ing star of our lives, then we have failed in one very distinct
duty of Christian people--namely, to grow more like a lily, and to be
graceful in the lowest sense of that word, as well as _grace full_ in
the highest sense of it. We shall not be so in the lower, unless we are
so in the higher. It may be a very modest kind of beauty, very humble,
and not at all like the flaring reds and yellows of the gorgeous flowers
that the world admires. These are often like a great sunflower, with a
disc as big as a cheese. But the Christian beauty will be modest and
unobtrusive and shy, like the violet half buried in the hedge-bank, and
unnoticed by careless eyes, accustomed to see beauty only in gaudy,
flaring blooms. But unless you, as a Christian, are in your character
arrayed in the "beauty of holiness," and the holiness of beauty, you are
not quite the Christian that Jesus Christ wants you to be; setting forth
all the gracious and sweet and refining influences of the Gospel in your
daily life and conduct. That is the second lesson of our text.

III. The third is, that a God-bedewed soul that has been made fair and
pure by communion with God, ought also to be strong.

He "shall cast forth his roots like Lebanon." Now I take it that simile
does not refer to the roots of that giant range that slope away down
under the depths of the Mediterranean. That is a beautiful emblem, but
it is not in line with the other images in the context. As these are all
dependent on the promise of the dew, and represent different phases of
the results of its fulfilment, it is natural to expect thus much
uniformity in their variety, that they shall all be drawn from
plant-life. If so, we must suppose a condensed metaphor here, and take
"Lebanon" to mean the forest which another prophet calls "the glory of
Lebanon." The characteristic tree in these, as we all know, was the
cedar.

It is named in Hebrew by a word which is connected with that for
"strength." It stands as the very type and emblem of stability and
vigour. Think of its firm roots by which it is anchored deep in the
soil. Think of the shelves of massive dark foliage. Think of its
unchanged steadfastness in storm. Think of its towering height; and thus
arriving at the meaning of the emblem, let us translate it into practice
in our own lives. "He shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon." Beauty?
Yes! Purity? Yes! And braided in with them, if I may so say, the
strength which can say "No!" which