The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-05-08


over the high, broad stairs it came
foaming, flashing, roaring down, until
sunlight and wave in gleesome wrestle
tumbled at my feet. So it is with the
church of God. Everything comes
from above; pardon from above, joy
from above, adoption from above,
sanctification from above.
Harkl / hear the latch of the garden
gate, and look to see who is coming,
/ hear the voice of Christ: II am COM
ing into my garden" say, ''Come In,
o Jesusl we have been waiting for
thee; walk ALI through the paths.
Look at the flowers; look at the fruit;
pluck that which thou wilt for Thy
self" Jesus comes into the garden
and up to that old man, and touches
him, and says, almost home. father;
not many more aches for thee;
will never leave thee; take
courage little longer and
/ will steady thy tottering steps, and I
will soothc thy troubles and give thee
rest. Courage, old man." Then Christ
goes up another garden path, and He
comes to soul in trouble, and says:
''Peacel all is we'll have seen thy
tears. have heard thy prayer. The
sun shall not smite thee by day nor
the moon by night. The Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil; He will
preserve thy soul Courage, o trou bled
| spirit"
Then / see Jesus going up another
garden path, and l see great excite
ment among the leaves, and hasten
up that garden path to see what Jesus
| is doing there, and 10! He is breaking
off flowers. sharp and clean from the
stem, and say: stop, Jesus, don't kill
those beautiful flowers" He turns to
me and says: II have come into my
garden to gather lilies, and / mean to
take these up to higher terrace, for
the garden around my palace; and
| there will plant them; and in better
soil and in better air they shall put
forth brighter leaves and sweeter re-
dolence, and no frost shall touch them
forever" And l looked up into His
face and said: ''Well, it is His garden,
and He has right to do what He will
with 1t. Thy will be done!' the hard
est prayer ever man made.
1t has seemed as if Jesus Christ took
the best; from many of your house.
holds the best one is gone. You know
that she was too good for this world;
she was the gentlest in her ways, the
deepest in her affections; and when at
last the sickness came you had no
faith in medicines. You knew that the
hour of parting had come, and when,
through the rich grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you surrendered that
treasure, you said: Lord Jesus, take
tit is the best we have; take it.
household may have been of grosser
mold. She was of the finest.
The Heaven of your little ones will
not be fairly begun you get there.
All the kindness shown them by im-
mortals will not make them forget
you. There they are, the radiant
throngs that went out from your
homes. I throw kiss to the sweet
darlings. They are all well now in
the palace. The crippled child has
sound foot now. A little lame child
says: ''Ma, will be lame in Heaven"
NO, my darling, you won't be lame in
Heaven" A little sick child says: Ma,
will l be sick in Heaven" mo, my
dear, you won't be sick in Heaven" A
little>blind child says: ma, will be
blind in Heaven?" mo, my dear, you
won't be blind~in Heaven. They are
all well there"
Inotice that the fine gardens some
times have high fences around them
and you can not get in. 1t is SO with
kings garden. The only glimpse
you ever get of such garden is when
4 L 1t IT, 1,sr
rage. It is not so with this garden
this Kings garden. throw wide open
the gate and tell you all to come in.
No monopoly in religion. Whosoever
will, may. Choose now between
desert and a garden. Many of you
have tried the garden of this worlds
delight. You have found 1t has been
a chagrin. So it was with Theodorc
Hook He made all the world laugh.
He makes us laugh now when we read
his poems; but he could not make hid
own heart laugh. While in the
midst of his festivities he con-
fronted a looking glass, and he
saw himself and said: There,
that is true. I look just as / am;
done up in body, mind and purse" So
it was of Shenstone, of whose garden
I told you at the beginning of my SER
mon. He sat down amid those bowers
and said: 81 have lost my road to
happiness. l am angry and envious
and frantic, and despise everything
around me just as it becomes a mad
man to do"
o, We weary souls! come into Christ's
garden to-day and pluck little hearts
ease Christ is the only rest and the
only pardon for a perturbed spirit.
Do you not think your chance
has almost come? You men and
women who have been waiting year
after year for some good opportunity in
which to accept Christ, but have post
poned it, five, ten, twenty, thirty years
do not feel as if now your hour of
delivcrance and pardon and salvatio1
had come? o, man, what grudge hast
thou against thy poor soul that thou
wilt not let it be saved? l feel as If
salvation must come to-day in some of
your hearts.
Some years ago vessel struck on
the rocks. They had only one life
boat. In that lifeboat the passengers
and crew were getting ashore. The
vessel had foundered, and was sinking
deeper and deeper. and that one boat
could not take the passengers very
swiftly. A little girl stood on the deck
waiting her turn to get INTO the
boat. The boat came and went, came
and went, but her turn did not seem to
come. After awhile she could wait no
longer, and she leaped on the Htraffrail