Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-09-02


sermon; text, Nehemiah. viii. Is, go
forth unto the mountain and fetch olive
branches and pine branches and myr-
tie branches and palm branches and
branches of thick trees to make booths"
It seems az if Mount Olivet were IN
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
Of Jerusalem and on the housetOpS 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 a great festal time. II is the feast
Of tabernacles, and these people are go
ing 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-I will
not say they are necessarily typical, but
highly suggestive-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 be said
figuratively to all this audience. Go
forth into the mountain and fetch olive
branches and pine branches and myr-
tie 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 pass
ed away, and their residences are now
the fields of cheap merchants. Where
are the men who 80 years ago owned
Washington and New York? Passed
on. There is 10 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 Oh
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 unshel-
tered There are gospel booths or Cos
pei arbors in which our. souls are to be
comforted Go forth unto the noun
tain and fetch olive branches, and pine
branches, and myrtle branches, and
palm branches and branches CT thick
trees and build booths.
n Well, now. we are today to construct
q gospel arbor or gospel booth, and how
shall we construct it? Well, we must
get all the tree branches and build.
According 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 90 or ID feet.
q straight stem, and then an ofshoOt
from that stem. And then people come
and they strip off these branches some
times, and when in time Of war the
general Of one army takes one of these
olive branches and goes out to the gen
eral of another army, what does that
mean? Why, it means unsaddle the
war chargers; it means hang up the
war knapsacks. 1t is but q beautiful
way Of saying, Peace!
Peace With God, Peace With Man.
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 l say peace with God, l do not
mean to represent God as an angry
chieftain having a grudge against us,
but / do mean to affirm that there is
no more anita goniSm between a hound
and a hare, between hawk and a pull
let, between elephant and swine than
there is hostility between holiness and
sin And if God is all holiness and we
are all sin there must be a readjust-
ment, there must be a reconstruction,
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 law
suit is now on the calendar. 1t is the
human versus the divine; it is iniQuity
versus the immaculate; 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-
fent-the sooner we end it the better.
Travellers tell US there is no such place
Es Mount Calvary; that it is only hill,
only an insignificant hill. but l persist
In calling it the mount of Gods 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
Il 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