Connecticut western news., 1896-04-30
THE CHURCH GARDEN
REV. oR. TALMAeE DESCRIBES ITS
 MANY BEAUTIES.

REV. oR. TALMAeE DESCRIBES ITS
 MANY BEAUTIES.
 He says Christ Bought It. He Planted It
 and He Owns It-Flowers and Fruit
 That May Be Found In It-Hortatory
 Cloaing Words. -. .a
 WAsHNaToN, April s6. As the parks in Washington are abloom with Aya- oinths and the gardens are being made the simile dominant in this subject is very suggestive and practical. Dr. Tal- mage's text was Isaiah lviii, II, ''Thou shalt be like a watered garden"
 The Bible is great poem. We have in it faultless rhythm and bold imagery and startling antithesis and rapturous lyric and sweet pastoral and instructive narrative and devotional psalm. thoughts expressed ia style more solemn 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 gems of the earth into its coronet and 1t weaves the flames of judgment into it's garlands, and pours eternal harmonies in its rhythm. Everything this book touches it makes beautiful, from the plain stones of the summer thrashing floor to the daughters of Manor filling the trough for the camels, from the fish pools of Heshbon up to the psalmist praising God with the diapason of storm and whirlwind, and Jobs imagery of Orion, Arcturus and the Pleiades.
 The Church.
 My text leads us into a scene of sum- mer redolence The world has had a great many beautiful gardens. Charle- 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 " at Montpelier estab- lished 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 impres- sion on the world, but his garden, 1.-The Leasowers" " will be immortal To the natural advantage 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 foliage. There was no life more diligent, no soul more ingenious, than that of Shenstone, 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 e17, 1000. And yet am to tell you today of richer garden than any I have mentioned It is the garden spoken of in my text, the garden of the church, which belongs to Christ. He bought it, he 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 inn agine that you see the blood of that old mans broken heart The payment of the last e100, 900 sacrificed him. But I have to tell you that Christ's life and Christ's death were the outlay of this beautiful garden of the church of which my text speaks. Oh, how many sighs and tears and bangs and agoniesi Tell me, ye women who saw him hangl Tell me, ye executioners who lifted him and let him down! Tell me, thou sun that didst hide. Ye rocks that fell Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. If the garden of the church belongs to Christ, certainly he has right to walk in 1t Come, then. O blessed Jesus, today, walk up and down these aisles and pluck what thou wilt of sweetness for myself.
 The church in my text is appropriate ly compared to garden because it is the place of choice flowers, of select fruits and of thorough irrigation. That would be @ strange garden in which there were no flowers If nowhere else, they would be along the borders or at the gateway. The homeliest taste will dictate something, if it be only the old fashioned hollyhock or dahlia or daffo- dil, but if there be larger means then you will find the Mexican cactus, and blazing azalea, and clustering oleander. We'll, now, Christ comes to his garden, and he plants there some of the brightest spirits that ever lowered upon the world Some of them are violets, inconspicuous, but sweet as heaven. You have to search and find them. You do not see them g 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 cur tains keeping out the glare of the sun light They are perhaps more like the ranunculus, creeping sweetly along amid the thorns and briers of life, giving kiss for sting, and many 8 man who has had in his way some great black rock of trouble has found that they have cover ed it all over with fowery jasmine, rum ming in and out amid the crevices These flowers in Christ's garden are not, like the sunfower, gaudy in the light, but wherever darkness hovers over 8 soul that needs to be comforted there they stand, night blooming cereuses
 Thorny Plants.
 But in Christ 8 garden there are plants that may be better compared to the Mexican cactus-thorns without, loveli- ness within, men with sharp points oi character. They wound almost every one that touches them. They are hard tc handle Men pronounce them nothing but thorns, but Christ loves them not withstanding all their sharpnesses. Many man has had very hard ground to cultivate, and it has only been through severe trial he has raised even the small est crop of grace. A very harsh minister was talking to a very placid elder, and the placid elder said to the harsh min. lister, Doctor, I do wish you would control your temper. ''Ah, '" said the minister to the elder, 'I control mors temper in five minutes than you do ir five years. 1"
 If ia harder for soma men fn do rich