April 20

April 20.—“Consider the lilies.”—Matthew 6:20.

Some persons seem to have no relish for the works of nature, and therefore, “seeing many things, they observe not.” Others have a taste for every thing that is fair, and inviting, and enchanting, in the seasons of the year, and the scenery of the earth, and are never weary of walking in the forest, the meadow, and the garden. For they believe and feel that “God made the country, and man made the town.” And all applaud the judgment and sensibility they discover in distinction from those mechanical beings who are only struck with what is factitious and artificial.

Yet even here one thing more is desirable and necessary. It is that while we are pleased we should be instructed; it is that while our senses are charmed our graces should be exercised; it is that wonders should be followed with adoration, and the Christian be added to the man.

It is thus the sacred writers perpetually send us to the animal and vegetable creation for impression and improvement. And thus our Saviour addressed his hearers and said, “Consider the lilies.” There were many other flowers equally worthy of notice with the lilies: but he selected these as specimens, and probably because they were near him and in sight, for he was sitting on the side of a hill, and he mentions not the cultured lilies, but lilies “of the field.”

Consider the lilies as productions of God’s creating skill. All his works praise him; and what distinguishes his works so much from the operations of men is that they will bear examination, and that the more they are examined, the more they will display the wisdom of the author. Nothing can be added to them, nothing can be taken from them—“His work is perfect.” Take an artificial flower; it shows ingenuity and deceives the eye at a distance. But bring it near; observe it; compare it—and where are the life, the growth, the opening bud and blossom, the freshness, the colours, the fragrance, of the living one? We sometimes admire articles of dress. The rich man was clothed “in purple and fine linen.” They that are in king’s houses “wear soft raiment.” How exquisitely wrought are some kinds of human manufacture; and yet when you survey them through the microscope they appear in the rudeness and roughness of sackcloth. But the green and the white of the lily challenge the inspection not only of the eye, but of the glass, and compel you to exclaim, “This is the finger of God.” If those versed in mathematical science remark that they cannot go far without meeting with something infinite, how much more must this be the case with every reflecting mind, at every step he takes among the wonders of creation!

Again. Consider the lilies as objects of his providential care. This was the peculiar aim of our Lord in the admonition. He would free the minds of his disciples from all undue solicitude respecting their temporal subsistence. Therefore, says he, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?” He then refers, in his own inimitable way, to each of the necessaries of life, food, and clothing—“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth