A garden contemplation suits,

    And may instruction
yield,

Sweeter than all the flowers
and fruits

    With which the spot is
filled.

 

Eden was Adam’s dwelling place,

    While blessed with
innocence;

But sin o’erwhelmed him with
disgrace,

    And drove the rebel
thence.

 

Oft as the garden-walk we
tread,

    We should bemoan his
fall;

The trespass of our legal
head

    In ruin plunged us all.

 

The garden of Gethsemane

    The second Adam saw,

Oppressed with woe, to set us
free

    From the avenging law.

 

How stupid we, who can
forget,

    With gardens in our
sight,

His agonies and bloody sweat,

    In that tremendous night!

 

His Church as a fair garden
stands,

    Which walls of love enclose;

Each tree is planted by His
hands,

    And by His blessing
grows.

 

Believing hearts are gardens
too,

    For grace has sown its
seeds,

Where once, by nature,
nothing grew,

    But thorns and worthless
weeds.

 

Such themes to those who
Jesus love,

    May constant joys afford,

And make a barren desert
prove

    The garden of the Lord.

 

    (From Olney Hymns.)