Consider the Lilies

Consider the Lilies By A. C. A. Dean Hewer Thank you for awaking me, said a lily, among mignonette, to the sunshine. I have slept a long sleep, and I have had a beautiful dream. You remember how dissatisfied I was last year, because I was not a rose? Everyone called the rose queen of flowers. One day I heard a sweet girl saying — "Oh, I do love roses! They are most beautiful!" She did not look at me; yet I loved her more than I could say. I was very sad as I went to sleep. Presently I began to dream, — at first it was only confusion, but as I dreamt on I heard a voice, saying — "Consider the lilies." Ah! dear sunshine, I cannot tell you how sweet and soft that voice was as it said those words. "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these," the gentle voice went on ("Arrayed!" but I was only white.) Still, somehow, as I listened all my sadnes9 fell away, and a great joy filled my heart instead. Then a beautiful picture passed before my sight. In a lovely garden filled with odocs of rare, sweet spices, I saw one walking among beds of flowers; and as he satisfied his hunger, I saw that he gathered lilies until his hands were filled with the white blossoms. On a purple band fastened over one shoulder and tied beneath the arm on the other side, I could see embroidered in scarlet and blue, with gold bells along the edges, these words : "I am the lily of the valleys." The colors were royal to show who he was, I suppose; for he, himself, had praised the simple clothing of the lilies of the field. As he passed by I saw his eyes were lit with a light too di- vine for any one to gaze upon. I heard his voice again, as he spoke to one who walked at his side: "And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the right- eousness of saints." He gave the snow-white lilies he held in his hands, to her, and said in accents tenderer and sweeter far than any I had ever heard : "Consider the lilies." Then I saw they were no longer flowers; but the pure, white souls of saints. Sunshine! dear, warm sunshine, do you wonder that I said

CONSIDER THE LILIES. 1119 my dream was beautiful, and that I say, I am very glad I am a lily? The roses are lovely indeed, but I am content. The sun shone under the bent boughs of the old apple tree to show that it had listened to what the lily said, and then smiled serenely over all the garden in a flood of springtime love. The brown bees hummed among the flowers in drowsy, sweet content; and the mignonette near the lilies perfumed all the air with its fragrant breath. Then I prayed that I, too, might be a lily, so that he could gather me from among the scents and spices, when he walked at evening in his garden, which is also the garden of God. Hobart, Tasmania Lop-Sided Appropriations By Will H. Brown Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, formerly Government Chemist, de- serves the thanks of all thoughtful and loyal citizens for these words: "If the same agricultural care were given to food crops that tobacco demands, the yield per acre of foodstuffs in this country would be three times as large as it is today." The Government has spent tens of thousands of dollars in experiments iri tobacco culture, and also for instruction along this line in some of the great Universities — money far worse than wasted. So much official attention has been given to to- bacco that many farmers have resorted to tobacco raising as their principal crop. Discussing the injury which has resulted from this, L. R. Keel, in the Southern Agrculturist says: "The farm rotation must be complete without it : there must be plenty of other good things to do with the land besides putting it into tobacco, and the farm must be able to run and meet its obliga- tions without the income from tobacco. The tobacco money must not be a necessity to pay our taxes, fertilizer bill, feed and food bills and essential labor." The United States Government appropriated $280,000, in 1920, for the National Children's Bureau, and in 1919 appro- priated $446,000 for the eradication of hog cholera. If cholera or any other disease injured one-tenth as many hogs or other four-footed creatures as tobacco is injuring boys and men, there would be such an uprising of farmers that the Government would be compelled to spend millions, if necessary, to check the ravages of the disease. It is high time that sane Americans were putting a greater valuation upon our boys and men than upon hogs. Oakland, Calif.