The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-04-25
Ca(naQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, D. D.

flowers Of the springtime furnish the
theme Of this sermon, and from them
the preacher draws a lesson Of divine
encouragement for the human race.
The text is Matt. vi, 49, 'Consider the
lilies of the field.'
Lilies! Consider the lilies Of the
fieldv No one can understand what
that command means unless that per
son has attended an Easter service in
southern California, as I have done,'
said a dear friend to me many years
ago. "Why, in Los Angeles and Pase-
dena they do not grow the spring lilies
as dollhouse plants, as they do In Chlca-
go or New York. They do not look
upon the pistil of Gala lily as though
it were a pencil of solid gold and charge
eight, Or ten, or twelve, or even fifteen
dollars per dozen for their ascension
lilies But there the lilies grow almost
as plentifully as do the thlstles on
Scottish moors or the shamrocks on
Ireland's hills. There all the ministers
have to do to insure Easter decoration
for their churches is to ask the men,
bers Of their congregations to bring in
their lilies the Saturday before Easter
Sunday. And what is the result? The
lilies are brought by the armful and
in carriage loads. The only way l
can describe their abundance Is to COM
pare them to the goldenrods, and the
buebells, and the daisies, and the dan
delions growing in eastern fields in the
summer time. The Easter pulpits are
crowded with them. The organ lofts
are crowded with them. They hang
over the galleries. They entwine them
selves about the church columns. The
Sunday school rooms as we'll as the
main auditoriums are filled with them.
Lilies, lilies, lilies everywhere! Oh,
you ought to go to southern California
to see the churches decorated with
lilies on Easter Sunday! Nowhere is
another sight like it,"
When my friend spoke thus l was
not a skeptic. l did not ridicule her
statements. / had never been in south
ern California at that time, but l had
travelled around the world, and i had
seen the almost limitless wealth of the
wild fora Of the tropics. In Honolulu
we were welcomed by friends who
came down to greet us with thousands
upon thousands of flowers. They en-
twined them in our horses hair and
harness. They covered our carriages
with them. They placed them In gar
lands about our necks. They tossed
them under our feet in the streets.
But Notwithstanding my experience In
| the east I was unable to realize the
| beauty Of an Easter Sunday in south
ern California until I myself had par
| ticipated in such a service. No man
can appreciate the beauty of Los
| Angeles church until he sees there a
| church building literally covered with
pure white lilies. Not red leaf there.
| only the white leaf and the green leaf
side by side. The lilies seemed not to
| be lilies, but great curtains and crosses
| and columns of white. On my first
Easter service the people brought so
| many lilies for decorating purposes
| that the ladies could not use them all.
Great piles Of these white lilies had
| been thrown away as useless. why
| did we not send some Of these lilies to
other churches? That would have been
| foolish waste Of time. All the other
churches had Just as many lilies on
hand as we had.
| The Lily of Chrfst's Time.
| Beautiful and abundant as are the
lilies of southern California, appropri-
ate as they are as symbols Of Christ's
resurrection, I would not limit our
thoughts to them on this Easter morn
ing. It was not of such flowers as these
alone that Christ referred to when he
| babe us consider the lilies. The lily OF
Christ's time was not, as many sup
pose, like the lily of the western world.
It was not the Gala lily, with it's cor
nucopia leaf and long pistn Of gold; not
the lily Of the valley, which looks like
string of bells, ready to ring out the
Easter chimes; not the Bermuda lily
with its ciapper of white, nor the water
lily, lifting its head above the river
Nile to be decapitated and pounded into
-four as the modern husbandma1
makes his wheat Nor was 1t the hulcl
lily, which. DIR. Thomson, the oriental
traveller, describes as of such velvety
softness that the finest silk could not
be softer. The New Testament lily was
a name given comprehensively to al
the Wild flowers of Palestine, as the
name sparrow embraced all the small
birds that winged their way above thu
Judean hills Thus, as my Easter text
Consider the lilies," embraces all wiii
flowers, shall not hem in and circum
scribe my subject by the beautiful
lilies which we find decorating oul
churches this Easter day. In the sym
boil of the growth Of the wild flower
shall try to find some practical gospe
lesson appropriate for this glorieu:
i service of Easter morn.
The wild flowers Of Palestine, In tn
first place, teach us that man, insig
nif1cant though he is, is nurtured an.
protected by divine Fathers care, n
mattel where he may be. They teac]
us that IL God takes the trouble +
plant and develop little wild dowe
4 Gnd Ia certainly willing tn care for ant