The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-11-19
to WIN just one more tree, he lost the
whole orchard.

1NnOC0DU entertainments anu ain uSeluSuC'
He walks, he rides, he plays tenpins in
private alleys, he has books on his ia
BILE, pictures ON his wall and occasional
outings, concerts, lectures, baseball Lick,
cts and the innumerable delights OF
friendship, but he wants key to the
place of dissolute convocation. He wants
association with some member OF high
family as reckless as he is affluent He
wants, instead of quiet Sabbath, one
of carousal. He wants the stimulus of
strong drinks. He wants the permits
sions of profligate life. The one men,
bership, the one bad habit, the one Ca
rousal, robs him of all the possibilities
and innocent enjoyments and noble in
SEPARATIONS of lifetime. By one mouth
full of forbidden fruit he loses a whole
orchard of fruit unforbidden.
You see what an expensive thing is
sin 1t costs 1000 times more than it
is worth. AS some of all kinds of quad
rupeds and all kinds of winged crea-
lures passed before our progenitor that
he might announce name, from eagle
to bat. and from lion to mole, so | sup
pose there were in paradise specimens
of every kind of fruit tree. And in that
enormous orchard there was not only
enough for the original family of two,
but enough fruit fell ripe to the ground
and was never picked up to supply
whole towns and villages if they had
existed. But the infatuated couple turn
ed away from all these other trees and
faced this tree, and 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 i'm
possibility, but nothing on earth is east
er 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. could call them by name, if it
were polite and righteous to do SO, the
men who have sacrificed paradise on
earth and a 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 up and pulled down the round,
beautiful world of our present residence
Overworked artist, overweight mer-
chant, ambitious politician, avaricious
speculator, better take that warning
from Adams orchard and stop before
you put out for that one thing more
SOlomon's Orchard.
But l turn from Adams orchard to
8 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 SEEM and the reser-
voirs are as perfect as when thousands
Of years ago the mason trowel smooth
ed the mortar over their gray surfaces.
No orchard of olden or modern time
probably ever had its thirst SO we'll
slaked. The largest of these reservoirs
feet deep. These reservoirs Solomon re-
fers to when he says, Il made me pools
If water, to water Herewith the wood
that .bringeth forth trees Solomon
used to ride out to that orchard before
breakfast, 1t 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,
/ fertile region, delightful with para
Uses and running springs. Thither the
King, in robes of white, rode in his
chariot escorted by troop of mounted
'rchers chosen for their youth and stat
Ire and clad in Tyrian purple, whose
Ong hair, powdered with gold dust,
;parkled in the sun. " After Solomon
lad taken his morning ride in these
uxuriant orchards he would sit down
md write those wonderful things in
he Bible, drawing his illustrations
rom the fruits he had that very morn
ng plucked or ridden under And,
Wishing to praise the coming Christ, he
avs, LAS the apple tree among the
rees Of the wood, so is my beloved "
Md wishing to describe the love Of the
hurch for her Lord he writes, Com
ort me with apples, for | am sick of
owe, and desiring to make reference
o the white hair of the octOgenarian,
nd just before having noticed that the
lessons Of the almond tree were white,
e says of the aged man. THE almond
rec shall flourish. The walnuts and
he pomegranates and the mandrakes
nd the figs make Solomon writings a
ivinely arranged fruit basket
The Luxury of Religion.
What mean Solomon S orchards and
olomons gardens, for they seem to
Jingle, the two into one, flowers under
Dot and pomegranates over headr To
lie they suggest that religion is lux {
ry. All along the world has looked up
n religion chiefly as a dire necessity
lifeboat from the shipwreck, ladder
'om the confagration, soft landing l
lace after we have been showed off the ]
recipice of this planet AS conse-