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.