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

| to it on day when strangers were not
admitted, but bv a stra nge coincidence
at the moment / got in the kings
chariot passed and the gardener went
| un on the hill AID turned ON the water,
and it came flashing down the broad
stairs of stone, until sunlight and wave
| in gleesome wrestle tumbled at my
| feet. And so it is with this garden
of Christ. Everything comes from
above-pardon from above, peace
from abve, comfort from above,
sanctification from above. Streams
from Lebanon, oh, the conso-
lation in this thought. Would God
that the gardeners turned on the foun-
tain 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 garden
| gate. Who comes there? 1t is the Gar
dener, who passes through the garden
gate. He comes through this path of
the garden, and He comes to the aged
man and says: ''Old man, come to
help thee, ! come to strengthen thee.
Down to hoary hairs l will shelter
thee. will give thee strength at the
| time of old age; / will not leave; l will
never forsake thee. Peace, broken
hearted old man, 1 will be thy consola-
tion forever"
And then Christ, the Gardener, comes
up another path of the garden, and He
sees a 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 Gardener
comes up another path of the garden,
and He comes where there are some
beautiful buds, and 1 say: ''Stop, oh
Gardener, do not break them off," But
He breaks them off, the beautiful buds,
and l see a great flutter among the
leaves, and / wonder what He is
doing, and He says: 81 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. / mnst
take back a whole cluster of roSebuds.
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 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 uttered
THY will be done"
But you have noticed that around
everp kings garden there is high
wall. You may have stood at the
wall of a kings court and thought:
''How / 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 a glimpse, for then the gates
closed.
1 bless God that this garden of Christ
has gates on all sides; that they are
opened by day, opened by night, and
whosoever 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 hnd.
1t was so with Theodore Hook, who
made all nations laugh while he was
living. And yet Theodore Hook on
certain day, when in the midst of his
revelry he caught glimpse of his own
face and his own apparel in the mir
ror, said: ''That is true. ! look just
as 1 am-lost, body, mind, soul
and estate, lost!'' And so it was
with Shenstone about his gar
den, of which l spoke in the beginning
of my sermon. He sat down amid all
its beauty and wrung his hands and
said: Il have lost my way to happiness,
am frantic; hate everything; hate
myself as mad man ought to-" Alas!
so many in the gardens of this world
are looking for that flower they can
never find except in the garden of
Christ.
Substantial comfort will not grow
In natures barren soil,
All we can boast till Christ we know
Is vanity and toll.
How many have tried all the foun-
tains of this worlds pleasure, but
never tasted of the stream from
Lebanon! How many have reveled in
other gardens, to their souls ruin,
but never plucled one flower from the
garden of our God! l swing open all
the gates of the garden and invite you
in, whatever your history, whatever
your sins, whatever your temptations,
whatever your trouble, The invitation
comes no more to one than to all:
"Whosoever will, let him come"
The flowers of earthly gardens soon
fade. but blessed be God, there are gar
lands that never wither, and through
the grace of Christ Jesus we may enter
into the joys which are provided for us
at Gods right hand. Oh! come into the
garden And remember, as the closing
thought, that God not only brings us
into a garden here, but it is a garden
all the way with those who trust and
love and serve Him, a garden all
through the struggles of this life,
garden all up the slope of Heaven.
There everlasting spring abides
And never-withering flowers.
Death. like narrow stream divides
That heavenly land from ours
MANY clergyman" says Mr.. Glad
stone, a good and kindly critic, will
think that if he has embodied in his
sermon piece of good divinity the deed
is done, the end of preaching is at
tanned. But the business of sermon
;c 70 move n G we'll as teach and If the