The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-12-26
CEDARs OF LEBANON.
Or. Talmage Continues His Dis
courses on the Holy Land.
Description of the Great Cedsrs of Lebanon,
and Lessons Taught BY Their Rugged
strength-Ihe One Great Tree
of Life.

In continuation of the course of ser
mons delivered on the Holy Land, Rev.
I. De Witt Talmage III recent dis
course at Brooklyn announced as his
text Psalm civ. 10: THE cedarss of
Lebanon which He hath planted" DR..
Talmage said:
In our journey we change stirrup for
wheel 1t is 4oclock 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
life is putting his three wives on board
within an apartment by themselves,
and our party occupy the main apart
ment in one of the most uncomfortable
vehicles in which mortals were ever
damned and half strangulated We are
rolling on and out and up the mountains
of Lebanon, their forehead under a
crown of snow, which coronet the fingers
of the hottest summer can not cast
down. We are ascending heights
around which is garlanded much of the
finest poesy of the Scriptures, and are
rising toward the mightiest dominion
that botany ever recognized, reigned
over by the most imperial tree that eyer
swayed leafy scepter-the Lebanon
cedar; tree eulogized in my text as
having grown from nut put into the
ground by God himself, and no human
hand had any thing to do with its plant
ing: THE trees of Lebanon which He
hath planted" Is.
The average height of this mountain
is :, 900 feet, but in one place it lifts its
head to an altitude of 10, 900. No higher
than 5000 feet can vegetation 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 fill the air with aromatics
that Hosea, the prophet. and Solomon,
the King, celebrated as the smell of
Lebanon" At height of 5000 feet is
grove of cedars, the only descendants
OF those vast forests from which Solo,
mon cut his timber for the temple at
Jerusalem and where at one time there
were 100, 900 axemen hewing out the
beams from which great cities were
constructed But this nation of trees
has by human iconoclasm been massa-
cred until only 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 assassination of those
cedars of Lebanon which the Lord
planted. From the multitude 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
plains 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 terrify 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-
midal, throne of foliage on which
might and splendor, 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 l am sorry to say the
earth in all lands is being likewise de-
Nuded. The axe is staying the forests
Ill around the earth. To stop the
slaughter God opened the coal mines of
England, and Scotland and America,
and the world, practically saying by
that: "Here is fuel; as far as possible
let My trees alone" And by opening
for the human race the great quarries
of granite, aad showing the human
family how 10 make brick, God is prac-
ticaliy saying: Here is building ma
terial; let My trees alone"
We had better stop the axes among
the Adriondacks. We had better stop
the axes in AL our forests, as it would
have been better for Syr if the axes had
long ago been stopped among the
mountains 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,
saw on the banks of the Hudson in his
glazed cap riding on horseback, George
p Morris, the great song writer OF
America, found him grandly emotion
al, and could understand how he
wrote: 'Woodman, Spare That Treer'
the verses OF which many of US have
felt like quoting in belligecent spirit
when under the stroke of some one
without sense or reason we saw a beau
tiful tree Frustrated:
woodman, spare that treeI
Touch not a single bough!
In youth II sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now.
Twas M forefather's hand
That placed il near his cot;
There, wcodman, let it stand,
Thy axe shall harm il not.
Ny heart strings round thee cling,
Close as thy bark, old friendI
Here shall the wild bird sing,
And stII thy branches bend.
Old tree! The storm still bravei
And woodman, leave the spot;
While I've hand TO save,
Thy axe shall harm il not
As we ride along these mountains of
Lebanon, We bethink how its 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 from the cedar tree
that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop
that springeth out of the wall" The
nsalnist sars. .s1'ha rinhtanns shall