Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-09-07

text, Nehemiah viii. 10, 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 Oliyet were I'M
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 Jeru-
salem 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 arhors.
Why do they do that? Well it is great
festal time. 1t is the feast of taherna-
cles, and these people are going TO cele-
brate 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 Ca
naan. And so these booths also became
highly suggestive will not say they
are necessarily typical, but highly sug-
gestive-of our march toward heaven ana
of the fact that we are only living tenn
porarily here as it were, in booths or
arbors. on our way to the Canaan of eter-
nal rest And what was said to the Jews
literally may be said tiguratively to all
this audience. Go forth unto the noun
tain 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 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 fifty 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 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 i'll 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 aud
palm branches and branches of thick
trees and build booths.
Well, now we are ready 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,
q 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 charg-
ers. 1t means hang up the war KNAPP
sacks. 1t is but a beautiful way of saying
Peace.
We Need Olive Branches.
Now, if we are to-day going to sue
coed in building this gospel arbor we
must 20 into the mount of Gods bless
ing and fetch the olive branches, amt
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, l. do not mean 70
represent God rs an angry chicftain,
having a grudge against us, but | do
mean TO affirm that there is no more an
tagonism between n hound and a hare.
between a hawk and puliet, between
elephant and swine, than there is HOSTILE
ty between holiness and sin. And If God
is all holiness and we are all sin there
must be n treaty, there must be a
stretching forth of olive branches.
There is n great lawsuit going on now,
and ii is lawsuit which man is bringing
against his Maker. That lawsuit is now
on the calendar 1t is the human versus
the divine, it is iniquity versus the i'm
maculate, it is weakness versus Omnip-
otence. Man begun it. God did not be
gin the lawsuit. We began it. W cas-
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 il the
better Travellers tell US there is no such
place az Mount Calvary, that ii is only
q hill. only an insignificant HILL but per
sist in calling il the mount Of Gods
divine mercy and love far grandcr than
any other place on earth, grander than
the Alps or the Hmalayas and there are
no other hills as compared with ii, and |
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 Oh, It does not make much dif-
ference what the world thinks Of you. but
come into the warm, Intimate, glowing
and everlasting relationship with the
God Of the whole universal That is the
Joy that makes halleluiah seem stupid.
But then we must have that other
olive branch. peace with man. Now. 1t is
very easy to get up quarrel. There are
gunpowdery Christians all around us, and
one match Of proyoeation will set them
off. Ii Is easy enough TO get up quar-
ssof -. a.