The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-04-22
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
why ne In Observed and the Lessons Tt
Tcmchcs-The Palm the Tree of victory
--Christ's Entrance Into the City
Of Jerusalem.


tho Brooklyn tabernacle, taking for his
| text:
They took branches OF palm trees and went
| forth 20 meet Hfm.-John xii. b.
How was that possible? How could
| palm branches be cast in the way of
Christ as He approached Jerusalem?
There are scarcely any palm trees in
central Palestine. Even the one that
was carefully guarded for many years
at Jericho has gone. / went over the
very road by which Christ approached
Jerusalem, and there are plenty of
olive trees and fig trees, but no palm
trees that could zee.
You must remember that the climate
has changed. The palm tree likes
water, but by the cutting down of for
ests, which are leafy prayers for rain,
the land has become unfriendly to the
palm tree. Jericho once stood in seven
miles of palm trees. The Dead sea
has on its banks the trunks of palm
trees that foated down from some old
time palm grove, and are preserved
| from decay by the salt which. they re-
ceived from the Dead sea. Let wood
men spare the trees of America, if they
would not ruinously change the eli
mate and bring to the soil barrrenness,
| instead of fertility. Thanks to God
and the legislatures for Arbor day,
which plants trees, trying to atone for
| the ruthlessness which has DESTROYED
them Yes, my text is in harmony with
the condition of that country ON the
morning of Palm Sunday.
About three million people have come
| to Jerusalem to attend the religious
| festivities. Great newsl Jesus will en-
ter Jerusalem to-day. The sky is red
with the morning, and the people are
| focking out to the foot of Olivet, and
| up and on over the southern shoulder
/ of the mountain, and the procession
| coming out from the city meets the
procession escorting Christ as He comes
coward the city. There is turn in the
road where Jerusalem suddenly bursts
upon the vision. We had ridden that
day all the way from Jericho, and had
visited the ruins of the house of Mary
and Martha and Lazarus, and were
somewhat weary of sightseeing, when
there suddenly arose before our vision
Jerusalem, the religious capital of all
| Christian ages. That was the point of
observation where my text comes in.
Alexander rode Bucephalus, Duke Ellie
rode his famous Marchegay, Sir Henry
Lawrence rode the high-mettled Con-
rad, Wellington rode his proud Copen-
hagen, but the Conqueror of earth and
Heaven rides colt, one that had been
tied at the roadside. 1t was unbrolzen,
and have no doubt fractions at the
vociferation of the populace. An extern
ported saddle made out of the gar
\ ments of the people was put on the
beast. While some people gripped the
bride of the colt, others reverently
| waited upon Christ at the mounting.
The two professions of people now be-
came one-those who came out of the
city and those who came over the hill.
The orientals are more demonstrative
than we of the western world, their
voices louder, their gesticulations more
violent, and the symbols by which they
express their emotions more significant.
The people who left Phocea in the far
east, wishing to make impressive that
they would never return, took red
hot ball of iron and threw it into the
sea, and said they would never return
to Phocea until that ball rose and
hoated on the surface. Be not sur
prised, therefore, at the demonstration
in the text. AS the colt with its rider
descends the slope of Olivet, the palm
trees lining the road are called upon to
render their contribution to the scene
of welcome and rejoicing. The branches
of these tree are high up, and some
must needs climb the trees and tear off
the leaves and throw them down, and
others make of these leaves an emerald
4 fr,r- ha @nlf 70 rCd on
Long before that morning the palm
tree had been typical of triumph.
Herodotus and Strabo had thus de-
scribed it. Layard finds the palm leaf
cut in the walls of Nineveh, with the
same significance. In the Greek ath-
letic games the victors carried palms.
am very glad that our Lord, who five
DAYS after had thorns upon His brow, for
little while. at least, had palms
strewn under His feet Oh, the glori-
Gus palml Amarasinga, the Hindoo
scholar, calls it ''the king among the
grasses Linneus rcalls it ''the prince
of vegetation" Among all the trees that
ever cast a shadow or yielded fruit or
lifted their arms toward Heaven it has
no equal for multitudinous uses. Do
you want flowers? One palm tree
viii put forth a hanging garden of them,
one cluster counted by a scien-
fist containing two hundred and seven
thousand blooms. Do you want
food? 1t is the chief diet of whole ma
tons. One palm in Chilli will yield
ninety gallons of honey. In Polynesia
it is the chief food of the inhabitants.
In India there are multitudes of people
dependent upon il for sustenance. Do
you want cable to hold ships or cords
to hold wild beasts? 1t is wound into
ropes unbeatable. Do you want arti-
Giles of house furniture? 1t is twisted
into mats and woven into baskets and
shaped into drinking cups and swung
into hammocks. Do you want medi-
cine? Its nut is the chief preventive of
disease and the chief cure for vast pop
ulations. Do you want houses? Its
wood furnishes the wall for the homes,
and its leaves thatch them. Do you
need supply for the pantry? 1t yields
sugar and starch and oil and sago and
milk and salt and wax and vinegar and
candles.
Oh, the palm! 1t has variety of en-
dowments, such as no other growth
that ever rooted the earth or kissed the
heavens. To the willows God says:
l''Stand by the water courses and weep"
To the cedar He says Gather the
hurricanes into your BOSOM" To the
fig tree He says: Bear fruit and put
it within the reach of all the people.