The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-05-13
MAYTIME THOUGHTS.
Or. Talmage Sends Out a Seasonal
BILE Sermon.

Season.
PHILADELPHIA, May Rev. DR.. Tai
mage is in this city today participating
BON. Rev. Frank Talmage, to the minis
try. He has dictated the following SER
mon on timely and seasonable topic,
MAY time Thoughts" the text selected
being the beautiful words of Solomon's
Song iv, Is, "A fountain of gardens,
well of living I aaers and streams from
Lebsaau:"
| 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 mountain.
Then when the warm spring weather
came the SHOWS melted and poured down
the side of the mountain and gave great
luxuriance to the gardens at the foot,
and you see now the allusion Of my text
when 1t speaks of the fountain of gardens
and streams from Lebanon.
i Again and again the church is repre-
scented as a garden all up and down the
word Of God, and it is figure specially
suggestive at this season of the year,
when the parks and the orchards are
about to put forth their blossom 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 seeds and scattered these seeds in
the shape of letters all across the bed Of
the garden. Weeks passed by, and the
rains and the sunshine had done their
work, and one day the child came in and
said. Mother. come quickly to the gar
den-come now The mother followed
the child to the garden, and the little
child said: Look here, mother. See! It
is spelled all over the ground in flowers,
God Is Love-"
GOD IN EVERYTHING.
+ 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, lessons
in flowers all over the earth.
Well. my friends, you know very well
that there have been some beautiful gar
dens created There was the garden Of
Charlemagne, and you remember that
this king ordered gardens laid out all
through the realm and decided by de-
cree of government what kind of flowers
should be planted in those gardens
Henry ~ at Montpelier decreed that
there should be flowers planted through
out his realm and gardens laid out, and
he specially decreed that there should be
Alpine pyrena and French plants. Shen-
stone, the poet, was more celebrated for
lis gardens than for his poetry. His po-
etry has faded from the ages for the most
part, but his gardens are immortal. To all
the beauty of his place he added perfec-
ton 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 richest 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 Identification of that gar
den. He gave for it 81 800, and he sold
it at last for $85.000 or what was equal
to that number of dollars. It was an
expensive garden, laid out with great
elaboration. And yet | have to tell you
now of garden of ,vaster expense-the
garden spoken of in my text-a fountain
of gardens with the streams from Leba-
non.
Walter Scott had the great ambition
of his life to build Abbotsford and lay
out extensive gardens round about it, It
broke his heart that he could not COM
plete the work as he desired it. At his
last payment of e100, 900, after laying
out these gardens and building that pal
ace of Abbotsford. at that time his heart
broke, his health failed, and he died al
most an imbecile.
THE GARDEN OF DELIGHTS.
A few years age, when walked through
those gardens and I thought at what
vast expense they had been laid out-at
the expense of that mans life-it seemed
] could see in the crimson flowers the
blood of the old mans broken heart.
But have to tell you now Of garden
laid ont at vaster expense. Who can
calculate that vast expense? Tell me,
ye women who watched him hang;
hell me, ye executioners 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 springti1ne, it is appro-
pirate that | show you how the church
of Christ is garden.
remark first it is garden because OF
the rare plants in it. That would be a
strange garden in which there were nc
flowers. II you cannot find them any
where else, you will find them along the
paths, and you will find them at the
gateway.
If there be no especial taste and no es
pecial means, you will find there the
hollyhock, and the daffodil, and the dab
Ga. IL there be no especial taste and nc
especial means, you will find the Mexican
cactus, and the bluebell and the arbutus
end the clusters 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