The times., 1897-11-29

Rev. T Dewitt Talmage preached yes
terday morning, at the First Presbyterian
Church, the fourth sermon of his series, en-
titled God Everywhere.' His subject
was .pomology OF the Bible or God in
the orcuards," MS text being taken from
Genesis, t. 2: THE fruit tree yielding
fruit after its kind"
Beginning with the Garden Of Eden as
the rjrSt spontaneous, magnificent orchard
and the expulsion from it OF the first pair
because they tasted OF the forbidden fruit
Of the tree Of knowledge, DR.. Talmage
continued:
This story of Eden is rejected by some
as an iInprobability, II not an impossibility.
but nothing on earth is easier for me TO
believe than the truth of this Edenic story,
for l have seen the same thing in this year
of our Lord 1897 l could call them by
name, if ii were polite and righteous TO do
so, the men who have sacrificed para
disc on earth and paradise in heaven for
one sin. Their house went. Their IL
| brary went Their good name went.
Their field of usef fulnesS went. Their
health went. Their immortal soul went.
Ny friends! there is just one sin that VIII
turn you out of paradise If YOU do not quit
! il. You know what IL is, and God knows,
aud ycu Lad better drop the hand and arm
llifted toward that bending bough before
! you pluck your own ruin. When A dam
stood on tiptoe and took in his right hand
| that one round peach, OF apricot, or apple
! satan reached up and pulled down the
round, beautiful world OF oar present resi-
dence. Cyerworked artist, overwrought
merchant, ambitious politician, avancioIs
speculator, better take that warning from
/ DAMS orchard and stop before you put
out for that one thing more.
But / turn from Adam's orchard 10
Solomon's orchard. With mis- own hand
| he writes. u made me gardens and
orchards" Not depending on the natural
fan of rain, he irrigated those orchards
Pieces OF the aqueduct that watered those
gardens / have seen, and the reservoirs
are as perfect 5 V hen thousands Of years
ago, the mason's trowel smoothed the
mortar over their gray surface. No orchard
OF oldcn or modern time, probably, ever
had its thirst 50 well slaked. The largest
Of these reservoirs is $50 feet long, 207
feet wide, and 90 feet deep. These r"s-
crvoira Solomon refers TO when he SAYS. |
made me pools OF water, To water there
with tie wood that bringeth forth trees.
Solomon used 20 ride out to that orchard
before breakfast. II gave him appetite
aud something TO think about all the day.
,osephus, the historian, represents him us
going out early in the morning from JeTu-
salem, to tie famed rocks Of Etam, a
fertile region delightful with paradises
and running springs Thither the King ia
robes Of 1ehic rode in his chariot, IS
corted by a troop OF mounted arches
chosen for tteir youth and stature, and
clad in Tyrisn purple, whose long hair
powdered with gold dust, sparkled IN tllt
sun" After Solomon had taken his mnrn
ing ride in these luXuriant orchards, he
would sit down and write those wonderi Il
things il the Bible, dra wing his ilustrI
tions from the fruits he had that very
morning piuc,cd or ridden under.
What mean Solomon's orchards AM
Solomon gardens? for they seem TO mingl,
the two into ore, flowers nderfoot, an,
pomegranates overhead. To me they sug
gcst that religion is a luxury They meal
that our RELIGION is the luscious, the arc
matte, the pungent, the aborescent, tn
effloreScent, tie foliaged, the Imhrag geous
They mean what Edward Payson mean
when he declared: II my happiness con
tinues toll crease, I cannot support ii mucl
longer 1t means what Bapa Padmanj
a Hin1oo convert, meant when he said
81 long for my bed, not that l ma sIee
Il lie ava ke often and lOng-but to hol
communion with my God
''You think religion is q good thing 70
a funeral Oh, yes. But Solomon's orch II,
means more. Religion is a good thin)
now, when you are in health and pros
perity and the appetite Is good for citrons
ana apples ana apricots, and promegraii
ateS Religion for the funeral. Oh yes
hut religion for the wedding breakf asst
religion FOR the brightest spring mornin,
and autumn's most gorgeous sunset. Re
Iigion fof the DAY when the stocks are u
Just as much as when stocks are down
Religion when respiration is easy, as wei
IS for the last gasp; when the temperatur
: is normal, as wen as when it reaches 104
, It may bc bold thing to Say, but 1 ris
d. it. that { all the people, without respect +,
5 belief or character, at death passel int
? everlasting happiness, religion for :hi
+ world is such d luxury that no man 0
5 woman could afford to do without it. Tn
dear OLD book opened with Adam ) orchar
=. and closes with St Johns orchard S;
John went into this orchard through
stone gate, the black basalt Of the Isle Q
Patmos to which he had been eyilet
: That orchard which ne saw was and
/ in heaven. One person viii err in spe Il
ing of heaven as all material, and anothe
f. person describes heaven as all figurltiv
0 and spiritual. and both are wrong. Hed re
is both material and spiritual as we at
4 both material and spiritual. While mIc
5 Of the Bible account of heaven is to b
q taken figuraiively ana spiritually, it is plai
/ to me that heaven has also a materiS
existence.
How much was literal and how muo