Connecticut western news., 1894-07-05


 In the music of their life they have no staccato passages. Christ planted them in the church, and they must be of some service. or they would not be there. Snowdrops, always snowdrops.
 But have not told you of the most beautiful flower in all this garden spo- ken of in the text. If you see century plant, your emotions are started. You say, "Why, this flower has been a hundred years gathering mp for one bloom, and it will be hundred years more before other petals will come out. Y" But I have to tell you of plant that was gathering up from all eternity, and that l, ,90e years ago put forth its bloom never to wither It is the passion flower of the cross! Prophets foretold it. Bethlehem shepherds looked upon it in the bud, the rocks shook at its bursting and the dead got up ill their winding sheets to see its full bloom. It is crimson flower-blood at the roots, blood on the branches, blood on all the leaves. Its perfume is to fill all the nations. Its touch is life. Its breath is heaven. Come, O winds, from the north, and winds from the south, and winds from the east, and wiltds from the west, and bear to all the earth the sweet smelling savor of Christ, my Lord
 Hir worth, if all the nations knew,
 Sure the whole earth would love him too.
 Fluff of Fruit.
 Again, the church may be appropri- A11-- X, :, f is place of select fruits. That would be strange garden which had in it no berries, no plums, no peaches or apricots The coarser fruits are planted in the orchard, or they are set out on the sunny hillside, but the choicest fruits are kept in the garden. So ill the world outside the church Christ has planted a great many beautiful things - patience, charity, generosity, integrity-but he intends the choicest fruits to be ill the garden, and if they are not there then shame on the church. Religion is not mere flower Ing sentimentality. It is a practical life giving, healthful fruit-not posies, but apples. "Oh" says somebody, II don't see what your garden of the church has yielded" Where did your asylums come from, and your hospitals, and your institutions of mercy? Christ planted every one of them; he planted them ill his garden. When Christ gave sight to Bartimeus, he laid the corner stone of every blind asylum that has ever been built. When Christ soothed the demoniac of Galilee, he laid the cor nerstone of every lunatic asylum that has ever been established. When Christ said to the sick man, ''Take up thy bed and walkr' he laid the cornerstone of every hospital the world has ever seen. When Christ said, II was i'll prison, and ye visited me, !" he laid the corner stone of every prison reform association that has ever been formed. The church of Christ is glorious garden, and it is full of fruit. know there is some poor fruit ill 1t. know there are some weeds that ought to have been thrown over the fence I know there are some crabapple trees that ought to be cut down. 1 know there are some wild grapes that ought to be uprooted, but are you going to de- stroy the whole garden because of a lit tie gnarled fruit? You will find worm eaten leaves in Fontainebleau and in- sects that sting in the fairy groves of the Champs Elysees. You do not tear down and destroy the whole garden because there are few specimens of gnarled fruit. I admit there are men and wom en in the church who ought not to be there, but let us be just as frank and admit the fact that there are hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of glorious Christian men and women, holy, blessed, useful, consecrated and trium- phant. There is no grander collection in all the earth than the collection of Christians.
 Catalogue of Fruits.
 There are Christian men in the church whose religion is not matter of psalm singing and church going. Tomorrow morning that religion will keep them just as consistent and consecrated on exchange" as it ever kept them at the communion table. There are women in the church of higher type of character than Mary of Bethany. They not only sit at the feet of Christ, but they go out into the kitchen to help Martha in her work, that she may sit there too. There is a woman who has drunken husband, who has exhibited more faith and pa tience and courage than Hugh Latimer i'll the fire. He was consumed in 20 minutes. Hers has been a 20 years martyrdom. Wonder is man who has lain 15 years on his back, unable even to feed himself, yet calm and peaceful as thongh he lay on one of the green banks of heaven watching the oarsmen dip their paddles in the crystal riverl Why, it seems to me this moment as if Paul threw to us a pomologist's cata- logue of the fruits growing in this great garden of Christ-love, joy, peace, pa tience, charity, brotherly kindness, gen. tleness, lnercy-glorious fruit, enough to fill all the baskets of earth and heaven.
 I have not told you of the better tree ill this garden and of the better fruit. It was planted just outside Jerusalem a good while ago. When that tree was planted, it was so split and bruised and parked men said nothing would ever grow upon it, but no sooner had that tree been planted than it budded and blossomed and fruited, and the soldiers spears were only the clubs that struck down that fruit, and it fell into the lap of the nations, and men began to pick it up and eat it, and they found in it an antidote to all thirst, to all poison, to all sin, to all death-the smallest clus- ter. larger than the famous one of Esh- col, which two men carried on staff between them. If the one apple ill Eden killed the race, this one cluster of mercy shall restore.
 Water For the Garden.
 Again, the church, in my text, is ap- propriately called garden because it is thoroughly irrigated. No garden could prosper long without plenty of water. have seen a garden in the midst of 8 desert, yet blooming and luxuriant. All around were dearth and barrenness, but there were pipes, aqueducts reach ing from this garden up to the noun tains, and through those aqueducts the water came streaming down and tossing int haanfffy,1