The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-05-19

thC IOllONlHk cCElnOn Ou MAY AIuC
Thoughts for publication during his
recent visit to Philadelphia on the oc-
casion of the ordination of his son, Rev.
Frank Talmage. 1t is based. on the
text:
fountain OF gardens. a well OF living.waters,
and streams from Lebanon.-Solomon's Song.
fv, 15
Some of the finest gardens of olden
times were to be found at the foot of
Mount Lebanon. Snow descended, and
winter whitened the top of the noun
tain; then, when the warm spring
weather came, the SHOWS melted and
poured down the side of the mountain
side 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 gardens and streams
from Lebanon.
Again and again the church is repre-
sented as a garden, all up and down
the Word of God, and it is a figure spe-
cially suggestive at this season of the
year, when the parks and the orchards
are about to put forth their blossoms,
and the air is filed with bird voices.
A mother wished to impress her child
with the love of God, and so, in the
spring-time, after the ground had been
prepared in the garden, she took a
handful of flower seed and scattered
these seeds in the shape of letters all
across the bed of the garden. Weeks
passed by, and the rains and the sun
shine had done their work, and one
day the child came in and said: "Moth-
er, come quickly to the garden-come
now" The mother followed the child
to the garden, and the little child said:
"Look here, mother! See, it is spelt all
over the grounds 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 sparkles on the
wave, lessons in stars on the sky, les
sons in flowers all over the earth.
Well, my friends, you know very well
that there have been some beautiful
gardens created. There was the gar
den of Charlemagne, and you remem-
Der 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 gar
dens. Henry ~, at Montpelier, de-
creed that there. should be flowers
planted throughout his realm and gar
dens laid out, and he specially decreed
that there should be Alpine pyrena and
French plants. Shenstone, 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 per-
fection 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 rich
est woods of the forest were planted in
that garden. He had genius and he
had industry, and all his genius and
all his industry he applied to the beau
tifcation of that garden. He gave for
it fifteen hundred dollars and he sold
it at last for eighty-fve thousand dol
lars. or what was equal to that num-
ber OF dollars. 1t was an expensive
garden, laid out with great elabora-
tion. And yet have to tell you now
of garden of vaster expense-the gar
den spoken of in my text-a fountain
of gardens with a stream from Leb-
anon.
Walter Scott had the great am
bition 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 de-
sired it. At his last payment of one hun
dred thousand pounds, after laying out
those gardens, and building that pal
ace at Abbotsford, at that time his
heart broke, his health failed, and he
died almost an imbecile.
A few years ago when / walked
though those gardens, and
thought at what vast expense they had
been laid out, at the expense of that
mans life, it seemed 1 could see in the
crimson flowers the blood of the old
mans broken heart. But have to tell
you now of a garden laid out at a vaster
expense-who can calculate that vast
expense. Tell me, We women who
watched Him hang; tell me execution
ers who lifted and let Him down; tell
me, thou sun that didst hide, and ye
rocks that did fall, what the laying out
of this garden cost? This morning,
amid the aroma and brightness of the
spring time, it is appropriate that /
show you how the Church of Christ is a
garden
/ remark, first, it is garden because
of the rare plants in it. That would be
a strange garden in which there were
no flowers. If you can not find them
anywhere else, you will find them at
the gateway.
If there be no especial taste and no
especial means, you viii find there the
hollyhock, and the daffodil, and the
dahlia. If there be no especial means,
YOU will find the Mexican cactus, and the
bluebell, and the arbutus, and the clus-
tiers of oleanders.
Flowers there must be in every gar
den, and have to tell you that in the
garden of the church are the rarest
plants. Sometimes you will find the
violet, inconspicuous, but sweet as
Heaven-Christian souls, with no pre-
tense, but of vast usefulness, compare
lively unknown on earth, but to be
glorious in celestial spheres. Violets
and violets all the time. You can not
tell where these Christians have been,
save by the Frightening face of the in
valid, or the steaming tureen on 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 better typihed
by the ranunculus which goes creeping
between the thorns and the briars of
this life, giving kiss for sting and