The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-14
THE KINGS GARDEN.
DR.. TALMAGE DISCOURSES ON CHRIST
ADD THE CHURCH.
The Most Beautiful Flowers and the
Best of Fruit-why the Saviour Picks
the Choicest-The Day of salvation.

This sermon DR.. Talmage sends from
a batting place in his journey through
fine valleys of Switzerland. 1t seems
to nave been prepared amid the bloom
and aroma of a garden midsummer.
The text is Song Of Solomon V, 1: 81
am come into my garden"
The Bible is a great poem. We have
in it faultless rhythm and bold imagery
and startling antithesis and rapturous
lyric and sweet pastoral and instruc-
tive narrative and devotional psalm;
thoughts expressed in style more SOL
emn than that of Montgomery, more
bold than that Of Milton, more terrible
than that of Dante, more natural than
that of Wordsworth, more imprisoned
than that of Pollok, more tender than
h a of Cowper, more weird han that
of Spenser. This great poem brings all
the gems of the earth into it's coronet,
and it weaves the flames of judgment
into it's garlands and pours eternal har-
monies in it's rhythm. Everything this
book touches it makes beautiful, from
the plain stones of the summer thrash
ing floor to the daughters Of Major fill
1HS lHc ItOuSHS IOT the CdlIlcIS, 1IOll
the fish pools of Heshbon up to the
Psamlist praising God with diapason
of storm and whirlwind and Jobs i'm
agery Of Orion, Arcturus and the Plei-
AIDES.
MY text leads us into a scene Of sum-
mer redolence. The world has had a
great many beautiful gardens. Char
lemagne added to the glory of his reign
by decreeing that they be established
al Through the realm, deciding even
the names of the flowers to be planted
there. Henry " at Montpelier estab-
lished gardens of bewitching beauty
and luxuriance, gathering into them
Alpine, Pyrenean n French plants.
One of the sweetest spots on earth was
the garden Of Shenstone the poet. His
writings have made but little impress
sion on the world, but his garden, the
"Leasowes,'' will be immortal. To the
natural advantages of that place was
brought the perfection Of art. Arbor
and terrace and slope and rustic temple
and reservoir and urn and fountain
here had their browning. Oak and yew
and hazel put forth their richest foil
age. There was no life more diilgent,
no soul more ingenious than that of
Sh%enstone, all that the diligence n
genius he brought to the of
that one treasured spot. He gave $500
for it. He sold it for several thousand.
And yet I am to tell you today of a
ANAA1 oCAN~A NASA StJ @NN IN
toned. 1t Is the garden spoken of in
my teXt-the garden of the church,
which belongs to Christ. for my text
says so. He bought 1t, he planted it,
he own it, and he shall have it. Wal
ter Scott, in his outlay at Abbotsford,
ruined his fortune, and now, in the
crimson flowers of those gardens, you
can almost think or imagine that you
see the blood Of that old mans broken
heart. The payment of the last G10O,-
n Ill., D-A IN
You that ChristS life and ChriStS death
We're the only outlay of this beautiful
garden Of the church, of which my text
speaks. Oh, nov many signs and tears
and pangs and agonies! Tell me-, We
women who saw him hang! Tell me,
We eXecutioners who lifted him and let
him down. Tell me, thou sun that
didst hide, We rocks that fell! Christ
loved the church and gave himself for
it. If the garden of the church be-
longs to Christ, certainly he has a
right to walk in it. Come, then, o
blessed Jesus, today. Walk up and
down these aisles and pluck what thou
wilt of sweetness for myself!
THE CHURCH IS A GARDEN.
The church in my text is appropriate
ly compared to a garden, because !. is
a place of choice flowers, of select
fruits and of thorough irrigation.
That would be a strange garden in
WHICH there we're UO llOWeTS. IL NO.
where else, they would be along
the borders or at the gateway. The
homeliest taste will dictate something,
if it be only the old fashioned hollyhock
o II dahlia or daffodil. But if there be
larger means then you will find the
Mexican cactus and blazing aZalea and
clustering oleander. Well, now, Christ
comes to his garden, and he plants
there some of the brightest spirits that
ever Powered upon the world. Some
of them are violets, inconSpicuous, but
sweet as heaven. You have to scare
and find them o do not see them
very often perhaps, but you find where
they have been by the frightened face
of the invalid and the sprig Of gerani-
UNI on the stand and the new window
curtains keeping out the glow Of the
sunlight. They are perhaps more like
the ~ranunculus, creeping sweetly along
amid the thornS and brierS of life, Civ
ing kiss for sting. And many a man
who has had in his way some great
black rock Of trouble has found that
they have covered it all over with flow
cry jasmine running in and out amid
the creyices. These flowers in Christ'S
garden are not. like the ~sunflower.
gaudy in the light, but wherever dark
ness w over a soul that needs to
be comforted there they stand, night
blooming cereuses. But in ChriSt'S
garden there are plants that may be
~ liz ASAAS< N~SN0S
-thorns without, loneliness within
men with sharp points Of character.
They wound almost every one that
touches them. They are hard to ham
die. Men pronounce them nothing but
thornS, but Christ loves them, notwith-
standing all their sharpnesses. Many
a man has had a very ard ground to
cultivate, and it has only been through
severe trial that he has raised even the
smallest scrap OF grace. A very harsh
minister was talking to a very placid
elder, and the placid elder said to the
harsh minister, "Dcceo-, I do wish YOU
would control your temper" "Ah."
said the minister to the elder. Il cor
troll more temper in five minutes than
you do in five years"
1t is harder for some men to do right
than for other men to 10 right. The
grace that would elevate you to the
seventh heaven might not keep your
brother from knocking a man down. I
had a friend who came to me and said.
at dare not join the church" I said,
Why" oh" he said, "I have such
a violent temper. Yesterday morning
/ was crossed very early at the Jersey