Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-24

Bartimeus he laid the corner stone of
every blind asylum that has ever been
established. When Christ soothcd the
demoDaic Of Galilee He laid the corner
stone Of every %lunatic asylum that has
ever been established. When Christ
said to the SICK man: Take up thy
bed N d walk he laid the corner stone
of every hospital the world has ever
seen. When Christ said: 81 was IN
prison and We visited Me-" he laid the
corner stone of every prison reform as
~sscIaiion that has ever been formed.
The Church of Christ is a glorious gar
den. and it 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. | know
there arc some crab apple trees that
ought to be cut down. | know there
are some wild grapes that ought to be
%uprooted; but are you going to destroy
the whole garden because OF a little
gnarled fruit? You will find worm
eaten leaves in
FONTAINEBLEAU,
and insects that sting in the fairy
groves of the Champs-Elysces. You
do not tear down and destroy the whole
garden because there are a few speci-
mems of gnarled fruit, | admit there
are men and women in the church who
ought not TO be there; but let us be
just as t. snk and admit the fact that
there are hundreds and thousands and
tens of thousands of glorious Christian
men and women-holy, blessed. use
ful, consecrated, and triumphant. There
is no Srander collection in all the earth
than the collection of Christians.
There are Christian men in this house
whose religion is not n matter
Of psalm singing and church going.
Tomorrow morning that religion will
keep them just as consistent and con
secrated in their worldly occupation, ~
1t ever kept them at the communion
table. There are women here to-day
Of q higher type of character than Mary
of Bethany. They not only sit at the
feet of Christ, but they 60 out into the
kitchen TO help Martha with her work.
that she may sit there too. There is n
woman who has IA drunken husband,
who exhibited more faith and patience
and courage than Ridley in the fire.
He was consumed III twenty minutes.
Hers has been twenty years martyr
dom. Yonder is a man who has been
fifteen years on his back, unable oven
to feed himself, yet calm and peaceful
as though he lay on one of the green
banks of heaven, watching the oars
men dip their paddles in the
CRYSTAL RIVER!
Why, it seems to me this moment
rs if st. Paul threw 10 ne n pomolo-
gist's catalogue of the fruits growing
in this great garden of Christ-love.
JOY, peace, patience, charity, brotherly
kindness, gentloness, mercy; glorious
fruit, enough to fill all the baskets Of
earth and heaven.
| have not told you of the better tree
in this garden and of the better fruit.
It was planted just outside Jerusalem
a good while ago. When that tree was
and barked, men said nothing would
ever grow upon it; but no sooner had
that tree been planted than it budded.
and bloSSomed, and fruitcd. and the
soldiers spears were only the clubs
that struck down that fruit, and it fell
into the lap of the nations, and men
began to pick it up and eat it; and they
found in it an antidote to all thirst. to
al poison. to all sin, to all dcath-the
smallest cluster larger than the famous
one of
which two men carried on a staff be-
tween them. If the one apple in Eden
killed the race, this one cluster of
mercy shall restore it.
Again: The church in my text is
| appropriately 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 desert, yet blooming and
luxuriant. All around was dcarth and
~barrenness; but there were pipes,
aqueducts, reaching from this garden
up to the mountains, and through those
| aQucducts the water came streaming
down and tossing up into beautiful
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 desert of sin
and suffering; but it is well irrigated.
for, ''our eyes are unto the hills from
whence cometh our help From
the mountains of
COPS STRENGTH
there flow down rivers of %gladness.
There is a river the stream whereof
shall make glad the city of our God"
Preaching the gospel is n Of these
aqueducts. The Bible is another. Bap-
tism and the Lords supper are aque-
ducts. Water to slake the thirst. water
to wash the unclean, water tossed high
up in the light of the u of righteous
ness, showing us the rainbow around
the throne. ., was there ever n garden
so thoroughly irrigated? You know
that the beauty of Versailles and Chats
worth depends very much upon the
great supply of water. came to the
latter place, ~Chatsworth, N day when
strangers are not to be admitted; but
by an inducement which always seemed
as applicable to an Englishman rs IN
American, | got in, and then the gard
ener went far up above the stairs o.