BETWEEN OUR SELVES

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 89, 16 April 1927, Page 3 (Supplement)

BETWEEN OUR SELVES

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A BEAUTIFUL LEGEND

"THAT GREAT SACRIFICE

OF LOVE."

WHY THE LILY DROOPS ITS HEAD

J T have a story to tell you this week— a legend of a flower that once was proud in its stately beauty, but whose head now droops in humility and penitence, but first I must tell you the answer to last weeks' riddle—the River. Two thousand years ago, the Crown Imperial Lilies stood, insolent in their stateliness. queens of the garden, with heads reared high in majesty. The roses bloomed around them and the wild thyme sprang to form a carper, for their feet. Over all the proud flowers stood, bearing their crowns as royal daughters of a cold imperial sire. Now far away in sunny Palestine there i\-as a garden shaded by the 6ilver leaves of olive trees that grew upon a mountain side. And in that garden frequently passed one whom the flowers loved; they bent towards Him, and if they could but His garments touch they were fresh and whole, flushing with love for Him, their Maker. Only the Lilies stood aloof, wrapt in their own proud thought, brooding on all the poets sang of them. One night, clouds grew large and the tense stillness of the evening seemed but to cause a breath of dread over the garden, our Lord passed down the winding paths He loved so well. Sore troubled, His way was eased by the tender caresses of tiny petals, the scents of each rising with the velvet air to greet the Master, conscious of the sadness and the impending agony Yet still the Lilies stood with head? unbent. At last, after long hours fraught with such anguish that none may ever know, He was made captive and led bound with cruel shouts and mockery far from the garden; and as He passed, all little flower faces sank low in reverent pity and distress, daring not to raise their eyes to witness their, Lord's evil hour. By the gate there stood the clumps of fair Imperial Lilies, white and cold in the pale dawn light breaking in the East. Heedless of aught that might disturb their tranquil contemplation of their beauty, thus tbey stood, and past the lovely group the Saviour went unmarked and friendless. Then He turned, and as He later looked on Peter, so He looked on those pure Lilies swaying in the morning air. And as the look went home the proud heads bent, the crowns sank low, and, humble now for ever more, the grace of sweet humility came to their hearts «nd caused true tears of penitence to fall for ever May the memory of that first Easter make us realise all that the Cross stands for. We enjoy all the privileges of belonging to a Christian nation. Let us remember that these and the freedom that is their outcome are the result of that great sacrifice of love. And, as the Cross is symbolised in our national emblem, may we carry out its teaching in our lives, and dedicate them to love service, and sacrifice.