castellated rocks, he is the rock-the everlasting rock. If we delight to trace the mighty river as it makes glad the regions through which it flows, pouring floods of blessing along its course and pathway, he is the river of the water of life. If we stand still to gaze on the goodly trees that grow beside the waters, or that wave their mighty boughs on the mountain side, he is the tree of life-the plant of renown-the apple tree among the trees of the wood. If we walk along the prepared highway, he is the way--the way of life. If we go aside into garden, valley, or field, to see and cull flowers, and inhale their sweet, their delicious fragrance, he is the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. Beauty is his, and from him a sweet perfume spreads itself around, so that all who see him are regaled as with the smell of aloes, myrrh, and cassia. The beauty of the rose, and the gracefulness in which the lily is arrayed, are emblems of the exquisite beauty and gracefulness of Christ. His name is as ointment poured forth; therefore the virgins love him. The rose and the lily have in every age and country been admired and praised. They have been the emblems of beauty, love, modesty, and gracefulness. Among the roses of Palestine it would seem that the rose of Sharon was noted for its beauty-" the excellency of Sharon;" and among lilies the lily of the valleys seems also to have had a glory all its own. One has said of the rose, If a king were set over flowers, it would be the rose that should reign over them, being the ornament of the earth, the splendour of plants, the eye of flowers, the beauty of the field." And of the lilies Jesus himself has said that "even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

The Arabians say of one of their most beautiful flowers, that when Adam was sent out from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken, he took with him that flower and planted it. It is, according to them, the only flower of paradise that blooms in this sin-blighted world. The idea itself is beautiful; Adam did carry out of Eden a flower of most exquisite loveliness,-a rosebud given from above to be planted in this world, so that it might blossom, and shed forth a fragrance unknown in the earthly paradise. Yes, when Adam

went out from Eden, with downcast eye, and sad at heart with bitter recollection of sin, and with trembling hesitating step, he carried in his hand the flower of promise, and as his weeping eye looked to that little flower even he might be made glad. If, as we are told, a traveller in the pathless desert was taught to remember God, and strengthened to go forward in his lonely, dreary journey, by observing in one place the merest rudiments of vegetation-sign to him of the presence and power of God,-surely the sight of that precious rosebud was fitted to beget faith and hope even in our fallen first parents. That rosebud has been transplanted into many lands, and the sight of it has cheered and gladdened the hearts of many, to whom without that little flower the world were indeed a waste howling wilderness. Jesus in the promise was that rosebud. Jesus known in Judah's land was the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valleys. Jesus now in glory is known and seen and loved here on earth as "the Rose and the Lily." My beloved is white and ruddy. He is altogether lovely."

These emblems present before us the beauty of Christ Jesus, more particularly in his lowliness, in his purity, and in his accessibleness. Both the rose and the lily are what we may call meek, lowly flowers, fit emblems of him who is meek and lowly in heart. Meekness and gentleness find their home in the heart of Jesus, and in his life find perfect expression. More beauteous than the children of men, he excels them all in meekness, gentleness, and lowliness of heart. Let pride and frowardness be for ever humbled and restrained in the presence and view of this Rose and this Lily, in the presence of the infinite worth and infinite modesty of Jesus, the Son of God. His voice is not heard on the street amidst the clamouring voices of men. It is the still small voice speaking to the heart, the voice of the beloved. He is gentle towards his people. His gentleness makes them great. "The bruised reed he will not break, the smoking flax he will not quench." Oh, that gentle look of his. What power is there in it to attract and win the heart, and even to awe, subdue, and break it? Ask those who have known and felt that look. Ask Simon Peter, when Jesus looked on him, when he went out to weep bitterly. Ask the

trembling sinner what is in the gentle look of Jesus, and he will tell you that pity and love and beauty, grace and mercy, are in that infinitely benignant look. In disposition, in words, in acts, in sufferings, Jesus is the meek and lowly one. He bore patiently the contradiction of sinners against himself. "The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.” He rendered not evil for evil, railing for railing, but, contrariwise, blessing. He did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Behold this lovely Rose, this lowly beauteous Lily.

