The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-10-11
DR.TALnAoE's sERnON
The Eminent Dlvlne's Sunday
Discourse.
Subject Religion IL Evergreen-The olive
Branch Of Peace, the Pine Brnnch OF
Consolation, the Palm Branch Of Use
fuiness and victory-The Gospel Arbor

Copyright 1907,
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This discourse Of
DR.. Talmage Is full of the breath OF the
hills and fields and Is a summer sermoni
text, Nehemiah, viii, Is. Go forth unto
the mountain and fetch olive branches
and palm branches and branches OF thick
trees to make booths"
II seems as IL Mount Olivet were nm
moored. The people have gone into the
mountain and have cut of tree branches
and put them on their shoulders, and they
come forth now into the streets of Jeru-
salem and on the housetops and they
twist these tree branches into arhors 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 a great
fastal time. II is the feast of tabernacles,
and these people are going to celebrate
the desert travel of their fathers and their
deliverauce from their troubles, the eXpe-
rence of their fathers when, travelling in
the desert thev lived in booths on their
way TO the land Of Canaan. And SO these
booths also became highly suggestlve-of
our march toward heaven and of the fact
that we are only living temporarily here,
as it were, in booths or arbors, on our
way to the Canaan of eternal rest. And
what was said to the Jews literally may
he said figuratvely to all this audience.
Go forth into the mountain and fetch
olive branches and pine branches and
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, aud their residences are now the
NNLawo
the men who fifty years ago owned Wash
inqton 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 cannot even
hear the sound of their footsteps. They
have gone over the hills, 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 aTbors
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 to-day 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 or TWENTY-FIVE feet, a straight
stem, and then an offshoot from that stem.
And then people come and they strip off
these branches sometimes, and 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 mean? Why, it means unsaddle the
war chargers: it means hang up the war
knapsacks. 1t is but a beautiful way of
saving peace!
Now, if we are to-day going to succeed
in building this gospel arbor we must 60
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 | say peace with God, do
not mean to represent God as 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 ele
plant and swine than there is hostility
between holiness and sin.
And if God is all holiness and we are al
sin there must be a readiustment, there
lllllob NC a lECOtlHJl IuClG 1llloJ NC q
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 OF
| the calendar. 1t is the human versus the
| divine; it is iniquity versus the immacu
late; it is weakness versus omnipotence
| Man began it; God did not begin the law
suit We began it; we assaulted our Ma
| ker, and the sooner we end this part O
! the struggle in which the finite attempt
! to overthrow the infinite and omnipoten
the sooner we end it the better. Tray
elers tells us there is no such place a
| Mount Calvary; that it is only a hill. onll
an insignificant hill. but l persist in callinI
! it the mount of Gods divine mercy ant
love. far grander than any other place OF
earth, grander than the Alps or the Hi
malayas, and there are no other hills a
compared with it; and have noticed il
every sect where the cross of Christ is Sc
forth it is planted with olive branches.
And all we have to do is to get rid o
this war between God and ourselves, o
which we are all tired. We want to bac
out of the war; we want to get rid of thi
hostility All we have to do is Just to &c
up ON the mount Of Gods blessing an
pluck these olive branches and wave ther
before the throne. Peace through on
Lord Jesus Christ!
Oh, it does not make much differenc
what the world thinks of you But com
into the warm, intimate. glowing an
everlasting relationship with the God {
the whole universe; that is the JOY tina
makes halleluiah seem stupid Why
we want to have peace through our Lor
Jesus Christ? Why, if we had gone on i
10000 years of war against God we coul
not have captured so much as a sword c
a cavalry stirrup or twisted off one of til
wheels of the chariot of His omnipotenc,
but the moment we bring this olive branc
God and all heaven come on our sid
Peace through, orr Lord Jesus Christ, an
no other kind of peace is worth anything
But then we must have that other oily
/ hrnrnnh :