Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-09-04

81
full of the breath of the hills anu
- fields and is a summer sermon
text Nehemiah viii. ID, go forth unto
the mount and fetch olive branches and
pine branches and myrtle branches and
palm branches and branches of thick
trees to make booths"
Ii seems as If Mount Olivet were un-
moored The people have gone into the
mountain and have cut off tree branches
and put them on their shoulders, and they
come forth now into the streets or Jeru-
salem and on the house tops, and they
twist these tree branches into arbors or
booths Then the people come forth from
their comfortable homes and dwell for
seven DAYS in these booths or arbors.
Why do they do that? Well, it is great
festal time II is the feast OF taberna-
cIes. and these pe0p." are going TO cele-
brate the desert travel Of their fathers
and their deliverance from their troubles,
the experience of their fathers when,
travelling in the desert, they lived IN
booths on their way to the land OF Va
naan. And so these booths also became
highly suggestige--I will not say they
are necessarily typical, but highly sus-
gestive--of our march toward heaven anu
of the fact that we are only living tenn
porarily here. as it were, i'll booths or
arbors. on our way TO the Canaan of eter-
nal rest And what was said TO the jews
literally may be said fguratiyelX to ali
this audience Go forth unto til noun
tain and fetch olive branches an pine
branches and myrtle branches and palm
branches and Mapches of thick trees to
make booths.
Yes. we are only here in a temporary
residence. We are marching on. The
merchant princes who used to live in
Bowling Green, New York, have passed
away, and their residences are now the
fields of cheap merchants. Where are
the men who fifty years ago owned Wash
ington and New York? Passed ON. There
is no use in our driving cur stakes too
deep into the earth; we are On the march
The generations that have preceded US
have gone so far on that we cannot even
heal the sound of their footsteps. They
have gone over the hill, and we are to
follow them. But, blessed be God. we
are not in this world left out of doors
and unsheltered. There are gospel booths
or gospel arbors in which our souls are
to be comforted. Go forth unto the
mountain and fetch olive branches and
pine branches and myrtle branches and
palm branches and branches of thick
grees and build booths.
Well. now we are ready to construct a
gospel arbor or gospel booth, and how
shall we construct it? Well, we must
get all the tree branches and build. Ac-
cOrding to my text, we must go up into
the mount and bring olive branches.
What does that mean? The olive tree
grows in warm climates, and it reaches
the height of twenty OF twenty-five feet,
a straight stem and then an 0ffshoot from
that stem And then people come, and
they strip off these branches sometimes.
aud when in time of war the general OF
one army takes one of these olive
branches and goes out TO the general Of
another army, what does that meanF
Why, it means unsaddle the war charg-
ers. It means hang up the war KNAPP
sacks. Ii is but beautiful way of saying
Peace!
Ne Need Olive Branches.
Now, if we are to-day going to sue
eeed in building this gospel arbor we
must 20 into the mount of Gods bless
ing and fetch the olive branches, and
whatever else we must have we must
have at least two olive branches. peace
with God and peace with man. When
/ say peace with God, | do not mean to
represent God as an angry chieftain,
having grudge against us, but | do
mean to affirm that there is no more an
tagonSm between a hound and hare
between hawk and a pullet, between
elephant and swine, than tt ere is hostili-
ty between holiness and sin. And if CT
is all holiness and we are all sin there
must be a treaty, there must be Il
- IL. l,,,1,, h
There is a great lawsuit going on now
and it is a lawsuit which man is bringing
against his Maker That lawsuit is now
on the calendar Il is the human versus
the divine, it is iniquity versus the M
1nacalate. it is weakness versus omnip-
Otence Man begun it, God did not be-
gin the lawsuit. We began it. w cas-
saulted oar Maker, and the sooner we
end rs part Of the struggle in which the
finite attempts to overthrow the infinite
and omnipotent-the sooner we end it the
better Travellers tell as there is no such
place as Mount Calvary, that it is only
a hill only an insignificant hill, but | per-
siSt in calling it the mount of God
divine mercy and love far grander than
any other place on earth. grander than
the Alps or the Himalayas and there are
no other hills as compared with il, and l
have noticed in every sect where the
cross of Christ is set forth it is planted
with olive branches And all we have to
do is to get rid of this war bet ween God
and ourselves, OF which we are all tired.
We want to hack ont of the war, we
want 10 get rid Of this hostility. All we
have 10 do is just to get up on the mount
OF Go', blessing and pluck these olive
branches ana wave them before the
throne Peace through our Lord Jesus
Christ, Oh. it does not make much diff
ference WHIT the world thinks of you. but
come into the warm, intimate. glowing
and everlasting relationship with the
God OF the whole universe. That is the
JOY that makes a haie,uiah seem stupid.
But the We must have that other
olive branch, peace with man. Now. II is
very easy 20 get up a quarrel There are
guupoN derry Christians all around lis, and
one match 81 proyocation viii set them
of II easy enough 70 get up a quar-
rel But my brother, do you nor think
You had better have your horns sawed
of: Hal u4t you better make an apollo
KY Had nos you eettec submit 10
little humiliation: oh you say, ''un-
iii that man takes tie first step | viii
never be az pence with him. Nothing will
be done angH he is ready TO take the hrst
step Yen are pretty Christian.
When would this world be saved If Christ
had nos taken the first step; "" were