Songs 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey… By the garden, here, Jesus means His Church. But the Sunday-school is one of the most important parts of the Church of Christ. I. WHY IS THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIKE A GARDEN? 1. The Sunday-school is like a garden because of what is done for it. (1) The first thing done for a garden is to fence it. These fences are made out of the commandments He has given us in the Bible. (2) When we have fenced our garden, the next thing to do is to weed it. But you may ask, what are the weeds that grow in God's garden? Pride is one of these weeds. It is a tall, strong weed, with a glaring, disagreeable flower. Anger is another of these weeds; impatience is another; selfishness is another; idleness is another. (3) The next thing to be done for it is to improve the soil. Some soil is so very poor that nothing will grow in it. When this is the case, the gardener has many ways of curing it. I will only speak of one. He will have the poor soil taken away, and some good, rich soil put in its place. And this is just what Jesus does to His people. He improves the soil of their hearts by changing it and making it new. Everything that Jesus loves will grow in the soil of the new heart. (4) Now we are ready to sow the seed, and put in the plants we want to have growing there. (5) Now it must be watered and cared for. Suppose no rain comes down and no dew distils upon it, will the seed sown there ever spring up and grow? And just in this way Jesus waters and cares for His garden His grace is the rain and dew that soften the soil of our hearts. His Holy Spirit is like the sun that shines on and warms them. Jesus has pipes in His garden to carry the water of tits grace wherever it is needed. The Bible that we read and have explained to us is one of these pipes. And then our blessed Saviour watches carefully over His garden all the time to keep anything from hurting the plants, or from hindering- their growth. 2. But then there is another reason. .why the Sunday school may be compared to a garden, because of what grows in It. In a garden we expect to find beautiful flowers and delicious fruit. And so in the Sunday-school, which is the garden of Christ, many sweet flowers and fruits are found growing. Every good feeling that we cherish in our hearts is a spiritual flower, and every good deed that we perform in our lives is a spiritual fruit, which Jesus loves to see blooming and ripening in His garden. II. WHAT DOES JESUS COME INTO IT FOR? 1. He comes to watch the growth of the plants. 2. He comes to enjoy the beauty of the flowers. No gardener ever took half as much delight in the flowers he is raising as Jesus takes in His. Every Christian child, and every one who is trying to become a Christian, is a flower in the Saviour's garden, and nobody can tell how much pleasure Jesus takes in watching them. Oh, who would not wish to be one of the flowers of Jesus? 3. He comes to gather the flowers. You know how many dear children die while they are quite young. But what should we think if we could see them now, as they are blooming and flourishing in the Saviour's garden above? (R. Newton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. |
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