Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-12-19
CEDARs OF LEBANON.
DR.. TALMAGE,s rwE1eru erp
MON ON THE HOLY LAND.

"A h"h"Feo Ihousand Axmen Massacred
the Great Forest, but u Few Trees stiil
AttestAts Magniticence-Mhyt the Hebrew
Poets Often Referred to the Cedars.
In the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Dr. Ialmage preached the twelfth SER
mon OF his series on Palestine and the
adjoining countries. Dr. Talmage an
honhced as his text Psalms civ, l6. :srhe
ccdars OF Lebanon which he hath
p!anted,' and preached the following
sermon:
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 for the
stage to start. A Mohammedan in high
me IS putting his three wives on board
within an Impairment by themselves,
ana our party occupy the main apart
ment OF one of the most uncomfortable
vehicles in which mortals were ever
damned and half strangulatcd. But we
must not let the discomforts annul or
disparage the opportunities. We are
folllns on and out and up the mountains
OF Lebanon, their forehead under q
crown OF snow, which coronet the fingers
Oh tile hottest summer cannot cast down.
we are ascending heights around which
rs garlanded much of the finest poesy of
the Scriptures, and are rising toward the
mlghties dominion that botany ever
recognized, reigned over by the most
imperial tree that ever swayed leafy
scepter-the Lebanon cedar; tree
euloglzed in my text of having grown
from nut put into the ground by God
himself, and no human hand had any
thing to do with its planting: ''The
trees of Lebanon which he hath
planted
The average height of this mountain
is seven thousand feet, but in one place
it lifts its head to an altitude of ten
thousand. No higher than six thousand
feet can vegetation exist, but below that
line ut the right season are vineyards
and orchards and olive groves and flow
ers that dash the mountain side with a
very carnage of color, and fill the air
with aromatics that Hosea, the prophet.
and Solomon, tho King, celebrated as
''the smell of Lebanon" At a height of
six thousand feet is a grove of cedars,
the only descendants of those vast
forests from which Solomon cut his
timber for the temple at Jerusalem, and
where at one time there were one nun
dred thousand aXmen hewing out the
beams from which great cities were con-
structed.
But this nation of trees has by ,hnman
iconoclasm been massacred until only a
small group is left. This race of giants
is nearly extinct, but l have no doubt
that some of these were here when
: Hiram, King of Tyre, ordered the as
sassination of those cedars of Lebanon
which the Lord planted.
The AK is Staying the forests all round
the earth. To stop the slaughter God
opened the coal mines of England and
Scotland and America and the world,
practically saying by that. ''Hcrc is fuel;
as far as possible let my trees alone %
And by opening for the human race
the great quaries of granite and showing
the human family how to make brick
God is practically saying, "Herc is build
ing material: let my trees alone" We
X had better stop the axes among the Adj
il irondacks. 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 mountains
OF Lebanon.
To punish us for our reckless assault
on the forests we have the disordcred
seasons: now the droughts, because the
uplifted arms of the trees 90 not pray
for rain, their presence according to all
scientists disposing the descent of the
showers, and then we have the cyclones
Der and velocity, because there is moth
ing to prevent their awful sweep.
AS we ride along on these mountains
of Lebanan 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 ''trom the cedar tree that
is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that
springeth out of the wal.' The Psalm
list says, ".The righteous shall grow like
a cedar in Lebanon and in one of his
magnificent doxologies calls on the cedars
to praise the Lord And Solomon says
the countenance of Christ is excellent as
the cedars, and Isaiah declares, ''The
day of the Lord shall be upon all tho
cedars of Lebanon" And jeremiah, and
Ezekiel, and Amos, and Zephaniah, and
Zechariah weave it's foliage into their
sublimest utterances.
As we ride over Lebanon to-day there
is a bowling wind sweeping past and a
dash of rain, all the better enabling us
to appreciate that description of a tenn
pest, which no doubt was suggested by
what David had seen with his own eyes
among these heights, for as a soldier ne
carried his wars clear up to Damascus,
and such poet as he, warrant, spent
many day on Lebanon. And perhaps
while he was seated ON this very rock
against which our carriage jolts he
writes that wonderful description OF
thunder storm: "Thc voice of the Lord
is powerful. The voice of the Lord is
full of majesty. The voice of the Lord
breaketh the ccdars Of Lebanon. Yea
the Lord breaketh the cedars OF Lebanon
He maketh them also to skip like cali
Lebanon and Sirion like young UNI
corn. The voice of the Lord divldeti
the flames of fire." -,
AS the lion is the monarch CT th'
fields and behcmoth the monarch OF tht
waters, the cedar is the monarch OF I'M
trees. And think one reason why
is so gloriiied all up and down the hlbl'
is because VIC need more of its charae
teristics in our religious life. we nav
too much of the willow. and are casil:
80 4h;e ,y.v mr. that: too much OF I'LL