The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-09-07
THE KINGS GARDEN.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Christ
and the Church.
The Most Beautiful Flowers and the
Best of FrUit--Why the Saw
iOur Picks the ChOic-
est First.
copyright, 1909, by Louis Klopsch.l
WaShipptOD

kOOpS ShAs 4JN"s bO A@OoAS ENAOPSNh'1
Washington,
This sermon DR.. Talmage sends
from a hating place in his journey
| through the valleys of Switzerland
1t seems to have been prepared amid
| the bloom and aroma of "a garden
midsummer. The text is Song OF
Solomon 5:1: Il am come into my
garden"
The Bible is a great poem. We have
in it faultless rhythm and bold imag-
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
Cowpery 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 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.
Nv fex-% Loo n - 0E
summer redolence. The world has had
great many beautiful gardens.
Charlemagne added to the glory of his
reign by decreeing that they be es-
tablished all through the realm, de-
Gliding even the names of the flowers
to be planted there. Henry ". at
Montpelier established gardens of be-
witching beauty and IuXuriance, 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 IF art. Arbor
and terrace and slope and rustic tenn
pie and reservoir and urn and fountain
here had their crowning. 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 one treasured spot.
He gave e 800 for it. He sold it for
several thousand. And yet 1 am to
tell you to-day of a richer garden
than any l have mentioned. It 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 mis- outlay at Abbotsford, ruined his
fortune, and now, in the crimson flow
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 100000
sacrificed him. But 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 sighs 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 belongs to Christ, certainly He
has right to walk in it. Come, then,
o blessed Jesus, to-day. Walk up and
down these aisles and pluck what
ThOus wilt of sweetness for Thyself!
The church in my text is appropri-
ately compared to a garden, because
it is a place of choice flowers, of Sc
lect fruits and of thorough irriga ton.
But 1 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
up for one bloom, and it will be a
hundred years more before other
petals will come out" But I have to
tell you of plant that was gather
ing up from all eternity and that
1900 years ago put forth it's 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 shook
at it's bursting and the dead got up
in their winding sheets to see its full
bloom. 1t is a crimson f1ower-blood
at the roots, blood on the branches,
blood on the leaves. It's perfume is
to fill all the nations. It's breath is
Heaven. Come. oh. winds from the
north and winds from the south and
winds from the east and winds from
the west, and bear to all the earth
the sweet smelling SAVIOR of Christ,
my Lord!
His worth if 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 q place of fruits That
would be a strange garden which had
in it no berries, no plums or peaches
or apricots. The coarser fruits are
planted in the orchard or they are set
out On the sunny hillside. But the
choicest fruits are kept in the gar
den. So in the world outside the
church Christ has planted a great
many beautiful things-patience
charity, generosity, integrity. But
lie intends the choicest fruits to be