Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1904-08-20
A Timely Admonition.

Consider the lilies of the field.
Matt. vi, %.
No admonition should be more
needed in our age than that expressed
in the text. In every walk of life the
multitude is running wild after dis
play, wearing itself out trying to keep
pace with Dame Fashion. Mothers
are anxioHS for their social position,
children are taught to emulate their
parents, fathers are troubled about
, the expenditure which it all entails.
How Christ would like to draw such
people out of themselves, out of their
selfishness, out of their worldliness!
To this end He proposes for our con-
sideration 'the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they toll not neither do
they spin; and yet I say unto you
that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed as one of these"
Like a. trumpet blast from a purer
world, with invigorating and refresh
ing music of His words. "Be not
solicitous for your life, what you shall
eat; nor for your body, what you shall
put on" but consider the lilies of
the field" Consider them; admire
their intrinsic beauty, the fresh green
leaves penciled and veined with the
arteries which distribute life through
out; the flower graceful in proportion,
gorgeous in it's color of bright scarlet,
so that all to which the highest art
can aspire is to copy such beauty and
initiate such contrasts.
4 What a satire on our anxious strain
v1hg after effects, our careful thought
Tor food and raiment, that even Solo
mon with all his wisdom and wealth
could not rival a flower of the field!
Consider the lilies of the field" and
treasure up the memories of by-gone
days, when in our childish innocence
we plucked and played with them.
The little flower of the field is still
fresh and pure and fair as ever, but,
alas! we have soiled ourselves with
the impurity of sin; hence our toll
and strife. Why should We strive for
the vain conceits of life? 'If the
grass of the field, which is to-day,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
God doth so clothe, how much more
you, - ye OF little Ialtn.
In all this, however, God does not
mean that we are to be idle, but He
desires us not TO labor only for the
meat that perishes. We are not to
strive after the vanities of life, not
>after mere effects, but to live within
Four circumstances without the pride
of life that leads unto destruction
When Christ says, Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow" He
would have us learn the lesson of
growing likewise in purity and single
ness of purpose before the Lord; that
like the lily we should allow Gods
plan to work itself out in us, that our
conscience should grow tender by
Gods training. that it should be sensi-
tive in worldly matters, sensitive to
know and to feel when self is pre-.
dominant, sensitive to detect the evil
in the small things of life that are
often passed over too rapidly, those
trifling acts of deceit and deception,
those little acted lies that corrode
spiritual life and stop spiritual prog
ress.
WIN SOUL anu DOuy lHuS lTuSJlHS
in a loving Fathers care and grace.
what matters it if fierce storms dash
clown the fragrant flower to the earth,
sOr il an early blow destroys its bloom!
The good seed shall remain and the
ear2l will again burst into buds and
flowers unto everlasting verdure and
fragrance and perfect beauty Is not
this worth the longing after, thinking
about, looking forward to? Does it
not give a greater satisfaction than
the thought of feeding, clothing or
pampering the body; than being $50
licitous for tomorrow forgetting
that tomorrow will be solicitous for
itself?" Let We. then. Seek first the
kingdom of God and His Justice and
all things else shall be added unto
you."-Rev. John J. Donlan
Giving Ourselves.
W. ,o-,or roaIIv oivo OtircplVac aV.