The Garden

I

A garden contemplation suits,
  And may instruction yield
Sweeter than all the flow’rs and fruits
  With which the spot is fill’d.

II

Eden was Adam’s dwelling-place
  While blest with innocence;
But sin o’er whelm’d him with disgrace?
  And drove the rebel thence.

III

Oft as the garden-walk we tread
  We should bemoan his fall;
The trespass of our legal head
  In ruin plunged us all.

IV

The garden of Gethsemane
  The second Adam saw
Oppress’d with woe, to set us free
  From the avenging law.

V

How stupid we, who can forget,
  With gardens in our sight,
His agonies and bloody sweat
  In that tremendous night!

VI

His church as a fair garden stands,
  Which walls of love enclose;
Each tree is planted by his hands,
  And by his blessing grows.

VII

Believing hearts are gardens too,
  For grace has sown its seeds
Where once, by nature, nothing grew
  But thorns and worthless weeds.

VIII

Such themes to those who Jesus love
  May constant joys afford,
And make a barren desert prove
  The garden of the Lord.