The purity of Christ is here represented to us. Not more lowly than pure, not more meek than spotless and holy is this Saviour of men, this Bridegroom and Husband of the Church. Of all natural things flowers-roses and lilies-appear the purest. As they spread out their leaves and petals in the bright light of day they are pure and bathed in purity. Whatever dust may settle upon them enters not into them. Light and purity are their elements; and beauty is their dress, their glory. This Rose of Sharon, this Lily of the valleys is pure within, and is robed in purity and beauty. Jesus is the Holy One of God. We see sometimes flowers, as in our great smoking city, struggling, as it were, to preserve their beauty, their purity. Their beauty seems to languish, and they droop and pine away. They have neither congenial soil nor congenial air. How different is it with the flowers in free and open fields, or in the delightful gardens far away from the dust and smoke of the city. At other times, as in yonder Botanic garden, we find exotics carefully covered in from the cold wintry air and variable weather of this climate. In their proper home they need no such culture, 'no such care. Behold now this Rose, this Lily! Its proper home, its native place is in the light and ineffable purity of heaven. Yet planted here under the care of the Father, here in a world accursed, in the midst of sin and

pollution, where the air is charged with impurity and poison, in scorching drought, in frost and rain, in light and darkness, this Rose, this Lily retains all its purity, sweetness, beauty. Among sinners, not of them, yea, rather separate from sinners was Jesus, the Son of God. True, his visage was more marred than any man, his form more than the sons of men; true, to the eye of unbelief he is without comeliness, without beauty, a root out of a dry ground; but beneath that marred visage and form, beneath that exterior of homely plainness, beneath the dust wherewith he was covered, beneath all this, and visible to the eye of faith, there is the pure and beautiful Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valleys, the undefiled Son of God, in whom the Father taketh constant and ineffable delight.

Again, the accessibleness of Christ is here represented to us. Some flowers grow on boughs so lofty that they cannot be reached by the hand; high in air they bloom, untouched by human hands, and shed their perfume far on the fields of space. But the rose and the lily spread their beauties and their fragrance beside us. They are near to eye and hand and smell. They spring up at our feet. He that wishes may crop them, and wear them. So is it with Christ Jesus the Lord. He is the Son of God; but as the Son of Man he has taken bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. He has come near to us. He is approachable. In some cases we find a purity and holiness so severe and stern that we are awed and frowned away from it. The sternly just man seems to walk along a pathway far removed, having, or supposed to have, in his severe isolation, little, if any, sympathy with the infirmities and sins of other men. Such a man commands respect, but he does not beget love in his fellows. For love is attracted, rather than forced or compelled. But Jesus is accessible; he draws men to him with the cords of love, with the bands of a man. "Christ," says Matthew Henry, "is the Rose of Sharon, denoting that the gospel salvation lies open to all. Whoever will may come and gather the rosebuds of privileges and comforts that grow in the covenant of grace. He is not a rose locked up in a garden; but all may come and receive benefit by him and

comfort in him." His majesty, as the Son of God, commands the adoration and homage of angels before the throne; but his lowliness and gentleness attract to him the weary, trembling, and guilty children of men. He receives sinners, welcomes them, loves them, and invites them to lean upon his breast. To old and young, rich and poor, Jew and Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, Jesus is accessible as the rose or lily that blossoms beside us. Nay, he calls with entreating voice, saying, "Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved." "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

But why does Christ say of himself, "I am the Rose of Sharon, I am the Lily of the valleys?" Why, but to attract towards himself the admiration and love of his church. The rose and the lily beautify the earth, and are designed to illustrate the beauties of the Lord, while they give pleasure to the sense of the beautiful in the mind of man. Man, intelligent and self-conscious, man only among dwellers on earth is capable of admiring these and all other flowers. And what sight on earth more lovely than the sight of fields, meadows, gardens, and hill-slopes, plains and valleys, when in opening summer they throw out the many and varied forms of beauty that had been veiled through the night of winter. The sight tends to becalm the troubled heart, to sweeten the embittered heart, and to shed a delicious fragrance round the soul of the spectator. Yet fairer than all this fair expanse of beauty is the beauty of Christ. And he commends himself to our admiration and love. Let the eye, then, be turned to him, the Rose of Sharon; let us delight in him, the lily of the valleys. Let us pray that his Spirit may unveil and open his glories to our view, and may open our eyes to behold him in his beauty, that we may, ravished with the sight, delight for ever in his love. Let us take this Rose and this Lily, and wear it near our hearts, the token that we belong to Christ, and that he is ours. "Put ye on the Lord Christ." "For," as Matthew Henry says, "he calls himself the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys,' to teach