The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-02-19
CEDARs OF LEBANON.
Rev. II. Dewitt Talmage's Holy
Land Series Continued.
a Journey from Damascus Up the Rugged
:. Sides of the snow-Capped Mountains
of Lebanon, and Thoughts
Suggested Thereby.

The following discourse, in continual
ton of the series on the Holy Land, was
delivered by Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage
in Brooklyn and New York City from
the text:
The cedars of Lebanon which He hath
planted.-Psalm civ, 1e.
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 hosiery waiting for
the stage to start 4 Mohammedan in
high life is putting his three wives on
board within an apartment by them
selves, and our party occupy the main
apartment of one of the most uncom-
Portable vehicles in which mortals were
ever jammed and half-strangled. But
we must not let the discomforts annul
or disparage the opportunities. We are
rolling on and out and up the mountains
of Lebanon, their forehead under a
crown of snow, which coronet the
fingers of the hottest summer can not
cast down. We are ascending heights
around which is garlanded much of the
finest poesy of the Scriptures, and are
rising toward the mightiest dominion
that by any 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 plant
ing: ''The trees of Lebanon which He
hath planted
As we ride over Lebanon to-day there
is a bowling wind sweeping past and a
dash of rain, all the better enabling us
to appreciate that description of tenn
pest, which was suggeted 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 a
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 thunder
storm; s'The voice of the Lord is full of
majesty. The voice of the Lord break
eth the cedars of Lebanon. Yea, the
Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like calf,
Lebanon and Sirion like a young uni
corn 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 glorifed all up and down the Bible
is because we need more of its eharac-
teristics in our religious life. We have
too much of the willow, and are easily
bent this way and that, too much of the
aspen, and we tremble under every
zephyr of assault; too much of the bram-
ble-tree, and our sharp points sting and
wound: but not enough of the cedar,
wide-branched, and heaven-aspiring.
and tempest-grappling. But the reason
these cedars stand so well is that thew
are deep-rooted. They run their an
chors down into the caverns of the
mountain and fasten to the very foun-
dations of the earth, and twist around
and clinch themselves on the other side
of the deepest layer of rock they can
reach. And that is the difference be-
tween Christians who stand and Chris
tians who fall. 1t is the difference be-
tween superficial character and one
that has clutched its roots deep down,
around and under the Rock of Ages.
One of the Lebanon cedars was ex-
amined by scientist, and from its con-
centric circles it was found to be thirty
five hundred years old, and still stand
ing, and there is such thing as ever
lasting strength, and such staunchness
OF Christian character that all time and
all eternity, instead of being its demoli-
ton, shall be its opportunity. Not such
are those violating 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 thor
oughly insensible, so there are men who
will on Sunday get such a religious sur
felt that the rest of the week they seem
thoroughly dead to all religious emo
ton. They weep in church under a
charity sermon, but if on Monday a
subject of want presents itself at the
door, the beggars safety win depend
entirely on quick limbs and an unob-
structed stairway. 1t takes all the
grace they can get to keep them 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 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 braqched as the
cedar. A traveller measured the spread
of the boughs of one of these trees and
found it one hundred and eleven feet
from branch tip to branch tip, and I
have seen 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-branched Christians win
keep on multiplying until all the earth
is overshadowed with mercy.
But mark you, these cedars of Leba-
non could not grow if planted in mild
climates and in soft air, and in careful
ly-watered gardens. They must have
the gymnasium of the midnight hurri-