Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-05-13

me they had aqueducts and pipes
reaching up to the hill, and
the SHOWS melted on the Sierra
Nevada and the Rocky mountains,
and then poured down in water to
those aqueducts, and it kept the fields
in great luXuriance. And l thought to
myself, how like the garden of Christ.
All around it the barrenness of sin and
the barrenness of the world, but our
eyes are unto the hills, from whence
cometh our help. There is river, the
streams whereof shall make glad the
city of our God, the fountain of gar
dens and streams from Lebanon. Water
to slake the thirst, water to refresh the
fainting, water to wash the unclean,
water to toss up in fountains under the
sun of righteousness, until you can see
the rainbow around the throne.
wandered in garden of brazilian
cashewnut, and l saw the luNuriance
of those gardens were helped by the
abundant supply of water. ! came to
it on day when strangers We're not
admitted, but by n strange coincidence,
mt the moment got in the kings char
lot passed and the gardener went up on
the hill and turned on the water, and
it came flashing down the broad stairs
of stone, until sunlight and wave in
gleesome wrestle tumbled ut my feet.
And so It was with this Harden of
Christ. Everything comes from above
pardon from above. peace from
above, comfort from above, sancti-
fcation from above. Streams from
Lebanon. oh, the consolation in
this thought. Would God that the
gardeners turned on the fountain of
salvation until the place where we sit
and stand might become Elm with
twelve wells of water and three score
and ten palm trees But | hear his
sound at the garden gate: hear the
lifting of the latch of the gate. Who
comes there? II is the gardener, who
passes in through the garden gate. He
comes through this path of the garden,
and he comes to the aged man and he
says: ''Old man. come to help thee, l
come to strengthen thee. Down to
hoary hairs | will shelter thee. / will
give thee strength ut the time of old
age; ] will not leave; will never for
sake thee. Peace broken-hearted old
man. will be thy consolation forever"
And then Christ, the gardener, comes
up another path of the garden and he
sees soul in great trouble, and he
says: Hush. troubled spirit, the sun
shall not smite thee by day. nor the
moon by night; the Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil; the Lord shall pre-
serve thy soul" And then the garden
er comes up another path of the garden,
and he comes where there are some
beautiful buds, and | say. stop, oh
gardener. do not break them off" But
he breaks them off. the beautiful buds,
and / see great tiuttcr among the
leaves, and wonder what he
is doing, and he says. Il do
not come to destroy these flow
ers; ] am only going to plant
them in q higher terrace, and in the
garden around my palace. have come
into my garden to gather lilies. Unjust
take back whole cluster of rosebuas.
Peace, troubled soul. all shall be well.
Suffer the little children to come unto
me. and forbid them not, for of such is
the kingdom of Heaven" Oh, glorious
gardener of the church. Christ comes
to it now, and he has right to come.
We look into the face 81. the gardener
as he breaks off the bud, and we say:
Thou art worthy to have them; thy
will be done" The hardest prayer a
bereaved father or mother ever uttered
THY will be done"
But you have noticed that around
every kings garden there is high
wall. You may have stood ut the wall
of kings court and thought: Glow
| would like to see that garden"
and, while you were watching, the gar
dener opened the gate and the royal
equipage swept through it, and you
caught glimpse of the garden, but only
u glimpse. for then the gates closed.
bless God that this garden of Christ
has gates on NIL sides; that they are
opened by day. opened by night, and
whatsoever will may come in. Oh! how
many there are who die in the desert
who might revel in the garden! How
many there are who are seeking in the
garden of this world that satisfaction
which they can never find.
1t was so with Theodore Hook, who
made all nations laugh while he was
living. And yet Theodore Hook on n
certain day, when in the midst of his |
revelry he caught glimpse of his own
face and his own apparel in the mirror,
said: THAT is true. look just as I |
body, mind, soul and estate,
lost" And so it was with Shenstone
about his garden, of which / spoke in
the beginning of my sermon. He sat
down amid all its beauties and wrung
his hands and said: II have lost my
way to happiness, am frantic; hate