p. 10 | Lilies by Arthur Fox

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 16, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 11.

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Lilies

By Arthur Fox

NATURE LESSONS. NO. 3.

Lilies.

BY ARTHUR FOX, (Continued.)

CONSIDER the lilies, and see how God makes His beauty.

What a complicated process when man manufactures his beautiful things. The ax must cut down; the tree must be rent; the plane must smooth; the turning-lathe and chisel must be at work. Dust fills the air, chips and turnings litter the ground. There is the din of the hammer and the heat of the fire. I watched one making his flowers of glass—here the fierce furnace, heated to its utmost; then the lump of glass thrust in, twisted and turned; then the pinchers seizing it and pulling it and pushing it; and then the thing plunged into the fire again and again.

Perhaps some folks think that is how God makes us beautiful. Let us consider the lilies, how they grow, and see. Furnace and heat, hacking and hewing, rending and tearing—hammer and pinchers—where are they?

Tell us, lily, how did He make you beautiful?

"O, He blew me about with His south wind, and sent His great sun to shine on me, and refreshed me with the showers, and the dew came noiselessly while I slept. Day after day He cared for me, and I came to this."

Do not be afraid of the process of God in beautifying us. He does not burn and beat and break that we may be adorned; but He breathes His Holy Spirit upon us and shines upon us with His favor and shapes us by His grace, and so He makes us beautiful.

Now, again, let us consider the lilies, how they grow, and see how heaven and earth do meet and blend. The dark root lay in the ground, down amongst the clods of the earth, and on the stick that marked the spot was thrust a label with a name grand enough to turn the head of any simple flower.

And the lily said: "What have I to do in this dirty earth? Faugh! I can not bear to touch it. I, who am of the Lilia splendiosa—to be a prisoner here like this. I ought to be up in the heavens, lifting my head proudly and unfolding all my glory to the sun." And it sulked and muttered and refused to thrust out the root—and it missed heaven because it neglected earth.

Take care how you grumble at your circumstances—so many difficulties, so many hindrances, to cry out against. To do our duty on earth is the only way of getting to heaven.

But think of another flower that should say: "O, it is all a mistake to call me a lily. Lily indeed! I am just a poor, dirty brown thing, and haven't any beauty in me—without any stem, without any leaf, without any flower. It is no use of my dreaming of heaven, and of my coming to be anything."

And it thrust its roots into the earth, but it forgot to push its stem up into heaven. The heavenly-minded man, who neglects his duty in the world, is as unlovely to God as he is ugly to men.

And the man who is so absorbed in earth that he forgets heaven, misses the very beauty and blessedness of life. God gives to every man enough of

earth to live in and enough of heaven to grow into. This much He has pledged to His children everywhere.

But, lastly, the message of the lilies ends in this much more. Christ says, "I am the Lily of the valley." And we are made in the image and likeness of God. Let us lift our eyes from the lily of the field to Him who holds it in His hand. For the lily God hath given the sunshine and shower, the ordered seasons and refreshing dew; but for us He hath sent the blessed Lord Himself, the well-beloved. Think of Him going on to darkness and agony of the cross—giving Himself for us that He might present us to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. If the beauty of the lily be the outcome of sunshine and shower, what finished beauty, what perfect blessedness, is that which shall satisfy Him who hath loved us and given Himself for us!

"When from the dust of earth I rise, To claim my mansion in the skies, My beauty this—my glorious dress— Jesus the Lord our righteousness."

St. Helena, Cal.