The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-05-23
MOUNT ,OLIVET.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Christ's
Ascension.
A Notable Place In sacred Ristory-Ths
Saviour on Mount Olivet-His Ascent
Into blessings For All
True Believers.

Psalms XIV, x: s'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
oueror 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 &c
say: This city needs no more gates to
defend it since the conqueror has got
home. OFF from the hinges with the
gatesr' 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 said: 'Here He
comes! Make way for himi 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 Oliyet.
1t was the peroration of our Lord min
istry On the roof of house in Jerusalem
asked: (which is Olivet?" and the
first glance transfixed 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 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 ridge! 1t
is limestone hill a mile in length, and
800 feet high, and 2, 200 feet above the
level of the sea. Over it King David
fed with broken heart Over it Pom
pey led his devastating hosts. Here the
famous Tenth legion built their bat
teries in besiegement. The garden of
Gethsemane weeps at the foot of it.
Along the base of this hill flashed 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 Christs triumphal pro-
cession. Up and down that road Jesus
had walked twice a 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,
go, Jerusalem! Jerusalemr' From its
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 0livet Jesus stands in
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 a 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 Hedeseended. 1t had relaxed its
grip of Him but once and that when it
declined to sink Him from the top of
the waves on Galilee, on which He
That law of gravitation must now give
way to II m who made the law. 1t may
hold the other stars but it can not
longer hold the Morning Star of Re-
demption. It may hold the MONDAY
sun, but it can not hold the Son of
righteousness. 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 0livet 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 win not con-
sent to have Him 60. His enemies
catching Him would only attempt by
another Calvary to put Him into some
other tomb. will tell you how. The
chain of the most tremendous natural
law 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 disciplessee their
Lord rising from the solid earth. Then,
rushing forward, they would grasp bis
feet to hold Him last, 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
within sight of the Bethlehem where
He was born, and the Jordan where He |
was baptized, and the Golgotha where
He was slain. Higher. until ON stairs |