Lesson 9: The Book of Nature
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
Lesson for Septuagesima.
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Matthew vi. 26-34.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " Consider the wondrous works of God " (Job xxxvii. 14).
HYMNS " There is a book," and " All things bright and beautiful." COLLECTS for First Sunday after Epiphany and Fifth Sunday after Easter.
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
Lesson for Septuagesima.
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Matthew vi. 26-34.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " Consider the wondrous works of God " (Job xxxvii. 14).
HYMNS " There is a book," and " All things bright and beautiful." COLLECTS for First Sunday after Epiphany and Fifth Sunday after Easter.
Aim : To attract attention to the lessons to be learnt from plants.
I. ATTENTION.
(a) What is the first thing that the sergeant says before he begins a drill ? 'Tention. He cannot do anything until he has got the attention of his men.
(b) Darwin says that a man who trained performing monkeys used to buy common kinds from the Zoo for £5. After a time he offered double the price, if he might keep a few for three days in order to select one. When asked how he could decide so quickly which monkey would become the best performer, he said that it all depended on its power of attention. If its attention was distracted by every passing fly, it was useless. If it attended to his teaching, he could do anything with it.
(c) The same is true of us all. An old-fashioned story, Eyes and No Eyes, showed how some people seem to notice everything, while others notice nothing. The first step in all progress is observation. The world owes much to the man who first noticed that a wedge would split wood, that a sail could move a boat, that a certain herb would cure disease.
(d) The small boy James Watt sat watching the kettle. His aunt scolded : " I never saw such an idle boy. For the last hour you have done nothing but take off the lid of the kettle and put it on again " ; but he sat absorbed in thought. He had noticed something : steam could move the lid of a kettle up and down. If it could do that, it could move a rod up and down, and that rod could be made to turn a wheel. From that observation sprang the steam engine.
(e) Wise men were puzzled by the mystery why the moon went round the earth instead of flying off into space ; what force kept the planets in their courses. The lad Isaac Newton sat in his mother's orchard. A ripe apple fell from a branch to his feet. He noticed it. He asked himself, Why did it fall so straight ? There must be some force inside the earth that pulls things to itself. If it pulls an apple, it pulls also the moon and all the planets. He had discovered the Law of Gravitation. The mystery was solved.
(f) The Sherlock Holmes stories illustrate this power of observation. Watson comes in with mud on his boots. Holmes says : " Why have you been sending a telegram " Watson asks how he knows. Holmes replies that he has noticed that the only place in the village where that red clay is found is just outside the Post Office. As he also noticed stamps and postcards on his friend's writing-table, he felt sure that he must have gone to send a telegram.
(g) This power of observation can be trained. Robert Houdin, the French conjurer, used to spend hours walking past shop windows, and then stopping to think what he had noticed in them. At first he could only remember six or eight things ; but he trained himself till he could repeat the whole contents of the window.
II. ATTENTION FOR THE BOOK OF NATURE!
(a) During these Sundays before Lent we are going to look at some of the things that deserve our attention. The Septuagesima Lessons speak of the Creation of the world; so to-day is often regarded as Nature Sunday. The best-known Septuagesima hymn begins, " There is a book, who runs may read." What book is that ? Not the Bible, but the Book of Nature :—
The works of God above, below,
Within us and around,
Are pages in that book, to show
How God Himself is found.
(b) Longfellow wrote some beautiful verses for the fiftieth birthday of the naturalist Agassiz :—
Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying, " Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee."
" Come, wander with me," she said,
" Into regions yet untrod,
And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God."
Help elder children to grasp the beauty of that description of Nature, " the manuscripts of God."
(c) Our Lord commanded Nature Study in the Sermon on the Mount. " Consider the lilies how they grow." Read Passage. Let all repeat text. Our Lord's many references to Nature in His teaching show how carefully as a boy at Nazareth He had used His eyes, e.g. the corn so dependent on the quality of the soil (Parable of Sower) ; so gradual in its growth, " first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear " (St. Mark iv. 28) ; the tares at first so like good corn, but later so different (St. Matt. xiii. 29) ; the mustard plant growing from so tiny a seed (St. Mark iv. 31) ; the vine made fruitful by pruning (St. John xv. 2) ; the mulberry (A.V. sycamore) tree apparently so strong, but so easily uprooted (St. Luke xvii. 6).
(d) One of the greatest students of plants was Linnaeus, a Swede (died 1778). Young men flocked to study under him from all parts of the world. Twice a week they used to go for expeditions in the mountains. Before they started, he would ask, " Have you all got your trumpets ? " Why ? Because it was the rule that, if anyone discovered a new plant, he must blow a trumpet. Then all the other students flocked around, kneeled down, studied it, sketched it. To other people it might look a miserable little weed, but to their trained eyes it was full of wonder and beauty.
III. CONSIDER THE DAISIES.
(a) We cannot study all the plants to-day, but let us lock at one. The lily to which our Lord referred was the scarlet anemone with which the hills of Galilee are covered in the spring. But this flower is not familiar to us in England, so let us take instead our commonest flower, the daisy.
