THE FLORIST. 49 



SACRED GARDENS. 



The Watered Garden (Isa. lviii. 11, Jer. xxxi. 12, with their 

 respective contexts). — The necessity of water to a garden, what 

 florist can doubt ? What lively images does this expression, " a 

 yv'atered garden," convey to us ! Do we not seem to see every seed 

 springing up just where we planted it in hope ? do we not count the 

 newly opened blossoms of our favourite flowers ? does not their very 

 fragrance come to us in the moistened air ? But if water be thus 

 necessary and beneficial to the garden in our temperate climate, how 

 much more in hotter countries ! There, a garden left unwatered 

 would soon become a desert. The provision for watering the garden 

 of Eden was a river (Gen. ii. 10) ; fountains in Palestine were com- 

 mon in gardens (Cant. iv. 15). We have rain from heaven, and 

 artificial modes of watering ; and how careful are we, if the former be 

 deficient, to supply the need by our own labour ! We are familiar 

 with these cases. We should blame our gardener or ourselves, if 

 our plants perished for lack of moisture. We should run to fetch 

 the needed refreshment for a drooping favourite. The parched earth 

 of the parterre does not call out in vain for water. When God pro- 

 mises, then, to make the soul as a watered garden, He promises a rich 

 blessing, and one that we shall do well to covet. In our first quota- 

 tion, the promise is to those who exchange the mere outside form of 

 religion for the real power of it ; and this blessed exchange is made 

 by the working of the Spirit of God in the soul. And how often is 

 that blessed Spirit described in the Scriptures under the figure of 

 water ! (See John hi. and iv.) In our second quotation, the pro- 

 mise is made to the gathered flock of the long- scattered Israel, the 

 redeemed and ransomed people of God, who are to be attracted by 

 His goodness to their ancient home, Jerusalem. The promise is, 

 however, applicable to every person truly brought to God from the 

 wanderings of nature. 



The Unwatered Garden. — We need scarcely describe the 

 wretchedness of the " garden that hath no water." (Isa. i. 30.) It is 

 an emblem of the misery of those who remain in their natural state 

 of transgression — of those who forsake God for some earthly thing, it 

 may be even for their gardens. (See verses 28 and 29.) 



Let us not go to our daily work or amusement — let us especially 

 not be so inconsistent as to take up occupations that so forcibly re- 

 mind us of heavenly and most important truths — without most dili- 

 gently inquiring, whether our souls are as watered or unwatered 

 gardens. If yet, alas ! unwatered, there is a free invitation, " Come 

 ye to the waters." (Isa. Iv. 1.) 



VOL. II. NO. 



