The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-09-08
THE KINGS GARDEN.
Dr.. Talmage Discourses on Christ
and the Church.
The Most Beautiful Flowers N the
Best of Fruit-Why the saw
four Picks the Choice
est First.
(Copy tight. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l
washington,

through the Valleys OF oWltzeridhu
1t seems to have been prepared amid
the bloom and aroma of a garden
midsummer. The text is Song OF
Solomon SCI: 81 am come into my
garden"
The Bible is a great poem. We have
in it faultless rhythm and bold mag
cry and startling antithesis and rap
turous lyric and sweet pastoral and
instructive narrative and devotional
psalm; thoughts expressed in style
more solemn than that of Montgom-
cry, more bold than that of Milton,
more terrible than that of Dante,
more natural than that of Words
worth, more impassioned than that of
Pollok, more tender than that Of
Cowper, more weird than that of
Spenser. This great poem brings all
the gems of the earth into its coronet,
and it weaves the flames of judgment
into it's garlands and pours eternal
harmonies in its rhythm. Everything
this Book touches it makes beautiful,
from the plain stones OF the summer
thrashing floor to the daughters of
Major filling the troughs for the
camels, from the fish pools of Heshbon
up to the Psalmist praising God with
diapason of storm and whirlwind and
Jobs imagery Of Orion, Arcturus and
the Pleiades.
My text leads us into a scene of
summer redolence. The world has had
a great many beautiful gardens.
Charlemagne added to the glory of his
reign by decreeing hat they be es-
tablished all through the realm, de-
Gliding even the names of the flowers
TO be planted there. Henry w. at
Montpelier established gardens Of be-
witching beauty and ,uxuriance, gath
ering into them Alpine, Pyrenean and
French plants. One of the sweetest
spots on earth was the garden of
Shenstone, the poet. His writings
have made but little impression on
the world. but his garden, the
"Leasowes," will be immortal. To the
natural advantages of that place was
brought the perfection cf art. Arbor
and terrace and slope and rustic tenn
pie and reservoir and urn and fountain
here had their browning. Oak and
yew and hazel put forth their richest
foliage. There was no life more dill
gent, no soul more ingenious than
that of Shenstone, and all that dill
gence and genius he brought to the
adornment of that n treasured spot.
He gave 9300 for it. He sold it for
several thousand. And yet l am to
tell you to-day of a richer garden
than any l have mentioned. 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 it, He planted it, He owns it,
and He shall have it. Walter Scott,
in his outlay at Abbotsford, ruined his
fortune, and now, in the crimson fow-
ers 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 C 100, O00
sacrificed him. But l have to tell you
that Christ's life and Christ's death
were the outlay of this beautiful gar.
den of the church, Of which my text
speaks. oh, how many signs and
tears and pangs and agonies! Tel
me, We women who saw Him hang! Tel,
me, We executioners who lifted Him
and let Him down! Tell me, thou sur
that didst hide. ye rocks that fell!
"Christ loved the church and rave
Himself for It," If the garden of the
church belongs to Christ, certainly He
has a right to walk in it. Come, then
G blessed Jesus, to-day. Walk up ant
down these aisles and pluck what
Thous wilt of sweetness for Thyself!
The church in my text is appfopri.
ately compared to a garden. because
1t is a place Of choice flowers, of Sc.
lect fruits and of thorough irrigation
But l have not told you of the
most beautiful flower in all this gar,
den spoken of in the text. If you see
a century plant, your emotions are
started. You say: why, this flower
has been a hundred years gathering
DIP for one bloom, and it will be {
hundred years more before other
petals will come out" But l have t.
tell you of a plant that was gather
ing up from all eternity and thai
1900 years ago put forth its bloom
never to wither. It is the passion
plant of the cross. Prophets fore
told it, Bethlehem shepherds looked
upon it in the bud, the rocks shool
at its bursting and the dead got u,
in their winding sheets to see it's full
bloom. 1t is a crimson flower-bloot
at the roots, blood on the branches
blood on the leaves. Its perfume Il
to fill all the nations. It's breath i
Heaven. Come. oh. winds from tn,
north and winds from the south an,
winds from the east and winds from
the west. and bear to all the eartl
the sweet smelling SAVIOR of Christ
my Lordl
His worth II all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him too
Again, the church may be appro
priately compared to the garden, be
cause it is a place of fruits. Tha
would be a strange garden which ha
in it no berries, no plums or peache
or ~apricots. The coarser fruits ar
planted in the orchard OF they are Sc
out on the. sunny hillside. But tn
choicest fruits are kept in the gai
den. So in the world outside tn