Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-07-21

Ihen christ goes up another garden path,
and he comes to soul in trouble and says:
| s'Peace! all is we'll. have seen thy tears.
have heard thy prayer. The sun shall
not smite thee by day nor the moon by
night. The Lord shall preserve thee from
| all evil; he will preserve thy soul. Courage,
0 troubled spiritP Then see Jesus going
up another garden path, and see great
excitement among the leaves, and l hasten
up that garden path to see what Jesus is
doing there, and lo he is breaking off flow
ers, sharp and clean from the stem, and
soy: ''Stop, Jesus, don't kill those beautiful
flowers" He turns to me and says: 81
have come into my garden to gather lilies,
and mean to take these up to a higher ter
race, for the garden around my palace, and
there l will plant them; and in better soil
and in better air they shall put forth bright
er leaves and sweeter redolence, and no
! frost shall touch them forever" And
locked 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 doner'-the
hardest prayer man ever made.
1t has seemed as if Jesus Christ took the
best; from many of your households the
best one is gone. You know that she was
too good for this world; she was the gen.
tlest in her ways, the deepest in her affec-
|
you had no faith in medicines. You knew
that the hour of parting had come, and
when, through the rich grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you surrendered that treasure,
you said: "Lord Jesus, take tit is the
best we have; take it. Thou art worthyp'
| The others in the household may have been
of grosser mould. She was of the finest
One day man was taking me from the
depot to village. He was very rough and
coarse and very blasphemous; but after
awhile he mellowed down as he began to
talk of his little son whom he had lost. 80,
SIR" he said, "that boy was different from
the rest of US He never used any bad Ian
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 Of
ten 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 drown
ed, and they brought him in and laid him
down on the carpet, so white and so beau
tiful, my heart broke, sir. l knew we
couldn't keep him."
The heaven of your little ones will not be
fairly begun until you get there. All the
not make them forget you. There they are
your homes. l throw kiss to the sweet
darlings. They are all well now in the
palace. The crippled child has sound
foot now. A little lame child says MA,
will I be lame in heaven?'' ''No, my dar-
ling, you won't be lame in heaven" A lit
tie sick child says: "Ma, will I be sick in
heaven ?" mo, my dear, you won't be
sick in heaven A little blind child says:
''Ma, will be blind in heaven?" "No, my
dear, you won't be blind in heaven. They
are all we'll there"
l notice that the fine gardens sometimes
have high fences around them, and1 cannot
get in. 1t is so with kings garden. The
only glimpse you ever get of such garden
is when che 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 cha
grin. 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 uot make his own heart laugh. While
in the midst of his festivities he confronted
a looking glass and he saw himself, and
L
am, done up in body, mind, and purse."-
So it was of Shenstone, Of whose garden l
told you at the beginning of my sermon.
He sat down amid those bowers and said:
81 have lost my road to happiness. I am
angry and envious and frantic, and despise
everything around me just as it becomes a
madman to do" o, ye weary souls! come
into Christ's garden to day and pluck lit
tie heartsease. Christ is the only rest and
the only pardon for perturbed spirit. Do
you not think your chance has almost come?
You men and women who have been wait
ing year after year for some good oppoftu.
nifty in which to accept Christ, but have
postponed it, five, ten, twenty, thirty years
do you not feel as if now your hour of de-
liverance and pardon and salvation had
come? o man, what grudge hast thou
against thy poor soul that thou wilt not let
it be saved? 1 feel as if salvation must
come to-day in some of your hearts.
Some years ago vessel struck on the
rocks. They had only one life,b boat. In
that lfeboat the passengers and crew were
getting ashore. The vessel had foundered
and was sinking deeper and deeper, and
that one boat could not take the passengers
very swiftly. A little girl stood on the deck
waiting for her turn to get into the boat
but her turn did not seem to come. After
awhile, she could wait no longer, and she
leaped on the taffrail and then sprang into
the sea, crying to the boatman: "Save me
next! Save me nextp' o, how many have
gone ashore into Gods mercy, and yet you
are clinging to the wreck of sin! Others
have accepted the pardon of Christ, but you
are in peril. Why not, this moment, make
a rush for your immortal rescue, crying
until Jesus shall hear you, and heaven and
earth ring with the cry: ''Save me next !
Save me nextv' Now is the day of saliva
ton! Now! Now!
This Sabbath is the last for some of you
1t is about to sail away for ever. Her bell
tolls. The planks thunder back in the
gangway. She shoves off. She floats out
toward the great ocean of eternity. Wave
farewell to your last chance for heaven
"Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
would have gathered thee as hen gath
ereth her brood under her wings, and ye
would not! Behold your house is left unto
you desolate." Invited to revel in garden
you die in desert. May God Almighty,