The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-12-19
CEDARs OF LEBANON.
Dr.. TaImage Continues His Dis
courses on the Holy Land
Description OF the Great cedars Of Lebanon
and Lsss9es Taasat BY TIssir Ragged
st-snEta-1ke die Great Tree
OF LIEa-

In continuation of the course OF ser
mons delivered on the Holy Land, Rev.
L. De Witt Taimage in a recent dis
course at Brooklyn announced as his
text Psalm civ. 10: THE cedaEs of
Lebanon which He hath planted" DR..
Tafnage said:
In our journey we change stirrup for
wheel 1t is o'clock in the morning at
Damascus, Syria, and we are among the
lanterns of the hostelry. waiting Tor the
stage to start A Mohammedan in high
life is putting his three wives on board
within an apartment by themselves,
and our party occupy tho main apart
ment in one of the most uncomfortable
vehicles in which mortals were ever
jamm and half stranguiated We are
rolling on and out and Up the noun tains
of Lebanon, their forehead under e
crown of snow, which coronet the fingers
OF the hottest summer can not cast
down We are ascending he ghts
around which is garlanded much of the
finest poesy of the Scriptures, and are
rising toward the mightiest domin on
that botany ever recognized, reigned
over by the most imperial tree that ever
swaYed a leafY seepteF-the Lebanon
cedar; a tree eulogjzed in my text as
having grown from a ut put in to the
ground by God himself and no human
hand had any thing to do with its plant
| ing: THE trees of Lebanon VIII CHI He
| hath planted"
The average height of this mountain
is 1000 feet, but in one place it lifts its
head to an altitude of 10. 600. No higher
than 6. 900 feet can veget ton exist but
| below that line at the right season are
vineyards, and orchards, and olive
| groves. and flowers that dash the
mountain side with a very carnage of
color and I'LL the air with aromatics
/ that Hosea. the prophet and Solomon,
Kfvnor Lob tod u5 al Of
Lebanon" At height of 6. OOo feet is
a grove of cedsrs, the only descendants
/ of those vast forests from which Solo
/ mon cut his tim Der for the temple at
/ Jerusalem and where at one time there
were 100, goo sxemen hewing out the
beams from which great cities were
constructed But this nation of trees
/ has by human iconoclasm been massa-
| cred until only a small group is left
! The race of giants is nearly extinct
/ but have no doubt that some of these
were here when Hiram, King of Tyre,
ordered the assassinat on of those
cedars OF Lebanon which the Lord
planted From the mul titude of uses to
which it may be put and the employ
ment of it in the Scriptures, the cedar
/ is the divine favorite. When the
| p aims to be seen from the window
of this stage in which We ride to-
day are parched under summer
heats and not grass blade survives
| the fervidity this tree stands in luxuri-
ance, defying the summer sun. And
when the storms of winter tsrrify the
earth and hurl the rocks in avalanche
/ down this mountain side, this tree Crap
/ pies the hurricane of snow in triumph,
and leaves the spent fury at its feet.
| From sixty to eighty feet high are
they, the horizontal branches of great
sweep with their burden of leaves
needle shaped, the top of the tree pyra-
mldal, a throne of foliage on which
might, and splehdor, and glory sit But
so continuously has the determination
of trees gone on that for the most part
the mountains of Lebanon are bare of
| foliage, while 1 am sorry to say the
earth in all lands is being likewise de-
nuded- The axe is staying the forests
| all around the earth. To stop the
| slaughter God opened the coal mines of
England, and Scotland and America
and the world, pract cally saying by
| that: "Here is fuel; as far as possible
for the human race the great quarries
of granite, and showing the human
family how 70 make brick, God is prac-
t;cally saying: Here is building ma
teriali let My trees alone"
We had better stop the axes among
the Adriondacks. We had better stop
| the axes in all our forests, as it would
have been better for syria if the axes had
long ago been stopped among the
| noun tains of Lebanon
Plant the trees in your parks that the
weary may rest under them. Plant
them along your streets that up through
the branches passers by may see the
God who first made the trees and then
made man to look at them. Plant them
along the brooks, that under them
children may play. Plant them in
your gardens; plant them in cemeteries
When, not long before his death, 1
saw on the banks of the Hudson in his
glazed cap, riding on horse back, George
p Morris, the great song writer OF
America, 1 found him grandly emotion
al, and 1 could understand how he
wrote: "Woodman, Spare That TreeF'
the verses of which many of us have
felt like quoting in belligerent spirit
when under the stroke of some one
without sense or reason we saw beau
tiful tree pros trated:
WOodman, spare that treei
TOuch not Q single boughi
In youth it sheltered me,
And III protect it now.
Twas my forefather's hand
That placed It near his cot;
There, woodman, LET it stand,
Thy axe shall harm It not.
Ny heart strings round thee cling,
Close as thy bark, old friend
Here shall the wild bird sing,
And still thy branches bend,
Old treet The storm still bravei
And WOOdma.l, leave the spot
While I've hand TO save,
Thy axe shall harm 1t not
As We ride along these mountains OF
Lebanon, We bethink how It's cedars
spread their branches. and breathe their
aroma. and cast their shadows all
through the Bible Solomon discoursed
about them in his botanical works, when
he spoke of trees sfrom the cedar tree
that is in lie banon even unto the hyssop
that springeth out of the wall" The
psaimist says: The righteous shall
grow like cedar in Lebanon" and in
one of his magn fcent doxologies calls
on the csdars to praise the Lord And
solomon says the cOuHtenance of Christ
| is excellent as the cedar's. and Isaiah
declares; 1.-THE day of the Lord shall
be upon ala the cedars OF Lebanon"
as we ride over Lebanon to-day, there
is bowling wind sweeping past and :
dash of rain, all the better enabling Us
to appreciate that description OF : tenn
pest which no doubt was suggested by
| what David had seen With his own eyes