Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-07-26
A BOWER OF BRANCHES
SUBJECT OF SERMON PREACHED b,
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
The Eloquent Brooklyn Divine Adapts the
Words of the Bible Relating to the Feast
of the Tabcrnacles to the Present Time.

Tattoo forth unto the mount and
fetch olive branches, and pine ranches,
and myrtle branches, and palm branches,
and branches of thick trees. to make
booths. Nehemiah, vii Is.
1t seems as if Mount OGvet were un-
moored. The people have gone into the
mountain, and have cut off tree bran cnes,
and put them on their shoulders, and
they come forth now into the streets of
Jerusalem. and on the house tops. and
thew twist these tree branches into
arbors OF booths. Then thepeople come
forth from their comfortable homes,
and dwell for seven days in these booths
or arbors Why do they do that? Well.
it is great festal time 1t is the feast
of tabernacles; and these people are
going to celebrate the desert travel OF
their fathers and their deliverance from
their troubles, the experience of their
fathers when, travelling III the desert,
they lived in booths on their way to the
land of Canaan. And so these booths
also become highly suggestive-I will
not say they are necessarily typical, but
highly suggcstive--of our march toward
Heaven, and of the fact that we are only
living temporarily here, as it were, in
booths or arbors, on our way to the
Canaan of 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, and
palm branches, and branches of thick
trees to make booths. Yes, we are only
marching on. The merchant princes who
used to live in Bowling Green. New
York, have passed away, and their
residences are now the fields of cheap
merchants. Where are the men who
fiftv wears 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 preceded us have gone so far on
that we cannot 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 COM
forted. 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.
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.
According 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, straight stem, and
then an otfshoot from that stem. And
then people come, and they strip off
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 sue
coed in building this gospel nrbor. we
must go into the Mount of Gods bless
ing, 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 1
say peace with God, l do not mean to
represent Goa as a bloody chieftain.
having grudge against US, but l do
mean to affirm there is no more antagon-
ism between hound and a hare, be-
tween hawk and pullet, between ele-
plant 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 reimbursement, there must be
reconstruction, there must be a treaty,
there must be a stretching forth of olive
branches.
There is great lawsuit going on now,
and it is a lawsuit which man is bring
ing against his Maker; that lawsuit is
now on the calendar. 1t is the human
versus the divine; it is iniquity versus
the immaculate; it is weakness versus
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 omnipoient, the sooner we
end it the better.
Travellers tell us there is no such
place as Mount Calvary, that it is only
hill, only an insignificant hill; but
persist in calling it the mount of Gods
divine mercy and love, far grander than
any other place on earth, grander than
the Alps or Himalayas, and there are nc
other hills as compared with it; and
have noticed in every sect where the
cross of Christ is set forth, it is planted
to do is to get rid of this war between
God and ourselves, of which we are al
tired. We want to back out Of the war
we want to get rid of this hostility. Al
we have to do is Just to get up on the
mount Of Gods blessing, and pluck
these olive branches and wave them be-
fore the throne. Peace through ou1
Lord Jesus Christ!
Oh, it 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, init.
mate, glowing, and everlasting relation.
ship with the God Of the round universe
that is the Joy that makes a hallelujal
seem stupid. All, why do we want t.
have peace through our Lord Jesus
Christ? Why. if we had gone on in ter
thousand years of war against God
we could not have captured SO much AZ
sword or 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 al
Heaven come on our side. Peace
through our Lord Jesus Christ; and nc
other kind of peace is worth anything.
But then we must have that Other
olive branch, peace with man. Now il
is very easy to get up quarrel. There