The free press., 1893-05-25
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
rHE RROOKLYN DIVINE's SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject, "Maytime Thoughts"

banon. Snow descended. and winter Whitened
! the top of the mountain. Then when the
| warm spring weather came the SHOWS melted
| and poured down the side OF the mountain
and gave great luxuriance to the gardens at
the foot, and you see now the allusion OF my
text when it speaks OF the fountain of gar
dens and streams from Lebanon.
| Again and again the church is represented
as a garden all upand down the word Of God,
and it is figure specially suggestive at this
season of the year, when the parks and the
orchards are about to put forth their blossom
and the air is filed with bird voices.
A mother wished to impress her child with
| the love OF God. and 50 in the spring-time,
after the ground had been prepared in the
garden, she took handful of flower seeds
and scattered these seeds in shape of letters
| all across the bed of the garden. Weeks passed
| by, and the rains and the sunshine had done
their work, and one day the child came in
| and said, Mother come quickly to the gar
den-come now" The mother followed the
child to the garden and the little child said Z.
| look here. mother. See 1t is spelled all
| over the ground in flowers, God is Love"
Oh, my friends, if we only had faith
enough we could see Gospel lessons all
around and about us-lessons in shells on
| the beach, lessons in sparldes on the wave,
lessons in stars on the sky, lessons in flowers
| all over the earth
Well, my friends you know very well that
lHeTe nave Deen some beautiful gardens
created. There was the garden of Charlie
| magne. and you remember that this king
| ordered gardens laid out all through the
| realm and decided by decree Of government
what kind of flowers should be planted in
| those gardens. Henry w. at Montpelier
| decreed that there should be flowers planted
throughout his realm and gardens laid out,
and he specially decreed that there should be
Alpine pyrana and French plants. Shen-
stone, the poet was more celebrated for his
gardens than for his poetry. His poetry
has faded from the ages for the most part,
but his gardens are immortal. To all the
beauty of his place he added perfection of
art. Palisade and arch and arbor and
fountain and rustic temple had their
most wonderful specimens, and the oak,
and the hazel. and the richest woods of the
forest were planted in that garden. He had
genius. and he had industry, and all his gen
ius and all his industry he applied to the
beautlfication of that garden. He gave for
1t $500, and he sold it at last for SS5, 900, or
what was equal to that number of dollars.
1t was an expensive garden, laid out with
great elaboration. And yet haveto tell you
now OF garden of vaster expanse-the gar
den spoken OF in my text-a fountain of gar
dens with the streams from Lebanon.
Walter Scott had the great ambition of his
life to build Abbotsford and lay out extensive
gardens round about it. 1t broke his heart
that he could not complete the work as he
desired it. At his last payment of G100. 900,
after laying out these gardens and building
that palace of Abbotsford at that time his
heart broke his health failed. and he died
Utmost an inbecile.
A few years ago, when I walked through
those gardens and thought at what vast ex-
pense they had been laid out-at the expense
of that mans life-it seemed / could see in
the crimson flowers the blood of the old
mans broken heart. But l have to tell you
now of garden laid out at vaster expense.
Who can calculate that vast expense? Tell
me, ye women who watched Him hang tell
me, ye eXecutioners who lifted and let Him
down tell me, thou sun that didst hide and
yerocks that did fall, what the laying out of
this garden cost. This morning, amid the
aroma and brightness of the springtime, it is
appropriate that ! show you how the church
OF Christ is a garden.
remark first it is a garden because of the
rare plants in it. That would be a strange
garden in which there were no flowers. If
you cannot find them anywhere else, you will
find them along the paths, and you will find
them at the gateway.
If there be no especial taste and no es,
pecial means, you will find there the holly
hook, and the daffodil and the dahlia. If
there be no especial taste and no especial
means you will find the Mexican cactus, and
the bluebell, and the arbutus, and the clus-
tiers of oleanders.
IiONtlS tneTb must De III every pdruen, ana
/ have to tell you that in the garden of the
church are the rarest plants. Sometimes
you Will lind the violet, incOnspicuous, but
sweet as heaYen-Christian souls with no pre-
tense, but OF vast usefulness, comparatively
unknown on eartn, but to he glorious in
celestial spheres. Yiolets and violets all the
| time. You cannot tell where these Christians
have been save by the Frightening face of the
invalid, or the steaming tureen of the stand
near the sick pillow. or the new curtain that
keeps out the glare of the sun from the poor
mans cot. Such characters are perhaps bet
ter typliied ly the ranunculus which goes
creeping between the thOrns and the briers OF
| this life, giving kiss Tor u sting, and many
Il man has thought that life before him was a
| black rock OF trouble and found it covered
all over with delightsome jasmine of Chris
| tian sympathy.
In this garden OF the Lord | find the Mexi-
can cactus, loyeliness Within thorns with
out, men with great sharpness OF behavior
and manner, but within them the peace of
God the love of God, the grace of God,
They are hard men to handle ugly men to
touch, very apt to strike back when you
strike them, yet within them all loveliness
and attraction, while outside so completely
unfortunate. Mexican cactus all the time.
Said placid elder to n Christian minister,
'Doctor, you would do better to control your
temper. "Ah," said the minister to the
placid elder, Il control more temper in five
minutes than you do in five years" These
| people, gifted men, who have great exaspera-
tion of manner and seem to be very different
from what they should be. really have in
their souls that which commends them to the
Lord. Mexican cactus all the time So IA
man said to me years ago 'Do you think
ought to become a member of the church?
have such violent temper.
Yesterday l was crossing Jersey CITY
Terry. 1t was very early in the morning. and
saw milkman putting large quantity of
water INTO his can, and l said That is
enough, sir, and he got off the cart and in
suited me, and [ Knocked him down. Well"
said he, do you think could ever become
Christian" That man had in his soul the
grace of the Lord Jesus, but outside ne was
full of thorns and full of brambles. and full
of exasperations, but he could not hear the
story OF a Saviour mercy told without hay-
ing the tears roll down his cheek. There was
loveliness within, but roughness outside
Mexican cactus all the time.
But remember in boyhood that we had in
our fathers garden what we called the Giant
OF Battle, peculiar rose, very red and very
fiery. Suggestive flower, it was called the
Giant OF Battle. And so in the garden OF tho
ford we find that KIND of hower-the Pauls
and Martin Luthers, the Wyclifs the John