May The LORD Grant The Sweet Showers Of HIS Grace To Water HIS Garden This Day.

CHRIST'S garden!(Charles Spurgeon)

"I am come into my garden, my sister, 

my spouse." Song of Solomon 5:1

The heart of the believer is CHRIST'S garden. 

HE bought it with HIS precious blood, and 

HE enters it and claims it as HIS own.

A garden implies separation. 
It is not the open common; 
it is not a wilderness--
it is walled around, or hedged in. 

Would that we could see the wall 
of separation between the church and 
the world made broader and stronger. 
It makes one sad to hear Christians 
saying, "Well, there is no harm in this; 
there is no harm in that," thus getting 
as near to the world as possible. 

Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which 
can even raise the question of how far 
it may go in worldly conformity.

A garden is a place of beauty, 
it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. 
The genuine Christian must seek to be more 
excellent in his life than the best moralist, 
because CHRIST'S garden ought to produce 
the best flowers in all the world. 

Even the best is poor, compared with 
CHRIST'S deservings; let us not put 
HIM off with withering and dwarf plants. 
The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and 
roses ought to bloom in the place 
which JESUS calls HIS garden.

The garden is a place of growth. 
The saints are not to remain undeveloped, 
always mere buds and blossoms. We should 
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of 
our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. 
Growth should be rapid where JESUS 
is the Gardener, and the HOLY SPIRIT 
the dew from above.

A garden is a place of retirement. 
So the LORD JESUS CHRIST would 
have us reserve our souls as a place 
in which HE can manifest HIMSELF, 
as HE does not unto the world. 

O that Christians were more retired, 
that they kept their hearts more closely 
shut up for CHRIST! 

We often worry and trouble ourselves, 
like Martha, with much serving--
so that we have not the room for CHRIST 
that Mary had, and do not sit at HIS feet 
as we should. May the LORD grant 
the sweet showers of HIS grace 
to water HIS garden this day.

  
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GraceGEMS has a large selection of fine character-building novels by Timothy Shay Arthur. 
Here is a good place to start: "The Allen House".