The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-09-03

of DIR. Talmage is full Of the breath OF
the hills and fields and is n summer SER
mon; text. Nehemiah viii, 10, $50 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 IN
moored. The people nave gone into the
mountain and have cut off tree branches
and put them on their shoulders, and
they come forth now into the streets Of
Jerusalem and on the house tops, and
they twist these tree branches into ar
bors 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
n great festal time. 1t is the feast Of
tabernacles, 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 be-
came highly suggestive-I will not say
they are necessarily typical. but highly
su~ggestive-of our march toward heaven
and of the fact that we are only living
temporarily here, as it were, in booths
or arbors, on OCr way to the Canaan of
eternal rest. And what was said to the
Jews literally nay be said figuratiyely to
all this audience. Go forth unto the
mountain and fetch olive branches and
pine branches n myrtle branches and
palm branches and branches 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 80 years ago owned Wash
ington and New York? Passed on. There
is no use in our driving our stakes too
deep into the earth; we are on the march.
The generations that have preceded US
have gone so far on that We INC even
hear 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
trees and build booths.
Well, now we are ready to construct q
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 most go up into
the mount n bring olive branches.
What does that mean? The olive tree
grows in warm climates, and it reaches
the height of 20 or % feet, a straight
stem and then an offshoot from that
stem. And then people come, and they
strip of these branches sometimes, and
when in time Of war the general of one
army takes one Of these olive branches
n goes out to the general of another
army, what does that mean? Why, it
means unsaddle the war chargers. 1t
means hang up the war knapsacks. It is
but a beautiful way Of saying, Peace!
We Need Olive Branches.
Now, if we are today going to sue
coed in building this gospel arbor we
must go 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
1 say peace with God, I do not mean to
represent God as an angry chieftain,
having q grudse against US, but I do
mean to affirm that there is no more an
tagonism between a hound and a hare,
between a hawk and a pullet, between
elephant and swine, han there is hostili-
ty between holiness and sin. And if God
is all holiness 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 a lawsuit which man is bringing
against his Maker. That lawsuit is now
or the calendar. It is the human versus
the divine, it is iniquity versus the i'm
maculate, it is weakness versus omnip-
otence. Man began it. God did not be-
gin the lawsuit. We began it. We as
saulted our Maker, and the sooner we
end this part of the struggle, in which the
finite attempts to overthrow the infinite
and omnipotent-the sooner we end it the
better. Travellers tell US there is no such
place as Noun Calvary, that it is only a
hill, only an Insignificant hill, but ! per-
sist in calling it the mount of Gods
divine mercy and love far grander than
any other place OF earth, grander than
the Alps or the Himalayas. and there are
no other hills as compared with it. and /
have noticed in every sect where the
cross of Christ is set forth il is planted
u NV OEGACASS. al Sl4 VT AdN u
do is TO get rid of this war bst ween God
and ourselves, of which we are all tired.
We want 10 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
Christ!
Oh, it does not make much difference
what 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 q halleluiah seem stupid. Why
do we var to have peace through our
Lord Jesus Christ? Why, if we had gone
on in 10000 years of war against God
we could not have captured so much as
a sword or a cavalry stirrup or twisted
OF one Of the wheels OF the chariot of
his omnipotence. But the moment we
bring this olive branch God and all
heaven come on our side. Peace through
our Lord Jesus Christ. and no other kind