, which are the seeds of this wonderful
flower.

Is not this strange snow-flower an illustration of many Christian
lives? God seems to plant them in the ice and snow; yet they live and
grow up out of the wintry cold into fair and wondrous beauty. We
should say that the loveliest lives of earth would be those that are
reared amid the gentlest, kindliest influences, under summer skies, in
the warm atmosphere of ease and comfort. But the truth is that the
noblest developments of Christian character are grown in the wintry
garden of hardship, struggle, and sorrow.

Trial should not, therefore, be regarded with discouragement, as
something which will stunt and dwarf the life and mar its beauty. It
should be accepted rather, when it comes, as part of God's discipline,
through which he would bring out the noblest and best possibilities of
our character. Perhaps we would be happier for the time if we had
easier, more congenial conditions. Children might be happier without
restraint, without family government, without chastening--just left to
grow up into all wilfulness and waywardness. But there is something
better in life than present happiness. Disciplined character in
manhood, even though it has been gotten through stern and severe
home-training, is better than a childhood and youth of unrestraint,
with a worthless manhood as the outcome. A noble life, bearing God's
image, even at the price of much pain and self-denial, is better than
years of freedom from care and sacrifice with a life unblessed and lost
at the end. "To serve God and love him," says one, "is higher and
better than happiness, though it be with wounded feet and bleeding
hands and heart loaded with sorrow."

"So much we miss
If love is weak; so much we gain
If love is strong. God thinks no pain
Too sharp or lasting to ordain
To teach us this."

It is well that we should understand how to receive trial so as to get
from its hard experience the good it has for us. For one thing, we
should accept it always reverently. Resistance forfeits the blessing
which can be yielded only to the loving, submissive spirit.
Teachableness is the unvarying condition of learning. To rebel against
trial is to miss whatever good it may have brought for us. There are
some who resent all severity and suffering in their lot as unkindness
in God. These grow no better under divine chastening, but instead are
hurt by it. When we accept the c