GARDENS OF EDEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 406, 4 July 1908, Page 4

GARDENS OF EDEN.

(I3Y A BANKER). 1 In the poorer district of a great city is a small public garden surrounded by squalid, uncared for tenements, and presenting a truly melancholy and lugubrious picture. Instead of brilliant flower beds and well cared for gravelled walks, a few begrimed and sootv evergreens, here and there a dilapidated vase containing a dead plant, and a few seats, rickety and unclean, create an impression of profound gloom and depression. But not on all, for at the further end of the garden a young couple are walking to and fro, hand in hand, and judging by the rapt, enamoured expression on both their countenances, and the fire of fond devotion which glistens in their eyes, they have plighted their troth each to the other, and are indulging in glad anticipations of happiness and of joy. Truly this place is to these a Garden of Kden, a very paradise. And there are others of these earthly oasis, these Gardens of Kden ; some so alluring from their inherent beauties ; some from their associations and memories. There are for instance the gardens of the seas, such as may so well be seen on a quiet day through the transparent waters of the lovely tortuous channels flowing amidst the Sicilly Islands, Here, perhaps, a fine specimen of the peacock’s tail, its fringed filaments reflecting all the colours of the rainbow ; here an undulating corpse of the graceful pink or purplish feather plant, its delicate plumes gently waving to and fro as the oars disturb the clear waters ; or here, its enormous bulb firmly fixed to a rock, a great plant of the “Seas furbelows,” its outspread fronds perhaps as much as twelve feet in diameter. And now the boat passes over a veritable flower garden. Beautiful sea-anemones of many hues spreading their tentacles in search of prey ; clumps and tufts of the graceful coralline ; numerous varieties of small feathery seaplants of many colours—-pink, and scarlet, and white, and light olive green; with perhaps, here and there a specimen of the striking sea-fan, or its still stranger congener the sea-pen ; whilst amidst all this labyrinth of beauty from time to time bright silvery fish of various kinds flash by, or hover in search of an unwary shrimp or prawn. Aye, to the lover of the beautiful in nature this is truly a paradise. But there is one garden of surely infinitely greater interest that any other spot on earth. “ For in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb.” And this “ Garden Tomb,” situate at the foot of the reputed Hill of Calvary outside the walls of the Jerusalem, is now believed by very many to be the actual sepulchre wherein was laid the sacred Body of the Saviour of the world, after, on the adjoining Golgotha, making expiation for the sins of all who will but appropriate to themselves the benefit of that great sacrifice. And happily this ever hallowed site is now vested in British hands under a deed of Trust, which provides that it “be kept as a quiet spot, and preserved on the one hand from desecration, and on the other hand, from superstitious uses.”