The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-05-10
IT covered all over with delightsome
ieSsamine of Christian avnnathv.

1t covered all over with delightsome
jessamine of Christian sympathy.
In this garden Of the Lord find the
Mexican cactus, loveliness within,
thorns without, men with great sharp
ness OF behavior and manner, but with
in 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 COM
pletely unfortunate. Mexican cactus
all the time.
Said u placid elder to Christian min
lister: doctor, you would do better to
control your temper" "Ah" said the
the minister to the placid elder, 81 con-
troll more temper in five minutes than
you do in five years" Those 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 man said to me years ago, "Do
you think / ought to become men,
ber of the church, have such violent
temper?'
Yesterday was crossing Jersey
City Ferry. It was very early in the
morning, and saw millsman putting
large quantity of water into his can,
and said, That is enough, SIR and he
got off his cart and insulted me, and
knocked him down. We'll, said hes "do
you think could ever become Chris
tian%" That man had in his soul the
grace of the Lord Jesus, but outside he
was full Of thorns and full of brambles
and full Of exasperations; but he could
not hear the story of Saviour's mercy
told without having the tears roll
down his cheek. There was lovelines
within, but roughness outside. Mexi-
can cactus all the time.
But remember in boyhood that we
hud in our fathers garden what we
called the giant of battle, peculiar
rose, very red and very fiery, Sugges-
tive flower, it was called the giant Of
battle. And so in the garden of the
Lord we find that kind of fower-the
Pauls and Martin Luthers, the Wye
liffes, the John Knoxes-giants Of bat
tie. What in other men is spark, in
them is confagration; when they
pray, their prayers take fire. When
they suffer they sweat great drops Of
blood; when they preach it Is pente-
cost; when they fight it is Thermo-
pyl@; when they die il is martyrdom-
giants of battle, You say, "Why have
we not more OF them in the church of
Christ at this time?" answer your
question by asking another: "Why
have we not more Cromwells and Hum
boldts in the worldP" God wants only
a few giants of battle; they do their
work, and they do it we'll.
But find also in the church of God
a plant that shall call the snowdrop.
Very beautiful but cold; it is very pure,
pure as the snowdrop, beautiful as the
snowdrop and as cold as the snowdrop.
No special sympathy. That kind Of
man never loses his patience; he never
weeps, he never flashes with anger, he
never utters a rash word. Always cold,
always precise, always passive, beauti-
full snowdrop, but don't like him;
would rather have one giant Of battle
than five thousand snowdrops.
Give me a man who may make some
mistakes in his ardor for the Lords
service, rather than that kind of nature
which spends its whole life doing but
one thing, and that is keeping equilib-
rum. There are snowdrops in all the
churches-men without any sympathy.
Very good; they are in the garden of
Lord, therefore know they ought to
be there; but always snowdrops.
You have seen in some places, per-
haps, a century plant. do not sup
pose there is person in this house
who has ever seen more than one CEN
tury plant in full bloom, and when you
see the century plant your emotions
are stirred. You look at IL and say:
"This flower has been gathering up its
beauty for whole century, and 1t will
not bloom again for another hundred
years" Well, have to tell you that
in this garden of this church, spoken
of in my text, there is century plant.
1t has gathered up its bloom from all
the ages Of eternity, and nineteen CEN
turies ago it put forth its glory. It is
not only century plant, but passion
fower-the passion flower of Christ; a
crimson flower, blood at the root, and
blood on the leaves, the passion flower
of Jesus, the century plant of eternity.
Come, o winds from the north, and
winds from the south, and winds from
the east, and winds from the west, and
scatter the perfume of this flower
through all nations.
His worth, II all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him too
Thou, the Christ of all ages, hast gar
ments smelling Of myrrh and aloes and
cassia, out Of the ivory palaces.
go further, and say the church OF
Christ is appropriately compared to a
garden because Of its thorough irriga-
ton. There can be no luxuriant gar
den without plenty of water. saw a
garden in the midst of the desert, amid
the Rocky mountains. said: How is
1t possible you have so many flowers,
so much rich fruit in desert for miles
around2 suppose some Of you have
seen those gardens. Well, they told me
they had aqueducts and pipes reach
ing up to the hills, and the snow melted