The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-07-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Consultations and Joy of Divine
Fellowship Portrayed.
Sorrows and BIIsfortunes May Accumu-
late, But the Religion of Jesus is a
Blower Of Tree Branches" in
which to Find Rest.

His text was:
Go forth into the mount and fetch olive
branches, and pine branches, and myrtle
branches, and palm branches, and branches of
thick trees, to make booths.-Nehemiah viii,
Is
1t seems as if Mount Olivet were I'M
moored. The people have gone into the
mountain, and have cut off tree branches,
and put them on their shoulders, ana
they come forth now into the streets of
Jerusalem, and on the house tops, and
they twist these tree branches into arbofs
or booths. Then the people come forth
from their comfortable homes, and dWol
for seven days in these booths or ar bors.
Why 10 they do that? Well, it is q great
festal time. It is the feast Of tabernacles;
and these people are going to celebrate
their delverance from their troubles, the
experience of their fathers when travel
ing in the desert they lived in booths on
their way to the land of Canaan. And so
these booths also become highly suggest
ive-I will not say they are necessarily
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 aTbors, on the
way to the Canaan Of eternal rest.
And what was said to the Jews literally
may to-day be said figuratyely to all
this audience. Go forth into the mount
ain, and fetch olive branches, and pine
branches, and myrtle E 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 resi-
dences are now the fields of cheap mer-
chants. Where are the men who fifty
years ago owned New York? Passed.
II ere is no use in our driving our
stakes too deep into the earth; we are on
the march. The generations that have
prece led us have gone so far on that we
can net ev-n hear the sound of their foot
steps. They have gone over the hills, and
we are to follow them. But, blessed be
God, we arc 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 branches of thick
trees, and build booths.
Well, now we are to- day 10 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 some times, 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
kuapsacks. II is but a beautiful way of
saying peacel
Now, If we are to-day going to succeed
in building this Gospel arbOr, we must
60 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 I say peace with
God I 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 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 all
sin, there must be readjustment, there
must be 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 a lawsuit which man is bringing
against his Maker; that lawsuit is now on
tue calendar. II is the human versus the
divine; it is iniquity versus the immacu-
late; 1t is weakness versus omnipOtence.
Man began it; God did not begin the law
suit We began it; we assaulted our dear
Maker, and the sooner we end this part
of the struggle in which the finite at
tempts to overthrow the infinite and
omnipotent, the sooner we end it the bet
ter.
Travellers tell US that there is no such
place as Mount Calvary; that it is only q
hill, only an Insignificant hill; but per-
Ffst in calling it the mount of Gods d.
1 vine mercy and love; far grander than
1 any other place on earth grander than
/ the Alps or Himalayas, and there are no
/ other hills as compared with it; and I
/ 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 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 Christi
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, glow
ing and everlasting relationship with the
God Of the round universe; that is the
JOY that makes a hallelujah seem stupid.
All, why d. 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 capt
ured SO much as a sword or a cavalry
/ stirrup, or twisted off one Of the wheels
/ Of the chariot Of His omuipotence. 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 a quarrel. There are gun
! powdery Christians all around US, and
/ one match OF prOvocation win set them
! OF. 1t is easy enough to get up a quar-
/ rel. But my brother, don't you think
\ you had better have your horns sawed
| off Had you not better makeap apologyg
i Had you better not submit to a little
! humiliation! Oh, you say, until that man
! takes the first step Will never be at
| peace with him; nothing will be done IN
/ til he is ready TO take tine first step. You
are a pretty Christian! When would
/ this world be saved if Christ had not
taken the irst step? We are in the wrong,
/ Christ was in the right-all right and