A Little Thought

HON. CONSTANCE GIBSON.

I was bicycling along a hot and dusty road, and trying to overcome as I went along a feeling of depression and weariness which had hung over me all day. As I rode on I became conscious of a sweet fragrance filling the air. I rode more slowly, looking all around to see whence it came, and after looking for some time in vain, I espied a clump of honeysuckle growing on top of a high hedge. I tried to pick some, but it grew beyond my reach, so I pursued my own way, leaving the honeysuckle growing on the hedge. But though I left the flower behind, the sweet scent still filled the air and made the sun seem less hot and the road less dusty by its fragrance; and as I rode on, breathing in its sweetness, the burden of my own troubles seemed lifted.

The honeysuckle lived so high above the road that the dust could not cover its petals and dim its beauty, nor could any hand pluck it from its root for selfish purposes and then leave it to wither and die. But though it lived so far above the road its beauty and fragrance were shed abroad for all alike. The most degraded tramp passing along that road, if he looked, could see the same beautiful flower and breathe its sweet fragrance as surely as could a little child. Yet all the flower did was to live its own pure life where God had planted it, showing forth all the beauty of the nature He had given it.

Then a sweet peace filled my heart, for I knew that the "Good Shepherd" had led me to himself and taken me in his arms. No dust could dim the brightness of that light : no unkind hand could pluck me from his care. All I had to do was to nestle close to him, and then the love would flow out all the time and fill the world with its sweetness,—healing, comforting, uplifting all who were in need, because living so close beneath the shadow of his wings I could reflect no other than his nature.

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