Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-07-06
GREEN, FRESH RELIGION.
A HeautifhI Sermoa by the Rev. DR..
TaImage.
RELIGION TREATED AsALEAFY BOOTH
composed of the Olive Branch Of Peace, the
Fine Of Evergreen, the Myrtle Of
Beauty, the Palm
oFYlcToRY AND THE STOUT BRANCH.

4C@ts Ncu. VIII. 10. uO IOrln uutO tuc
mount md fetch olive branches and pine
branches and myrtle branches and palm
branches and branches OF thick trees to
make booths"
The Mount OF Olives
seesis Ssseorsd fne trs5 bra,I- ali i
being cut off and shouldered and Iairss
on down in great procession to the city oi
Jerusalem. These tree branches are bent
and twisted into arbors or booths and set on
the Souse-top and along the streets Foliated
booths everywhere. And the people COM
ing out from their homes to live In them for
seven days. Why do the people come from
their comfortable houses to this temporary
booth? 1t is O grand festival 1t is the
Feast ofthe Tsbernacles. The people cele-
brate the deiversnce of their fathers from
desert travel where they lived in tents.
And it is slso typical Of our march to
heaven, pilgrims in q temporary booth on
the way to Canaan. So that / say in
feurative sense what was said to the Jews
in literal sense: "Go forth into the mount
and fetch olive branches and pine branches
and myrtle branches and palm branches
and branches oil thick trees to make
booths"
Our residence here is
Temporary Affair.
We rent or lease or buy house; but the
lease soon runs out and the deed must soon
be surrendered. Bowling Green, once in
habited by merchant princes, has become
shipping offices. Where are the men who
importing business in our great cities thirty
years ago2 Passed of the stage. Where
are the men who owned New York fifty
years ago. They have departed this life
for the most part. There is no use in our
driving our stakes too deep for we shall
soon have to pull them up. We are on the
march and are stopping only in 8 temporary
booth of twisted branches on the way to
palaces eternal. Where are the other gen.
erations2 So far gone that we cannot even
hear the sound of their feet. They have
passed up the hill and we shall soon follow
them. But, blessed be God, we are not
living here out OF doors and unsheltered.
No; we may 40 into the mount of God and
bend and twist for ourselves q shelter OF
comfort and delight, and bid you go forth
into the mount and fetch Give branches
and pine branches and palm branches and
myrtle branches, and the branches of thick
trees and shape booths.
The Olive Branch
you know is always used as sign OF peace.
The olive tree grows in warm climates to
the height of about 25 feet, has an upright
stem and many outshooting branches which
can easily be stripped of If a twig Of this
tree in tina ofwar is handed from one gen
eral to another, 1t means the unsaddling OF
cavalry horses and the hanging up of the
war knapsacks. Often hostilities have
ceased, these branches are placed over
doorways and they are built into triumphs!
arches and they are waved in professions.
They spell out in verdurous letters that
heayen.born word of Peace" Now, my
friends, in this gospel arbor which God
sends us to build we must have two Of these
olive branches. Peace with God! | do
not mean to intimate by that that God is q
bloody chieftain and has grudge against
us; but + want to intimate that there is
no more affinity between a here and
q hound, between hawk and
pullet between an elephant and the swine,
than there is between holiness and sin; and
since God is all holiness and we by nature
are all sin, there must be some readjustment,
some sppeasenent, some reconstruction,
some treaty, some stretching forth of olive
branches. The fact ID that the race has be.
A Law snit gainst its-naker,
and that law suit is now on the calendar. 1t
is the human versus the divine. 1t is ini.
uuity verses the Immaculate. II is weak
ness versus omnipotence. God did not be-
cir war against us; we began war against
him; and it is high time that this farce OF
the finite struggle againstth the Infinite were
ended. We are tired of this war. We want
to back cut. But how shall We get ces-
sation of this contest? By gong up into
the mount OF God and plucking olive
branches What mountH Calvary, modern
travellers say it is only an insignificant hill;
but persist IN calling it mount, because
through the grandeur of its meaning, it
overtops the very highest Of all earthly ele'
va,ions. The Alps and the Himalsyahs are
less than ant hills compared with it. In
the excavation on Calvary, where
the cross was once set, sfterward the olive
was planted and it is green sni thrifty and
foliseed to day, and / strip it off and wave
it, CRYING: "Peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ" Oh, if there Is any
joyful thought enough to overthrow ones
eouillibrium that is the thought. It may
be matter Of very little Importance what
Queen Victoria or Emperor William thinks
Of any one; but to be brought into close and
intimate and hearty and glowing relations
with the God of the round universe-that
makes haHleluish seem stupid. If we had
continued this fight against God for ten
thousand years, we could not have captured
so much as sword, or taken so much as
a cavalry stirrup or wrebehed OF so much
as chariot wheel of his omnipotence; but
God and all heavens artillery came over on
oui side at the FIRST swing Of the olive branch.
Peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ and there is no peace in any other
way.
But amiiy with God is not enough. We
must have two olive branches. Peach with
each other. Oh, il is easy enough toget up
a Quarrel There are sll around us
Gunpowdery Christians,
ana the tmolltct iDetCu VI pAO'OSoh0H "A-
set them of 1t is easy TO get up q quarrel
in church or State, but II never pays. When
two Christians contend with each other,
they always both get whipped Satan
slightly smiles when he get two vorldlngs
agoe with each other, but when he induces
a fight between two Christians-when be
pe,o two men who profess to love God and
gets them ct loggerhesds-then he laughs
SO loud that all inferno joins in the cachinna-
ton. Better have your horns sawed Oh.
Better apologize. Better submit to some
kind of humiliation. "No," you say, if this
matter is ever settled he viii have to take
the first step" You are pretty Christian,
you are. wonder how long it would have
been before our world was saved if Jesus
had not taken the FIRST stepf We the offend
ing party. yet Christ taking the first stepl
Do not therefore. take knosty and twisted
scourge and 20 after your enemy, bat 60 up
into the mount where the Radiant One suf.
fered for His enemies and twist of an olive
-.&k--A n nj