16 us see what we can learn from this flower, for I think all God's gifts must each one be intended to teach us something. First let us remember, that as the Wall-flower is said to belong to a 'large and cheerful family," we are members of a "large" family. Let us try too to be cheerful, bright, and happy, in "that state of life" in which we are placed by our Father in Heaven; so shall we ornament the rooms and houses in which we live, and be."beacons" of light to all around. Then again, though it is our Father's will that we should live in this country for a time, we are not natives of this world, for walking in the Light of His Love we seek a better country. We could flourish on a wall if such were His will for us, but to most has He given the shelter we find within four walls, though in some of the streets and alleys in our large cities men and women and little children live on from day to day outside the walls, with no earthly friend to help and cheer them. Again, as there are many kinds of Wall-flowers, so are there among us many different characters and tempers. If we ask for grace and try to use it, we may, each one, whether we be called pleasant or agreeable or not," adorn" the room in which we B live as much as any flower, and by our perfume of kindness and gentleness to one another win the admiration and approval of the Heavenly Gardener. Owing to the determination with which the Wall-flower clings to the crevices and walls of old ruins, it has been made the emblem of Friendship in Adversity. Be content with such things as ye have." The Poppies. GOD PROVIDETH FOR THE MORROW. "Lo, the poppies of the field, How their leaves instruction yield! Mortal, flee from doubt and sorrow: Say, with richer crimson glows Mortal, flee from doubt and sorrow: One there lives Whose guardian eye The Poppy. QUICKLY PASSING PLEASURE. "For pleasures are like poppies spread, HIS beautiful, though short-lived flower, is THE one which ornaments the garden during the summer months, and under cultivation it assumes a variety of colours, some few being of exceeding beauty. In its wild state we seem to know it best as the single scarlet Poppy-how charmingly it mingles with the ripening corn, side by side with the pretty blue corn-flower! An artist may be delighted with the brilliant colouring of this lovely flower, though the farmer is not gratified when there are many Poppies in his corn-fields, as their appearance is said to denote bad farming, and to be a sign that the land has become impoverished and poor, and that it will be needful for him to spend his hardly earned savings in buying expensive chemical compositions to enrich the exhausted soil, so that it may in the future repay what he has expended it in time, money, and labour, by rewarding upon him with a plentiful harvest. The Arabs justly term this plant "the father of sleep." From the earliest times it has been known as a powerful narcotic agent, acting on the brain and producing a tendency to sleep; its medicinal properties are numerous and valuable; to no other agent does man owe so deep a debt for the alleviation of his pain and sorrow in disease, as to this plant. In country districts in England a Poppy pillow" (a pillow-case filled with the dried seed-vessels of the Poppy) is highly valued, and in great request, to induce sleep or allay pain, when other means have failed to give "Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." The Prince of Wales was dangerously ill, many years ago, from a severe attack of typhoid fever that was conquered at last by the skill of the doctors and by careful nursing; but the fever had left him so weak and languid from pain and continued want of sleep, and the anxiety of the English people about him was so great that hundreds of them sent receipts and remedies of various kinds to his house in hopes that he might be cured of his sleeplessness. Amongst them was a Poppy-pillow; the farmer sent with it a letter, to say that if the doctors |