The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-09-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
oIsCOUASE 8l "hE EA;INENr III
VINE LAs'e SUNDAY
Subject The Garden of the King-Christ
the Founder and Conference.-The Flow
ers and Fruits of Religious Devotion
The Beauty of Right Living.
Copyright 1901


Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. C.-This sermon DR..
Talmage sends from a hating place in
erland. 1t seems to have been prepared
amid the bloom and aroma of a garden
midsummer. The text is Song Of Solo
mon Y, /. 81 am come into my garden"
The Bible is great poem. We have in
it faultless rhythm and bold imagery and
startling anthithesis and rapturous lyric
and sweet pastoral and instructive nara
tive and devotional psalm; thoughts eX-
pressed in style more solemn than that
of Montgomery, more bold than that
of Milton, more terrible than that OF
Dante, more natural than that Of Words
worth, more imprisoned 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 its garlands and
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 cam
els; from the fish pools of Heshbon up to
the psalmist praising God with diapason
of storm and whrlwind, and Jobs i'm
agery of Orion, Arcturus and the Pleiades.
My text leads US into a scene of sum
mer redolence The world has had
magne added to the glory of his reign by
decreeing that they be established all
through the realm-deciding even the
names of the flowers to be planted there.
Henry ", at Montpelier, established
gardens OF bewitching beauty and luXu-
rance, gathering into them Alpine, Py-
renean 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 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
foliage. There was no life more diGgent.
no soul more ingenious than that of
Shenstone, and all that diligence and ge-
MUS he brought to the adornment of that
one treasured spot He gave $500 for it;
he sold it for $4,000. And yet | am to
tell you to-day of richer garden than
any | 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
w dlleF CCOll. III HIS outlay DIT ADDOIS-
ford, ruined his fortune, and now, in the
crimson flowers of those gardens, you can
almost think or imagine that you see the
blood of thai old mans broken heart.
The payment of the last 100000 sacri-
feed him But | have to tell you that
Christ's love and Christ's death were the
outlay of this beautiful garden of the
church, OF which my text speaks. Oh,
how many signs and tears and pangs and
Tall -1n
Him hangi 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 belongs to Christ, certainly He
has a right to walk in it. Come, then,
0 blessed Jesus, to-day; walk up and
down these aisles,, and pluck what Thou
wilt of sweetness for Thyself!
The church, in my text, is appropriately
compared to a garden, because it is
place of choice flowers, of select fruits
and of thorough irrigation.
That would be strange garden in
which there were no flowers. II nowhere
else, they would be along the borders or
at the gateway. The homelest taste will
dictate something, if it be only the old
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 search and
find them. You do not see them very Of
ten, perhaps, but you find where they
have been by the frightened face OF the
invalid and the sprig of geranium on the
stand and the new window curtains keep
ing out the glow of the sunlight. They
are, perhaps, more like the ranunculus,
creeping swiftly along amid the thorns
and brlers of life, giving 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 fowery jasmine running in and out
amid the crevices.
These flowers in Christs garden are not
like the sunhower, gaudy in the light, but
wherever darkness hovers over soul that
needs to be comforted, there they stand,
night blooming cereuses. But in Christ's
garden there are plants that may be bet
ter compared to the Mexican cactus
thorns without, loneliness within; men
with sharp points of character. They
wound almost every one that touches
them. They are hard to handle. Men
pronounce them nothing but thorns but
Christ loves them Notwithstanding all
their sharpnesses. Many man has had
very hard ground to cultivate, and it
has only been through severe trial 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: Doctor, | do
wish you would control your temper"
"Ah," said the minister to the elder, Il
control 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 do right. The grace that would ele-
vate you to the seventh heaven might not
keep your brother from knocking a man
down 1 had friend who came to me
and said, Il dare not join the church" l
said, WHY" oh he said, Il have
such a violent temper. Yesterday morn
ing was crossing very early at the Jersey
Citysferry, and | saw a milkman pour a
large quantity of water into the milk can,
and | said to him: L think that will do
and he insulted me and l knocked him
down Do you think l ought to join the
church," Nevertheless that very same
man, who was so. harsh in his behavior,
loved Christ, and could not speak of sa-
cred things without tears of emotion and
affection. Thorns without, sweetness
within-the best specimen of Mexican
cactus | ever saw.