The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-15


ligiont for the wedding breakfast; religion
for tbs brightest spring morning and au-
tumns most gorgeous sunset Religion
for the day when. the stocks are
up just as much as Wnen stocks ire
down. Religion when respiration IS easy
as well as for the last gasp; when the
temperature Is normal as well when il
reaches 10i. 1t may be a bold thing to
say, Hat ! risk 1t, that If all people, with
out respect to belief or character at death
passed into everlasting happiness, religion
for this world is such a luxury that no
man or woman could afford to do without
II. Why was II that in the parable Of the
prodgal son the finger ring was ordered
put upon the returned wanderers hand be-
fore Che shoes were ordered for his tired
feet? Are not shoes more important for
our comfort than dnger-rlngs? O. yes;
but IL was TO impress the world with the
fact chat religion is luxury as well as a
necessity Put a ring on his hand and
shoes on his feet" If in sermonic, or eX-
hortatory or social recommendations of
religion we put the chief emphasis on the
fact that for our safety we must have It
when the door of the next world is opened
poor human nature will take the risk and
say: Il viii wait until the door begins to
open" But show them the radiant truth
that the table of Gods love and pardon
is now laid with all the fruits which the
orchards of Gods love, and pardon, and
helpfulness can supply, and they will
come In and sit down with all the other
banqueters, terrestrial and celestial. o.!
fetch on the citrOns, and the apples, and
the walnuts, and the pomegranates of Sol
omon's orchard
But having introduced you to Adam
orchard and carried you a while through
SOlomon's orchard, l want to take a walk
with you through Pilates orchard of three
trees on hill seventy feet high ten min
all
After 4 had read that our great grand
father and great grandmother 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, some
how, there would be provided an antidote
for the poison l 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 1 read on until I 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 orchard
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, l found in
Pilates orchard a tree which, though
stripped of all it's leaves and struck
arm, nevertheless bore the richest fruit
that was ever gathered. Like the trees of
the first orchard, this was planted, bios
somed, and bore fruit all in one day Paul
was lmpulsive and vehement of nature
and he laid hold of that tree with both
arms, and shook it till the ground all
round looked like an orchard the morning
after an autumnal equinox and careful
lest he step on some of the
fruit gathered up a basketful of
it for the Galatians crying
out: 1.-The fruit of the spirit is love, JOY
peace long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance" The other
two trees of Pilates orchard We're loaded
the one with the hard fruits of obduracy
and the other with the tender fruit of re-
pentance, but the center tree chow will I
ever forget the day l sat on the exact
place where it was plantedD-the center
tree of that orchard yields the antidote for
the poisoned nations There is in old
England the hollow of a tree where king
hid, and there is in New England a tree in
which a document of national Importance
was kept inviolate; and there have been
trees of great girth and immense shade
and vast wealth of fruitage, but no other
tree had such value of "reminiscences, or
depth of root or spread of branch, or in
finitude of fruitage as the center tree of
Pilates orchard. Before l pass this day
from under it l would like to drop on both
knees and, with both hands outspread and
uplifted towards the heavens cry out with
all the nations of earth and heaven: 81
believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of Heaven and earth, and in Jesus
Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the
Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pr
late, was crucified dead, and buried. He
descended into hell. The third day he rose
from the dead. He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the
Father Almighty. From thence he shall
come to judge the quick and the dead"
Now, in this discourse of the Pomology
of the Bible or God amid the orchards,
having shown you Adams orchard and
Solomons orchard, and Pilates orchard,
l now take you into st. Johns orchard;
and l viii stop there, for having seen that,
you will want to see nothing more. St.
John himself, having seen that orchard,
discharged "a whole volley of Come.
Come! Come! and then pronounced the
benedietiOn: THE grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you ALL Amen. 4"
Then the banished evangelist closes the
book, and the Bible is done. The dear
old book opened with Adams orchard
and closes with st. Johns orchard. st.
John went into this orchard through a
stone gate, the black basalt of the Isle of
Patmos, TO which he had been exiled.
That orchard which he saw was and is
IN heaven. one person Will err In speak,
ing of heaven as all material, and another
person describes heaven as all figurative
and spiritual, and both are wrong Heaven
is both material and spiritual, as we are
both material and spiritual While much
of the Bible account of heaven is to be
taken figuratwely and spiritually It is
plain to me that heaven has also mate
| rial existence. Christ said 81 go to pre-
| pare a place for you" Is not a place
material? God, who has done all the
world-building, the statistics of stars so
| vast as to be a bewderment to telescopes.
| could have somewhere in his astronomy
| piled up tremendous world to make the
| Bible heaven true both as a material
| splendor and a spiritual domain. / do
not believe God put all the flowers, and
| all the precious stones, and all the bright
metals and all the music, and all the
fountains, and all the orchards in this
| little world of ours. How much was
| literal and how much was figurative. |
cannot say; but st. John saw two rows of
| trees on each side of river, and it diff
fered from other orchards in the fact that
the trees bore twelve manner of fruits.
The learned translators of our common
Bible say it means twelve different kinds