Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-09-07

vuE EMINENT DIvINE's SUNDAY
DISCOURSE
Subject The Garden of the King-Christ
the Founder and Gardener-The Flow
ers and Fruits OF Religious Devotion
The Beauty of Right Living.
Copyright 1901

ers and Fruits OF Religious Devotion
The Beauty of Right Living.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. C.-This sermon DR..
Talmage sends from hating place in
erland. 1t seems to have been prepared
amid the bloom and aroma of garden
midsummer. The text is Song of Solo
mon V, !, Il am come into my garden"
The Bible is a 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 oil
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. Th:
great poem brings all the gems of the
earth into its coronet and it weavcs 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 cam
els; from the fish pools of Heshbon up t.
the psalmlst praising God with diapasOn
Of storm and whirlwind, and Jobs i'm
agery of Orion, Arcturus and the Pleiades
My text leads us into scene of sum
mer redolence The world has had Is
great many beautiful gardens Charlie
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 bewtching 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 ana
fountain here had their browning. Oak
and yew and hazel put forth their richest
foliage. There was no life more diligent,
no soul more ingenious than that oil
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 &l7,00O And yet | am to
tell You to-day of richer garden than
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 Abbots
ford, ruined his fortune, and now, i'll the
crimson flowers of those gardens, you can
almost think OF 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
agonies Tell me, we women who saw
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
. blessed Jesus, to-day; walk up and
down these aises, and pluck what ThoJ
wilt of sweetness for Thyself!
The church, in my text, is appropriately
to a garden, because it is
place of choice flowers, of select fruits
and of thorough irrigation.
That would be. a strange garden II
which there were no flowers. If nowhere
else, they would be along the borders OF
dictate something, If it be only the old
fashioned hollyhock or dahlia or daffodil
but if there be larger means, then YOU
will find the Mexican cactus and blazine
azalea and clustering oleander. Well |
now, Christ comes to His Garden, and He |
plants there some of the brightest spirits
that ever lowered 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
ing out the glow of the sunlight. They
creeping swiftly along amid the thorns
and briers of life, giving kiss for sting
and many man who has had in his way
some great black rock of trouble ha.
found that they have covered it all oveI
with flowery jasmine running in and Out
amid the crevices.
These flowers in Christ's garden are not
ike the sunhower, gaudy in the light, but
wherever darkness hovers over a soul that
needs to be comforted, there they stand
light blooming cereuses. But in Christ's
garden there are plants that may be bet
er compared to the Mexican cactus
horns without, loneliness within; mer
With sharp points of character. They
wound almost every one that touches
hem. They are hard to handle. Mer
them nothing but thorns, but
Jhrist loves them notwithstanding al
heir sharpnesses. Many man has hac
very hard ground to cultivate, and il
as only been through severe trial he has
aised even the smallest scrap of grace
very harsh minister was talking to
cry placid elder, and the placid eide,
aid to the harsh minister: Doctor, / dc
.ish you would control your temper
Ah," said the minister to the elder, u
ontrol more temper in five minutes thar
on do in five years" 1t is harder for
ONE men to do right than for other mer
o DO right. The grace that would ele
eep your brother from knocking a mar
own. | had friend who came to me
nd said, 81 dare not join the church." J
aid, Why" "Oh," he said, Il have
lch a violent temper. Yesterday morn
lg was crossing very early at the Jersey
ity ferry, and | saw a milkman pour I
rye quantity of water into the milk can
nd | said to him: L think that will do
nd he insulted me and | knocked hin
own. Do you think ought TO join th !
lurch" Nevertheless that very same |
an, who was so harsh in his behavior !
we'd Christ, and could not speak of sa 9
ed things without tears of emotion ant c
lection. Thorns without, sweetness a
ithin-the best specimen of Mexican a
ctus / ever saw. a
There are others planted in Christ. u
rden who are always radiant, always e
lpressive-more like the roses of deer :
e that we occasionally find, called t
iants OF battle;" the Martin Luthers
Pauls, Chrysostoms, Wycliffes. Lati
ers and Samuel Rutherfords What in
her men is spark in them is conha. =.
alton: When they sweat, they sweat l.