(b) Its name speaks to us of one of its peculiarities. Daisy means Day's Eye. It got that name because people noticed that it opened at sunrise and shut at sunset. But, if we watch it closely, we shall see something even more curious. It always faces the sun. In the morning it faces east ; at midday south ; in the evening west ; at sunset it shuts up tight. The lamplighter may light a lamp beside it ; the full moon may shine down upon it ; but it will not open. Yet, as soon as the sun rises again, it unfolds its petals, The largest girls' school in England (Cheltenham Ladies' College) has as its badge a daisy with a Latin motto (Coelesti luce crescat) which means " By Heavenly light let it grow." That is a good motto for us all. Whispering in dark corners generally leads to what is wrong. The daisy knows that in the darkness night insects try to steal its honey. Let us love what is bright and clear and open. And let us distinguish between God's Light and imitations. It was Jesus Who said, " I am the Light of the World."
(c) The daisy is what botanists call a compound flower. What looks like one flower is really a whole flower-bed. Under a strong magnifying glass we see that the white petals are each a separate white flower tipped with red, a little tube with a slender thread coming out of it ; that the centre is a mass of 250 tiny yellow flowers, and all are held together by a green case. It was not always so. In early ages of the world each of these flowers had a separate stalk. But gradually they drew closer together, till at last" all came to live on the same stalk. They had learnt what we were speaking of in Lesson IV—the value of Co-operation, of helping one another. Unity is strength. And that is why the daisy is so sturdy. The leaves also have learned to co-operate. Once they too grew upon long stalks. Now they spread themselves flat on the ground in a tight rosette. In this way they keep anything else from growing too close to the daisy, and secure it plenty of air and light and moisture.
(d) The daisy's Latin name is. Bellis Perennis, which means Pretty-all-the-year-round. Some flowers are spring flowers ; others bloom only in summer or autumn ; daisies bloom all the year round, setting us a lesson, not to be bright only sometimes, when everything is favourable. Every kind of season wants us at our best.
(e) The daisy lives by giving. In its heart it keeps some honey, and it gives this to the bees ; and they in return carry on their wings the fertilizing dust from one flower to another. Without that the daisy could not form its seeds. That yellow pollen is full of a wonderful life force. The daisy gives its best to the bee, and, as it might seem, almost by accident, but as we know by the design of God, it gets in return life. It is the same with us. Those who give most, live most. " For the heart grows rich by giving."
(f) One thought more. In one of his poems Tennyson says of a girl : " Her feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies rosy." Why rosy ? He had noticed that daisies are most beautiful when trodden on. Its petals are under tipped with red. Always show your most beautiful side when people try to squash you. To do this the hidden life must be beautiful.
I. ATTENTION.
(a) What is the first thing that the sergeant says before he begins a drill ? 'Tention. He cannot do anything until he has got the attention of his men.
(b) Darwin says that a man who trained performing monkeys used to buy common kinds from the Zoo for £5. After a time he offered double the price, if he might keep a few for three days in order to select one. When asked how he could decide so quickly which monkey would become the best performer, he said that it all depended on its power of attention. If its attention was distracted by every passing fly, it was useless. If it attended to his teaching, he could do anything with it.
(c) The same is true of us all. An old-fashioned story, Eyes and No Eyes, showed how some people seem to notice everything, while others notice nothing. The first step in all progress is observation. The world owes much to the man who first noticed that a wedge would split wood, that a sail could move a boat, that a certain herb would cure disease.
(d) The small boy James Watt sat watching the kettle. His aunt scolded : " I never saw such an idle boy. For the last hour you have done nothing but take off the lid of the kettle and put it on again " ; but he sat absorbed in thought. He had noticed something : steam could move the lid of a kettle up and down. If it could do that, it could move a rod up and down, and that rod could be made to turn a wheel. From that observation sprang the steam engine.
(e) Wise men were puzzled by the mystery why the moon went round the earth instead of flying off into space ; what force kept the planets in their courses. The lad Isaac Newton sat in his mother's orchard. A ripe apple fell from a branch to his feet. He noticed it. He asked himself, Why did it fall so straight ? There must be some force inside the earth that pulls things to itself. If it pulls an apple, it pulls also the moon and all the planets. He had discovered the Law of Gravitation. The mystery was solved.
(f) The Sherlock Holmes stories illustrate this power of observation. Watson comes in with mud on his boots. Holmes says : " Why have you been sending a telegram " Watson asks how he knows. Holmes replies that he has noticed that the only place in the village where that red clay is found is just outside the Post Office. As he also noticed stamps and postcards on his friend's writing-table, he felt sure that he must have gone to send a telegram.
(g) This power of observation can be trained. Robert Houdin, the French conjurer, used to spend hours walking past shop windows, and then stopping to think what he had noticed in them. At first he could only remember six or eight things ; but he trained himself till he could repeat the whole contents of the window.
