Isaiah 58:11 And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones… 1. The Church is appropriately compared to a garden because it is the place — I. OF CHOICE FLOWERS. Christ comes to His garden, and plants there some of the brightest spirits that ever flowered upon the world. Some of them are violets, inconspicuous, but sweet. You have to search and find them. You do not see them very often, perhaps, but you find where they have been by the brightened face of the invalid, and the sprig of geranium on the stand, and the new window-curtains keeping out the glare of the sunlight. These flowers in Christ's garden are not like the sunflower, gaudy in the light, but wherever darkness hovers over a soul that needs to be comforted, there they stand, night-blooming cereuses. 2. But in Christ's garden there are plants that may be better compared to the Mexican cactus — thorns without, loveliness within; men with sharp points of character. They wound almost every one that touches them. They arc hard to handle. Men pronounce them nothing but thorns, but Christ loves them notwithstanding all their sharpnesses. Many a man has had a very hard ground to cultivate, and it has only been through severe trial he has raised even the smallest crop of grace. A very harsh minister was talking to a very placid elder, and the elder said, "Doctor, I do wish you would control your temper." "Ah," said the minister, "I control more temper in five minutes than you do-in five years:" 3. There are others planted in Christ's garden who are always radiant, always impressive — more like the roses of deep hue that we occasionally find; the Martin Luthers, St. Pauls, Chrysostoms, Wyckliffes, Latimers, and Samuel Rutherfords. What in other men is a spark, in them is a conflagration. When they sweat, they sweat great drops of blood. When they pray, their prayer takes fire. When they preach, it is a Pentecost. When they fight, it is a Thermopylae. When they die, it is a martyrdom. 4. In this garden of the Church I also find the snowdrop, beautiful but cold-looking, seemingly another phase of winter. I mean those Christians who are precise in their tastes, unimpassioned, pure as snowdrops and as cold. 5. But I have not told you of the most beautiful flower of all this garden. 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 a plant that was Gathering up from all eternity, and that nineteen hundred years ago put forth its bloom never to wither. It is the passion plant of the Cross! II. The Church is a place OF SELECT FRUITS. 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 garden. So in the world outside the Church, Christ has planted a 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 sentimentality. It is a practical, life-giving, healthful fruit — not posies, but apples. The Church of Christ is a glorious garden and it is full of fruit. I know there is some poor fruit in it; but are you going to destroy the whole garden because of a little gnarled fruit? There is no grander, nobler collection in all the earth than the collection of Christians. III. The Church is the place of THOROUGH IRRIGATION. No garden could prosper long without plenty of water. I have seen a garden in the midst of a desert, yet blooming and luxuriant. All around was dearth and barrenness; but there were pipes, aqueducts, reaching from this garden up to the mountains, and through those aqueducts the water came streaming down and tossing up into beautiful fountains, until every root and leaf and flower was saturated. That is like the Church. The Church is a garden in the midst of a great desert of sin and suffering; but it is well irrigated. From the mountains of God's strength there flow down rivers of gladness. Preaching the Gospel is one of the aqueducts. The Bible is another. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are aqueducts. Everything comes from above; pardon, joy, adoption, sanctification. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. |
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