of a spiritual spring-time. Dare to hope more, to attempt more, to enjoy more. Let all the fulness of your being flow out towards the Saviour, who loves you with an everlasting love. (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.)
The flowers appear on the earth.--
Flowers
What object do flowers serve in the Economy in Nature and in the purposes of God? Every one admits that the flowers are beautiful--strikingly and prominently beautiful, even among the choicest beauties of God’s most perfect works. Now, philosophers tell us that the useful is the beautiful--that things are beautiful in proportion to their usefulness in supplying the material wants of men. According to this theory, an ear of corn ought to be more beautiful than a rose or a lily, and yet there is probably not a sound-minded man in the whole world who would not consider the useless rose more beautiful than the useful ear of corn. In fact, the flowers that men have always agreed to regard as the most beautiful are in most cases absolutely useless for man, from a utilitarian point of view. This proves, then, that beauty is something very different from mere usefulness. In reality the great characteristic of beauty is to lift up our minds from mere worldly usefulness to the contemplation of the perfect and the Divine: to lift our hearts and minds to God. For example, we might speak of beautiful conduct, and what is it that constitutes beauty of conduct? Conduct is beautiful in proportion as it approaches the conduct of Christ. Again, what is it that constitutes beauty in literature? Literature is beautiful in proportion as it reveals by means of suitable language the soul of man in its Godward aspirations. In everything, then, which we call beautiful, we find that this principle holds good, and the more powerful to lift up our hearts unto God, the more beautiful. Beauty is the manifestation of God in His works. Why, then, do we regard the flowers as beautiful? We regard the flowers as beautiful because they direct our thoughts to God. God is the natural destiny of man. God is the one thing that every man either consciously or unconsciously longs for. Whatever helps to satisfy your longing is pleasurable, and when the longing is of an elevating nature--when it is Godward--the pleasurable is also the beautiful. Art is elevating and ennobling only when its votary has learned to cultivate the beautiful as a means of approach to God. This was the spirit in which the greatest architects, the greatest sculptors, the greatest painters and the greatest poets did their work, and so no atheist, however great his natural talent, has ever yet produced a master work, either in art or in literature. The first condition of true art is to recognize the beautiful as an expression of the Divine. To the sound and healthy and pure mind everything beautiful in man or in the world around him points towards God. And so the flowers are beautiful, not because they are useful, but because they lift up our hearts to God. There are many ways in which they do this, many lessons which they teach us in their silent eloquence with more force and more clearness than the words of our greatest and our wisest teachers. Our Lord Himself taught some of His most important lessons from such ordinary things as the lilies of the field, and the grass, and each one of those lessons had for its aim the lifting up of our hearts to God. Christ made use of the humble beauty of the flowers to attain that end. One of the first conditions of realizing the presence of God is to learn the lesson of humility. This is taught by the flowers. Most men are vain of something--appearance, attainments, position, and so on--but Jesus rebukes such vanity by telling us to “consider the lilies of the field.” I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Christ makes use of the flowers to teach us the lesson of faith--also one of the conditions of any real knowledge of God or communion with Him. The flowers prove that God is just as careful of small things as He is of large things. Again, the flowers teach us the shortness and the uncertainty of human life. Out of the dull-looking stem springs forth mysteriously and silently, the flagrant blossom of loveliest hue. It spreads itself out in smiling gladness, to the light and warmth of the sun. It gladdens the eye of the beholder with its beauteous presence, but no sooner does it attain its highest perfection than it fades away in a breath of wind and vanishes quite as mysteriously as it came. And so the earthly life of man passeth away as mysteriously as it came, and the place that knew him shall know him no more. And once more, do not the flowers teach the great and comforting lesson of the resurrection from the dead and the immortality of the soul? Complete indeed is the withering of a flower. The beauty, the colour, the fragrance, the delight of it vanish away, leaving no trace or vestige behind, even as the life of man does. But, in spite of the cold and frost of winter, the dead stump will awake to life after many days. The summer sun will shine upon it. The bud will appear, the flower will bloom once more in its pristine beauty, a perfect and a never-failing emblem of the resurrection and the life. (A. Macrae, B. A.)
