Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-12-19
CEDARS OF LEBANON.
DIR. TALMAGE TALKS ABOUT MEN
AND TREES.

The Famous Tree Used I'm the Con-
struction ofSolOmon's Temple Full
ly Described.-Many of the Trees
characteristics Similar TO Those of
the Christian.-An Emblem of the
Saviour.
! BROOKLYN, N. Y, Dec. II, 1890. To
day DIR. Talmage preached another sermon
OF his series, on Palestine and the adjoin-
ing countries. After delivering it in the
morning IN the Academy of Music in this
city, he preached it again in the evening in
New York. Text-Psalm 104, 16: "The
| cedarss Of lebanon which he hath planted"
In our journey we change stirrup for
wheel. 1t Is four o'clock in the morning,
at Damascus, Syria, and we are among
the lanterns of the hostelry waiting for the
stage to start. A Mohommedan in high
life is putting his three wives on board
within an apartment by themselves, and
our party occupy. the main apartment of
'one of the most uncomfortable vehicles in
which mortals were ever damned and half
strangulated. But We r:ust not Let the
discomforts annul or disparage the oppor-
tunities. We are rolling on and out and
up the mountains of Lebanon, their fore
head under u crown of snow, which coro-
net the fingers of the hottest summer cam
not cast down. We are ascending heights
! around which is garlandcd much of the
finest poesy of the Scriptures, and are
rising toward the mighticst dominion that
botany ever recognized, rcigned over by
the most imperial tree that ever swayed q
leafy sceptre-the Lebanon cedar; a tree
| eulogzcd in my text as having grown from
nut put the ground by God himself,
and no human hand had anything to do
with its planting: 1.-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 voge-
tation 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
| fill the air with aromatcs that Hosea the
prophet, and Solomon, the king, celebrated
as 1.-THE smell of Lebanon" At a height of
six thousand feet is grove Of cedars the
only, descendants OF those vast forests from
which Solomon cut his timber for the tenn
pie of Jerusalem, and where at one time
there were one hundred thousand aXcmen
hewing out the beams from which great
cities were constructed. But this patton
of trees has by human 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 assassination of those cedars of Lebanon
which the Lord planted. From the multi
tude of uses to which it may be put and
the employment 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 today are parched
under summer heats, and not grass-blade
survives the fervidity, this treo stands in
luxuriance defying the SIMMER sun. And
when the storms of winter terrify the earth
and hurl the rocks in avalanche down the
mountain side, this tree grapples the hurri-
cane 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
necdle-shaped, the top of the tree pyramidal,
q throne of foliage on which might, and
splcndor, and glory sit But so continuous
ly has the determination of trees gone on,
that for the most part the mountains of
Lebanon arc bare Of foliage, while / am
sorry to say. the earth in all lands is being
likewise denuded.
The axe 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: 'Here is fuel;
as far as possible let my trees alone" And
by opening for the human race the great
quarries of granite, and showing the human
family how to make brick, God is practi
cally saying: Here is building material;
let my trees alone"
One of the Lebanon cedar was examined
by scientist, and from its conccntrc cir
cles, it was found to be thirty five
hundred years old and still standing, and
there is such thing as everlasting
strength, and such stanchness of Chris
tian character that all time and all eternity
instead of being its demolition shall be its
opportunity. Not such are those vacillating
Christians who are so pious on Sunday that
they have no religion left for the week
day. AS the anaconda gorges itself with
food, and then seems for a long while TO lie
thoroughly insensible, so there are men
who will Oh Sunday get such a religious
,urfeit that the rest of tho week they seem
thoroughly dead to ali religious emotion.
They weep in church under charity SER
mon, but if on Monday subject of want
presents itself ut the door, the beggar's
safety viii depend entirely on quick limbs
and an unobstructed stairway. 1t takes all
the grace they can get to keep Thorn from
committing assault and battery on those
intruders who come with pale faces and
stories Of distress and subscription
papers. The reason that God planted
these ccdars in the bible was to suggest to
us that we ought, in our religious char
acter to be deep like the cedar, high like
the cedar, broad-branched as the cedar. A
| traveller measured tho spread of tho
| boughs OF one of these trees and found it
one hundred and eleven feet from branch
tip to branch tip, and have seen cedars of
| Christian character that through their
prayers and charities put out one branch to
the ut,ermost parts of America, and an
other branch to the utternost parts of
Asia, and these wide-branched Christians
will keep on multiplying until all the
earth is overshadowed with mercy.
But mark you, these cedars of Lebanon
could not grow if planted in mild climates
and in soft air, and in carefully watered