St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-10-06

den spoken of In the text. II you see
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 have to
tell you of plant that was gather
ing up from all eternity and that
1900 years ago put forth its bloom
never to wither. 1t is the passion
plant of the cross. Prophets fore
told it, Bethlehem shepherds looked
upon it in the bud, the rocks shook
at its bursting and the dead got up
in their winding sheets to see it's full
bloom. It is a crimson fower-blood
at the roots, blood on the branches,
blood on the leaves. Its perfume is
to fill all the nations. Its 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 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 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 great
many beautiful things-patience,
charity, generosity, integrity. But
He intends the choicest fruits to be
in the garden, and if they are not
there then shame on the church.
Religion is not a mere towering sem
1t is a practical. life
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 hospitals?
And your institutions of mercy?
Christ planted every one 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 built.
When Christ soothed the demoniac
,f CoI;1on IIo 1c;r1 <bo covuorsfono ~
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 in
prison and We visited me-" He laid the
of every prison reform
that has ever been or
ganized. The church of Christ is "A
glorious garden, and it is full of fruit.
1 know there is some poor fruit in it.
I 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.
know there are some wild grapes that
ought to be uprooted, but are you
going to destroy the whole garden
because of a 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 are a few specimens of gnarled
fruit.
/ 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 hum
dreds and thousands and tens Of thou
sands of glorious Christian men and
women-boly, 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 mat
ter Of psalm singing and church go
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 higher
type of character than Mary Of Beth
any. They not only sit at the feet
Of Christ, but they go out into the
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 2O-years'
martyrdom. Yonder is a man 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 IL st. Paul threw to M
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.
have not told you Of the better
tree in this garden and Of the better
fruit. 1t was planted just outside
Jerusalem good while ago. When
that tree was planted. it was so split
and bruised and barked men said
nothing would ever 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 thu
nations, and men began to pick it NJ
and eat it, and they found in it m
antidote to all thirst, to all poison
to all sin, to all death; the smallest
cluster larger than the famous ons
Of Eshcol, which two men carried or
a staff between them. II the ons
apple in Eden killed the race, this one
cluster Of mercy shall restore.
Again, the church in my text II
appropriately called garden because
it is thoroughly irrigated. No gar.
den could prosper long without plen-
ty of water. l have seen a garden