| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 1 |
Page 2 |
The picture of a garden runs through all the Bible. The first home of the human race was a garden. Jesus was buried in a garden. When He arose the first Easter morning spring flowers were blooming all about His grave, filling the air with fragrance. There is a legend, too, that as He walked away from the open tomb lilies sprang up in the path on which His feet walked. It is true; at least, that wherever His feet have walked all these centuries, flowers of joy, of hope, of peace, of life, of love have grown. He is changing the wilderness into a garden of roses.
The life of each one is a little garden which he is to dress and keep. In an ancient Bible song the story of such a garden is told. It is not some other one’s garden we are to keep, but our own. Some of us find it easier to look after the gardens of our neighbours than our own little patch. But that is not our duty.
“How fared thy garden plot, dear heart,
While thou sat’st on the judgment seat?
Who watered thy roses and trained thy vines,
And kept them from careless feet?”
“Nay, that is saddest of all to me, –
That is saddest of all.
My vines are trailing, my roses are parched
My lilies droop and fall.”
“Go back to thy garden plot, dear heart;
Go back till the evening falls,
And bind thy lilies and train thy vines,
Till for thee the Master calls.
“Go make thy garden fair as thou canst;
Thou workest never alone;
Perchance he whose plot is next to thine
Will see it, and mend his own.”
Page 2