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

as an impTObability, if not an impossible
ity but nothing on earth is easier for me
to believe than the truth of this Edenic
story for 1 have seen the same thing in
this year of our Lord 1897. 1 could call
them 10y name, if il were polite ana right
eous TO do so, the men who have sacrificed
paradise on earth and paradise in hcav-
en- for one sin. Their house went. Their Ii
brary went. Their good name went Their
field of usefulness went. Their health
went Their immortal soul went Ny
friends! there is just one sin that viii turn
YOU out of paradise if you do not quit it.
GU know what il is, and God knows, and
YOU had better drop the hand and arm lift
cd toward that bending bough before you
pluck your own ruin. When Adam stood
on tiptoe and took i'm 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, overwrought mer-
chant ambitious politician, avaricjous
Spectator, 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 on the natural
fan of rain, he irrigated those orchards.
Pieces of the aqueduct that watered those
are as perfect as when thousands of years
ago the mason's trowel smoothed the
mortar over their gray surfaces. No or
Chard of oiden or modern time, probably,
ever had its thirst so well slalSed. The
largest of these reservoirs is $50 feet long,
2o7 feet wide, and so rect deep, These
reservoirs Solomon refers to when he says:
Il 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 ana something to think about all
the day. Josophus, the historian, repre-
sents him going out early in the morn
ing from Jerusalem TO the famed rocks
of Etam, "a fertile region, delightful with
paradlses and running springs. Thither
the king, in robes Of white, rode in his
chariot escorted by a troop of mounted
archers chosen for their youth and stature,
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 luXuriant orchards
he would sit down and write those Won
derful things in the Bible, drawing his IL
Illustrations from the fruits he had that
very morning plucked or ridden under.
And, wishing to praise the coming Christ,
he says LAS the apple tree among the
trees of the wood, so is my beloved And
wishing TO describe the love of the church
with apples, for 1 am sick of love- and
desiring to make reference to the white
hair Of the octogenarlan, and just before
having noticed that the blossoms of the
almond tree were white, he says of the
aged man: 1.-The almond tree shall flour
ish" The walnuts and the pomegranates,
and the mandrakes, and the figs make
Solomon's writings a divinely arranged
fruit basket.
What mean Solomon's orchards and Sol
omon's gardens? for they seem to mingle,
the two into one, flowers under foot, and
romegranates over head. To me they sug
gest that religion is a luxury. All along,
the world has looked upon religion chiefly
as a dire necessity-a lifeboat from the
shipwreck ladder from the cont1agra-
ton a soft landing-place after we have
been showed off the precipice of this plan
ct As a consequence so many have SAID:
1--WE will await preparation for the future
until the crash of the shipwreck until the
conflagration is in full blaze, until we
reach the brink of the precipice." NO
doubt religion Is ineXpressibly important
for the last exigency. But what do the
apDles. and the figs, and the melons, and
the pomegranates and the citron, and the
olives of Solomon's orchard mean? Lux
ury! They mean that our religion Is the
luscious, the aromatic, the pungent. the
arborescent, the effiorescent, the fohaged,
the umbrageous. They mean what Ed
ward Payson meant when he declared: III
my happiness continues to increase can
not support it much longer" 1t means
what Bapa Padmanji, Hindoo convert,
meant when he said: II long for my bed,
not that / may sleep-d lie awake often
and long-but to hold communion with my
God" 1t means what the old colored man
said, when he was accostSu
bv the colporteur "Uncle Jack,
how are your II Is very painful
i'm nv knee. but, thank my heavenly Mas
ter. I'm cause to be thankful My good
Master lust glib me nuf to make me hum
BILE" And do you enjoy religion as much
now. Uncle Jack, as when you could go
to church and class meetings? Yes, l
lows him more. Den l truss to de people.
to de meetings, to de sarment; and when
hear de hymn sing and de pray l feels
glad. But all dis amt like de good Lord
in de heart, Gods love here" 1t means
sunrise instead of shutdown. 1t means the
Memnon statue made to sing at the stroke
of the mornig light 1t means Christ at
the wedding in Cana. 1t means the time
of the singing of birds is come" 1t means
Jeremiah's "well-watered garden" 1t
means David's oil of gladness. 1t means
Isaiahs bride and bridegroom" 1t means
Lulxes bad boy come home to his father
house Worldly joy killed Leo X when he
heard that Milan was captured Talva died
of Joy when the Roman senate
honored him. Diagora died of
Joy because his three sons were
crowned at the Olympian games.
Sophocles died of joy over his literary sue
cesses And religious joy has been too
much for many a Christian, and his soul
has sped away on the wing of hosannas.
An old and poor musician played so well
one night before his king that the next
morning when the musician awoke he
found his table covered with golden cups
and plates. and a princely robe lying across
the back of chair and richly caparison-
ed horses were paving at the doorway to
take him through the street in imposing
euuipage. 1t was only a touch of what
comes to every man who makes the Lord
his portion, for he has waiting for him,
direct from his King, robes, banquets,
chariots, mansions, triumphs. and 1t is
only a question of time when he shall wear
them, drink them, ride in them live in
them and celebrate them.
You think religion is a good thing for a
funeral o, yes But Solomons orchard
means more Religion is a good thing
now, when you are in health and prosper
ity and the appetite is good for citrons,
and apples, and apricots, and pomegran-
ates. Come in without wasting any time