The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-12-17
Twas my forefathoFs hand
That placed Il near his cot;
There, woodman. let II stand,
Thy axe shall harm Il not.


OLD treel The storm stu bravel
And woodman, leave the spot;
While I've hand 10 save.
Thy axe shall harm 1t not.
As we ride along on these mountains
OF Lebanon we bethink how Its cedars
spread their branches and breathed
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 cedar tree
that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop
that springeth out Of the wall" The
Psalmist says: '"The righteous shall
grow like a 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, "Tbe day Of the Lord shall be
upon all the cedars Of Lebanon" And
jeremiah and Ezekiel and Amos and
Zephaniah and Zecharlah weave its foli-
age into their sublimest utterances
As we ride over Lebanon to-day, there
is bowling wind sweeping past and a
dash OF rain, all the better enabling us
to appreciate that description Of tenn
pest 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,
and such poet as he, warrant, spent
many day on Lebanon. And perhaps
while he was seated on this very rock
against which our carriage jolts, he
writes that wonderful description Of
thunderstorm: 1.-THE voice Of the Lord
is powerful. The voice Of the Lord is
full Of majesty. The voice Of the Lord
breaketh the cedars Of Lebanon. Yea,
the Lord breaketh the cedars Of Leban-
on. He maketh them also TO skip like
a calf Lebanon and Sirion like young
unicorn. The voice OF the Lord divideth
the flames Of fre."
As the lion is the monarch OF the fields,
and the 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 charac-
teristics 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 tho cedar,
wide-branched and heaven-aspiring, and
tempest-grappling. But the reason these
cedars stand so we'll Is that they are
deep-rooted. They run their anchors
down into the caverns OF the mountains
and fast en- to the very foundations OF
the earth, and twist around and clinch
themselves on tho 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 superficial
character and one that has clutched its
roots deep down around and under the
Rock OF Ages
amined by a scientist, and from its con-
centric circles 1t was found to be thirty.
FIVE hundred years old and still stand.
ing, and there is such thing as ever
lasting strength, and such astaunchness
OF Christian character that all time and
eternity instead Of being its demolition
shall be its opportunity. Not such are
those vacillating Christians who are Sc
pious on Sunday that they have no re.
ligion left for the week day. AS the
anaconda gorges itself with food and
then seems for long while to lie thor.
oughly insensible, so there are mon who
will on Sunday get such religious sur
felt that the rest OF the week they seem
thoroughly dead to all religious emo
tion. They weep in church under g
charity sermon, but II on Monday sub
ject OF want presents itself at tho door
the beggar's safety will depend entirely
on quick limbs and an unobstructed
stairway. 1t takes all the grace they
can get to keep them from com
mitting assault and ba ttery on those IN
truders, who come with pale faces 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 al
the cedar A traveller measured the
spread OF the boughs OF one OF these
troes and found 1t Ill feet from branch
tip to.branch tip, and have seen cedar'
OF Christian character that through theii
prayers and charities put out one branch
TO the uttermost parts OF America, ant
another branch TO the uttermost part!
OF Asia, and these wide-branched Chris
tians will keep on multiplying until al
the earth is overshadowed with mercy.
But mark you, these cedars Of Lebanon
could not grow II planted in mild eli
mates and in soft air, and in carefully
watored gardens. They must have the
gymnasium OF tho midnight hurricane
TO develop their arms. They must PLAY
the athlete with thousand winters be
fore their feet are rightly planted, and
their foreheads rightly lifted and theii
arms rightly muscled. And II there bt
any other way for developing strong
Christian character except by storms o.
trouble, never heard OF 1t Call the
roll OF martyrs, call the roll OF th'
prophets, call the roll OF tho apostles
and see which OF them had an easy TINT
OF It. Which OF these cedars grew
in the warm valley? Not one o
them. Honeysuckles thrive best on thu
south side OF the house, but cedars in I
Syrian whirlwind. Men and womeI
who hear this or read this, instead o
your grumbling because you have 1
hard, thank God that you are in jus