The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-05-01
NEVER FEAR DROUGHT
The Bible Says: "Thou Shalt Be
Like a Watered Garden"
The Text from Which Rev. DIR. Taimage
Preached His Latest Sermon-The
Church a Place of Fruits
and FiowerA

In recent sermon at Washington
Rev T. De Witt Talmage preached on
a subject appropriate to the season,
the simile dominant in the sermon,
"The Garden of God" being very sug-
gestive and practical His text was:
Isaiah lviii:11. Thou shalt be like a
watered garden" He said:
The Bible is great poem. We have
in it faultless rhythm and bold imagery
and startling antithesis and rapturous
lyric and sweet pastoral and instruct
i've narrative and devotional psalm;
thoughts expressed in style more SOL
emn than that of Montgomery, more
bold than that of Milton, more terri
BILE than that of Dante, more natural
than that of Wordsworth, more inn
passioned than that of Pollock, more
tender than that of Cowper, more
weird than that of Speuser.
This great poem brings all the gems
of the earth into its coronet, and it
weaves 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 filling
the trough for the camels; from the
fish pools of Heshbon up to the Psalmist
storm and whirlwind, and Jobs i'm
agery of Orion, Arcturus and the
Pleiades
My text leads us into a scene of sum-
mer Incidence. The world has had a
great many beautiful gardens. Char
lemange added to the glory of his
reign by decreeing that they be estab-
lished all through the realm-deciding
even the names of the flowers to be
planted there. Henry w., at Mont
pelier, established gardens of bewitch-
ing 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 lit
tie impression on the world; but his
garden THE Leasowes," will be i'm
mortal. To the natural advantage of
that place was brought the perfection
rustic temple aud reservoir and urn and
fountain here had their browning. 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 a3O0 for it; he sold it for ei7,.
oO0 And yet am to tell you to-day
of richer garden than any 1 have
mentioned. 1t is the garden spoken OF
in my text, the garden of the church,
which belongs to Christ. He bought
1t, He planted it, He owns it, and He
shall have it. Walter Scott, in his out.
lay 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
e1OO, 600 sacrificed him. But l 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 signs 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 that didst hide; we rocks that fell
Christ loved the church and gave Him
self 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 a garden, because it
is the place of choice flowers, of select
fruits and of thorough irrigation.
which there were no flowers. If no
where else, they would be along the
borders or at the gateway. The home
liest taste will dictate something, if it
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
DldQIS IHcTc oOuC VI InC hbCoG
spirits that ever lowered upon the
world. Some of them are violets, in
conspicuous, but 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
Iened 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 fiowery jasmine, running in
and out amid the crevices. These flow
ers in Christ's garden are not, like the
sunfower, gaudy in the light, but
wherever darkness hovers over soul
that needs to be comforted, there they
stand, night-blooming cereuses.
But in Christ's garden there are