Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-07-25
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE,s
STERLING DIsCoURsEs.
Subject The Bower of Tree
Branches" preached at the
Hamptons, Long IsIand.)

Ii seems as if Mount Olivet were nm
moored. The people have gone mt tha
mountain, and have cut off tree branches
and put them on their shoulders and thew
come forth now into the streets az
Jerusalem, and on the house tons and
they twist these tree branches into
arbors or booths. Then the people come
Iofeh from their comfortable homes
and dwell for seven days ia those booths
or arbors. Why do they do thatY Well
IL is great festal time If is fine
feast OF tabernacles: and these ueonle are
going to celebrate the desert travel Of their
fathers and their deiverance from their
troubles the experience of their fathers
"hen travelling IN the desert, they lived in
booths on their way to the land of Canaan.
And so these booths also become highly suo-
gestive-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 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 ali-
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 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
near 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 conforted. 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, 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 KNAPP
sacks. 1t is but a beautiful way of saying
Peacei
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 | say peace with God, do not
mean to represent God as bloody chieftain,
"A qfral ms ne lint / 10 ms IN
affirm there is no more antagonism between
hound and a hare, between a 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 SIM there
must be readjustment, there must be re-
construction 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 bringing against
his Maker; that lawsuit is now on the cal
endar. IL is the human versus the divine,
it is iniquity versus the immaculate; it is
weakness versus omnipotence. Man began
it: God did not begin the lawsuit We be-
gan IL; we assaulted our Maker, and the
sooner we end this part of the struggle in
which the finite attempts 10 overthrow the
infinite and omnipotent, the sooner we end
the better.
Travellers tell us there is no such place as
Mount Calvary that il 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 HimaiayaS and
there are no other hills as compared with 1t;
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 All we
have to do is Just TO get up on the mount OF
Gods blessing. ana 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 a
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 couid not nave
captured so much as a sword or cavalry sur
run 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
Dr2nc0. peace Will HAL 49, - -
easy to get up aqusrrel. There are gun
powdery Christians all around us, and one
match Of provocation will set them OIL IL
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 SUD-
NIT to little humiliation Oh, you say,
until that man takes the first step VIII never
be at peace with him; nothing VIII pe
done until he is ready to take the
first step. You are a pretty Cniastlah.
When would this world be saved II Cnrlst
had not taken the first stepg We were IN
the wrong. Christ was in the right-ail rignt
and forever right. And yet He took Inc nrst
stew. And instead of going and getting
knotty scourge with which to whip your an
tagonist. your enemy. you had better get up
on the radiant mount where Christ suffered
for His enemies, and just take an olve nranchl
not stripping off the soft, cool, LTagrane
leaves but leaving them all on and hnsn 1ry
on them that gospel switch. 1t wons y au5e
them. and it will save you Peace Wis Snoo,
, r.s,, wit, man. II you cannot take nnoHe
Two doctrines you are no Christian
Best be the tie that binds
Orr hearts in Christian love
M f~il.,.,si,fn If kindred minds