The national leader., 1889-07-18
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
Day SERMON.
preached at the Hamptons,
Long Island.)


myrtle branches, and palm branches, and
branches Of thick trees, to make booths."-
Nehemiah viii, 15.
It 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
they twist these tree branches into
arbors or booths Then the people come
forth from their comfortable homes,
and dwell for seven days in those booths
or arbors. Why do they do that? Well
it is great festal time. 1t is the
going to celebrate the desert travel of their
fathers and their deliverance 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 so these booths also become highly sug
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 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 au
dience 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 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 fields 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 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, OF 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.
Well, now we are to-day to construct a
gospel arbor, or gospel booth; and how shall
we construct it9 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, a straight stem, and then an offshoot from
that stem And then people come, and they
strip of 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
mean2 Why, it means unsaddle the war
chargers. 1t means hang up the war KNAPP
sacks. 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 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 grudge against US but do mean to
affirm there is no more antagonism between a
hound and a hare, between q hawk and pull
let, between 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 readjustment, there must be a re-
| construction, there must be treaty, there
must be stretching forth Of olive branches.
There is great lawsuit going on now, and
1t is lawsuit which man is bringing against
his Maker; that lawsuit is now on the cal
endar. 1t is the human versus the divine;
it is iniquity versus the immaculate; it Is
8, weakness versus omnipotence. Man began
| ia; God did not begin the lawsuit We be-
gan 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.
Travellers tell us there is no such place as
Mount Calvary, that it is only hill only
an insignificant hill; but l 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 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 to back out Of the war, we
want to get rid of this hostility. Ali we
have to do is just to 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, 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, intimate, glowing and
everlasting relationship with the God of the
round universe; that is the joy that makes
hallelujah seem stupid. All, why do we want
to have peace through our Lord Jesus Christi
Why, If we had gone on in ten thousand
| years u against God, We could noG nave
| captured so much as sword or cavalry STIR
rup, 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 anything
But then we must have that other olive
branch, peace with man. Now it is very
easy to get up quarrel. There are gun
| powdery Christians all around u.s. 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
make an apology? Had you not better sub
NIT to little humiliation? Oh, you say.
until that man takes the first step win 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
knotty scourge with which to whip your an
tagonist. your enemy, you had better get up