The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-11-26
POMOLOGY OF THE BIBLE.
DR.. Talmage Talks About God
Among tbs Orchards,
The Adams and Ewes and Apple Trees OF
OF To-DRy-1he Tree in the Or
chard of PIIasS-Ehe Prom
ises OF st. John.

lowing sermon, presents religion in It's
most attractive form. The text isi
The fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind
Genesis l., ,
1t is Wednesday morning in Para
disc. The birds did not sing theil
| opening piece, nor the 6sh take their
first swim unGl the following Friday.
The solar and lunar lights did not
break through the thick, chaotic fog
| Of the worlds manufacture until
| Thursday. Before that there was
| light, but it was electric light or phos-
phorescent light, net the light of sun
or moon. But the botanical and pomo-
4 logical productions came on Wednes-
! day-frst the flowers, and then the
fruits. The vail of fog is lifted,
and there stand the orchards.
| Watch the sudden maturity of
| the fruiti Ia our time pear
| trees must have two years before they
| bear fruit, and peach trees three years,
and apple trees five years; but here,
instantly, a complete orchard springs
| into life, all the branches bearing
fruit. The insectile forces, which have
! been doing their worst to destroy
the fruits for 5000 years, had not yet
begun their invasion. The curculio
had not yet stung the plum, nor the
caterpillar hurt the apple, nor had the
phylloxera plague, which has devas-
tated the vineyards of America and
France, assailed the grapes, nor the
borer perforated the wood, nor the
aphides ruined the cherry, nor the
grub punctured the nectarine, nor the
blight struck the pear. There stood
the first orchard, with a perfection of
rind, and exquisiteness of color, and a
lusciousness of taste, and an atfl uence
of production which it may take thou
sands of years more of study of the
science of fruits to reproduce.
Why was the orchard created two
days before the fish and birds, and
three days before the cattle? Among
other things, to impress the world
with lesson it is too stupid to learn
that fruit diet is healthier than meat
diet, and that the former must precede
the latter. The reason there are in the
world SO many of the imbruted and
sensual is that they haze not improved
by the mighty, unnoticed fact that the
orchards of paradise preceded the
herds, and aYiaries, and fish ponds.
Oh, those fruit-bearing trees on the
banks of the Euphrates and the Gihon
and the Hiddelell / wonder not that
the ancient Romans, ignorant of our
God, adored Pomona, the Goddess of
Fruits, and that all the sylvan deities
were said to worship her, aud that
groves were set apart as her temples.
You have thanked God for bread
thousand times Have you thanked
Him for the fruits which He made the
first course of food in the menu of the
worlds table? The acids of those fruits
to keep the worlds table from being
insipid, and their sweets to keep it
from being sour?
At this autumnal season how the
orchards breathe and glow, the leaves
removed, that the crimson, or pink, or
saffron, or the yellow, or brown may
the better appear, while the aromatics
fill the air with invitation and remi-
niscences. As you pass through the
orchard on these autumnal days and
look up through the arms of the trees
laden with fruit, you hear humping
on the ground that which is fully ripe,
y
trunk, you give a shake that sends
down a shower of gold and fire on all
sides of you. Pile up in baskets and
barrels and bins, and on shelves and
tables the divine supply. But these
orchards have been under the assault
of at least 90 centuries-the storm, the
droughts, the winters, the insect
ivora- What must the first orchard
have been? And yet is the ex-
plorer's evidence that on the site
of that orchard there is not an apricot,
or an apple, or IN olive-nothing but
desert and desolation. There is not
enough TO forage the explorers horse,
much less to feed his own hunger. In
other words, that first orchard is lost
orchard. How did the proprietor and
the proprietress of all that intercolum-
NATION of fruitage let the rich splen-
dor slip their possession? 1t was as
now most of the orchards are lost;
namely, by wanting more. Access
they had to all the fig trees, apricots,
walnuts, almonds, apples-bushels on
bushels-and were forbidden the use of
only one tree in the orchard. Not
satisfied with all but one, they reached
for that and lost the whole or
chard. Go right down through the
business marts Of the great cities and
find among the weighers and clerks
and subordinates, men who once COM
manded the commercial world. They
had a whole orchard of successes, but
they wanted just one more thing, one
more house, or one more country seat,
or one more store, or one more rail
road, or one more million. They
clutched for that and lost all they
gained. For one more tree they lost a |
whole orchard. There are business
men all around US worried nearly to !
death. The doctor tells them |
they ought to stop. Insom- |
MIA or indigestion or aching at |
the base of the brain or un-
nerves tell them they ought |
to stop. They really have enough for
themselves and their families. Talk |
with them about their overworl1, and !
urge more prudence and longer rest, |
and they say: Yes, you are right; |
after ! have accomplished one more |
thing that L have on my mind, i will |
hand over my business to my sons aud |
20 to Europe, and quit the kind of ex-
hausting life have been living for the I
last so years" Some morning you open 4
your paper. and, looking at the death |
you find he suddenly departed /
this life. In trying to win just one /