(Extract.)

Marvelous is the mute, steadfast patience of vegetable life. It is through this that all the processes of life are carried on so perfectly in the plant. There is no restlessness, no self-will, no weariness, or self-conscious waywardness, to frustrate these processes. The most complete harmony is discoverable through all its parts, and woven in the very fabric of its nature. The buds appear in their proper order and place, the leaves have a fixed arrangement, the flowers blossom at determinate points. Not a leaf varies from its position, or a blossom from its order, any more than a star from its orbit. By its patient abiding in the vine, the branch receives without interruption the vital forces and juices that are needful to develop its growth and produce fruitfulness. Through storm and sunshine, through darkness and light, through winter and summer, there is nothing to hinder the intercommunion of vital substances and impulses between the branch and the vine. It is this patience that we are required to imitate, this faithfulness that we are to cherish. What is, in the plant, a -.natter of necessity-an unconscious result of unconscious physical powers-should be, in the believer, the blessed result of a living faith and a devoted love.