The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-12-15
without sense or reason we saw beautiful
tree Frustrated:

Noodman, spare that tree.
Touch not single bough,
In youth il sheltered me,
Ard Iii protect IT now.
Twas my forefather's hand
That placed il near his cot:
There. woodman. let il stand.
Thy AK shall harm IL not.
NV heart-strings round thee cling,
Close as thy bark. old friend
Here shall the wild bird sing,
And sill thy branches bend,
Old tree The storm still brave,
Aud woodman, leave the spot;
While I've hand to save,
Thy AK shall harm it not.
As we ride along on 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 ia
his botanical works. when he spoke of trees,
''from the cedar tree that is IL Lebanon
even unto the hyssop that Springeth out of
the wall The psalmist says 1.-THE right
eous shall grow like the cedar in Lebanon.
and in one of his magnificent doxologies
calls on the cedars TO praise the Lord. And
Solomon says the countenance of Christ is
excellent as the cedars, and Isaiah declares,
ssThe day of the Lord shall be upon all the
cedars of Lebanon" And jeremiah and
Ezekiel and Amos, and Zephaniah, and
Zscharieh weave its foliage into their sub
hmest utterances
As we ride over Lebanon to-day, there is
q bowling wind sweeping past and a dash
of rain, all the better enabling us to ap-
preciate sthat description OF a tempest,
which no doubt was suggested by what
David had seen with his own eyes among
these nights, for, as q soldier, he carried his
wars clear up to Damascus and such poet
as he, l warrant, spent many day on
Lebanon. And perhaps while be was seated
on this very rock against which our car
riage jolts, he writes that wonderful
description of thunderstorm: "Ehe 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. He
maketh them also TO skip like calf, Leba-
non and 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 it's characteristics in our religious
life 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-grap-
ping. But the reason these cedars stand
so well is that they are deep-Iooted. They
run their anchors down into the cavernS of
the mountain and fasten to the very founda-
tons of the earth, and twist around and
ulinch themselves on the other side of the
deepest layer of rock they can reach. And
that is the difference between christians
who stand and christians who fall. 1t is the
difference between a superficial character
and one that has clutched its roots deep
down around and under the Rock of Ages.
One of the Lebanon cedars was examined
by a scientist, and from its concentric circles
it was found to be thirty-five hundred years
old and still standing, and there is such
a thing as everlasting strength, and such a
stanchness Of christian character that all
time and eternity, instead OK 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 ON
Sunday get such a religious surfst that
the rest of the week they seem
thoroughly dead to all religious
emotion. They weep in church under a
charity sermon, but if on Monday a subject
of want presents itself at the door, the beg
CARS safety will depend entirely on quick
limbs and an unobstructed stairway. It
them from committing assault and battery
on those intruders who come with pale
feces and stories of distress and subscription
papers. The reason that God planted these
cedars in the Bible was to suggest to us
that we ought, in our religious character. to
be deep like the cedar, high like the cedar.
broad-branched like the cedar. A tray
eler measured the spread of the
boughs of one OF these trees and found
IL one hundred and eleven feet from
branch tip to branch tip, aud have sesn
cedars of christian character that through
their prayers and charities put out one
branch to the uttermost parts of America,
and another branch to the uttermost parts
of Asia, and these wide-br anched christians
will keep on mul iplying until all the earth
is overshadowed with mercy.
But mark you, these cedars of Lebanon
could not grow if planted in mild clima ,es,
and in soft air, and in carefully watered
gardens They must have the gymnasium
of the midnight hurricane to develop their
arms They must play the athlete with
thousand winters before their feet are
rightly planted, and their foreheads
rightly lifted, and their arms rightly
nuscled. And if there be any other way
for developing strong Christian character
except by storms of trouble | never heard
of it. Call the roll of martyrs call the roll
of the prophets, call the roll of the Apos-
time of it. Which Of these cedarS grew in
the warm Valley Not one of them
Honeysuckles thrive best on the south side
of the house, but cedars in Syrian whirl-
wind. Men and women who hear this or read
this, instead of your grumbling because you
have it hard, thank God that YOU are
in just the best school for making heroes
and beroines. 1t is true both for this world
and the next. Rock that baby in a cradle
cushioned and canopied; graduate him from
That into costly high chair and give him q
gold spoon; send him to school wrapped in
furs enough for on arctic explorer; send
him through a college where he will not
have to study In order to get diploma, be-
cause his father is rich; start him in a pro-
fession where be begins with an office the
floor covered with Administer, and a library
of books in Russian morocco, and an arm
chair upholstered like a throne, and an en-
broidered ottoman upon which to put his
twelve-dollSr CATERS, and they Law upon
his table the best ivory cigar holders you
can import from Brussels, and have stand
ing outside his door prancing span that
won the prize at the horse fair, aud leave
him estate enough to make him independent
of ell struggle, and what will become OF
him2 Ii he does not die early of hamilton Oh
dissipation, he will live useless life, anc
die en- unlamented death and 10 into a fool
eternity.
But what has been the history of most Of