When the vessel which holds the seed becomes harder and stronger, the leaves of the flower fall away to the ground; for they are of no farther use; as the infant is no longer swaddled when it is able to go alone.

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. Of what use are the painted leaves of a flower?

A. They clothe the young seeds, that the cold may not hurt them..

Q. When do the leaves of the flower fall away?

A. When the seed or fruit hath no farther need of them.

THE TEXT.

Mat. vi. 28. Consider the lilies how they grow.

LESSON IX.

THE LIVES OF A SEED.

BUT most wonderful is the progress of the seed from its first to its second life; for it hath two lives. During its first life, it grows and ripens in the plant which bears it, and then falls away to

the

the earth out of which it grew.

But

it hath a second life after its resurrection from the earth; from whence it springs up with a life of its own, and with a new body. From every seed that groweth a plant of the same kind with that which bore the seed; God giveth to every seed its own body.

I also am taught by the word of God, to expect two lives. The one is my present earthly life, which I have of my parents; the other is the life which I shall have after I have been buried. For as the seed is not quickened except it die, so cannot I obtain eternal life but by the way of death.

The grave is as the furrow of the field, in which the seed is sown; and as the sunshine of the spring raiseth the seed to life, so shall the Sun of righteousness return, to raise all those who are buried in the earth. The time is coming, when they that are in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth, as Lazarus came forth from the tomb, when Jesus called him.

The good seed of wheat and other grain, is gathered for use, and laid up in the barn, as the righteous, when they

Eph. v. 14. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Matt. xiii. 30. Gather the wheat into my barn.

2 Kings xxii. 20. 1 will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace.

Is. xli. 16. The wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.

LESSON X.

WATER AND THE SPIRIT.

WHEN I wash my hands with water to make them clean, I should pray to God that he would be pleased to make me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. The foulness of my hands is easily washed away, but I can. not wash the inward stain of sin from my soul, and give myself a clean heart. This is a second birth, and is no more in my own power than my first birth was. God, who willeth that all sinners should be saved, sent out his Apostles to baptize all nations, with water and the Holy

Ghost,

Ghost, without which they cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In the temple of Solomon, there was a large bason, called a sea; it was made of brass, to hold water for the washing of those who came to worship. Under it there were the figures of twelve oxen; three of them looking each way, toward the four quarters of the heavens; to shew that baptism should be carried out into all the world, by the twelve ministers of Jesus Christ. They have brought it even unto me, and I have been washed in baptism, that I may be saved. But I may defile myself and lose the benefit of it; as the swine when it is washed, returns again to its wallowing in the mire. As the swine delighteth to be unclean, so do some take pleasure in a dirty conscience. Such are not the better, but the worse for their baptism: they forfeit the wedding garment. The sheep and the lamb, when they are washed, keep themselves pure. So must I, if I wish to continue in the fold with the sheep of Christ; who has promised to be my shepherd, to feed me in a green pasture, and to maké me he down beside the waters of comfort. He will appear again to separate

E

the

the sheep from the goats, in the day of judgment; when, I trust, of his mercy, he will set me on his right hand, and make me happy for ever in his own kingdom.

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. What doth the water of baptism wash away?

A. The stain of sin.

Q. But water cannot do this of itself? A. No, it is an outward and visible sign of the spirit of God.

Q. What did that brazen sea signify, which contained water for the purification of those who washed in the Temple?

A. It shewed that baptism should be carried out from Judea to the four quar ters of the world, that all nations might be baptized.

Q. What is the duty of those whom God hath washed from sin?

A. To keep themselves pure and unspotted.

Q. What would the swine do if it were washed?

A. It would turn again to wallow in the mire.

THE