The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1902-08-28

II is a pleasant thing to care for a gar
den-to spend ones leisure in the cultiva-
tion Of flowers And il you have no leisure
and your general lot is cast where the gar
dens do not bloom, still in summer time
You sometimes see their beauty; let them
remind you of three Bible stories connect
ed with gardens. which find an echo in the
experience Of every soul.
| see in a garden salvation required. The
Bible pictures a man and woman tremb-
ling, fearful. There is a sound that is not
the sound Of the wind nor of the murmur-
ing trees-a movement that is not the stir
ring of the leaves: nay oh trembling sim
ner, well mayest thou hide thysef; this is
the voice of the Lord. "rhe voice of the
Lord shaketh the cedar-trees" well may
it shake theel 1t speaks the sentence of
exile condemnation, death. Go forth; hui
man nature is utterly fallen; we have no
spark of goodness left whereby we may
claim to enter into the presence Of the
Lord.
All that curse of the race is on all Of us.
All inherit sin; all are conscious of vile
ness within. You are kind, charitable. re-
spectacle you do your duty; but it matters
not-the taint Is on thee, the trail of the
serpent is over it all: you need a Saviouri
And YOU remember the day when first you
realized it. and cried to God to reveal His
Christ to your soul.
Again, | look at a garden, and / see sal
garden now. Pale night has come. the
trees cast long shadows, and the shrubs
take fantastic shapes. and the night has
many voices. but the birds and flowers are
asleep and need not the marvels of dark
ness and not only the flowers. but there
are weary men there, sleeping for sorrow.
One only wakes, agonizes, cries out in an
guish of spirit. Who is this? Oh prom
ised Seed. oh. Star of Jacob oh. bringer
of Thy people home, it is Thou Thou. oh
Saviour, ar. agonizing for the sins of man.
"Great High Priest, we view Thee stoop-
ing,
With our names upon Thy breast,
In the garden gToaning, dropping,
To the ground with horror pressed"
He is sore amazed, for He secs the sins
of all His children, their blackness, their
ingrattude; He Is to bear it all, to bear all
the punishment that they may go free
III it be possible, let this cup pass from
Me- Nay, o Master, it is not possible;
Thou must drain that cup to the very
dregs that may be pardoned and purified.
Christian. has not the scene in that gar
den been often made precious to your soul,
And have you not known something of
the anguish and amaZement. as you have
seen and realized the sin within you-that
sin which amazed the Christ? Have you
not known the agony. too, as salvation was
being wrought out in YOU. as you did not
was sure, as you cried for pardon. and it
was not vet vouchsafed to you? He, the
Sinless. entered into agony VIXEN He was
accomplishing salvation for us; we, the
sinful, must enter into agony. in a meas
tire. when salvation was being accomplished
in us
"IIs way was much rougher and darker
than mine
DID Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall 1
repine:'
look at another garden, and | see sal
vation accomplished. 1t is the death-day
OF Jesus In darkness and pain the Lord
OF Life has expired upon the cross In the
place where He was cruciied there is a gar
den, and in the garden sepucher; there.
with weeping and mourning, pious hands
have laid the body of Jesus to rest Pale
and bathed in blood, wrapped in lin
en-, in the darkness of the tomb in that
garden-place, lies the body of the eternal
Son of God, He has atoned for His peo-
pies sins now; they are all put away; they
owed to God debt of unimaginable mag
nitude. but 1t is all paid now, paid to the
utmost tarthing-there is nothing for them
to pay. No one can lay anything now to
the charge of Gods elect. 1t is finished:
the little fock need not fear--theirs is the
kingdom of heaven
Christian. have you realized that that
final JOY, the joy of knowing that the
atoning work was accomplished for YOU
that you are accepted in the Beloved?--
The Rev. Il. G. Fillingham, in '"rhe Gospel
in the Fields"