Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-09-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A TALK FULL OF THE SUMMER
SPIRIT.
"Go Forth Unto the Mount and Fetch
Olive Branches and Pine Branches and
Myrtle Branches and Palm Branches
to Make Booths."-Neh. S:15.

the hills and fields and is a summer
sermon; text, Nehemiah viii, Is, 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"
1t seems as if Mount Olivet were un-
E1oored. The people have gone into
the mountain and have cut off tree
branches and put them on their shoul-
ders, and they come forth now into
the streets of Jerusalem and on the
house tops, and they twist these tree
branches into arbors or booths. Then
the people come forth from their COM
Portable homes and dwell for seven
days in these booths or arbors. Why
do they do that? Well, it is a great
festal time. 1t is the feast of taber-
nacles, and these people are going to
celebrate 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 Canaan. And so these
booths also became highly suggestive
Il will not say they are necessarily
typical, but highly suggestive our
that we are only living temporarily
here as it were, in booths arbors,
on our way to the Canaan of eternal
rest. And what was said to the Jews
literally may be said figuratively to
all this audience. Go forth unto the
mountain and fetch olive branches and
pine banches and myrtle branches
and palm branches and branches of
thick trees to make booths.
We Need Olive Branches.
Now, if we are today going to sue
ceed in building this gospel arbor we
must go into the mount of Gods
blessing 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 l say peace with God, / do not
mean to represent God an angry
chieftain, having a grudge against us,
but I do mean to affirm that there is
no more antagonism between hound
and a hare. between a hawk and
pullet, between elephant and swine,
than there is hostility between holi-
ness and sin. And if God is all holi-
ness and we are all sin there must be
a treaty, there must be a stretching
forth of olive branches.
There is a great lawsuit going on
now, and it is lawsuit which man is
bringing against his Maker. That law
suit is now on the calendar 1t is the
human versus the divine, it is iniquity
versus the imaculate, it is weakness
versus omnipotence. Man began it..
God did not begin the lawsuit We be-
gan it. We assaulted our Maker. and
the sooner we end this part of the
struggle, in which the finite attempts
to overthrow the infinite and omnipo-
tent-the sooner we end it the better.
, Travellers tell us there is no such place
Mount Calvary, that it is only a
hill, only an insignificant hill, but I
persist in calling it the mount of God s
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 it. and 1 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 between God and ourselves.
of which we are all tired. We want
to back out of the war, we want to
get rid of this hostility. All we have
to do is just to get up on the mount
of Gods blessing and pluck these olive
branches and wave them before the
throne. Peace through our Lord Jesus
Christi
Health for Mind and Soul.
But my text goes further. 1t says,
go up into the mountain and fetch
olive branches and pine branches .
Now, what is suggested by the pine
branch? The pine tree is healthy it
Is aromatic, it is evergreen. How
often the physician says to his invalid
patients: Go and have a breath of
the pines. That will invigorate you.''
Why do such thousands of people go
south every year? 1t is not merely to
go to a warmer climate, but to get the
influence of the pine. There is health
In 1t, and this pine branch of the text
suggests the helpfulness of our holy
religion. 1t is full of health-health
for all, health for the mind, health for
the soul. I knew an aged man who
had no capital of physical health. He
had had all the diseases you could i'm
agine. He did not eat enough to keep
child alive. He lived on a beverage
Of hosannas. He lived high, for he
dined every day with the King He
was kept alive simply by the force OF
our holy religion 1t is a healthy re-
tigion-healthy for the eye. healthy