II. ATTENTION FOR THE BOOK OF NATURE!
(a) During these Sundays before Lent we are going to look at some of the things that deserve our attention. The Septuagesima Lessons speak of the Creation of the world; so to-day is often regarded as Nature Sunday. The best-known Septuagesima hymn begins, " There is a book, who runs may read." What book is that ? Not the Bible, but the Book of Nature :—
The works of God above, below,
Within us and around,
Are pages in that book, to show
How God Himself is found.
(b) Longfellow wrote some beautiful verses for the fiftieth birthday of the naturalist Agassiz :—
Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying, " Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee."
" Come, wander with me," she said,
" Into regions yet untrod,
And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God."
Help elder children to grasp the beauty of that description of Nature, " the manuscripts of God."
(c) Our Lord commanded Nature Study in the Sermon on the Mount. " Consider the lilies how they grow." Read Passage. Let all repeat text. Our Lord's many references to Nature in His teaching show how carefully as a boy at Nazareth He had used His eyes, e.g. the corn so dependent on the quality of the soil (Parable of Sower) ; so gradual in its growth, " first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear " (St. Mark iv. 28) ; the tares at first so like good corn, but later so different (St. Matt. xiii. 29) ; the mustard plant growing from so tiny a seed (St. Mark iv. 31) ; the vine made fruitful by pruning (St. John xv. 2) ; the mulberry (A.V. sycamore) tree apparently so strong, but so easily uprooted (St. Luke xvii. 6).
(d) One of the greatest students of plants was Linnaeus, a Swede (died 1778). Young men flocked to study under him from all parts of the world. Twice a week they used to go for expeditions in the mountains. Before they started, he would ask, " Have you all got your trumpets ? " Why ? Because it was the rule that, if anyone discovered a new plant, he must blow a trumpet. Then all the other students flocked around, kneeled down, studied it, sketched it. To other people it might look a miserable little weed, but to their trained eyes it was full of wonder and beauty.
III. CONSIDER THE DAISIES.
(a) We cannot study all the plants to-day, but let us lock at one. The lily to which our Lord referred was the scarlet anemone with which the hills of Galilee are covered in the spring. But this flower is not familiar to us in England, so let us take instead our commonest flower, the daisy.
(b) Its name speaks to us of one of its peculiarities. Daisy means Day's Eye. It got that name because people noticed that it opened at sunrise and shut at sunset. But, if we watch it closely, we shall see something even more curious. It always faces the sun. In the morning it faces east ; at midday south ; in the evening west ; at sunset it shuts up tight. The lamplighter may light a lamp beside it ; the full moon may shine down upon it ; but it will not open. Yet, as soon as the sun rises again, it unfolds its petals, The largest girls' school in England (Cheltenham Ladies' College) has as its badge a daisy with a Latin motto (Coelesti luce crescat) which means " By Heavenly light let it grow." That is a good motto for us all. Whispering in dark corners generally leads to what is wrong. The daisy knows that in the darkness night insects try to steal its honey. Let us love what is bright and clear and open. And let us distinguish between God's Light and imitations. It was Jesus Who said, " I am the Light of the World."
(c) The daisy is what botanists call a compound flower. What looks like one flower is really a whole flower-bed. Under a strong magnifying glass we see that the white petals are each a separate white flower tipped with red, a little tube with a slender thread coming out of it ; that the centre is a mass of 250 tiny yellow flowers, and all are held together by a green case. It was not always so. In early ages of the world each of these flowers had a separate stalk. But gradually they drew closer together, till at last" all came to live on the same stalk. They had learnt what we were speaking of in Lesson IV—the value of Co-operation, of helping one another. Unity is strength. And that is why the daisy is so sturdy. The leaves also have learned to co-operate. Once they too grew upon long stalks. Now they spread themselves flat on the ground in a tight rosette. In this way they keep anything else from growing too close to the daisy, and secure it plenty of air and light and moisture.
(d) The daisy's Latin name is. Bellis Perennis, which means Pretty-all-the-year-round. Some flowers are spring flowers ; others bloom only in summer or autumn ; daisies bloom all the year round, setting us a lesson, not to be bright only sometimes, when everything is favourable. Every kind of season wants us at our best.
(e) The daisy lives by giving. In its heart it keeps some honey, and it gives this to the bees ; and they in return carry on their wings the fertilizing dust from one flower to another. Without that the daisy could not form its seeds. That yellow pollen is full of a wonderful life force. The daisy gives its best to the bee, and, as it might seem, almost by accident, but as we know by the design of God, it gets in return life. It is the same with us. Those who give most, live most. " For the heart grows rich by giving."
(f) One thought more. In one of his poems Tennyson says of a girl : " Her feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies rosy." Why rosy ? He had noticed that daisies are most beautiful when trodden on. Its petals are under tipped with red. Always show your most beautiful side when people try to squash you. To do this the hidden life must be beautiful.
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