The Russellville Democrat., 1889-07-25
CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Sermon bv Rev. T. Dewitt Tal-
 mage at "The Hamptons.
The Peacefnincss Of the Christian life Portrayed-The Onward March Toward the Mount of Gods Mercy
 The Divine reliowship.


 Go forth unto The mount and fetch olive branches, and pine braBehes, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches o thick trees, 10 make booths. Nehemiah will, l5
 It seems as if Mount Oliyet were un- moored. The people have gone into the mountain. and have cut of tree branches, and put them on their shoulders. and they come forth now into the streets of Jerusalem, and on the house tops, and they twist these tree branches into arbors or booths. Then the people come forth from their comfortable homes. and dwell for seven days iu these booths or arbors. Why do they do thatg We'll. it is a great festal time. It is the feast of taberuacles and these people are going to celebrate the desert travel of their fathers and their deIiverauce from their troubles, the experience of their fathers when. travel ing in the desert they lived in booths ou their way to the land of Canaan. And so these booths also become highly suggest ive-I will not say they arc necessarily typical. but highly suggestive-of our march toward Heaven, and of the fact that we are only living temporarily here, as it were. in booths or arbors, on the way 10 the Canaan Of eternal rest
 And what was said to tbe Jews literally may to-day be said hggratiysly to all this audience. Co forth into tho mount ain, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches and myrtle s branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees 10 make booths. Yes, we are only here in a temporary residence. We are marching on. The merchant princes who used to liye in Bowling Green, New York, have passed away, and their resi- dences are nOw the fields of cheap mer- chants. Where are inc men who fifty years ago owned New York? Passed.
 There is no use in our driving our stakes too deep into the earth; we are on the march. The generations that have preceded us have gone so far on that we can not ev hear the sound of their foot steps. They have gone over the hills, and we are 10 follow them. But blessed be God, we are not iu this world left out of doors and Bnsheltered. There are Gospel booths, or Gospel arbors, in which our souls are to be comforted. Go forth unto the mountain and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees. and build booths.
 We'll, now we are to-day to construct a Gospel arbor, or Gospel booth; and how shall we construct it: We'll, we must get all the tree branches and build. Accord ing to my text we must go up into the mount and bring olive branches. What does that mean:
 The olive tree grows in warm climates, and 1t reaches the height of twenty or twenty-two feet, a straight stem, and then an offshoot from that stem. And then people come, aud they strip of these branches some times, and when ln time of war the General of one army takes one of these olive branches and goes out to the General of another army, what does that means Why, it means unsaddle the war chargers. IL means hang up the war knapsacks. Il is but q beautiful way of saying peace!
 Now. if we are to-day going to succeed in building this Gospel arbor, we must go into the mount of Gods blessing and fetch the olive branches. and whatever else we must have We must have at least two olive branehes-peace with God and peace with man. When I say peace with God do not mean to represent God as 0 bloody chieftain, having a grudge against us, bat 1 do mean to affirm there is no more antogonism between q hound
 
 between elephant and swlue than there is hostility between holiness and sin. And if God is ail holiness, and we are all sin, there must be readjustment there must be reconstruction, there must be a treaty, there must be 0 stretching forth Of olive branches.
 There is great lawsuit going on now, and it is a lawsuit which man is bringing h hot la s1r the calendar IL is the human versus the divine; it is iniquity versus the immacu- late; 1t is weakness versus omnipotence. Man began il; God did not begin the law suit. We began it; we assaulted our dear Maker and the sooner we end this part of the struggle in which the finite at tempts to overthrow the infinite and omuipOteut, the sooner we end it the bet ter.
 Travellers tell us that there is no such place as Mount Calvary; that it is only a hill, only an insignificant hill; but l per sist in calling it the mount of Gods di- vine mercy and love; far grander than any other place on earth, grander than the Alps or Himaiayas, and there are no other hills as compared with it; and have noticed in every sect where the cross of Christ is set forth it is planted with olive branches. And all we have to do is tO get rid of this war between God and ourselves, of which We are all tired. We want Co back out of the war; we want to get rid of this hostility. All we have to do is just 10 get up on the mount of Gods blessing, and pluck these olive branches and wave them before the throne. Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ!
 Oh. 1t don't make much difference what the world thinks of yoU-what this King, that Queen, that Senator thinks of you. But come into the warm, intimate, glow ing and everlasting relationship with the God of tho round universe; that is the joy that makes Eallelujah seem stupid. An, why d. we want to have peace through our Lord Jesus Christ? Why, if we had gone uR in teu thousand years of war against God, we could not have capt uTed so much as a sSOrd or a cavalry stirrup, or twisted of one of inc wheels Of the chariot of His omuipotence. But the moment we bring this olive branch God and all Heaven come on onr side. Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ; and no other kind of peace is worth any thing.
 But then we must have that other olive branch, pesce with man. Now it is very easy to get up @ quarrel. There are gun powdery Christians all around us, and one match of provocation will sct them on l. is easy enough to get up quar- rel But. my brother, don't you thiuk y0u had better have your horns sawed of Had you not better makeau apology Had you better not submit to a little humiliation. On, you say, until that man takes the first step will never be at peace with him; nothing will be done un- il he is ready to take the first step. You are pretty Christian! When would this world be saved if Christ had not taken the hrst stepy We are iu the wrong, Christ was in the ri.ht--all right and forever right And yet He took the first step. And instead of going and getting a Enotty scourge with which to whip your antagonist your enemy, you had better get up on the radiant mount where Christ suffered for If, enemies, and iast