The Theology of Creation (IV)
Consider the lilies. — Matt. vi. 28.
IiJ the last discourse we considered the heavens; now we are to consider the lilies. There must be a deep significance in every subject which Jesus Christ pointed out for human meditation. We go into flowery places at His command; surely then He will give us the key and show us how to unlock holy meanings. More than any teacher Jesus called attention to things close at hand and to things likely to be neglected. He found His Father everywhere: He came to reveal the Father; no wonder then, that He paused at unexpected places and said, Lo! God is here’’ Moses stopped at a burning bush; — Jesus made every bush burn! David saw the Mighty One in the heavens, the moon, and the stars — Jesus saw the same Mighty One in the fluttering bird and the springing grass. Of every grass-blade every bird, every insect, every flower, Jesus said in eflfect — “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones,”
I. Consider the lilies — and identify little things WITH Gods CARE. Can you make a lily? You cannot make a sun, can you make one drop of dew? God writes minutely as well as largely. He writes the great letters of the stars: He writes also the small letters of the violets and daisies. The archangel is His servant, so is the butterfly.
II. Consider the lilies — and see the superioeity of
THE NATURAL OVER THE ARTIFICIAL. Let the glorious
dress of the king represent the artificial. Solomon in all his glory, etc. God makes the original, man makes the cojpy. God makes the real, man makes the seeming. Art is a struggle after nature. For all originality, — mental and moral, as well as physical, — we must go to the Father. The virtues find their original in God.
III. Consider the lilies — and look on things beneath, AS well as on things above. Look for God when thou lookest at the dust. The dust is alive with the life of God. He is in every tree-root even in the cold winter. He is in the water trickling in the unbored rock. God is not a God afar off; He breathes on thee night and day. Thou art not clever enough to read the great starSj yet mayest thou spell what is written at thy feet. The star-God is the flower-God. These flowers might be the scattered fragments of His stars: gather the fragments that nothing be lost!
IV. Consider the lilies — and have faith in toue FATHER. If He so clotho the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith? ^’’ Think of God clothing the grass, and forgetting the child! It is impossible. Let a lily detach itself from its root, and it must perish. So with man. Let him cut himself off from God, and he will become as a withered and driven leaf. The rod falls where the law is neglected. God does not engage to take care of lilies which have been plucked. Man has taken them into his own hands, let him renew their youth if he can!
Application: — Natural theology should lead to Sjpiritiial religion, and can do so only under the guidance and in the spirit of Jesus Christ.