The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-15
BOWERS OF BRANCHES.
TALMAGE TELLS OF THE MARCH
TO ETERNITY.

of the Human VS. the Divine.
THE HAMPToNs, July 1.-THE subject Of
the Rev. DR.. T. Dewitt Talmage's sermon
to-day was: "The Bower of Tree
Branches His text was Nehemiah viii,
| Is: "Go forth unto the mount and fetch
olive branches, and pine branches, and
myrtle branches, and palm branches, and
branches of thick trees, TO make booths ="
| Following is the sermon:
| 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 boo s.
| Then the people COM forth from their
| &C ccmfortable homes, and dwell for seven
days in these booths or arbors. Why
| do they do that? Well, it is a
great festal time. 1t is the feast of
| tabernacleS; and these people are
| going to celebrate the desert travel of their
fathers and their delivereuce 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 became highly
| suggestive-l will not say they are neces-
sarlly typical, but highly suggestive-of
| our march toward heaven, aud of the fact
| that we are only living temporarily here, as
1t 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 figurstively 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 here in temporary resi-
| dence. We are marching on. The mer-
| chant princes who used to live in Bowling
! Green, New York, have passed away, and
| their residences are now the ffol g of cheap
| merchants. Where are the me7 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 70 canno
even hear the sound of their foot teps
| They have gone over the bills, and we are
! TO follow them. B 1T, 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 b.
| comforted. Go forth unto the mountain,
and fetch olive branches, and pine branches,
ana mvrtle brancne', and palm branches
ard branches of thick erees, and build
booths.
Well, how we are to-day to construct a
|
shall we constru t ita Well, we must get
! all the tree branches and build. Accord
ing to my text we mutt 60 up into the
mount and bring olive branches. What
does that meant
The olive tres grows ~ ,sarm climates,
and it reaches the hight of twenty or
twenty-five feet, a straight stem, and then
an otfshoot from that stem. And then peo-
| pie come, and they strip Off these branches
| a w in inn nf ha
| general of one army takes que of these olive
branches and goes out to the general of an
| other army, what does that mean: Why,
1t means, unsaddle the war chargers. 1t
means hang up the war knapsacks 1t is but
a beautiful way Of saying, Peacel
Now, If we are to-day going to succeed
in buiidi < this gospel arbor, we must go
into the mount Of Gods blessings and fetch
the olive branches and whatever else we
must have, we must have at least two
| olive branches-peace with God aud
| peace with man. When I say peace with
| God, do not mean to represent God as a
bloody chieftail, having 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,
between elephant and swine, tnan
there is hostility between holiness
and sin. And if God is all holiness. and
we are all sin, there must be a read
| justment, there must be a reconstruction,
| there must be a treaty, there must be "A
stretching firth cf olive ranches.
| There is a great lawsuit going on now
and it is a Law suit which man is bringing
against his maker; that la wsuit is now on
the Gale dar 1t is the human versus the
| divine; 1t is lniqulty versus the Immaculate
1t Is weakness versus omnipotence. 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.
Travellers tell us there is no such place as
Mount Calvary. that it is OILY hill, only
! an insignificant NIL but persist in calling
it the mount of Gods divine mercy ana
| love, far grander than any other place on
earth, grander than the Alps or Himaayas
| and there are no other hills as comparel
| with it; aud [ 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. All
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
On, 1t don't make much difference what
! the world thinks of you-wha5 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
haIlelujah seem stupid. All, why do we
| want to nave peace through our Lord Jesus
| Christi Why, if we had gone on in ten
| thousand years of war against God, we
! could not have captured so much as S " ord
or a cavalry stirrup, or twisted off one of tho
| 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, peach with man. Now it is very
| easy to get up a quarrel. There are gun
| powdery christians all around US, and one
match of provocation will set them Off. II
| is cay enough to get up a quarrel But,
my brother, don't you think you had better
have your horns sawed off? Had you not
better make an apologyg Had you not bet
ter submit to little humiiatioaf Oh, YOU
say, until that man takes Jhe first step |
will never bs 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 step? We
were in the wrong, Christ was in the right
all right and forever right. And yet he
took the first step. Aud instead Of go