i3 6 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
OFFICE BUILDING, RIVERSIDE CEMETERY, 
NORRISTOWN, PA. 
Attractive office and service buildings serve a 
two-fold purpose in all well ordered cemeteries as 
well as parks. They offer a permanent indication 
of the policy of the management on the one hand, and 
lend dignity and variety to the landscape features 
of the grounds, on the other. It is a wise policy on 
the part of all cemetery managers to pay particular 
attention to their buildings, securing the most ar- 
tistic and well constructed structures possible within 
OFFICE BUILDING, RIVERSIDE CEMETERY, NORRISTOWN, PA. 
the limits of the^funds at their command. 
The illustrations represent the office building 
of Riverside cemetery, Norristown, Pa., which 
while cheap is neat and attractive in appearance. 
Its dimensions are as follows: Outside includ- 
ing verandah 44 feet by 28 feet; inside 30 feet by 
1 5 feet. A brick vault, 6 feet by 8 feet, constructed 
for the preservation of records, etc., opens out 
into the interior, and the office is separated from 
the waiting room by a railing with gate. The build- 
ing is small but neat and commodious, meeting the 
requirements of a small cemetery such as Riverside. 
It is cool in hot weather and a desirable place in 
which to hold services when necessary. Its total 
cost was $875. Mr. Bellett Lawson, Jr., superin- 
tendent, kindly furnished the photographs from 
which above illustrations are made. 
GARDENS OF THE BIBLE.* 
The number of gardens specifically mentioned 
in the Bible are few, but their interest and quality 
compensate for lack of number. They are, indeed, 
so individualized as to seem stamped with divine 
approval. P'or the Bible teaches that the existence 
of the human race began in a garden, that sin en- 
tered the world through a garden, that the first pun- 
ishment of human transgressions was banishment 
from a garden, that Christ was betrayed in a gar- 
den, that the pathetic and awful tragedy of Christ’s 
human life ended in a garden, and that the rock 
upon which the hope of a Christian world is based 
was rolled away from a tomb that lay in the midst 
of a garden. 
Christians, therefore, cannot question the Bib- 
lical importance of gardens. But there are gardens 
and gardens. What is meant by a garden? Well, I 
hold that from Bible teaching it is safe to affirm 
that a garden in its best sense was in the begin- 
ning what it is today — primarily a place of beauty. 
Not merely a place where individually beautiful 
or interesting plants and flowers are grown, but a 
place where the surface of the ground, water, rocks, 
trees, shrubs, vines, flowers and grass are thought- 
fully arranged so that together they make a picture. 
A place where the general effect is more important 
than any one object, and where the combined ob- 
jects make a view or series of views, in short, a 
landscape, large or small. 
. * * 
One must begin very near the beginning to find 
the first Bible garden, for in Gen. 2:8, we read: 
“The Lord God planted a garden eastward in 
Eden,” and a little further on, “out of the ground 
made He to grow every tree that is pleasant to the 
sight and good for food.” 
Let it be noted that the fact of being pleasant 
to the eye is given precedence over economic value. 
Moreover, comments are found throughout the 
Scriptures that confirm this meaning. There are 
landscape settings for all important scenes and 
events, mountains, rocks and plains; hills, streams 
and valleys; the sowing of seeds and gleaning of 
wheat; the oil press and the vintage; trees, birds, 
the flowers of the field, the glory of the lilies — all 
are there. And who shall say how much they add 
to the sublimity and impressiveness of the wonder- 
ful histories. Take them away and the bare facts 
remain, though shorn of much that appeals to the 
minds and hearts of men. 
It is clear from Bible descriptions that the gar- 
den of Eden had a mild climate, fertile soil and 
abundant water; that it had shade, for the Lord 
walked there in the cool of the evening; that it 
*Paper read at a Sunday Evening Meeting of the Epworth League. 
