The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1896-04-29
CHRISTS GARDEN.
He Bought 1t, Planted 1t, and He
Shall Have It.
There are Many Bright Flowers There
Jesus Plucks the Sweet Blossoms
When He Chooses and Takes
Them to His Home
~ They are His Own.

Rev. DIR. Talmage's latest sermon
was very timely one. He compared
the church of Christ to a beautiful
garden, filled with the choicest bios
SONS and fruits, and he urged his
hearers to enter it. The text he chose
was: Isaiah IS: II: "Thou shalt be
like watered garden"
The Bible is great poem. We have
in it faultless rhy thin and bold imagery
and Startling antithesis and rapturous
lyric and sweet pastoral and instruc-
tive narrative and devotional psalm;
thoughts expressed in style more SOL
emn than that of Montgomery, more
bold than that of Milton, more terrible
than that of Dante, more natural than
that of Wordsworth, more impassioned
than that of Pollock, more tender than
that of Cowper, more weird than that
of Spenser.
This great poem brings all the genius
of the earth into it's coronet, and it
weaves the flames of Judgment into its
garlands, and pours eternal harmonies
into 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
ist praising God with the diapason of
storm and whirlwind and Jobs i'm
agery of Orion, Artcurus, and the
Pleiades.
My text leads us into scene of sum-
mer redolence. The world has had a
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 impress
sion on the world, but his garden, "The
Leasowes," will be immortal. To the
natural advantages of that place was
brought the perfection of art. Arbor
and terrace and slope and rustic temple
and reservoir and urn and fountain
here had their crowning. Oak and yew
and hazel put forth their richest fol-
iage.
There was no lif more diligent no
soul more ingenious, than that of Shen-
stone, and all that diligence and genius
he brought to the adornment of that
one treasured spot. He gave $500 for
it; he sold it for Ell, 900. And yet am
to tell you to-day of richer garden
than any / have mentioned. 1t is the
garden spoken of in my text, the gar
den of the church, which belongs to
Christ He bought it, planted it, He
owns it, and He shall have it. Walter
Scott, in his outlay at Abbotsford,
ruined his fortune; and now,' in the
crimson 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 e10O,-
900 sacrificed him. But l have to tell
you that Christ's life and Christ's death
were the outlay of this beautiful gar
den of the church, of which my text
speaks. Oh, how many sighs and tears
and pangs and agoniesl Tell me, We
women who saw Him hang! Tell me,
ye eXecutioners who lifted Him and lei
Him down! Tell me, thou sun that
didst hide; ye rocks that tell Christ
loved the church and gave Himself for
it. If the garden of the church belongs
to Christ, certainly He has a 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 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 nowhere else,
they would be along the borders or at
the gateway. The homeliest taste viii
dictate something, if it be only the old
fashioned hollyhock, or dahlia, or daf-
fodil; 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 bright
est spirits that ever fowered upon the
world Some of them are violets, in.
conspicuous, but sweet as Heaven. You
have to search and find them. You dc
not see them very often, perhaps, but
you find where they have been by the
frightened 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, Civ
ing kiss for sting; and many man
who has had in his way some great
black rock of trouble, has found that
they have covered it all over with flow
cry jasmine, running in and out amid
the crevices. These flowers in Christ's
garden are not, like the sunfower,
gaudy in the light, but wherever dark
ness hovers over soul that needs to
be comforted, there they stand, night
blooming cereuses
But in Christs garden there are plants
that may be better compared to the
Mexican cactus-thorns without, love-
] ness within; men with sharp points
of character. They wound almost
every one that touches them. They are
hard to handle. Men pronounce them
nothing but thorns, but Christ loves
them Notwithstanding all their sharp
ness. Many man has had very
hard ground to cultivate, and 1t has