Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Basket of Flowers ~Lamplighter

I first found this treasure when I was eleven and absolutely loved it. It is fiction but with priceless moral lessons all throughout its pages .

Very well written, this tale for the young depicts the life of Mary and her father James who are poor in earthly possessions, but rich with the promise of eternal life. Privileged to know and be a guest of the countess, Mary gives her a beautiful basket that her father has made for the day of the countess's birthday. But the greed and jealousy of the countess's maid steps in and ruins the life of Mary and her father. Through trials of being homeless, having nothing to their names and being thought liars, Mary and James survive through it all resting on the love they have in Christ.

An exert from the book...

"James was digging a part of the garden which had been long neglected. It was hard, and trodden down and unfit for sowing seeds, because there was no "deepness of earth." He dug it deep, broke the clods, and turned them up to the surface to be crumbled by the hard frost.

"Just in this way." said he to Mary, "does God work upon hardened souls. They must be deeply pierced by sufferings and by convictions of sin: they must be exposed to the frost of adversity, to soften their natural hardness, and to prepare the soil to receive the good seed. If the seed is sown without this preparation on the hardened soil, it has no deepness in it, and it soon withers: but after this deep digging, this severe exposure, it is no longer hard, the good seed takes root, and blessed by God bears abundant fruit."

Violence: Not enough to be considered, a main character is taken by force to a prison.
Indecency: None
Language: None
Age interest: 12-adult
My Rating: 10 out of 10

4 comments:

Kim M. said...

I have heard a lot about these books. I am looking forward to reading them to my children. Did you know they've done some dramatizations of several of them?

Rachel Beth said...

Hello Bria

Firstly, thank you for visiting our blog and leaving such a nice comment. :)
I'm glad you invited us over to have a look at your book reviews - some really interesting books here.

I've been wanting to read "A Basket of Flowers" for so long! Our libraries are not well-stocked in books like these but we've found an internet book site where we can buy it, so hopefully I'll be able to read it soon! :)

God bless.
Rachel*

Beloved's Redheaded Bride said...

We get a book from Lamplighters every month. Wonderful books. I look forward to reviewing this one. THanks YOu. - You have a great blog by the way. I am a first timer to it.

Mim said...

Hi Bria,
If you can find it, I think you would enjoy the book "The Girl of the Limberlost" by Gene Stratton-Porter. It is very lovely. Also, any of the novels by George Macdonald are full of Biblical wisdom (sound very much like this book you have reviewed). Some of his titles I especially loved are "At the Back of the North Wind", and "The Musician's Quest".

Miriam