Flowering Piety
“The beauty of holiness.” — Psaum xcvi. 9.
HERE is a very significant passage from one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s letters: ‘‘ ‘ John, do you see that bed of Resignation!’ ‘It’s doing bravely, sir.’ ‘ John, I will not have it in my garden; it flatters not the eye, and comforts not the stomach; root it out.’ ‘ Sir, I ha’e seen o’ them that rase as high as nettles!’ ‘What then? Were they as tall as Alps, if still unsavoury and bleak, what matters? Out with it then and in its place put a bush of Flowering Piety — but see it be the flowering sort!’”
Yes, it is the flowers that offer the best witness to our religion. Flowerless virtue is never winsome, and yet how much of our piety never comes to the flower! It may be. dutiful, but it stops short of being beautiful. The strength does not culminate in graces, but remains rough and unrefined. Our God asks for the perfected offering, He looks for the finishing touch upon our work in order that we may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. He calls us to worship Him in the beauty of holiness.
Our righteousness must be of the flowering sort, it must express itself in goodness. Righteousness which does not effloresce in goodness is a very bleak and dingy thing. “‘Scarcely for a righteous man will one die!’ Mr. Casaubon, in ‘‘ Middlemarch,”’ was a scrupulously righteous man, but no fragrant and exquisite goodnesses were to be found upon his tree. It had all the gloominess of the dark and sullen yew. Little children would shrink from such a shade. There were no flowers to gather. Strength but not beauty was in his sanctuary.
Our truth must be of the flowering sort, and it must bloom in the ministries of love. “* Speaking this truth in love.” Truth can be exhibited in such a way as to do the work of untruth. That is to say, true matter can be nullified by an untrue manner. Even the truth of the Gospel can be made unattractive by the spirit in which it is proclaimed. Said a friend to me after a certain service, “Did you ever hear the love of Christ preached so bitterly?’’ The truth was maimed by its witness.
Our patience must be of the flowering sort, and must bloom in cheerfulness. Even patience can be grim and unlovely. But when it flowers there is no more beautiful plant in God’s garden. It wins the wondering admiration of everybody, and is a powerful witness of the grace and love of God,