The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-11-19

| ever BdbneT0u. Llh6 Gu6 lT66S u Iu6 III 81
orchard, this was planted, blossomed
and bore fruit all in one day.
Paul was impulsive and vehement Of
nature, and he laid hold of that tree
with both arms and shook it till the
ground all round looked like an orchard
the morning after an autumnal equinox,
and, careful lest he step on some of the
fruit, gathered up basketful of it for
the Galatians, crying out, 1.-THE fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. The other two
trees of Pilates orchard were loaded,
the one with the hard fruits of oLduraoy
repentance, but the center tree chow
will l ever forget the day | sat ON the
exact place where it was planted)-the
center tree of that orchard yields the
antidote for the poisoned nations. There
is in old England the hollow of tree
where a king hid, and there is in New
England tree in which a document of
national importance was kept inviolate,
and there have been trees of great girth
and immense shade and vast wealth of
fruitage, but no other tree had such
value of reminiscence, or depth Of root,
or spread of branch, or infnitude of
fruitage as the center tree of Pilates
orchard. Before pass this day from
under it | would like to drop on both
knees and with both hands outspread
and uplifted toward the heavens cry out
with all the nations of earth and heav-
en-; Il believe in God, the Father Al
mighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and i'll Jesus Christ, his only Son, our
Lord, who was conceived by the Holy
Ghost born of the Virgin Mary, suffer
ed under Pontius PLATE, was crucifed,
dead and buried. He descended into
hell. The third day he rose from the
dead. He assembled into heaven and sit
teth on the right hand of God the Fa-
ther Almighty. From thence he shall
come to judge the quick and the dead. "
st. Johns Orchard.
Now, in this discourse of the pomolo-
gy of the Bible, or God amid the or
chards, having shown you Adam or
chard and Solomon's orchard and Pr
late's orchard, now take you into st.
Johns orchard, and will stop there,
for having seen that you will want to
see nothing more. St. John himself,
having seen that orchard, discharged a
whole volley of Comel Come Comet
and then pronounced the benediction:
1.-THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you all. Amen" Then the BAN
ished evangelist closes the book, and
the Bible is DONE The dear old book
opened with Adams orchard and closes
with st. John orchard. st. John went
into this orchard through stone gate,
the black basalt of the isle of Patmos,
to which he had been exiled. That Or
ohard which he saw was and is in heav-
en-.
One person will err in speaking of
heaven as all material, and another per-
son describes heaven as all figuratlve
and spiritual, and both are wrong.
Heaven is both material and spiritual,
as we are both material and spiritual
While much of the Bible account Of
heaven is to be taken fguratively and
spiritually it is plain TO me that heaven
has also a material existence. Christ |
said, II go to prepare place for you. -"
not place material? God, who has |
done all the world building, the statis-
tics OF stars so vast as to be bewilder- |
ment to telescopes, could have some
where in his astronomy piled up ire
world to make the Bible heav-
EN- true both as a material splendor
and a spiritual domain. do not believe
God put all the flowers, and all the pre-
cious stones, and all the bright metals
and all the music, and all the fountains,
and all the orchards in this little world
Of ours How much was literal and how
much was figurative l cannot say, but
St. John saw two rows of trees ON each
side of river, and it differed from 9th
er orchards i'll the fact that the trees
bore IL manner of fruits. The learned
jranslators of our common Bible say it
means lG different kinds of fruits i'll one
year. Albert Barnes says it means IL
'rops of the same kind of fruit in one
year. Not able to decide which is the
more accurate translation, adopt both.
If it mean IL different kinds of fruit, it
declares variety in heavenly joy. If
t means IL crops of the same kind Of
ruit, it declares abundance in heavenly
oy, and they are both true
Variety? Oh, yesl Not an eternity
With nothing but music; that oratorio
would be too protracted. Not an eternity
If procession on white horses; that
would be too long in the stirrups. Not
N eternity of watching the river; that
would be too much of the picturesque
Not an eternity of plucking fruits from
he tree of life; that would be too much
f the heavenly orchard. But all man
Ter of varieties. and | will tell you of
t least IL Of those varieties: Joy of di-
inc worship, JOY over the victories of
he Lamb who was slain, joy over the
epentant sinners, JOY of recounting our
wn rescue, JOY of embracing old friends,
oy at recognition of patriarchs apostles,
and martyrs JOY of ringing
armonies, JOY of reknitting broken
joy at the explanation Of
'rovidential mysteries, JOY at walking
he boulevards of gold, joy at looking
t walls green with emerald and blue
nth sapphire and crimson with jasper