Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

When care on the heart would lay hold,
And fears as to silver and gold
Awaken some dread,
About life's ' Daily bread,' —
'Behold' ye ' the fowls of the air:'
'They sow not, nor yet do they reap,'
No stores for the future they keep,
Yet God all their need
With His bounty doth feed, —
Let them teach you to trust in His care.

When the garments, whose presence proclaim
At the best but our sin and our shame,
With their pomp and their pride
Our souls would misguide, —
'Consider the lilies of the field;'
'They toil not, nor yet do they spin;'
And still for himself who can win
A garment so fair,
With perfume so rare!
'Consider the lilies of the field.'

When the wisdom that rises from earth
By thy heart hath been found little worth,
And teachings of Love
Thou dost seek from above,—-
'Consider the lilies of the field:
Their beauty and perfume will reach
Farther into thy soul than could speech,
From each bell, and each leaf,
Speaks thy God to thy grief:
'Consider the lilies of the field.'

They are teachers so gentle and lowly
And — by Christ thus ordain'd — are so holy,
We cannot refuse
Their instruction to use,
But to God speaking by them must yield:
They will find out the way to the heart,
They will guide it with heavenly art,
How mystic the powers
Vouchsafed to God's flowers!
'Consider the lilies of the field!'