The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-11-26

a key to the place OF diSsOlute convOca
tior- lie wants association with SOM
members of a high family as reelkles
rs he is afauent4 He wants, instead o
quiet Sabbath, one OF carousal. II
wants the stimulus of strong drinks
He wants the pertnissions Of profit
gate life. The one membership, tn,
one bad habit, the one carousal rob
/ him of all the possibilities and innocen
enioyments and noble inspirations of
lifetime. By one mouthful of for
I hidden fruit he loses a whole orchard
of fruit unforbidden.
You see what an expensive thing il
/ sin. 1t costs a thousand times more
/ than il is worth. As some Of all kinds
of quadrupeds and all kinds of winged
1 creatures passed before our progenitol
/ that lie might announce name, from
4 eagle to bat and from lion to mole, 81
/ l suppose there were in paradise speci
mems of every kind of fruit tree. AnC
/ in that enormous orchard there was
not only enough for the original fam
I lily of two, but enough fruit fell ripe
TO the ground, and was never picked
up, to supply whole towns and vii
lagos, if they had existed. But the
infatuated couple turned away from
all these other trees and faced this
tree; and fruit of that they will have
though it cost them all paradise.
The story of Eden is rejected by
some as an probability, if not an I'M
pussi bility, but nothing on earth is
easier for me to believe than the truth
of this Edenic story, for / have seen
the same thing in this year of oui
Lord, 1897. could. call them by name,
if it 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
library went. Their good name
went. Their field of usefulness went.
Their health went. Their immor-
tai 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 be-
fore 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, beau tiful
world of our present residence. Over
worked artist. overwrought merchant,
ambitious politician, avaricious specu-
lator, better take that warning from
Adams orchard and stop before you
put out for that one thing more.
But turn from Adams orchard to
Solomon's orchard. With his own
hand he writes: Il made me gardens
and orchards" Not depending 1pon
the natural fall of rain, he irrigated
those orchards. Pieces of the aque-
duct that watered those gardens l have
seen, and the reservoirs are as perfect
as when thousands of years ago the
mason's trowel smoothed the mortar
over their gray surfaces. No orchard
of olden or modern time, probably,
ever had its thirst SO well slal1ed. The
largest of these reservoirs is $50 feet
long, 207 feet wide and so feet deep.
These reservoirs solomon refers to
when he says: II made me pools of
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 ali the day, Josephns, the
historian, represented him as going
out early in the morning from Jeru-
salem 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
statue, and clad in Tyrian purple,
whose long hair, powdered with gold
dust, sparkled in the sun" After
Solomon had taken his morning ride
in these luxurious orchards he would
sit down aud write those wonderful
things in the Bible, drawing his illus
trations from the fruits he had that
very morning 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, he
writes: Comfort me with apples, for
/ am sick of love-" and desiring to
make reference to the white hair of
the octogenarian, and just before hav-
ing noticed that the blossoms Of the
almond trees were white, he says OF
the aged man: "The almond tree shall
flourish" The walnuts and the pome-
granates, and the mandral1es. and the
figs make Solomon's writings divine
ly arranged fruit basket.
But having introduced you to Adams
orchard and carried you awhile
n, L
take walk with you through Pilates
orchard of three trees on hill 20 feet
high, ten minutes walk from the gate
of Jerusalem. After l had read that
our rgreat-graRdfathera and great-grand-
mother had been driven out of the
first orchard, / made up my mind that
the Lord would not be defeated in that
way. said to myself that when they
had been poisoned by the fruit of that
one tree, somewhere, somehow, there
would be provided an antidote for the
poison. j said: Where is the other
tree that will undo the work of that
tree? Where is the other orchard that
will repair the damage received in the
first orchard?" And / read on until /
found the orchard, and its center
tree as mighty for cure as this
one had been for ruin; and as
the one tree in Adams or
chard had its branches laden
with the red fruit of carnage, and the
pale fruit of suffering. and the spotted
fruit of decay, and the bitter fruit OF
disappointment. found in Pilates
orchard tree which, though stripped
of all its leaves and struck through by