The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-11-25
he suddenly departed this life. In try.
ing to win just one more tree, he lost
the whole orchard

the whole orchard.
innocent entertainment and amuse-
ment. He walks, he rides, he plays
ten-pins in private alleys, he has
books on his table, pictures on his wall
and occasional outings, concerts, lee
lures, baseball tickets, and the innu-
merable delights of friendship. But he
wants key to the place of dissolute
convocation. He wants association
with some member of a high family
as reckless as he is af11uent. He wants
instead of quiet sabbath, one of ca
rousal. He wants the stimulus Of
strong drinks. He wants the permits
sions of profligate life. The one
membership, the one bad habit, the
one carousal rObs him of all the pos
sibilities and innocent enjoyments and
noble inspirations of a lifetime.
You see what an expensive thing is
sin. It costs a thousand times more
than it is worth. AS some of all kinds
of quadrupeds and all kinds of winged
creatures passed before our progenitor
that he might announce a name, from
eagle to bat, and from lion to mole,
SO I suppose 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 In
fatuated 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.
This story of Eden is rejected by
some as an improbability, if not an
impossibility, but nothing on earth is
easier for me to believe than the truth
of this Edenic story, for I have seen
the same thing in this year of our
Lord 1897. I could call them by name,
it it were polite and righteous to do
so, the men who have sacrificed par
adise on earth and paradise in heav-
en- for one sin. Their house went.
C. 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 bet
, ter drop the hand and arm lifted to-
ward that bending bough before yor
, pluck your own ruin. When Adam
stood on tiptoe and took in his RICH
hand that one round peach, or apricot
, or apple Satan reached up and pulled
! down the round, beautiful world of on
. present residence. Overworked artist
t overwrought perchant, ambitious poll
I tician, avaricious speculator, bette
, take that warning from Adams or
q chard and stop before you put out TO
= that one thing more.
t But I turn from Adams orchard t
f Solomon's orchard With his ow
S hand he writes: Il made me garden
i and orchards" Not depending on th
It natural fall of rain, he irrigated thos
s. orchards Pieces of the aqueduct thu
a watered those gardens I have seen, an
d the reservoirs are as perfect as whe
e thousands of years ago the mason
e trowel smoothed the mortar over the
;e gray surfaces No orchard of olde
n or modern time, probably, ever had il
p thirst so we'll slaked. The largest
: these reservoirs is 582 feet long, q
feet wide, and so feet deep. These re
= ervoirs Solomon refers to when /
~ says: II made me pools of water,
- water Herewith the wood that brin
~ y, eth forth trees" Solomon used to ri.
:; cut to that orchard before breakfas
- 1t gave him an appetite and somethi,
~ to think about all the day. Josephr
49, the historian, represents HIM as goi1
~, out "early in the morning from Jer
- salem to the famed rocks of Etam,
~ fertile region, delightful with paradis
~ and running springs. Thither the kir
~ in robes of white, rode in his chari'
I'D escorted by a troop of mounted arc
~ ers chosen for their youth and .statu
~ and clad in Tyrian purple, whose 10
~ hair, powdered with gold dust, spar
49, led in the sum-" After Solomon b
- taken his morning ride in these luz
~, RANT orchards he would sit down a
~" write those wonderful things in t
- Bible, drawing his illustrations fir,
49, the fruits he had that very morni
81 81 plucked or ridden under. And, wi:
~, ing to praise the coming Christ,
81 says: GAS the apple tree among
~, ~ trees of the wood, so is my believe
40 80 And wishing to describe the love
~ the church for her Lord, he writ
80. Comfort me with apples, for am S
-. of love-" and desiring to make ref
~. ence to the white hair of the octo
Nv -" marian, and just before having mott
~ ~, that the blossoms of the almond t
were white, he says of the aged m
1.-THE almond tree shall flourish"
;, walnuts and the pomegranates, :
-. the mandrakes, and the figs make
-. onions writings a divinely arran
- fruit basket.
~, What mean Solomon's orchards
- Solomon's gardens? for they seem
e. mingle, the two into one, flowers un
~, foot, and pomegranates over head.
- me they suggest that religion is
49, ury. All along, the world has loo
mon religion chiefly as a dire ne