The teaching of the flowers
“The flowers appear on the earth not accidentally, but for gracious ends and purposes.
I. To testify of their maker’s wisdom and skill. Take the best human imitation, and how far short it falls of the Divine original I Different shades, and delicate blendings of colour, the perfect structure and reviving scent defy reproduction by man. No two blades of grass are exactly alike, nor two flowers, even of the same species. Why? A profound mystery, enough to awe and humble us.
II. To proclaim the goodness of God. We may see His compassion for His children in every flower that bends to the breeze. A believer on the verge of starvation, or in temptation, or oppressed by spiritual chill and lethargy might argue a fortiori: “If God so clothe the grass of the field. .. ?” “If God provides even flowers with means of protection and recovery. .. ?” “If the flowers praise the Lord, shall I be silent?”
III. As a protest against human discontent. Flowers are content to bloom where they are planted. “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” Still, we must not be the slaves of our environment. Submission may be servile and ruinous to our manhood; e.g. to continue in a business that compels dishonesty or injury to others. But where we are earning an honest livelihood, and Providence does not point the way to some other sphere, it is our duty, and certainly our interest, to be quiet, cheerful, and contented.
IV. As a symbol of our mortality. Mazzini preferred the pale blossoms of the syringe to the rose because their acrid perfume suggested hidden stings in all pleasures, and so were a better type of life. And it is not a morbid religiousness that sees in every frail flower an emblem of our fragile and fleeting life. Let us face the fact bravely. As we see the flower of our existence fading let us dispense fragrance while we may. And let those whose earthly leaf is withered anticipate the completer life beyond. (John Wright.)
1. Note the infinite variety of flowers, and how they thrive in all sorts of places. High up on the mountains, at the very edge of the snow, is found the purple soldanella, the white crocus, and the blue hepatica. Down in the sultry plain blooms the red poppy, the white dog-daisy, and the blue corn-flower; in the cold, raw winds of March, the dearly-loved snowdrop shakes its pure bell. Everywhere, in all sorts of situations, in all sorts of climates, out of all sorts of soils, spring up the flowers God has made. Everywhere, in all sorts of situations, in all ranks of life, in all conditions of life, out of every social deposit, the saints of God arise. Everywhere the grace of God shines and matures the seed of eternal life, and causes the flowers of a Christian life to unfold. And as each flower is specially suited to the soil in which it grows, and to the climate which surrounds it, so it is with the Christian graces. There are special graces, special virtues, according to class, and place, and circumstances.
2. At certain times you may be discouraged, and think that you cannot serve God in the place where you are, you have so many difficulties to contend against, those around you are so wicked. But do not fear. God’s flowers will grow everywhere. What can be fouler than the filth in which the water-lily has her roots, the slime in which the newt and the worm wriggle, and yet, what more stainless or sunlike than the flower? I have known lads in mechanical workshops, surrounded by men blaspheming, cursing, doing all in their power to degrade and brutalize the boys associated with them. And yet some of these]ads have maintained a really heroic Christian faith and walk before God.
