The Beautiful.


DEAR  CHILDREN: I think we should    

cultivate a  taste for the beautiful,  especially 

the beautiful in nature.  I would not despise art, 

for it  is  often  pretty,  sometimes  beautiful. 

But it  is  in  nature we find the original, the 

living, the truly beautiful.  Art can be only 

an imitator.

It  is  of flowers  I  wish  to speak  now,    

although there  are  many very beautiful things 

in nature, towering up to heaven in sublimity 

and  grandeur.  All  can  and should  cultivate 

flowers.  Flowers  are  always  good,  always 

smiling,  always  appropriate.  In  scenes  of 

festivity they are a living charm and joy;  in 

places  of sadness they add a heavenly 

solemnity. 

They smile with those that smile, and 

weep  with  those  that weep.  Flowers may 

always  be  given  as  a  token  of  love  and 

friendship.  They  are  never  out  of  place; 

they are used on the "bridal day, the festival, 

the tomb."

I love everybody that loves flowers.  Give 

me  a  bouquet  of roses,  geraniums,  and   

verbenas,  and in  my happiness I will  not forget 

the giver.  Flowers are the poetry of plants; 

the sunshine  of vegetation;  the footprints  of 

angels.  God makes the plants grow, blossom, 

and smile  on  us;  and shall we  not thank him 

for them?  Flowers speak to me of innocence, 

purity, Heaven, and  God.  That home must 

be dreary,  and that heart cheerless,  that has 

no  "pet" flowers.  Children, make your 

flower beds.  It is healthy for the body and 

mind to  work  among  flowers;  besides,  it 

softens the  heart;  it  makes one  better. 

When Eden shall be restored, it will  be  a 

flowery land. "The desert shall rejoice and 

blossom as the rose."  Isaiah 35:1.  Give your 

pastor flowers, if you  want to make him feel 

that you love  him. 



 World's  Crisis.