The Lord is a lover of the beautiful, for He has made the lofty trees, the spears of grass, the beautiful shrubs, the delicate flowers, and all these have a softening, subduing influence upon the beholder, and, as their senses are charmed, they are involuntarily drawn from nature to nature’s God. If the Lord is mindful of us in giving us this expression of His love in the variety of beautiful flowers growing in their natural loveliness, shall we not be grateful to Him? Shall we not do just as Jesus told us to do, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28, 29). Here the Lord contrasts the artificial with the natural.... (TDG 331.4) MC VC