3. The first growth of the seed or root is hidden. The process is unseen. I dare say you know the rule to be observed with hyacinth bulbs grown in glasses. They have to be put away in the dark till they are rooted. So must it be with the spiritual growth of the soul, its first processes must be hidden. There must be no display of religion, no talking about it, no demonstrative piety; all that sort of show leads to poor flowering. The rooting and germinating must be hidden deep down in the soft soil of the inner heart. It is afterwards that the flower of a Christian life expands. Now for another lesson. Have you ever observed a flower in its growth from a seed? The seed leaves unfurl,--two little leaves, quite unlike those the plant will eventually bear. These open, and are extended like little hands towards heaven. They are very sensitive. On them depends the life of the plant. If those little appealing hands be destroyed, the plant will cast up no more. It will rot away underground, and die. Like the seed leaves of the plant are children’s prayers. These are the first manifestations of the soul’s life. The little hands are lifted up to God appealingly, often ignorantly, but trustfully and lovingly. Most essential to the spiritual life are children’s spiritual beginnings. They must be carefully guarded. Beware, children, how you suffer your early prayers to cease, to die. On them depends the life and health of your soul in after life. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)
For a flower service
Nothing that we can conceive of is prettier than flowers. People who teach or learn drawing speak sometimes of “the line of beauty,” and they bestow vast pains in order to be able to draw it. Did you ever observe a flower which was without a line of beauty? No;--flowers are always, when their growth is not interfered with, as perfect in form as can be, and all the lines of beauty which ever were drawn or designed by man must, I think, have been copied, in the first instance, from leaves and flowers. Of this you may have plenty of proofs by noticing beautiful pillars in buildings, beautiful patterns on vases, beautiful pictures, beautiful forms of man’s devising anywhere; in most, or many, of them you will find that the beauty consists in curves copied from flowers and leaves. Ah! there is a lesson for you here, to be learned from the beauty and perfect form of flowers; it is this:--If you wish your lives to be as beautiful and perfect as they can be, you must fashion them after a God-given example. Nobody can make a plant or flower. It must grow in God’s appointed way and no other. Having grown, it lends itself to the architect, the painter, the poet, the potter, to anybody having need thereof, to make the copy he desires. So also there is one perfect life, one perfect character, of God’s appointment, given to mankind, from which to copy. In so far as you make Christ’s life your pattern and example, your life and character shall be full of grace, beauty, and sweetness. Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist, used to observe the beautiful order which reigns among certain flowers, and so was led to suggest the telling of time by what he called “a floral clock.” It was to be composed of plants which open and close their blossoms at particular hours; as, for instance, the dandelion, which opens its petals at six in the morning, the hawkweed at seven, the succory at eight, the celandine at nine, and so on; the closing of the flowers being marked with equal regularity, so as to indicate the progress of afternoon and evening. What a lovely thing it would be thus to bedeck every passing hour of life with grace and obedience, as the flowers do. Shall they be punctual in all that concerns the purpose for which they are made, and boys and girls, who have reason and intelligence to guide them, be unpunctual? Nay,--but let the flowers which open early in the morning remind you of the call to prayer; those which open later, of the call to work and duty; those that close in afternoon or evening may lead you to reflect on the way in which you have spent your day, and teach you to commit yourselves to God’s care and keeping during the darkness of the coming night. In this way you will, with undeviating regularity, learn to obey the influence of the Sun of Righteousness, and give each following hour its proper due, just as the flowers accommodate themselves to the influence of the natural sun. Has it ever occurred to you that the common names of flowers often tell us of the way in which they were regarded by the people who first named them? Pansy was originally a French word, meaning thought. The pansy, then, was the thought-flower. It is very fitting, therefore, that it should be found everywhere. The whole world is governed by thought. But, we must remember that thought may be either evil or good. Now the pansy ought never to suggest evil thought. How should it? It is, in itself, so beautiful and perfect that only an ill-disposed and perverted mind could be persuaded to evil by it. People bent on evil deeds do not seek for inspiration how to accomplish them by thinking of pretty flowers. They are not led by the beauty of pansies or other blossoms to be ill-tempered, or spiteful, or disobedient, or untruthful, or to commit thefts, or fall into other crimes. The thought