Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-07-25
GOSPEL BOOTHS.
DR.. Talmage on the Blessings Of
True Christianity.
Constructing Gospel Arbors-Significance
of the Olive Branch-The Pine Suggest
i've of the Health of Religion
Power of the Gospel.

De Nltt Iaimage was The Bower of
Tree Branches" His text was Nehemiah
viii. Is: Go forth unto the mount and
fetch olive branches, and palm branches
and branches of thick trees. to make
booths" DR.. Talmage said:
1t seems as if Mount Olivet were un-
moored. The people have gone into the
mountain and have cut off tree branches
and put them on their shoulders and they
come forth now INTO the streets of Jerusa-
lem 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 seven days
in these booths or arbors Why do they
do that? Well, it is a great festal time
1t Is the feast of tabeI nacles, and these
people are going to celebrate the desert
travel of their fathers and their deliver
ance from their troubles, the experience
of their fathers when, travelling in the
desert, they lived in booths on their way
to the land of Canaan. And 50 these
booths also besome highly suggestive-I
will not say they are necessarily typical,
but highly sugyestive-of our march to-
ward Heaven and OF the fact that we are
only living temporarily here, as it were,
in booths or arbors, on our way to the Ca
naan or eternal rest
And what was said to the Jews literally
may to-day be said fguratively to all this
audience. Go forth into the mountain
and fetch olive branches and pine
branches and myrtle branches of thick
trees to make booths. Yes, we ara only
here in "a temporary residence. We are
marching on. The merchant princes who
used to live in Bowling Green, New York,
have passed away, and their residences are
now the field of cheap merchants. Where
are the men who fifty years ago owned
New York? Passed on.
There is no use in our driving our stakes
too deep into The earth; we are on the
march. The generations that have pre-
ceded US have gone so far on that we can
not even hear the sound of their footsteps.
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 and
unsheltered. 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 bran ches of thick trees and
build us booths.
Well, now, we are to-day to construct a
gospel arbor, or Gospel booth, and how
shall we construct it: Well, 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 it reaches the height of twenty or
twenty-five feet a straight stem and then
an offshoot 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 1t 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 go
into the mount of Gods blessing and fetch
the olive branches, and, whatever else we
must have, we have at least two olive
branches-peace with God and peace with
man. When l say peace with God l do
not mean to represent God as bloody
chieftain, having grudge against Us, but
| do mean to affirm there is no more an
tagonism between a hound and a hare,
between a hawk and a pullet, between
elephant and swine, than there is hostility
between holiness and sin. And if God is
all holiness and we are al sin, there must
be a readjustment, there must be a 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
aga'ns his Maker. That lawsuit is now
en- 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 at
tempts to overthrow the infinite and the
omnipOtent, the sooner we end it the
better.
Travellers tell US there is no such place
as Mount Calvary, that it is only 4 hill,
only an insignificant hill; but persist in
calling it the mount of Gods divine mercy
and love, far grander than any place on
earth, grander than the Alps or Hima-
Iayas, and there are no other hills as
compared with it; and 1 have noticed in
every sect where the cross of Christ is set
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 to back out of
the war, we want to get rid of this hostil-
ity. All we have to do is to just get up on
the mount of Gods blessing and puck
these olive branches and wave them be-
fore the throne. Peace through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
n 10 IUh
the world thinks of you-what this King.
what that Queen. that Senator thinks of
you. But come into the warm intimate
glowing and everla sting relationship with
the God of the round universe; that is the
joy that makes halleluiah seem stupid.
All, why do we want to have peace
through our Lord Jesus Christ: Why, if
we had gone on in ten thousand years of
war against God, we could not have
captured so much as a sword or a cavalry
stirrup, or twisted off one of the wheels
of the chariot of His 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 any thing.
But then we must have that other olive
branch, peace with man. Now, it is very
easy TO get up QuarreL 1heFe are gun
powdery Christians all around US. and
one match of provocation will set them off.
1t is easy enough to get up quarrel. But,
my brother, don't you think you had
better have your horns sawed off. Had
you not better submit to little humilia-
tion? On, you say, until that man takes
the first step l will never be at peace with
him; nothing will be done until he is ready
to take the first step. You are pretty
Christian. When would this world be
saved if Christ had not taken the first:
We were in the wrong, Christ was in the