members of that Virgin Church of whom He saith, "As the Lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters." Ask it for me, dear children, as I do for you; for, oh, it is one thing to admire the holy beauty of the Lilies that bloom in the garden of the Lord, and it is another to seek and bear that cleansing of our own heart and way by which alone we can become like them; and while in the example of the virgin followers of the Lamb, as in the whiteness of the lily, we learn what should be the purity of the baptized children of God, let the crimson beauty of the rose remind us of that precious Blood in which alone we can wash our robes, and make them white. "I do love white Lily-flowers best of all flowers," said a very little girl, as she sat upon my lap. “But I don't! I love the Rose best," said an older sister, who was standing by her side. And as I listened to the childish dispute, it struck me how the one ought never to be separated in our thoughts from the other; even as our Blessed Lord has joined them together, where He says, as of Himself, "I am the Lily of the valley, and the Rose of Sharon ;" and it brought to my mind the dream of an orphan child, as it was told me by her aunt some years ago. And though it is not in general well for us to talk of dreams, for we are not left to be taught in this way, and I would rather lead you to the teachers whom God has given us in the family and in the Church, the parents and the priests whom we can see and hear; yet I will venture to tell you in my own words, and as correctly as my memory will allow, the dream alluded to, because it is so like a picture of what I have been seeking to impress upon you. She saw in her sleep a golden vase before her, filled with the sweetest, clearest oil, and in it was a single flower-it was a Lily, larger and lovelier than any she had ever seen before; and as the cuplike flower floated on the top of the oil which filled the golden vessel to the brim, the child wondered in herself at its soft and radiant whiteness, and how it should preserve its bloom and freshness in the oil, with which, instead of water, the vase was filled. An unseen attendant told her that the Lily she beheld, was a figure of the Church, and that the oil signified the Holy Ghost, the life of the Church; and as she gazed upon it more intently, she noticed how, as it seemed to suck up into itself the oil, its size and beauty increased, and still it found room, increasing room, to expand in the golden vessel, and still the pure sweet oil upbore it to the brim, and the place was filled with fragrancy and with the brightness of its white and glistering leaves. And while she marvelled at this, and how it was that the oil did not waste, she saw dimly, as in its own rich shadow, another flower beside the vase, of more ceeding beauty, and more surpassing sweetness. It was a Rose; and its crimson colour reminded the child of that precious Blood with which we were redeemed; and it bent towards the Lily, and in its stalk there was a wound, as though it had been cut, and from this wound the fragrant oil ex distilled softly and silently into the golden vase ; and the child was made to understand how all the purity, and loveliness, and sweetness of the Lily were derived from this wondrous Flower, the Rose of Sharon. And she awoke, and found it was a dream yet such a dream it seemed to me, as holy Angels might bring before their sleeping charge, and which one would rather love to hide in one's heart than to talk of. Nor was the child in any haste to tell it; but, as I understood, it was only drawn from her by the questions of her aunt, who was struck by the sweet and thoughtful expression of her countenance the morning after. And I have told it here, not that it may make you think much about dreams, or wish for them, or talk about them, (for dreams are mostly very foolish things, and the less we think or talk about them the better,) but only that it may help you to link the Lily and the Rose with the thought of the Church and of our Lord; and to remember how all the whiteness of the Lily cometh of the Blood, and how the first writing upon us of that Holy Name, which shall one day shine so brightly upon the foreheads of that virgin company, who shall stand with the Lamb on the mount Sion, was by the finger of God's priest, when in holy baptism the sign of the Cross was traced upon each infant brow. And shall we grudge if it be through sorrow and through suffering, even unto blood, that we are made meet to have the glory of that sign sealed upon us? Nay, dear children, but, by God's grace, we will rather learn of an apostle to glory in nothing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world. Amen. O sanctifying sign In holy baptism trac'd Upon our infant brow, e'er earthly care Seems with that touch to thrill Strengthens to bow beneath the chastening rod, Earth's dearest joys we love, Beneath whose fostering shade the Lily grows, Oh, by the Holy Rood, Where John and Mary stood, To suffer and adore, Beside the martyrs' King may we be found, X |