The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-05-08
THE GARDEN OF GOD.
Rev. DR.. Talmage breaches a Spring
Time Sermon.
thoughts Suggested by the Unfolding
Beauties of the Floral Kingdom
The Season of Flowers sug-
fFati the Garden of God.

BdbAOn- ne ICAS WdSs
Thou shalt be like ~atered garden.-Isaiah
1viii., II.
The Bible is a great poem. We have
in it faultless rhythm and bold inn
agery and startling antithesis and
rapturous lyric and sweet pastoral and
instructive narrative and devotional
psalm; thoughts expressed in style
more solemn than that of Montgom-
cry, more bold than that of Milton,
more terrible than that of Dante, more
natural than that of Wordsworth,
more impassi0ned than that of Pol
lock, more tender than that of Cow
per, more weired- than that of Spen-
ser.
This great poem brings all the gems
of the earth into its coronet, and it
weavcs the flames of Judgment into its
garlands, and pours eternal harmonies
in its rhythm. Everything this book
touches it makes beautiful, from the
plain stones of the summer threshing
floor to the daughters of Major filing
the trough for the camels; from the
fish-pools of Heshbon up to the psalm
list praising God with the diapason of
storm and whirlwind, and Jobs
imagery of Orion, Arcturus and the
Pleiades.
My text leads us into a sene OF sum-
mer redolence. The world has had
great many beautiful gardens. Charlie
magne added to the glory of his reign
by decreeing that they be established
all through the realm-deciding even
the names of the flowers to be planted
there. Henry W., at Montpelier, es-
tablished gardens of bewitching
beauty and luxuriance, gathering into
them Alpine, Pyrenean and French
plants. One of the sweetest spots on
earth was the garden of Shenstone,
the poet. His writings have made but
little impression on the world; but his
garden, 1.-The Leasowes," will be inn
mortal. To the natural advantage
of that place was brought the per-
fectidn of art. Arbor and terrace and
slope, and rustic temple, and reservoir,
and urn, and fountain here had their
browning. Oak and yew and hazel put
forth richest foliage. There was no
life more diligent, no soul more in
genious, than that of Shenstone, and
all that diligence and, genius be
broue hit to the adornment of that one
treasured spot. He gave e3OO for it;
he sold 1t for $4,000. And yet l am
to tell you to-day of a richer garden
than any have mentioned. 1t is the
garden of the church, which belongs
to Christ. He bought it, He planted
1t, He owns it, and He shall have it.
Walter Scott, in his outlay at Abbots-
ford, ruined his fortune; and now, in
the cromson flowers of those gardens,
you can almost think or imagine that
you see the blood of that old mans
broken heart. The payment of the
last 100000 sacrificed him. But /
have to tell you that Christ's death
were the outlay of this beautiful
garden of the church, of which my
text speaks, Oh, how many sigh and
tears and pangs and agonies! Tell me,
We women who saw Him hang! Tell
me We executioners who lifted Him
and let Him down. Tell me, thou sun
Christ loved the church and gave Him
self for it. If the garden of the
church belongs to Christ, certainly He
has right to walk in it. Come, then,
o blessed Jesus, to-day; walk up and
down these aisles, and pluck what
Thou wilt of sweetness for Thyself.
The church in my text, is appropri
ately compared to a garden, because it
is the place of choice flowers, of select
fruits, and of thorough irrigation.
That would be a strange garden in
which there were no flowers. If no.
where else, they would be along the
hnr "a ~ hn tat Nhoh cn
lest taste will dictate something, if IL
be only the old-fashioned hollyhock,
or dahlia, or daffodil; but If there be
larger means, then you will find the
Mexican cactus, and blazing azalea,
and clustering oleander. Well, now,
Christ comes to His garden and He
plants there some of the brightest
spirits that ever Powered upon the
world. Some of them are viOlets, in
conspicuous, but as sweet as Heaven.
You have to search and find
them. You do not see them very
often, perhaps, but you find
where they have been by the bright
ened face of the invalid, and the sprig
of geranium on the stand, and the new
window curtains keeping out the glare
of the sunlight. They are, perhaps,
more like the ranunculus, creeping
sweetly along amid the thorns and
briars of life, giving kiss for sting;
and many a man who has had in his
way some great black rock of trouble,
has found that they have covered it all
over with fowery jasmine, running in
and out amid the crevices. These flow
ers in Christ's garden are not, like the
sunhower, gaudy in the light, but
wherever darkness hovers over a soul
that needs to be comforted, there they
stand, night-blooning cereuses.
But in Christ's garden there are
plants that may be better compared to
the Mexican cactus-thorns without,
loneliness within; men with sharp
points of character. They wound al
most everyone that touches them.
They are hard to handle. Men pro-
nounce them nothing but thorns, but
Christ loves them notwithstanding all
their sharpness Many a man has had
very hard ground to cultivate, and it
has only been through severe trial he
has raised even the smallest crop of
grace. A very harsh minister was
talking to very placid elder, and the
placid elder said to the harsh minis
ter: Doctor, 1 do wish you would
control your temper" All" said the
minister to the elder: 81 control
more temper in FIVE minutes than you
do in Ave years"
1t is harder for some men to do right
than for other men TO do right. The
grace that would elevate you to the