St. Landry democrat., 1886-07-31


around was dearth and barrenness: but
there were pipes, aqueducts, reaching
from this garden up to the mountains, ana
through those aqueducts the water came
streaming down and tossing up into beau
tiful fountains, until every root and loaf
and flower were saturated. That IS ike
the church. The church is q garden IN
the midst of great desert OF SIN anu suh@
ferlng; but it is we'll irrigated, for
Our eyes are unto the hills from whence
cometh our help.
From the mountains of Gods strength
there flow down rivers Of gladness.
There is a river, the stream W hereof shall
make glad the city of our God.
Hark! l boar the latch of tho garden
gate, and look to see who is coming.
hear the voice of Christ. II ana coma
into my garden"
I say: "Come in, o Jesus. we have
been waiting for Thee; walk all through
the paths. Look at the flowers; look at
the fruit; pluck that which thou wilt Tor
thyself.'
Jesus comes into the garden and up to
that old man, and touches him and says:
"AImost home, father, not many more
aches for thee; | will never leave thee;
take courage little longer and l will
steady thy tottering steps, and / will
soothe thy troubles and give thee resi-
Courage. old man"
Then Christ goes up another garden
path, and he comes to a soul in trouble
and says: peace! all is well. ] have
seen thy tears. / have heard thy prayer.
The sun shall not smite thee by daT nor
the moon by night. The Lord shall pre-
serve thee from all evil; He will preserve
thy soul. Courage, o troubled spirit.'
Then I see Jesus going up another gar
den path, and l see great excite ment
among the leaves, and I hasten up that
garden path to see what Jesus is doing
there. and 10! he is breaking off flowers,
sharp and clean from the stem, and say:
stop, Jesus, don't kill those beautiful
flowers"
He turns to me and says: 81 have come
into my garden to gather lilies, and I
mean to take these up to a higher terrace
for the garden around my palace, and
there will plant them; and in better soil
and in better air they shall put for tn
brighter leaves and sweeter redolence, and
no frost shall touch them forever"
And looked up into his face and said:
well, it is His garden, and He has right
to do what He will with it. Thy will be
done''-the hardest prayer a man ever
made.
1t has seemed as if Jesus Christ took the
best. From many of your households the
best one is gone. Y know that she was
too good for this world. She was the
gentlest in her ways, the deepest in her
affections. And when at the last the sick
ness came you had no faith in medicines.
You knew when the hour Of parting had
come, and when, through the rich grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you surren-
dered that treasure, you said. Lord
Jesus, take it. 1t is the best we have;
take it. Thou art worthy" The others in
the household may have been of grosser
mold. She was of the finest. One day a
man as taking me from the depot to a
village. He was very rough and coarse,
and very blasphemous. But after while
he mellowed down as he began to talk of
his little son whom he had lost. "Oh, sir"
he said, "that boy was different from the
rest of MS. He never used any bad lam
guage; no, sir. I never heard him use a
bad word in my life. He used to say his
prayers, and we laughed at him; but he
would keep on saying his prayers, and I
often thought: 4 can't keep that child
and said to my wife: Mother, we can't
keep that child But, sir, the day he was
drowned, and they brought him in and
laid him down on the carpet, so white and
SO beautiful, my heart broke, sir, knew
we couldn't keep him."
The Heaven of your little ones will not
be fairly begun until you get there. ALI
he h rfal Ia
will not make them forget YOU. There
they are, the radiant throngs that went
out from your homes. / threw a kiss to
the sweet darlings. They are sill well now
in the palace. The crippled child has
sound foot now.
notice that the fine gardens sometimes
have high fences around them, and I can
not get in. 1t is SO with kings garden.
The only glimpse you ever get of such a
garden is when the king rides out in his
splendid carriage. 1t is not so with this
garden, this kings garden. throw wide
open the gate and tell you all to come in.
No monopoly in religion. Whosoever will
may. Choose now between desert and
garden. Many of you have tried the
garden of this worlds delight. You have
found it has been a chagrin. So it was
with Theodore Hook. He made all the
world laugh. He makes US laugh now when
we read his poems; but he could not make
his own heart laugh. While in the midst
of his festivities he confronted looking
glass, and he saw himself, and said 81
"There, that is true. l look just as am,
done up in body, mind and purse" So il
was of Shenstone, of whose garden / told
you at the beginning of my sermon. He
sat down amid those bowe and said: 81
b Loot r<,ssI +zNh
cry and envous and frantic, and despise
every thing around me inst as it hacomas