The apparent slightness of these English changes reveals their deliberate subtlety. Puritanism, taking its cue from King James’s translators, has bettered the instruction, and steadily pictured Jesus pointing to a lily,—white emblem of purity,—and censuring (implicitly) the ostentation of Solomon. Even in rationalistic hymn-books is found the pretty hymn of Agnes Strickland, beginning:
“Fair lilies of Jerusalem,
Ye wear the same array
As when imperial Judah’s stem
Maintained its regal sway:
By sacred Jordan’s desert tide
As bright ye blossom on
As when your simple charms outvied
The pride of Solomon.”
Very sweet! But the “lilies of the field” in Palestine are not “fair,” their charms are not “simple”; they are large and gorgeous combinations of red and gold; and Solomon, so far from being proud in the contrast, “outvied” in simplicity the pride of the lily.