Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-12-19
REV. DR.. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divins's Sun
day Sermon.
subjects "Mou l. banon."


terms 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 oc-
cupy the main apartment OF one OF the most
uncomfortable vehicles in which mortals
were ever jammei and half strangulated.
But we must not let the discomforts annul or
disparage the opportunities We are rolling
out and up the mountains of Lebanon, their
forehead under a crown of snow, which coro-
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 that botany ever recognized,
reigned over by the most imperial tree that
ever swayed a leafy scepter--the Lebanon
cedar: a tree eulogized in my text as having
grown from nut put into the ground by,
God II mself. and no human hand had any
thing to do with its planting The trees OF
Lebanon which He mad 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 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 Ill the ar
with aromatics that Hosea, the prophet, and
Solomon, tho king celebrated as 1.-THE smell
of Lebanon" Alta height of six thousand feet
is grove of ceders, the only descendants OF
those vast forests from which Solomon cut his
timber for the temple OF Jerusalem, and
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 masSacTed until only small group is
left This race of giants is nearly extinct,
but have no doubt that some of these were
here when Hiram, King o. Tyre, ordered the
assassination of these oedars Of Lebanon
which the Lord planted From the multitude
of uses to which it may be put and the en-
ploymeut 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 Il grass blade suryivec the fer
vidity, this tree stands n luxuriance 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 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,
throne of foliage on which might and spien-
dor and glory sit But so continuously has
toe determination 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-
ticaly saying by that, Here is fuel; as far
as possible let My trees one" And by
opening for the human race the great
uuarries of granite and showing the human
family how TO make brick, God is practi-
cally saving Here is building material; let
NV trees alone We had better stop the
axes among the AdirOndacks We had bet
ter stop the axes in all our forests, as 1t
would have been better for Syria if the axes
had long ago been stopped among the
mountains Of Lebanon. Topunish us for our
reckless assault on the forests we have the
disordered seasons. and now the droughts
because the upliftAd arms OF the trees do not
pray for rain. their presence according to ali
scientists dsL 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
7
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. Pant them along the brooks,
that under them the children may play.
Plant 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 mourner's veil, and their leaves sound
ing like the rustic OF the wings of the de
parted Let Ar0or 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 ieafy giories Of God as the
last one hundred years have accomplished
in their destruction. When notlong before
his death, 1 saw on the banks of the
/ Hudson in his glazed cap, riding on horse
back, George T., Morris, the great song
writer Of America, l found him grandly
emotional, and l could understand how he
wrote "Wooiman, spare that treeW the
verses Of which many of us have felt like
/ quoting in belligerent spirit, when under
/ the stroke Of some one without sense or
reason We saw a beautiful tree Frustrated.
/ As we rode along on these the mountains
Of Lebanon, we bethink how its cedarS
spread their branches and breathe their
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 Psalmist says, The right
eouS shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon,
and in one his magnificent doxologies calls
on the cedars TO praise the Lord. And Solo
mon says the cOuntenance of Christ is excel
lent as the csdars and Isaiah declares THE
I 80 IeboI 10 oil fha dor
/ of Lebanon And jeremiah end Ezekiel
and Amos and Zephaniah and Zecharah
weave its foliage into their sublimest utter
ances.
As 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 a tempest which no
doubt was suggested by what David had seen
with his own eyes among these heights for
as a soldier he carried his wars clear up 70
Damascus, and such poet as he, / warrant
spent many day on Lebanon. And perhaps
while he was seated on this very rock gainst
which our carriage jolts, be writes that Won
derful description of thunder storm: "The
voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice OF
the Lord is full of ma jesty. The voice of the
Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. Yea,
the Lord breaketh the cedars Of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Leb-
anon and SirlOn like young unicorn. Inc
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 50 glorifcd all up
and down the Bible is because we need more
OF its characteristics in our religious hfe.
We have too much 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 cedar, wide branched
and heaven aspiring and tempest crap
ping But the reason these cedars stand so
well is that they are deep rooted. They run
their anchors down into the caverns OF the
mountain and fasten to the very foundations
of the earth, and twist around and olinc1
themselves on the other side Of tie deepest
layer of rock they can reach. And that IS
the difference between Christians who stand
and the Christians who fall. 1t is the differ-
ence between asuperhcial character and one
that has clutched its roots deep down around