The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-09-07
A SUMNER SERMON.
Discourse Full of the Breath of
Hills and Fields.
Or. TaImage Applies His Text to the
World In Which We Live-The
Need of olive Branches in
Every Day Life.
Copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. u
Washington,

lnlS OF III. ldluIdSe Is
full of the breath of the hills and
fields and is a summer 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
unmoored. The people have gone In
to the mountain and have cut OIL
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 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 a great festal time. 1t is the
feast of tabernacles, and these peo-
pie are going to celebrate the desert
travel of their fathers and their &C.
liverance from their troubles, the ex-
perience of their fathers when, travel
ing in the desert, they lived in booth
Cn AACA4 way W II lohN Va oH
And so these booths also became high
ly suggestive-I will not say they are
necessarily typical, but highly sug-
gestive-of our march toward Heaven
and OF the fact that we are only llv-
ing 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 au-
dience. Go forth unto 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 tenn
porary residence. We are marching
on. The merchant princes who used
to live in Bowling Green, New York,
have passed away, and their resi-
dences are now the fields of cheap
merchants. Where are the men who
so years g owned Washington and
New York? Passed on. There is no
use in our driving u stakes too
deep into the earth; we are on the
march. The generations that have
preceded us have gone so far on tina
we cannot 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 readyto construct
a 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 mou and
bring olive branches. What does
hat mean? The olive tree grows
in warm climates, and it reaches the
height of ~ or % feet, a straight
stem and then an offshoot from tina
stem. And then people come, ant
they strip off these branches some
times, and when in time of war tn,
general of one army takes one o
these olive branches and goes out t.
the general of another army, wha
does that mean? Why, it means un
saddle the war chargers. 1t mean
hang up the war knapsacks. 1t is blu
a beautiful way of saying, Peace!
Now. if we are to-day going t
succeed in building this Gosp-l arbo
we must go INTO the mount of God
blessing and fetch the olive branche:
and whatever else we must have W
must have at least two div
branches, peace with God and peac
with man. When / say peace wit
: God, l do not mean to represent Go
: as an angry chieftain, having
grudge against us, but | do mean t
affirm that there is no more antas
! onism between a hound and a har
9 between a hawk and a pullet, b.
tween elephant and swine, than theI
a is hostility between holiness and 81
And if God is all holiness and we al
= all sin there must be a treaty, the
must be a stretching forth of oil
branches.
There is a great lawsuit going
now, and it is a lawsuit which man
n bringing against his Maker. TIL
II lawsuit is now on the calendar. 1t
a the human versus the Divine, it is il
quity versus the immaculate, it
weakness versus omnipotence. Nj
began it. God did not begin the la
t. suit. We began it. We assaulted O
% Maker, and the sooner We end til
O.. part of the struggle, in which t
"a finite attempts to overthrow the
t. finite and comprehensive sooner
n. end it the better. Travellers tell
e. there is no such place as Mou
Calvary, that it is only a hill, only
insignificant hill, but l persist
calling it the mount of Gods div
IL nero and love, far grander tn
id any other place on earth, grand
8. than the Alps or the Himalayas, a
there are no other hills as compar
"a with it, and / have noticed in eve
m sect where the cross of Chris is
n. forth it is planted with oil