art the
significance of Easter to those who are too young to be acquainted
with death and the hope of a resurrection. Many teachers find it best
to confine the thought to the phenomena of nature as revealed in plant
life and to make such applications to the spiritual as conditions seem
to permit. Easter is the most precious day of the year, for without it
there would be no Christmas, because Christmas is celebrated only as
the birthday of Him who arose from the dead. Without it, the world
would be in the darkness of despair and disappointment which possessed
the disciples as they turned from the cross to resume their former
occupations or to hide themselves from the taunts of their
tormentors. Hence, we must make the best possible use of it. This
illustration possesses no new thought; in fact, there is nothing new
except as we put into it the newness of our own enthusiasm and
earnestness.

~~The Talk.~~

"On this beautiful Easter morning I want to tell you of a lady who has
done a good deal to help us enjoy this day. But for her, I believe, we
would not have had any of these lovely lilies which represent the
purity of the life of the risen Savior. I do not know the name of this
lady. But I do know that one day she stepped from a steamer at a wharf
in her home city of Philadelphia, and that she had been on a visit to
the Bermuda Islands, which are six hundred miles out in the Atlantic
Ocean. Perhaps you know that the Bermuda Islands are noted as the
place where they raise very large onions, which are imported to the
United States. An onion, you know, is a bulb. Well, this lady carried
with her two bulbs. They weren't Bermuda onions, either, as they were
too small for that. She took these two bulbs to a friend who was a
florist and asked him to plant them. [Draw the bulb in black. Fig. 31.]
This was in the year 1875. The bulbs soon sent up strong green shoots
and after a while blossomed as beautifully in their strange
surroundings as they would have done in their former home. [Complete
the drawing of the lily stalk in green; also the lilies, using fine
black lines as outlines.] To us these beautiful flowers seem like old
friends, because we have known them so long, but these Easter lilies,
blossoming in Philadelphia, were the first to spread their sweet
perfume in this country.

[Illustration: Fig. 31]

"Before that time, there was a lily known as the Easter lily, but
whose right name is the lilium candidum or Mad