Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-05-22
MOUNT OLIVET.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Christ's
Ascension.
A Notable Place In Sacred HIstory-The
Saviour on Mount OIivet-His Ascent
Into Heasen-Blessings For All
fFue Believers.

In a recent sermon at Brooklyn Rev.
] T. Dewitt Talmage took his text from
Psalms XIV, q: Lift up your heads,
Dye gates; and be We lifted up, We ever.
! lasting doors; and the King of Glory
shall come in" He said:
In olden times, when great con-
queror returned from victorious war,
the people in wild transport would take
hold of the gates of the city and lift
them from their hinges, as much as to
say: This city needs no more gates to
defend it since the conqueror has got
home. OFF from the hinges with the
gates!" David, who was the poet of
poets, foretells in his own way the
tr umphal entrance of Christ into
Heaven, after His victory over sin and
death and hell. 1t was as if the celes-
tial inhabitants had sa d: Here He
comes! Make way for him! Push back
the bolts of diamond! Take hold of the
doors of pearl and hoist them from their
hinges of gold! Lift up your heads, o
We gates; and be We lifted up, We ever
lasting doors; and the King of Glory
shall come in"
Among the mountains of Palestine no
one is more uplifting than Mount Olivet.
1t was the peroration of our Lords min
istry. On the roof of a house in Jerusalem
asked: (Which is Olivet?" and the
first glance transfxed me. But how
shall l describe my emotions, when
near the close of a journey, in which we
had for two nights encamped amid the
shattered masonry of old Jericho and
tasted of the acrid waters of the Dead
sea, that crystal sarcophagus of the
buried cities of the plain, and waded
down into the deep and swift Jordan to
baptize a man, and visited the ruins of
the house of Mary and Martha and Lag
arus, we found ourselves in stirrups and
on horse, lathered with the long and
difficult way, ascending Mount Olivet
o, that solemn and suggestive ridgel 1t
is limestone hill mile in length, and
300 feet high, and 2, 700 feet above the
level of the sea. Over it King David
fed with broken heart Over it Pom
pey led his devastatin hosts. Here the
famous Tenth legion built their bat
tcries in besiegement. The garden of
Gethsemane weeps at the foot of it
Along the base of this hill fla he'd the
lanterns and torches of those who came
to arrest Jesus. From the trees on this
hill the boughs were torn off and thrown
into the path of Christ's triumpha! pro-
cessiOn. Up and down that road Jesus
had walked twice day from Bethany
to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to
Bethany. There, again and again, He
had taught His disciples. Half way up
this mount He uttered His lamentation,
80, Jerusalem! Jerusalemr From it's
heights Jesus took fight homeward
when He had finished His earthly mis-
sion. There is nothing more for Him to
do. A sacrifice was needed to make
peace between the recreant earth and
the outraged Heaven and He had offered
it. Death needed to be conquered, and
He had put His resurrection foot upon
it. The thirty-three years of voluntary
exile had ended. The grandest, tender
est, mightiest goodbye ever heard was
now to be uttered.
On Mount Olivet Jesus stands in a
group of Galilee fishermen. They had
been together in many scenes of sadness
and had been the more endeared by that
brotherhood of suffering. They had ex-
pected Him to stay until the day of coro-
nation, when He would take the earthly
throne and wave scepter mightier, and
rule dominion wider than any David,
than any Caesar. But now all these antici-
pations collapse. Christ has given His
last advice. He has offered His last
sympathy. He has spoken His last
word. His hands are spread apart as
one is apt to DO when he pronOunces a
benediction, when suddenly the strong
est and most stupendous law of all
worlds is shattered. 1t is the law which,
since the worlds were created, holds
them together. 1t is the law which
holds every thing to the earth, or tenn
Porarily hurled from earth, returns it;
the law which keeps the planets whirl-
ing around our sun and our solar system
whirling around the throne of God-the
law of gravitation, That law is sus-
pended, or relaxed, or broken, to let the
body of Jesus GO. The law had laid
hold of Him thirty-three years before,
when He descendt d. 1t had relaxed it's
grip of Him but once and that when it
declined to sink Him from the top of
the waves on Galilee, on which He
walked, to the bottom of the lake
That law of gravitation must now give
way 10 II m who made the law. 1t may
hold the other stars, but it can not
longer hold the Morning Star of Re-
demption. 1t may hold the monday
sun, but it can not hold the Son of
The fingers of the law
are about to open to let go the most
illustrous Being the world had ever
seen, and whom it had worst maltreated.
The strongest law of nature which
philosophers ever weighed or measured
must at last give way. 1t will break be-
tween the rock of Olivet and the heel of
Christ's foot. Watch it, all We disciples!
Watch it, all the earth! Watch it, all
the heavens! Christ about to leave this
planet. How! His friends will not con-
sent to have Him go. His enemies
Him would only attempt by
another Calvary to put Him into some
other tomb. i will tell you how. The
chain of the NEST tremendous natural
aw is unlinked. The sacred foot of our
Lord and the limestone rock part, and
part forever
Leaning back, and with pallid cheek
and uplifted eyes, the disciples see their
Lord rising from the solid earth. Then,
rushing forward, they would grasp His
feet to hold Him fast, but they are out
Of reach, and it is TOO late to detain
Him. Higher than the tops of the fig
trees from which they had plucked the
fruit. Higher than the olive trees that
shaded the mount Higher, until He is |