The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-09-08


IN the garden, and II they are not
there then shame on the church.
Religion is not q mere Towering sen
timentality. 1t is a practical are
giving, healthful fruit, not posies, but
apples.
"Oh," says somebody, II don't see
what your garden of the church has
Yielded" Where did your asylums
come from? And your hospltaisI
And your institutions OF mercy?
Christ planted esEry n OF them'
He planted them in His garden. When
Christ gave sight to Bartimeus, He
laid the cornerstone of every blind
asylum that has ever been buiit'
When Christ soothed the demoniac
of Galilee, He laid the cornerstone OF
every lunatic asylum that has ever
been established. When Christ said
to the sick man: "Take up thy bed
and walk" He laid the cornerstone
of every hospital the world has ever
seen. When Christ said: II was n
prison and ye visited me-" He laid the
cornerstone of every prison reform
association that has ever been or
ganized. The church of Christ is a
glorious garden, and it is full OF fruit.
I know there is some poor fruit n 1t.
! know there are some weeds that
ought to be thrown over the fence.
I know there are some crap apple
trees that ought to be cut down. 1
know there are some wild grapes that
ought to be uprooted, but are you
going to destroy the whole garden
because of n little gnarled fruit?
You will find worm eaten leaves in
Fontainebleau and insects that sting
in the fairy groves of the Champs
Elysees. You do NOT tear down and
destroy the whole garden because
there r a few specimens Of gnarled
fruit.
I admit there are men and women
in the church who ought not to be
there, but let us be just as frank and
admit the fact that there are hun
dreds and thousands and tens of thouz
sands of glorious Christian men and
women-holy, blessed, useful, conse-
Grated and triumphant. There is no
grander collection in all the earth
than the collection of Christians.
There are Christian men in every
church whose religion is not a mat
ter of psalm singing and church 60
ing. Tomorrow morning that reli-
gion will keep them just as consist
ent and consecrated in their worldly
occupation as it ever kept them at
the communion table. There are
women with us to-day of a higher
type of character than Mary of Beth
any. They not only sit at the feet
of Christ, but they go out into tAe
kitchen to help Martha in her work,
that she may sit there, too. There
is a woman who has a drunken hus-
band who has exhibited more faith
and patience and courage than Rid
ley in the fire. He was consumed in
20 minutes. Hers has been a 2O-years'
martyrdom. Yonder is a mar who
has been Is years on his back, unable
to feed himself. yet calm and peace
full as though he lay on one of the
green banks of Heaven, watching the
oarsmen dip their paddles in the crys.
tai river! Why. it seems to me this
moment as if st. Paul threw to us
a pomologist's catalogue of the fruits
growing in this great garden OF
Christ-love, joy, peace, patience
character, brotherly kindness, gentle.
ness, mercy; glorious fruit, enough to
fill all the baskets of earth and
Heaven.
I have not told you Of the better
tree in this garden and Of the better
fruit. 1t was planted just outside
Jerusalem a good while ago. When
that tree was planted. it was so split
and bruised and barked men said
nothing would eve grow upon it, but
no sooner had that tree been planted
than it budded and blossomed and
fruited, and the soldiers spears were
only the clubs that struck down that
fruit, and it fell into the lap of tn.
nations, and men began to pick it UT
and eat it, and they found in it ar
antidote to all thirst, to all poison
to all sin, to all death; the smalles,
cluster larger than the famous on,
of Eshcol, which two men carried OF
a staff between them. If the on,
apple in Eden killed the race, this on,
cluster of mercy shall restore.
Again, the church in my text /.
appropriately called a garden becaus,
it. is thoroughly irrigated. No gar
den could prosper long without plen
ty of water. I have seer a garder
in the midst Of a desert, yet bloom
ing and luxuriant. All around wa,
dearth and ~barrenness, but Their,
were pipes, aqueducts, reaching from
this garden up to the mountains
and through these aqueducts the wa
ter came streaming down and toss
ing up into beautiful fountains unit
every root and leaf and flower wa
saturated. That is like the church
The church is a garden in the miis
of a great desert Of sin and suffering
but it is well irrigated, for "our eve
are unto the hills from whence CON
eth u help" From the mountain
of Gods strength there flow dow,
rivers of gladness. "There is a rive,
the stream whereof shall make ola,
the city of our God" Preaching tn,
GOSPEL is one of the aoueductr IT.,