News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-05-11

ice 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 al
ways snowdrops.
You have seen in some places perhaps
a century plant. | 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 its beauty for whole CEN
fury, and it will not bloom again for an
other 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 it's bloom from all
the ages of eternity, and 10 centuries ago
it put forth its glory. 1t is not only
century plant, but q passion flower
the passion flower of Christ, 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 per-
fume of this flower through all nations.
His worth. if all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love him too.
Thou. the Christ of all the ages, hast
garments smelling Of myrrh and aloes
and cassia out of the ivory palaces.
A GARDEN IN THE DESERT.
| go further and say the church of
Christ is appropriately compared to
garden because of its thorough irriga-
ton. There can be no luxuriant garden
without plenty of water. saw garden
| In the midst of the desert amid the Rocky
mountains. | said, Chow is it possible
lou have so many flowers, so much rich
/ limit in II desert for miles around?" i
Ippose some of you have seen those
gardens. Well, they told me they had
nquaducts and pipes reaching up to the
! Ills, and the SHOWS melted on the Sierra
| Nevada and the Rocky mountains and
then poured down in water to those
lqueducts, and it kept the fields in great
luxuriance. And thought to myself
| low like the garden of Christi All
Iround 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 a river the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of our
God, the fountain of gardens and streams
from Lebanon. Water to slake the
Slirst, water to refresh the fainting,
water to wash the unclean, water to toss
I &c ,soI,4
Gousness until you can see the rainbow
around the throne.
WANDERED in a garden of Brazilian
cashew nut, and l saw the luxuriance of
those gardens was helped by the abun-
dant supply of water. came to it on
day when strangers were not admitted,
but by a strange coincidence, at the mo-
ment I got in, the kings chariot passed,
and the gardener went up on the hill and
turned on the water, and it came flash
ing 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 above, comfort from above, sane
LITIGATION from above. Streams from
Lebanon. Oh, the consolation in this
thought! Would God that the garden
ers turned on the fountain of salvation
until the place where we sit and stand
might become. Elm with 10 wells of
water and threescore and ten palm trees.
But l hear his sound at the garden gate.
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 gar
den, and he comes to the aged man, and
| he says: "Old man, come to help thee;
come to strengthen thee. Down to
hoary hairs l will shelter thee; l will
give thee strength at the time of old age.
[ will not leave; l will never forsake
thee. Peace, broken hearted old man; l
| will be thy consolation forever"
THE DIVINE GARDENER.
And then Christ, the Gardener, comes
up another path of the garden, and he
secs q 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 preserve thy
| soul" And then the Gardener comes up
another path of thegarden, and he comes
where there are some beautiful buds,
and l say, Stop, o Gardener; do not
break them Off" But he breaks them
off, the beautiful buds, and see a great
| futter among the leaves, and | wonder
what he is doing, and he says: II do not
come to destroy these flowers. l am
only going to plant them in a higher ter
race and in the garden around my pal
ace. | have come into my garden to
| gather lilies. | must take back 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 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 a bereaved father or
mother ever uttered-''Thyw will be done"
THE WALL OF DEFENSE.
But you have noticed that around ev-
cry kings garden there is a high wall.
| You may have stood at the wall of a
| kings court and thought, "How | would
like to see that gardenr' and while you
were watching the gardener opened the
| gate, and the royal equipage swept
through it, and you caught a glimpse of
the garden, but only glimpse, for then
| the gates closed
bless God that this garden of Christ
has gates on all 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
when they might revel in the gardept
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 liy-
ing. And yet Theodore Hook on a GER
| tain day, when i'll the midst of his rev.
elry he caught a glimpse of his own face
and his own apparel in the mirror, said:
THAT is true look just as 1 AMIDST.
body, mind, soul and estate, lost!" And
so it was with Shenstone about his gar
den, of which | spoke in the beginning
of my sermon. He sat down amid all its
beauty and wrung his hands and said.
II have lost my way to happiness: / am