THE JOY OE A GARDEN. 
67 
nished with a robe of whiteness ! Where, but in a 
garden, shall we see and hear, and press to our heart of 
hearts the precious wealth of a whole creation ? Where, 
but in a garden, shall we meet with genuine heart-ease ? 
Where, but in a garden, learn the sweet idleness that 
seems like a dream of Eden? Where, but in a garden, 
acquire the quick action and the anxious thought that 
prove us to be fallen creatures ? Where, but in a 
garden, realize our dependence upon God, and under¬ 
stand the links that bind us to Him ? Where else see 
the lilies “ how they grow,” and the sparrows that fall 
not but at His bidding ? Where, but in a garden, feel 
the full remembrance that man fell from God in the 
very morning of his creation, and thenceforth read 
reproaches in the thorns and thistles that choke the 
pathway of His life? Where, but in the world of 
greenness, and life, and everlasting change, and the 
growth on growth of things indissolubly linked together, 
read the true lesson of God's love for us, and see the 
upward yearning of all things that teach us we may be 
saved ? 0 heaven and 0 earth ! in the garden is your 
meeting-place, for there God talked with Adam, and 
there the Saviour wept in agony for all. O polar frost, 
and 0 torrid sunshine ! O bright orient, and O mys¬ 
terious Occident, your delicatest darlings here blossom 
side by side, and shake their honey-bells together; for a 
garden is a microcosm of the world, a living map of 
climes and seasons, a gathering of all things curious, and 
useful, and beautiful, from “ the cedar that is in Lebanon 
to the hyssop that groweth on the walland if it may 
be looked on as an open scroll of pictured emblems by 
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