What wonderful thing it was that went on underground so quietly, while you
were asleep or at play, neither you nor I can tell; and this dead-like seed
coming to life and springing up into beauty is only one of the many things
which go on in this world all around us, seen and known only by God, who
says of the seed of His word, sown by His servants--not in the ground, but
in the hearts of people--that it is He who "giveth the increase."
We speak of vegetable life as well as of animal life, for I am sure you
have not forgotten that plants breathe through their leaves--they drink in
water by their roots, and some plants even show that they are sensitive to
touch by shrinking if anything comes in contact with them; but how a daisy,
with its hardy little stem and its fresh green leaves and "crimson-tipped"
flower, comes to grow out of the earth, we do not know at all.
The beautiful leaves, fringed with downy hairs, are the lungs of the
plants; and just as the blood runs through the veins at the back of your
hand, the sap: which is the life-blood of the plant, runs through some fine
veins which you see at the back of the leaf. If this sap were to cease
flowing up the stem, the leaves and flowers would soon droop and die.
[Illustration: GREEN PASTURES.]
Look at the sheep, cropping the grass so busily that they hardly lift their
heads from the ground. Every time they breathe, they give out air which
feeds all the green things around them; and as the green things breathe
this air, by the very act they purify it, and give it back to the sheep,
fit for them to inhale again.
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