Connecticut western news., 1897-11-18

and was never picked np to supply whole towns and villages if they had existed. But the infatuated couple turn sd away from all these other trees aud faced this tree, aud fruit of that they will have though it cost them all para disc.
 This story of Eden is rejected by some as an improbability if not an inn possibility, but nothing on earth is easi CT for me to believe than the truth of shis Edenic story, for l have seen the same thing ill this year of our Lord 1897. could call them by name, if it were polite and righteous to do so, the men who have sacrificed a paradise on earth and paradise in heaven for one sin. Their house went. Their library went. Their good name went. Their field of usefulness went. Their health went. Their immortal soul went. My friends, there is just one sin that will turn you out of paradise if you do not quit it. You know what it is, and God knows, and you had better drop the hand and arm lifted toward that bending bough before you pluck your own ruin. When Adam stood on tiptoe and took in his right hand that one round peach or apricot or apple, satan reached mp and pulled down the round, beautiful world of our present residence. Overworked artist, overwronght mer- chant, ambitious politician, avaricious speculator, better take that warning from Adams orchard and stop before you put ont for that one thing more.
 solomon's Orchard.
 But I turn from Adams orchard to Solomon s orchard. With his own hand he writes, II made, me gardens and or chards" Not depending on the natural fall of rain, he irrigated those orchards. Pieces of the aqueduct that watered those gardens have seen, and the reser- voirs are as perfect as when thousands of years ago the mason $ troSSel smooth ed themortar over their gray surfaces. No orchard of olden or modern time probably ever had its thirst so well slaked. The largest of these reservoirs is 5S2 feet long. 207 feet wide and 50 feet deep. These reservoirs Solomon re- fers to when he says "I made me pools of water, to water herewith the wood that bringeth forth trees. Solomon used to ride out to that orchard before breakfast. It gave him an appetite and something to think about all the day. Josephus, the historian, represents him as going out "early in the morning from Jerusalem to the famed rocks of Etam, a fertile region, delightful with para discs and running springs Thither the king, in robes of white, rode in his chariot, escorted by troop of mounted archers chosen for their youth and stat ure and clad in Tyrian purple, whose long hair, powdered with gold dust, sparkled ill the sun. After Solomon had taken his morning ride ill these luxuriant orchards he would sit down and write those wonderful things in the Bible, drawing his illustrations from the fruits he had that very morn ing plucked or ridden under. And, wishing to praise the coming Christ, he says, "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved. '" And wishing to describe the love of the church for her Lord be writes, "Com- fort me with apples, for I am sick of love-" and desiring to make reference to the white hair of the octogenarian, and just before having noticed that the blossoms of the almond tree were white, he says of the aged man, "The almond tree shall flourish" The walnnts and the pomegranates and the mandrakes and the figs make Solomon s writings a 3ivinely arranged fruit basket.
 The luxury of Religion.
 What mean Solomon's orchards and Solomon's gardens, for they seem to mingle, the two into one, flowers under foot and pomegranates over headg To me they suggest that religion is lux ury. All along the world has looked up- on religion chiefly as dire necessity a lheboat from the shipwreck, a ladder from the conf1agration, soft landing place after we have been showed off the precipice of this planet. As conse- quence so many have said, We will await preparation for the future until the crash of the shipwreck, until the confag1ation is in full blaze, until we reach the brink of the precipice. No doubt religion is inexpressibly impor- tant for the last exigency. But what do the apples, and the fgs, and the melons, and the pomegranstes. and the citron, and the olives of Solomon's orchard mean? Luxury. They mean that our re- ligion is the luscious, the aromatic, the pungent, the arborescent, the affiores- cent, the foliaged, the umbrageous. They mean what Edward Payson meant when he declared, "If my happiness continues to increase, cannot support it much longer" It means what Bapa Padmanji, Hindoo convert. meant when he said, "I long for my bed, not that may sleep-I lie awake often and long-but to hold communion with my God" It means what the old eolored man said when he was accosted by the colporteur, "Uncle Jack, how are you?' 1T is very painful in my knee, but, thank my heavenly Master, I'm cause
 to be thankful. My good Master just gib me nuf to make me humble. '' "And do you enjoy religion as much now, Uncle Jack, as when you could SC
 to church and class neetings?" "Yes,
 joys him more. Den I truss to de peo. pie, to de meetings, to de sarment, and
 when hear de hymn sing and de pray
 feels glad. But all dis ain't like ds good Lord in de heart, Gods love here. ' It means sunrise instead of sundown. Il
 means the Hemnon statue made to sing ct the stroke of the morning light. Il
 means Christ at the wedding in Cana It means the "time of the singing o1 birds is come" It means Jeremiah T "well watered garden" It means Da vid's "oil of gladness. It means Isai
 ah's 'bride and bridegroom. It meani
 Luke's bad boy come home to his ia ther' 8 house. Worldly joy killed Leo
 when he heard that Milan was captured Talva died of joy when the Roman sen
 ate honored him. Diagora died of joy
 because his three sons were crowned a
 the Olympian games Sophocles died O
 joy over his literary successes, and re
 ligious joy has been too much for man,
 . Christian, and his soul has sped ava,
 on the wing of hosannas.
 An old and poor musician playet
 so we'll one night before his king tha
 the next morning when the musician | awOkn he foup1 hia tahln eOvare1 will