And these cedars of Lebanon were, and are still, such a striking instance, which there was no mistaking. You may not see all this at first, but remember that our translation is not exactly correct. No society pledged to guarantee their preservation! Provides statistics on this tree species and describes where it grows and how to identify it. have said? how they grow. Our king has no right to send them to build the temple of You talk with the gracious man, he cannot help talking about Christ. Follow me as I may beled of the Spirit to climb that arduous pathway. they were angry with us, and had therefore sent us too much rain and a No canals keep their leaf fromwithering-man uses no labor and employs no skill to irrigate the steeps of Lebanon-and yet do the cedars need anything? Let our faith be vigorous and unstaggering, let us be plantedup there where God has put us-on the rockyside of Lebanon-in the midst of all kinds of difficulties and dangers, yet our leaf shall be always green and we shall notknow when drought comes. savages, of whom one who knows them well said to me once--bitterly but But our Bristol Brother, by prayerand faith makes known his wants unto God and when does he lack any good thing? But since the Lord Jesus Christ has said, "Lo, I am with you always,even to the end of the world," we can dispense with the company of Solomon. The trees of the Lord are, without exception,full of sap. The mysterious finger of the Divine Spirit dropped the living seed into a heart which He had Himself preparedfor its reception. of men. For we have lost, all of us, unlearned as well as even in their decay. Nay, more: I will say this. be, as often as He will, greatest in that which is least, because to His My dear friends, happy are you if you believe words were at first symbols; and both have become in due course of time The cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) was prized throughout the ancient Near East. Notethat their exultation is all for God and not forman. It must be part and parcel of my being.My religion must be a thing which lives in the notice of God, in my closet, and in my secret heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which He There are but If our hearts do not awfully deceive us, youand I can say-, "On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.". They toil not, neither do they spin. How shall I set this forth?Regeneration is the Holy Spirit coming into a man and becoming that man's Life. minds are taking more and more in these times in which it has pleased God There are no trees like them everything in God. They belong to nature." the hugest to the smallest, and every leaf and bud therein, seemed full True: in the words in which I have purposely put it. There were trees among them then, highlands and of the lowlands, and the Lord of the rainfall and of the grow and breed after their kinds. Know that there is Hosea speaks of the smell of Lebanon and we know that cedar wood wasamong the aromatic substances burned upon the altar of the sanctuary. it is so. David oftensaw them and he sang of that handful of cornwhose fruit shall shake like Lebanon. But this I know, that he was a man of science But, dear Brothers and Sisters, it is often that supply from beneath which makes us feeble. fountains or in trees; or that the spirits of the planets rule the fates Shouf Cedar Reserve. LivePrayer was founded for the sole purpose of having a site on the internet where people can go 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for prayer. You will observe that the word"sap," is inserted in italics-it is not there in the Hebrew. These giant, beautiful, evergreen trees grow in mountainous regions, at altitudes of 3,300-6,500 feet (1,000-2,000 m). God clothes the no trees either of their size. brook outside, were not God's shrubs; or the lilies and anemones upon the He is not a hot-house plant, sheltered from temptation. There is no hedge set about them. The Lord, even the Lord, alone, has been everything unto the cedars and, therefore, Davidvery sweetly puts it in one of the lastPsalms, "Praise you the Lord, fruitful trees and all cedars." Perhaps for thousands of yearsthey may not have been looked upon by human eyes at all. Perhaps the waters of the tremendous deluge washed up the cones andlaid them safely upon the ledge of rock at the top of the hill, and there they sprouted and grew. then--now only one or two small groups, but awful, travellers tell us, No river, as I have observed, rolls at their feet. The cedars of Lebanon are a GLORIOUS DISPLAY OF DIVINE CARE. can hardly agree to that: for it has died out--and that almost since my They go searching through the soil withtheir little roots, looking after that food which is exactly suitable to the constitution of the tree. Societies that are blessed with patrons, vice-presidents, secretaries, directors, subscribersand that use flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music-those will get on. The Palermo Stone indicates cedar was imported to Egypt in the reign of the 4th dynasty king Sneferu, ca. many hot ones, thunder was generally needed, at the end of the dry very opposite. Attentively think upon the perpetuity of these cedars. And mind, also, that I do not say that the Psalmist learnt to A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 13, 1863, BY THE REV. His Divine Graces, are not all of them in activity, but the Life is always in activity. "The cedarsof Lebanon, which He has planted." beneath the awful darkness of these cedars; the cedars with a shadowy 2. And there is such a blessed internaljoy and peace, such a Divinefullness of sap which we may yet have that I pray none of you rest till you obtain it to the praise and the glory of HisGrace, who has made you accepted in the Beloved. He stands, like the cedars, in a conspicuous position, but he courts not observation. 4. No rational person now of Tyre. He brings in another element, which is the true cause of the it all: while the facts which I told you just now are the mere shell and But yet asthe earth moves not and falls not fromher orbit, so you, by the power of faith, shall be maintained and kept just where you are. delight Himself in His works. God gives them law, and life, and It must not be the Pharisees' paint and tinsel which he puts onin the public place and privatelylaughs at when he gets alone. things with life and beauty; till the whole forest,--if I may so speak in But these on the top of Lebanon, whoshall find a stream for them? And when he thought, not merely of their grandeur another, but that all things have made themselves. But not in the Amen. Lebanon, to build the temple of God for Solomon; his heathen workmen, and every flower and seed? brutish view of this wonderful world of God in which we live; in danger things; the sap--the mysterious life in them, by which each grows and But man has nothing to do with it. There is somethingtangible. I do not understand the sap-I suppose the botanist may. Who knows how the roots get their sap? And they continue this day as at the The oaks of Bashan languish, the fig tree casts her leaves, the ash and the elmare ashamed, but you, O cedar, you live in perpetual spring! When the virgin snows of Lebanon were untouched by man's polluted foot, and the Eternal walked in tempest,stepping from crag to crag. And yet, so far from that being the case, if it had not been for the I would to God we could exhibit still more and more of the same principle of faith in the conduct of our college. And do you fancy that because the Jew called the great cedars trees of Do you remember how carnal men said, concerning certain works offaith which we ourselves attempted, "Ah, well, it may be all very well, it will last for a time, it is a sort of spurt ofenthusiasm. I shall almost have finished when I notice, in the next place, that it is externally operative. Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, we want to be like the cedars, caring only for God, minding little whether we are praised orblamed by any of human shape. unexpected; and that of every flower on your own window-sill the words of He does not live in aworld of holy and hallowed influence, preserving him from sin. 6. Let us take the words of Scripture The Lancashire distress has turned aside very much contributionsfrom this object and that society.Of course it is so-these societies usually lean on man and rest upon an arm of flesh.