" He
had even written these words upon the wall of his cell, "All things come by
chance."
But it was not by chance that he was allowed to see something of the work
of God in one little flower. As day by day he watched the leaves grow, the
buds unfold, and then the blossoms open in all their fragrance, he knew
that God alone could work the miracle of life and growth which was going on
before his eyes. His proud, scornful heart was bowed in the presence of a
power at which he could but wonder, for it was past all his understanding,
and he humbly owned that God had taught him by his pet plant lessons which
the wisest men in the world could not have taught.
It was by means of the flower, too, that at last the prison doors were
opened, and a message came to tell him that Napoleon had given him leave to
go home.
It would take too long to tell this part of the story, but you will not be
surprised to hear that, like the African traveller, he could not bear to
part with his cherished flower. He carefully dug it out from between the
stones, carried it home with him, and never forgot the simple but great
lesson which he had learned while in prison.
We have been able to say very little about the "green earth," and the
wonders of the work of God on the THIRD DAY of Creation, but perhaps you
will understand something of what a student of nature meant when he wrote,
"The earth may be looked at as a vast seed-plot of life, seen from the
point of view of the Great Sower.
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