The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-24
BOWER OF TREE BRANCHES
AvAcATIoN SERMON sY DR.. TALMAeE
The Preachers Headquarters Being Temp
orarily Removed-His Text Is Appro-
priate-This the Time When Peo-
pie Go to- the Woods.

The Rev. DR.. Talmage preached last
Sunday at the Hamptons, n. Y. His sub
iect was THE Bower of Tree Branches"
His text was Nehemiah viii, 15-"Go forth
into the mount and fetch olive branches,
bnd pine branches, and myrtle branches,
hnd palm branches, and branches of
Zthick trees to- make booths" Following
is the sermon:
1t seems as if Mount Olivet were I'M
knoored. The people have gone into the
mountains and have cut off tree branches
and put them on their shoulders, and they
Icoms forth now into the streets of Jerusa-
ben. and on the house-tops, and they
u iss these tree branches into arbors or
kfhs. Then the people come forth
~ their comfortable homes and dwell
a. / seven days in these booths or
n Why 90 they Do that? Well, it
great festal time. 1t is the feast OF
he tabernacle; ard these people are 60
ng to celebrate the desert travel OF the
iatters and their delivergnCe from their
troubles, the experience Of their fathers
whsn, travelling in The desert, they lived
in booths on their way to the land OF Ca
man. And so these booths also become
highly suggestive viii not say they are
necessarily U plCdis Uut hA-uA1 ouEAIot4fC
%. our march toward heaven. and of the
factthat we are only living temporarily
herr, as il were, in booths or arbors on our
waI 10 the Canaan OF eternal rest.
and what was said to the Jews literally
ma today be said igurativelv to all this
audience. Go forth into the mountain and
fetth olive branches. and myrtle branches,
ant branches of thick trees to make
boJths. Yes, we are only here in tenn
ro-arv residence. We are marching on.
TIE merchant princes who used to live in
Bowling Green, y. Y, have passed away,
sr1 their residences are now the fields OF
cheap merchants. Where are the men
VINO fifty years ago owned New York?
Passed on.
There is no use in our driving our
ekates too deep into the earth; we are on
the march. The generations that have
preceded US have gone so Jar on that we
cannot even hear the sound of their foot
STEPS. They have gone over the hills and
We are to follow them. But, blessed be
God. we are not in this world left out of
doors unsheltered. There are gospel
booths or gospel arboTs in which our souls
are TO be comforted. Gro 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.
Well. now, we are to-day TO construct
gospel arbor, or gospel booth; and how
shall We construct it? Well, we must
get all the tree branches and build. Ac-
cOrding to my text we must 60 up into the
mount and bring olive branches. What
does that mean?
The olive tree grows in warm climates,
and it reaches the hight of twenty or
TWENTY-FIVE feet, a straight stem, and then
an ofishOOt from that stem. And then
people come, and they strip off these
branches sometimes: and when in 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
mean Why, it means unsaddle the war
chargers. II means hang up the war
knapsacks. 1t is but a beautiful way of
saying: Peace!
Now, If we are to-day going to succeed
in building this gospel arbor we must 90
into the mount OF Gods blessing and
fetch the olive branches, and whatever
else we must have we must have at least
two olive branches-peace with God and
peace with man. When l say peace with
God do not mean to represent God as
bloody chieftain, having a grudge against
us, but ] do mean to affirm there is no
more antagonism between a hound and a
hare, between a hawk and a pullet be-
tween elephant and swine than there is
hostility between holiness and SIN. And
If God is all holiness and we are all sin
there must be a readjustment, there must
be a reconstruction, there must be treaty,
there must be a stretching forth of olive
branches.
There is a great lawsuit going on now,
and it is lawsuit which man is bringing
against his Maker. That lawsuit is now
on the calendar. 1t is the human versus
the divine; it is iniquity versus the i'm
maculate; it is weakness versus omnipo-
tence. Man began it; God did not begin
the lawsuit. We began it; we assaulted
our maker, and the sooner We end this
part of the struggle in which the finite
attempts to overthrow the infinite and
omnipotent-the sooner we end it the
better.
Oh, il doesn'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,
glowing and everlasting relationship with
the God OF the round universe; that is
the Joy that makes a hallelujah seem
stupid. All, why do we want to have
peace through our Lord Jesus Christ
Why, il we had gone on in 10000 years of
war against God we could not have cap
tured so much as a sword or a cavalry
stirrup. or twisted of one OF the wheels
of the chariot OF omnipotence. But the
moment we bring this olive branch God
and all heaven come on our side.
Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ; and
no other kind Of peace is worth anything.
But then We must have that other olive
branch, peace with man. Vow il is very
easy 70 get ny a.qu(zrel. Tire are gun
POWDER Ch5( e. iyound US, and one
match cl 49, ION viii set them off.
IT Is easy es->idRhfJ get up a quarrel. But.
my brother, don't you think you had bet
ter have your horns sawed off, Had you
not better make an apology? Had YOU
not better submit 70 little humiliation
Oh, you say, until that man takes the
first step / will never be at peace with
him; nothing will be done until he is
ready to take the first step. You
are a pretty Christian? When would
this world be saved if Christ had not
taken the first step? We were in the
wrong, Christ was in the right-all right
and forever right. And yet He took the
first step. And instead OF going and get
ting knotty scOurge with which to whip
your antagonist, your enemy, you had
better get mp on the radiant mount where
Christ suffered for his enemies, and Just
take an olive branch, not stripping off the
soft, cool, fragrant leaves, but leaving
them all on, and then try on them that
0osnal switch. II won't hurt them. and IL