Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-12-20
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.


TEXT: The eed1rs OF Lebanon which lie
hath planted. Psalm civ. IS.
In our journey we change stirrup for
wheel. II is 4 olciock in the morning at Da-
mascus. Syria. and we are among the lam
terms OF the hosiery waiting for the stage
to start A Mohammedan in high life is
putting bis three wives on board within an
apartment by thf niseives, and our party oc-
cupy the main apartment of one of the most
uncomfortable vehicles in which mortas
were ever ianme and half stranguiated.
But we must not let the diseomforts annul or
dIsparage the opportunities. We are rolling
out and up the mountains of Lebanon, their
forehead under crown of snow, which eoro-
net the fingers of the hottest summer cannot
cast down
Weare ascending the heights around which
is garlanded much of the finest poesy of the
Scriptures, an are rising toward the might
lest dominion the: botany ever recognized,
relgned over by the most imperial tree that
ever swayed ieafy scepter--the Lebanon
cedar; tree euiogized in my text as having
grown from nut put into the ground by
God ID mseif, aud no human hani had any
thing to do with its planting: The trees Of
Lebanon which He had planted"
The average height of this mount ain 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 at the right season
are vineyards and orchards and olive groves
and flowers that dash the mountain side
with very carnage of color and fill the ar
with aromatics that Hosea, the prophet. AMI
Solomon, the king. celebrated ''the smell
of Lebanon At 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 of Jerusalem aud
where at one time there were one hundred
thousand axmen hewing out the beams from
which great cities were constructed. But this
nation of trees has by human iconoclasm
been massacred until only small group is
left. This race of giants is nearly extinct,
but have no doubt thai some of these were
here when Hiram, King o. Tyre, ordered the
ASSASSINATION OF tdese codars of Lebanon
which the Lord planted. From the multitude
of uses to which it may be put and the em-
ployment 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 fer
vidity, this tree stanGs 4 luxuriance defying
the summer sun. And when the storms
of winter terriiy the earth and hurl the
rocks in avalanche down this mountain side.
this tree grapples 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 pyramidal, a
throne of foliage on which might and SPLEEN
dor and glory sit. But so continuously has
the exterminat on of trees gone on that FOR
the most part the mountains of Lebanon are
bare of foliage, WHILE | am sorry to say, the
earth in all lands is being likewise denuded.
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, prac-
! ticallY saying by that, Here is fuel; as far
as possible let Ny trees one" And by
opening for the human race the great
quarries of granite ami showing the human
! family how to make brick, God is practi-
cally saying, Here is building material; let
My trees alone" We had better stop the
axes among the Adirondacks. We had bet
ter stop the axes in all our forests as it
would have been better for Syria il the axes
had long ago been stopped amCIg the
mountains of Lebanon. To punish us for our
reckless assault on the forests we have the
disordered seasons and now the droughts
because the uplifted arms OF the trees do not
pray for rain, their presence according to all
scientists disI osing the descent of the show
ers, and then we have the cyclones and the
hurricanes multiplied in number and velocity
because there is nothing to prevent their aw-
ful sweep.
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. I. ant them along the brooks
that under them the chill rem may play.
Pant them in your gardens that as in Eden
the Lord may walk there IN the cool of the
day. Plant them in cemeteries their shade
like mourners veil, and their leaves sound
ing like the rustic OF the wings of the de-
par ed. Let Artor Day, or the day for the
planting OF trees, recognized by the
Legislatures of many of the States,
be observed by all our people, and the
next one hundred years do as much in
planting these leafy g.ories of God as tie
last one hundred years have accomplished
in their destruction. When, not long BEFORE
his death, | saw on the banks OF the
Hudson in his glazed cap riding on hors,-
back, George ?. Morris the great song
writer of America, I found him grandly
emotional, and [ could understand how he
wrote w goldman, spare that tree"' the
verses of which many o. us have felt like
quoting in belligereut spirit, when un 4er
the stroke of some one without sense or
reason we saw beautiful tree prostratei
As we rode along on these the mountains
of Lebanon. We bethink how It's ceiars
soreal 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 &c lar tree that is in Lebanon
even unto the hyssop that springeth out of
the wall" The Psalmst says, The right
eous shall grow like cedar in Lebanon
and in one mis- magnificent doxoiogies calls
Oh the csdars to praise the Lord. And Solo
mon says the countenance of Christ is excel
lent rs the cedars, aud Isaiah declares 1.-THE
day of the Lord shall be upon all the cedars
of Lebanon" And jeremiah and Ezekiel
I and Amos and Zephaniah aud Zachariah
weave its foliage into their suolimest utter
ancas
rs 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 tempest which no
DOUBT was suggested by what David had seen
with his own eyes among these heights, for
as soldier he carried his wars clear up to
Damascus, AMI such poet as he, | warrant,
spent many day on Lebanon And perhaps
while he was seated on this very rock 5anst
which our carriage iolts, he writes that won
derful description of thunder storm: 1.-The
voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of
the Lord is full of majesty The voice of the
Lord OreaAeth the cedars of Lebanon. Yea.
the Lord breaIeth the cedars of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like calf, Leb-
anon an sirion like young unicorn. The
voice of the Lord divideth the flames of
fire"
As the lion Is the monarch of the fields and
behemoth the monarch of the waters, the
cedar is the monarch of the trees. And |
think one reason why it is so glorified all up
and down the Bible is because we need more
of its characteristics in our religious life.
W have too rnuch of the willow, and are
easily bent this way or that; too much of
the aspen, and we tremble under every
zephyr of assault; too much OF the bramble
tree, and our sharp points sting and wound;
but not enough of the ce lar, wide branched
and heaven aspiring and tempest Crap
ping. But the reason tlese cedars stand so
well Is that they are deep rooted. They run
their anchors down into the caverns OF the
mounta n and iasten to the very foundations
of the earth, and twist around and cliuch
themselves on the other side of tie deepest
layer of rock they can reach. And that's
the differences between Christians who stand
and the Christians who fall. Is is the differ
ence between superficial character and one
that hiss clutchet its roots deep down around
and under the Rock of Ages
One Of the Lebanon cedars vas examined
by scientist. and from its coneentFic Cir
Giles il was found to be thirty five hundred
We rs old and still standing. and therei. such
thing rs everlasting strength aud such a
stanchueSs OF Christian character that all
time aud all eternity instead o. being its
demolition shall he its opportunity. Not
such IRE those validating Christians who are
so pious on Sunday that they have no relig-
i'm LEI, tor the wees day As the anaconda
gorr,s itself with food. and then seems for
long while to lie thoroughly nsensible. so
there are men who will on Sunday get such
~ Eious surieit that the rest OF the week
they seem thoroughly dead to all religious
emotion. They weep in church under a
charity sermon. bnt if on Mon Law a subjec.
Of want presents Itself at the door the beg
gar's sa ETY. will depend entirely on quick