IN a dry dyke, by a green hedge-side, a tall and stately thistle threw its prickly leaves, abroad, proud of its armed stem and party-colored coronet; and just beyond his shadow a wild daisy grew, but so low down among the grass and herbage of the hedge-bottom, that little more beside its crimson-tipped and golden florets could be seen peeping out to get a glimpse of the fading light of an autumn day. The birds were caroling their evening song, and the dews were beginning to fall. The day had been so very hot and sultry that many a wild flower hung its head, waiting till the rising mist should condense and refresh its weary petals. Even the old thistle felt the power of the heat, and, though he would rather break than bend, his head, usually so erect, drooped a little in spite of himself.
The Daisy alone looked brightly up, all sparing in the clew that had already settled on her little rounded leaves and tiny stem, and altogether she seemed happier than her neighbors. And well she might, for, nestling there, she had not felt the heat as they had, and was first to get the dew. Many of them looked worn and faded, while some, indeed, had lost their blossoms altogether but hers were fresh and blooming, for she had died and risen again since first in early springtime she had decked that grassy dyke; and ever since then the sole occupation of the little daisy seemed to be to bask in the light and watch the sun. From the moment that the twitter of the birds announced his rising, until he set, her gaze was ever on him, and when at last he sank in the western horizon, she closed her golden eye and folded her florets to rest. As to the Thistle, he had stood there all through the spring and summer time, growing only more firmly rooted in the earth, more rough and thorny, more stern and proud (Job 24:1313They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. (Job 24:13)), often soiled with summer dust and rustling harshly in the summer wind as though wrestling with it (Isa. 45:99Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? (Isaiah 45:9)); but the breeze had never bent his head, though it had sometimes disarranged his thorny panoply and broken some of his leaves. The little daisy, half hidden in the herbage, looked by contrast so very small and lowly that he had never deigned to know that she was there; but the extreme heat of the day that was now closing in had for the moment rather humbled him. At all events, on this autumn evening his head was not quite so erect as it was wont to be, and perhaps it was owing to this that he happened to catch sight of the daisy, gazing, as usual, at the setting sun as he gilded the west with his golden rays and turned the diamond dewdrops on her leaves into rainbow colors.
“You seem to think that an object worth looking at,” sneered the Thistle; and there was a harsh rustle in his husky voice, as the evening wind stirred his dry prickly leaves, that was not at all pleasant. The daisy at first did not hear him, so intent was she in looking at the setting sun; but the remark being repeated in a louder tone, she quietly replied, “He is my object” (Phil. 1:2121For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)).
“Well, I should think you must know him by this time?” grumbled the Thistle.
“I am glad to say I do,” replied the Daisy; and wish to know him more” (Phil. 3:8-108Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (Philippians 3:8‑10)). “For my own part,” rustled the Thistle, “I am not sorry to be rid of him” (John 7:77The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. (John 7:7)).
The Thistle had an idea that his present drooping and exhausted condition was owing to him (Job 34:26, 2726He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others; 27Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways: (Job 34:26‑27)), but he did not say so, for he was too proud to own that anything was too much for his strength and armed resistance; so he lifted his head a little higher as the dews began to fall more copiously, and said nothing.
“Where should we be without the light and heat his rays afford?” continued the Daisy. “How should we look in perpetual cold and darkness? Yellow, sickly, ‘without form, and void’ of all beauty and color! Indeed, I question whether we should. be alive at all” (Gen. 1:1, 21In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1‑2); John 1-3).
“Pooh! Pooh!” cried the Thistle; “those are your opinions, but not mine. Such notions may suit poor groveling things like you, but I prefer to depend upon myself. My own industry has gotten me the growth and strength I have” (Isa. 10:1313For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: (Isaiah 10:13)); and, refreshed by the evening dews, his prickly leaves expanded, his stem grew stiffer, and he drew himself up more proudly than before.
“And yet,” said the Daisy, gently, “the dews, you drink, the food you feed upon, are owing to him; his power gave you birth and has sustained you ever since (Col. 1:1616For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1:16)), and to his rays you are indebted for the colors that deck your coronet.”
“You are insolent!” cried the angry Thistle, bristling in every leaf, and looking as if he would willingly impale the Daisy on his thorns. “But that you are beneath contempt, I would teach you to be more sparing of your words. You don’t owe much, I fancy, to the rays you talk so much about,” he added, in a taunting tone. “I should think they seldom reach you groveling there, and hardly able to lift your head above the dirt. The sun’s light and heat have not done you much good. I wonder you seem so fond of him, considering the little benefit you appear to have received. If you were tall and majestic, armed and ornamented as I am, you might have something to show in favor of your “object” as you call him; but as it is, the less you say the better;” and as the Thistle looked on the lowly Daisy, whose tiny head was hardly to be seen in the fading light above the dewy grass, he laughed outright.
Like the Daisy in the fable, the believer in Christ has died and risen again (Rom. 6; Eph. 2); and, as the Daisy takes its name from its well-known habit of keeping its floral head ever turned towards the sun from morn till night, so should the believer seek to live in ceaseless communion with Him who loved him and gave Himself for him (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)). Like the Daisy, too, he may be lowly and despised, for “it doth not yet appear what we shall be” — it is not yet manifested; but it will be presently, when He shall appear, who is our life. Then we shall be like Him, and shall appear with Him in glory. In, the meantime, our place is that which Mary chose (Luke 10:3939And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. (Luke 10:39)) and John enjoyed (John 13:2323Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. (John 13:23)).
Like the Thistle, “the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” All his ways are marked by this, for “God is not in all his thoughts” (Job 21:6-186Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. 7Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? 8Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. 9Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. 10Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. 11They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. 12They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. 13They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. 14Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? 16Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 17How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger. 18They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. (Job 21:6‑18); Luke 12:16, 16:19). But “God shall judge the wicked,” and not the openly wicked only, but all who are not in Christ. “They that are in the flesh” (they that have not died and risen again in Christ) “cannot please God.” Reader, to which class do you belong? Have you come to Christ? If not, you are yet “in the flesh,” and “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” J. L. K