Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-17
The Beautiful Flowers of the Bible Made
Into an Eloquent Bouquet.
Tshe Pulpit Hovsrs Over too Few Of Those
Emblems of Glory.
The Fragrance Of the Campfire Plant Com
pared to the Sweetness of Christ.
A Fervent Appeal For Better and Purer
Lives.

sfThe Hamptons," July A., 1886:
While the Rev. Il. WeWitt Talmage,
~. d., is absent from his pulpit in
Brooklyn and recreating in the
try. he continues to preach, taking sub
jects suggested by summer scenes and
surroundings, and his ~discourses con
shutting a course entitled "Voices of
Gardens and Fields" Following is
the first sermon in the series, preached
to-day from the text, ''My beloved is
unto me rs a cluster OF campfire in the
vineyards of En-gedi." Song of Solo
mon. CHI. i; v. Ia.
Solomon's song has been considered
10y many rs fit only for moonstruck
sentimentalists; written by Il voluptu-
:i-yy, the story of a man crazed by a
fair maiden; fit neither for family
prayers nor for church. Indeed, we
must admit that there were years in
Solomon's life when he had several
hundred more wives han he was en-
titled to; but he rcpented of his sin, and
God chose him to write some Of the
hest things about Christ that have ever
been written. Besides that, | think
the criticism of modern times upon the
immodesty of the Bible comes with
poor grace from a century in which the
writings of George Sand come to their
fortieth edition, and Christians cannot
gel to the prayer meeting because they
have tickets for places of amusement
SO depraved that they make the BLACK
Crook" respectable. think, however,
NJ far as ! can see, in my stupidity that
there are things turned out upon the
community to-day that bid fair to do
snore damage than the song of Solo
s4on.
Hear, now, one of his fresh and
fair descriptions of Jesus. IL l had
twenty years to preach / would like to
employ ten of them in bringing out
10 observation those representations of
Christ that have as yet been passed by.
] do not know why the pulpit should
Aiover over a few types of Christ when
there are so many symbols of
Jesus that have never been discoursed
upon. Why should we employ all our
time in examing a few lilies when the
Bible is a great garden filled with
fuschias, and with daffodils, and with
a%maranths, and with evening prim-
goses for the close of life's day, and
Crocuses at the foot of the snow bank
Of sorrow, and heartseasc for the
troubled, and passion-iowers planted
st tho foot of a cross, and morning
glories spreading out under the splen-
doris of the breaking day? Some years
ago, / discoursed to you about ''the
white hairs of Jesus" and some of the
newspapers supposed it was a mere
fancy Of my own-the poor fools not
knowing that in Revelation, the first of
the fourteenth, the Bible speaks Of
Christ. .'his blood and his hairs were
white like wool, as white as snow
symbolizing the eternity of Jesus.
Terraced on the side of the noun
tain were the vineyards OF En-gedi. O.
they were sweet places! From IA shelly
ing of the mountain, four hundred feet
high, waters came down in beautiful
Baptism on the faces of the leaves; the
grapes intoxicate with their own wine;
p~omegranates with juices bursting from
Ghe rind; all fruits and flowers and
aromatic ~woods-among the sweetest
af these the camphire-plant of the text.
It's flowers are in clusters like our lilac
graceful, fragrant, symbolical of
desus; for '.my beloved is unto me as a
cluster of campfire from the vineyards
OF En-gedi."
j will carry out the idea of my text,
and In tn, first place show you, that
this camphire-plant of the text was
a symbol of Christ, because of its frag-
Gance. If | had a branch of it and
6Houlu wave III IN your must, III WouIu
I'll all the house with its redolence.
The campfire, as we have it, is Of
fensive to some, but the campfire plant
Of the text had a fragrance gracious to
all. The vineyards of En-gedi bathed
in 1.-THE branches, the buds, the
blossoms, dripping with sweetness,
typical Of the sweetness Of Christ.
"TIow sweet the name Of Jesus sounps,
In q believers earl
II sooths his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear"
But how shall | talk OF the sweet
nest of Christ's pardon to those who
have never felt it; Of the sweetness OF
Ills comfort to those who have refused
his promise; of the sweetness of his
face TO those who have turned their
back to His lovep Now, great many
people may think this is merely sickl,
sentimentalism. Jonathan Edwards
Was a cool man. He was harsh in