FLOWERS IN THE GROUND—A SERMON-STORY ON
UNSELFISHNESS

Last spring there was a company of seeds in my garden. They were the seeds of carnation pinks and sweet-peas. Down in the dark earth, with nothing to look at or to divert their minds, the seeds got to talking to each other.

“What’s the use of pushing our way up into the air?” asked the carnation seeds one of another. “What’s the use of going up there where the wind will steal our fragrance, where the sun will look harshly at us and wither us away, and where people will pick us and carry us off? Let us be pretty all by ourselves down here below, keeping our fragrance and our beauty for each other.”

“O fie!” exclaimed the sweet-peas who were near by, “we have nothing of such meanness and selfishness. The gardener put us here to grow and be beautiful, and enjoy life for ourselves, and help others to enjoy it. And as for us, we mean to go up into the outer world just as he planned for us.”

So up went the sweet-peas and became a beautiful hedge, the glory of the garden all through the summer, the delight of many a sick person, and the joy of all the children.

But as for the carnation seeds, they kept their threat. They grew a little down under the ground, but they sent out only white and ghostly shoots. The rain soaked down upon them, but it produced no flowers, and only served to rot them. The sunshine pierced through the black earth, but it gave them no color, and only served to scorch them. And finally, as a penalty for their selfishness, all of them died down in the ground. “Alas,” said the carnation that had proposed the plan, speaking with her last breath, “I have learned that the best way to bless ourselves is to bless others.”