The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-05-10

the FaulS ana Martin L0JnerS1 the w &c
IFS, the John Knoxes-giants of battle
What in other men is a spark Ia them is
a confagration. When they pray, their
prayers take fire; when they suffer, they
sweat great drops of blood; when they
preach, it is a pentecost; when they fight.
it is a ThermOpyle; when they die, it is
martyrdom-giants of battle You say,
why have we not more Of them in the
church of Christ at this time" l answer
your question by asking another, why
have we not more Cromwells and Hum
boldts in the world?" God wants onlya
few giants of battle. They do their work,
and they do it well.
But find also in the church of God
plant that / shall call the snowdrop. Very
beautiful, but cold. 1t is very pure-pure
as the snowdrop, beautiful as the snow
drop and as cold as the snowdrop. No spe-
cial sympathy. That kind of man never
loses his patience He never weeps; ne
never fushes with anger; he never utters a
rash word. Always cold, always precise,
always passive-beautiful snowdrop. But
] don't like him. would rather have one
Giant of Battle than 1000 snowdrops.
Give me man who may make some mis-
takes 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 equilibrium. There
are snowdrops in all the .churches-men
without any sympathy. Very good. They
are in the garden of the Lord; therefore
know they ought to be there, but always
snowdrops.
THE CENTURY PLANT
You have seen in some places perhaps a
century plant. 1 do not suppose there is a
person in this house who has ever seen
more than one century plant in full bloom.
and when you see the century plant your
emotions are stirred. You look at it and
say, This flower has been gathering up LIS
beauty for whole century, and it will not
bloom again for another hundred years
Well, have TO tell you that in this garden
of the church spoken of in my text there is
a century plant.
1t has gathered up its bloom from all the
ages of eternity, and 10 centuries ago it put
forth it's glory. 1t is not only a century
plant, but a passion flower-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
Sure the whole earth would love him too.
Thou, the Christ of all the ages, hast gar
ments smelling of nlyrrh and aloes and cas-
STA out of the ivory palaces.
20 further and say the church of Christ
is appropriately compared to a garden be
cause of its thorough irrigation. There car
be no luXuriant garden without plenty of
water. | saw garden in the midst of the
desert amid the Rocky mountains. 1 said,
How is it possible you have so many flow
ers, so much rich fruit in desert for miles
arOund" 1 suppose some of you have seen
those gardens. Well, they told me they
had aqueducts and pipes reaching up to the
hills, and the SHOWS melted on the Sierra
Nevada and the Rocky mountains and then
poured down ~ water to those aqueducts,
and it kept the fields in great luxuriance.
And 1 thought TO myself-how like the gar
den of Christi All around 1.-THE barrenness
OF sin and the barrenness Of the world, but
our eyes are unto the hills, from whence
cometh our help. There j. river tho
streams whereof shall make glad the city Of
our God-the fountain of gardens 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.
TIRE STREAMS OF LEBANON.
wandered in a garden of Brazilian ca
shew nut, and saw the luxuriance OF those
gardens was helped by the abundant sup
ply of water. l came to it on a day when
strangers were not admitted, but by a
strange coincidence, at the moment l got in,
the kings chariot passed, and the gardener
went up on the hill and turned on the water,
no cfo
of stone until sunlight and wave in giee-
some wrestle tumbled at my feet. And so
it IS with this garden Of Christ. Everything
comes from above-pardon from above,
peace from above, comfort from above, sane
tificaSion from above. Streams from Leba-
non! 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 u wells of water and threescore and
ten palm trees. But | hear his sound at
| the garden gate. l hear the lifting of the
latch of the gate Who comes there? 1t 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, L come to help
thee; come to strengthen thee. Down to
] hoary hairs / will shelter thee; / Will give
I
/ not leave; / will never forsake thee. Peace,
! broken hearted old man, will be thy con
ISOLATION forever"
! And then Christ, the Gardener, comes up
another path of the garden, and he sees a
/ soul IL great trouble, and he says, flush,
/ 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 preserve thy soul" And then the
! Gardener comes up another path of the gar
/ den, and he comes where there are some
beautiful buds, and / say, stop, o Garden
er; do not break them off," But he breaks
them of, the beautiful buds, and see a
great fiutter among the leaves, and l won
der what he is doing, and he says: Il do not
come to destroy these flowers | am only
going TO plant them in higher terrace and
in the garden around my palace. ! have
come into my garden TO gather lilies. |
! must take back a whole cluster of rose
buds Peace, troubled soul; all shall be
we'll Suffer the little children to come un-
to me and forbid them not, for of such is the
kingdom Of heaven" Oh, glorious Garden
er of the church, Christ comes 10 it now,
and ne has a right to come. We look into
the face of the Gardener as he breaks off the
bud, and we say, Thou art worthy TO have
them; thy will be done."' The hardest
prayer bereaved father or mother ever ut
tered-"Thy will be done"
But you have noticed that around every
kings garden there is high wall You
may have stood at the wall of a kings
cOurt aud fhouoht "HoU I would liIra m