Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-01-09
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: mount Lebanon"

TEXT: ''The Cednrs of Lebanon which He
hath planted Psalm civ, IL.
In our journey we change stirTup foI
wheel. 1t is O'Clock in the morning at Da-
mascus. Syria, and we are among the Ian
terms of the hosiery 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 damned 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, and 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; tree eulogized in my text as having
grown from nut put into the ground by
God Himself and no human hand had any
thing to do with its planting: The trees or
Lebanon which He had 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 very carnage of color and fill the air
with arOmatics that Hosea, the prophet and
Solomon, the king celebrated as '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 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 massacred 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 of Tyre ordered the
assassination of these cedars Of Lebanon
which the Lord planted From the multitude
of uses to which it may be put and the en-
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 a grass blade survives the fer
vidity, this tree stands in luxuriance defy1ng
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, a
throne of foliage on which might and splen-
dor and glory sit. But so continuously has
the determination of trees gone on that for
the most part the mountains ofLebanon are
bare of foliage, while, l 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
tically saving 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" 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 it the axes
had long ago been stopped among 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 upifted arms Of the trees do not
pray for rain, their presence according to all
scientists dlsEOsing 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-
tul 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
look at them. Pant them along the brooks
that under them the chill iren 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 nOurner's veil, and their leaves sound
ing like the rustic of the wings of the de-
parted. Let Arbor 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 giories of God as the
last one hundred years have accomplished
in their destruction. When, notlong before
his death, | saw the banks OF the
Hudson in his glazed cap, riding on horse
back, George P. Morris, the great song
writer OF America, [ found him grandly
emotional and L could understand how he
wrote "Woodman, 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 beautiful tree prostrated
AS we rode along on these the 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
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 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 cedarS, and Isaiah declares, The
day of the Lord shall be upon all the cedars
of Lebanon" And jeremiah and Eze1ie
and Amos and Zephaniah and Zechariah
weave its foliage into their sublimest utter
ances.
As we ride over Lebanon to-day there is
bowling wind sweeping past and dash OF
all the better pOahlinC IL 70 al .
that description of a tempest which no
doubt was suggested by what David had seen