The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-23


"Why don't you have in the world more
Humboldts and Wellingtons." God gives
to some ten talents; to another one.
In this garden of the Church which
Christ has planted, also find the snow
drops, beautiful but cold looking, seeming
ly another phase of winter. / mean
those Christians who are precise in
their tastes, unimpasioned, pure as
snowdrops and as cold. They never
shed any tears, they never get ex-
cited, they never say any thing rashly,
they never do any thing precipitately.
Their pulses never futter, their nerves
never twitch, their indignation never boils
over. They live longer than most people,
but their life is in a minor key. They new
er run up to &c" above the staff. In their
music of life they have no staccato pas
sages. Christ planted them in the Church,
and they must be of some service, or they
would not be there; snowdrops, always
snowdrops.
But l have not told you of the most beau
tiful flower in all this garden spoken of in
the text. If you see a century plant your
emotions are startled. You say: "Why,
this flower has been hundred years gath
ering up for one bloom, and it viii be a
hundred years more before other petals
will come out" But have to tell you Of
a plant that was gathering up from all
eternity, and that 800 years ago put forth
its bloom never to wither. It is the pas
sion plant of the crossI Prophets foretold
it; Bethlehem shepherds looked upon it in
the bud; the rocks shook at its bursting;
and the dead got up in their winding
sheets to see its full bloom. 1t is q crimson
fower-blood at the roots, blood on the
branches, blood on all the leaves It's per-
fume is to I'LL all the nations. It's breath
is Heaven. Come, o, winds, from the
north, and winds from the south, and
winds from the east, and winds from the
west, and bear to all the earth the sweet
smelling SAVIOR of Christ, my Lord
His worth If all the nations knew.
Sure the whole earth would love him too.
Again: The Church may be appropriate
ly compared to a garden, because it is a
place of select fruits. That would be
strange garden which had in it no berries,
no plums, or peaches, or apricots. The
coarser fruits are planted in the orchard
or they are set out on the sunny hillside;
but the choicest fruits are kept in the gar
den. So in the world outside the Church.
Christ has planted great many beautiful
things-patience, charity, generosity, in
tegrity; but he intends the choicest fruits
to be in the garden, and If they are not
there, then shame on the Church. Relig
ion is not a mere Towering sentimentality.
1t is practical, e-giving, healthful fruit
not posies, but apples.
co." says somebody: 81 don't see what
your garden of the Church has yielded. 4"
Where did your asylums come from? and
your hospitals? and your institutions of
mercy? Christ planted every one of them.
He planted them in his garden. When
Christ gave sight to Bartimeus he laid the
! corner stone of every blind asylum that
| has ever been built. When Christ soothed
the demoniac of Galilee he laid the corner
stone of every lunatic asylum that has
| ever been established. When Christ said
] to the sick man, 'FTake up they bed and
| walk" he laid the corner-st of every
| hospital the world has ever seen. When
| Christ said: 81 was in the prison and ye
visited me-" he laid the corner stone of
every prison reform association that has
ever been formed. The Church of Christ
is glorious garden, and is full of fruit.
know there is some poor fruit in it.
know there are some weeds that ought to
be thrown over the fence. 1 know there
are some crab-apple trees that ought to be
cut down. l know there are some wild
grapes that ought to be uprooted; but are
you going TO destroy the whole garden be-
cause of a little gnarled fruit? You will
find worm cate leaves in Fontainebleau,
and insects that sting in the fairy groves
of the Champs ElYsees. You do not tear
down and destroy the whole garden be-
cause there are few specimens of gnarled
fruit. / admit there are men and women
in the church who ought no. to be there;
but let US be just as frank and admit the
fact that there are hundreds and thou
sands and tens Of thousands of glorious
Christian men and women-holy, blessed,
useful, consecrated and triumphant. There
il no grander collection in all the earth
than the collection of Christians. There
are Christian men in this house whose re-
ligion is not matter of psalm-singing and
churchgoing. Tomorrow morning that
religion will keep them just as consistent
and consecrated in their worldly occupa-
tion as it ever kept them at the COM
muuion- table.
There are woman here TO- day Of higher
type of character than Mary of Bethany.
They not only sit at the feet of Christ, but
they go out into the kitchen to help Martha
in her work, that she may sit there too.
There is a woman who has a drunken hus
band, who has exhibited more faith and
more patience and courage than Ridley in
the fire. He was consumed in twenty
minutes. Here has been twenty years
martyrdom. Yonder is a man who has
been twenty years on his back unable
even to feed himself yet calm and peace
full as though he lay on one of the green
banks of heaven, watching the Oarsmen
dip their paddles in the crystal river
Why, it seems to me this moment as if st.
Paul threw to US a pomologist's catalogue
of the fruits growing in this great garden
of Christ-love, joy, peace, patience, char
Ii efIv,.
glorious fruit, enough to fill all the baskets
of earth and heaven.
1 have not told you of the better tree in
this garden and Of the better fruit. 1t was
planted just outside Jerusalem a good
while ago. When that tree was planted it
was so split, and bruised, and BARRED, men
said nothing would ever grow upon it; but
no sooner had that tree been planted than
it budded, and blossomed, and fTuited, and
the soldiers spears were only the clubs
that struck down that fruit, and IL fell into
the lap of the nations, and men began to
pick it up and eat it; and they found ia IL
an antidote to all thirst, to all poison, TO
all sin, to all death-the smallest cluster
larger than the famous one Of Eshchol,
which two men carried on staff between
them. If the one apple in Eden killed the
race, this one cluster Of mercy shall re-
store it,
Again, the church in my text is appro-
priately called a garden, because it Is
thoroughly irrigated No garden could
prosper long without plenty OF water.
have seen a garden in the midst Of a des-
ert, yet blooming and luxuriant. All
around was dearth and barrenness; but
there were pipes, aqueducts, reaching
from this garden up to the mountains, and
through those aqued ucts the water came
streaming down and tossing up into beau
tiful fountains, until every root and leaf
and flower were saturated. That Is like
the church The church is a garden in
the midst Of a great dessrt OF sin and SUE