A Love for nature helps one to understand the many simple and truthful lessons which multiply about the daily pathway, and opens a door through illustration and comparison, much that is of value. As experience enriches individual lives, the simple things of to-day's environment grow deep with meaning, for they bring the quiet assurance that one day, lived in patient obedience to the law of God, is the stepping-stone to another day which must necessarily be blessed and brightened by the faith and endurance of the preceding one.
Two lessons from the garden have recently strengthened and encouraged "patient continuance in well doing." The first has been learned from the recognition that the budding and blossoming of the spring and the fruitage of the summer are the result of a law which is absolutely inevitable in its operation and effect. In mid-winter, the evidence of the senses would establish the conviction that the blossom and beauty of the world had vanished forever. Were reliance placed upon this testimony, there would seem no possibility of approaching warmth and gladness. The frozen earth does not foretell the growth of future seed and blade and bud; the hard and relentless twigs give no promise of tender leaflet and dainty blossom; the hills and meadows hold no hint of the song-birds' ringing melody.—yet we know, beyond question, that the pressure of the oncoming season will transform the world into a garden of song and loveliness.
The first faint stirring of nature swells and softens the rough bark, neutralizing its resistance with such gentle hand that the most fragile blossom pushes its way unharmed into beauty and sunshine. The first warm touch of spring unlocks the rigid earth, and, pressing eagerly forward, undismayed by frost or storm, flings abroad a wealth of verdure and leafage, foliage and fruit. This manifestation of growth and beauty in the universe does not spring from external conditions or develop by reason of outward environment. It is the expression of that divine Mind whose action cannot be arrested or averted, and whose processes are in direct contradiction to the evidence of the senses.