suggested by the pansy, then, is good thought, thought beautiful like its emblem. “The best thoughts are those which a man conceives when on his knees before his God.” Thus we should think what God is: a loving, merciful Father; what the Lord Jesus Christ is: a tender, atoning Saviour; what God the Holy Spirit is: a Sanctifier who will dwell in us and make us holy. Again, we should think what we ourselves are: weak and sinful by nature, who need God’s help to make us better. Thirdly, we should think of others, and of what we can do to benefit them. Thus our thoughts should really be concerned with what is set before us in the Church Catechism as, “Our duty to God and our duty to our neighbour.” I may tell you that the pansy, the thought-flower, has another common name which bears strangely on this subject: It is heart’s-ease. A good deal of our duty to our neighbour consists in giving, where we can, heart’s-ease, peace of mind. An old ordained minister of the Church, who lived many years ago, used to say: “I see in this world two heaps, one of human misery, and the other of human happiness. Now if I take but the smallest bit from one heap and add it to the other, I carry a point; I feel I have done something.” And is this all I am to say? Oh! no. By and by, when you are blessed with means such as are not expected in the case of children, you will dedicate something more than flowers to God s service. In former days there lived a princess Eugenie, sister of the king of Sweden. She set her mind on finishing a hospital which had been begun, and, to do so, sold her diamonds. When visiting this hospital, after its completion, a suffering inmate wept tears of gratitude as she stood by his side “Ah!” exclaimed the princess, “now I see my diamonds again.” Do you understand her meaning? She meant that in those grateful tears she beheld what was to her more beautiful and valuable than the diamonds with which they had been purchased. One thing more: you will dedicate something else to God besides your means, namely, yourselves, your lives, your thoughts, your words, your acts. (George Litting, M. A.)
The world’s need of flowers
We are not told why God causes the flowers to appear on the earth. Nothing is said of His purpose in calling this hidden world of beauty into the light. The silence is explained by the fact that the end is obvious and patent to every observer. The soil needs the work of their roots, and the chemicals of their tiny structures. The atmosphere needs the fragrance and the gases they exude. The world of mixed life which hums all day in their petals needs the food they provide. The man needs the sight of them to train his eye and culture the love of the beautiful. And dimpled childhood needs them, and many a sick home. God’s end in their creation is not only adornment, but ministry, the serving and the satisfying of the needs of other created things. That is why God seeks to call the beauties out of man, because they are needed. Man wants the sight of a splendid faith to make it possible for him to believe. Man wants self-sacrifice, for he will die of his wounds if there is no self-forgetful soul to help him. Man wants love, for his lot is hard, and he will perish of heartbreak and loneliness without its gentle ministry. Man wants purity, that, amid the sensuality and immoralities of the age, he may see it is possible to master the flesh. Man wants hope, for his sky is often starless, and he needs the beacon of another’s hope to guide him through the storm. The world needs these flowers of the soul; needs their fragrance, their colours, their help, their hints, their inspiration. (C. E. Stone.)
The time of the singing of birds is come.--
The vernal concert
I. Learn first the goodness of God. Do you realize the mercy of the Lord in the dominant colour of the spring-time--the green in which is so kindly and lovingly mingled the mercy and the goodness of God? Is our voice silent?
II. This season suggests the wisdom of God. Oh, the wisdom of God in the structure of a bird’s wing and voice l Where is the harp that gave the warble to the lark, the sweet call to the robin, the carol to the canary, the chirp to the grasshopper? He who pairs the birds in the spring-time gave us our companions. He who shows the chaffinch how to take care of her brood will protect our children. He who gathers the down for the pheasant’s breast will give us apparel.
III. The season of the year suggests the wisdom of right building of the home nests. Birds build always in reference to safety. Sometimes the nest is built in rocks, eaves, trees, but always in reference to safety. The only safe place for man to build a nest is the tree of the cross, and the only safe rock is the Rock of Ages.
IV. This season of the year suggests the infinite glories of heaven. If this world, blasted with sin and swept with storms, is still so beautiful, what must be the attraction of the sinless world toward which we travel!
V. This season of the bird-anthem suggests to me the importance of learning how to sing. In a little while there will be no pause in the melody of the song. Whether it be a warble, or a chant, or a carol, or a chirp, or a croak, God will be praised by it. Shall not we, more intelligent appreciators, sing? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart unto the Lord. (T. De Witt Talmage.)