IT IS NOTED FOR ITS FRUITFULNESS
In the orient, where the date palm thrives the best, it is astonishing
the quantity of delicious fruit it bears. It affords one of the chief
industries, and is one of the principal articles of food.
Seeing the inspired Word declares that the righteous flourish like the
palm tree, it stands to reason that the righteous bear an abundance of
spiritual fruit. Fruit-bearing is the chief characteristic of the saint.
"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have
your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Rom. 6: 23). A
nonfruit-bearing holiness is a nonentity.
"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away: and every
branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more
fruit" (John 15:2). In other words, every Christian who ceases to bear
fruit, becomes a backslider and is cut off; while every one that bears
fruit, keeps connected with the True Vine, and gets cleansed, or
sanctified. This statement simply means, then, that one must get
cleansed, or lose what grace he has. These are solemn truths, and each
one should look well to his fruit bearing, and continue in the same.
"Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is
no law" (Gal. 5:22, 23). All palm tree saints are in the fruit business.
There is no law, says the text, against such a business. There is no law
written in the Bible, or upon our hearts that opposes it. There is no
law of nature that runs counter to it. The law of the land does not
forbid one having love, joy, peace, or any of the other varieties. Even
formal ecclesiastical law does not oppose one having love, joy, peace,
or the others mentioned; but sometimes it raises a hue and cry, and
brings forth a storm of persecution when the outward manifestations of
this fruit intrude into their graveyard quietness, and thus disturb
their death.
God gave the Israelites specific instructions what to do when they
gained the Promised Land. He told them when they entered Canaan they
were to take of the fruit of the land and put it into a basket and go to
the proper place and say to the priest, "I profess this day unto the
Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord swore unto
our fathers for to give us" (Deut. 26:3). The spiritual application is
this: When one arrives at Canaan today, he should immediately have a
fine basket of the fruit of the land, and go to the church and tell
preacher and people, that in the providence and mercy of God he has
received a clean heart full of pure love, or in other words, he has been
sanctified wholly. But he must have his basket of fruit. Alas! too many
are testifying these days to being "saved and sanctified and sweetly
kept," and when one looks for the basket of fruit, there is "nothing but
leaves," or perchance some peelings, stems and shells.
Abraham Lincoln once said, "You may fool some of the people all the
time, and all the people some of the time; but you can't fool _all_ the
people _all_ the time." The palm tree saint does not fool any of the
people any of the time. He simply has his basket of fruit with him, and
if one is inclined to doubt his testimony, all he has to do is to look
into his basket and behold the grapes, figs, and pomegranates of Canaan.
This is what tells so on others who have not as yet arrived at the
station. When they see such delicious displays from the land of Beulah,
their mouths begin to water, and there is an inward longing for some of
the same kind. But what a stigma upon the religion of Jesus Christ, when
one lays claim to Canaan experience, and has nothing to show for it but
an empty basket!
When the spies returned from their Canaan exploration they brought of
the fruit to Moses and said, "We came unto the land whither thou sentest
us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of
it" (Num. 13:27). They carried the unmistakable proof with them. Let us
see to it that our testimonies are accompanied with their proper proof.
There is altogether too much failure in Christian service, because of
the excuse of lacking in talent. It is true that some have more talent
than others, but does that excuse those of one talent? The terrible
punishment inflicted upon the one who nicely wrapped his one talent in
the napkin and laid it away, ought to alarm any who may be tempted to do
likewise. Those who are favored with more talents are held more
responsible to God for the use of them. It seems that God is not
especially hunting for brains to use in His service, as He is looking
for clean channels. If He can get the man of ten talents all consecrated
to Him, very well and good; He will certainly use him to His own glory;
but He is also ready to work with and through the simple-minded as well.
And frequently we find Him doing more through such a channel than where
there is ten times the talent. We copy the story of what God did through
a half-idiot boy as printed in the _Herald of Holiness_:
"One time," said Dr. Broughton, "I remember beginning a meeting in an
old, conservative church in one of the most conservative towns of the
South. A large crowd had gathered to hear my first sermon. It was not
much of a sermon, however, that they heard, but a good deal of
proposition making.
"To begin with, I asked for all fathers who had unsaved sons to stand
up. Nobody stood, however, except a little boy about twelve years old,
who sat far back in the congregation. He arose. He was not satisfied to
stand, he got up on the seat and lifted his hands. He was determined to
be seen. Everybody laughed at the mistake, and I said, 'Young man, that
will do; sit down.' My next proposition was to mothers, but not a mother
stood. The same little boy stood up, however. 'That will do,' said I;
'sit down.' Then I went for the brothers and sisters. I made five
propositions that night, and he responded to every one of them, and he
was the only one that paid any attention to them whatever. I went away
from that meeting very much humiliated. The same was true of the
services on the next night and on through the services of three days. To
every proposition I made, he responded, and he was the only one who did.
Finally, a deacon of the church came to me and said: 'That boy is a half
idiot. The fact is, he is a whole idiot, and those people are coming to
see him perform. That is what they are coming for.'
"'Well,' said I, 'what do you think I ought to do about it?'
"'Why,' said he, 'stop him, of course.'
"I said, 'Stop him? Never! He is the only sign of life I have seen in
this town. I feel like paying him to go around with me to worry old
conservative deacons. Talk about that boy! Why, he is the only spark of
hope the church has in this town so far as I have been able to see. I
would not think of putting that light out.'
"'Well,' said the deacon, 'he has thrown a damper on your meetings.'
"I said, 'No, brother, you can not throw a damper on an icehouse, and
this old thing has been frozen over for twenty years.'
"'All right, said he, 'let the boy go on.'
"So it went on for the rest of the week. Now and then some other simple
soul would stand for prayer, but very seldom.
"At the close of the sermon the next Sunday morning, when I gave out the
invitation for those who wished to join the church to come forward, that
boy walked up to the front. I asked the usual questions and took the
vote and he was received.
"That night as I came into the church a man arose and said: 'Brother
Broughton, I want to ask a prayer for a man who is in this house, one of
the honored citizens of our town and a man of eighty-five years of age,
who has not been in a church for twenty-five years until tonight. He has
been known as a skeptic, but I see him here tonight, and I think he will
pardon me for making this request. I feel so deeply the weight of his
soul.'
"As soon he sat down the old man arose and said: 'Friends and neighbors,
I am the man you are about to pray for. I want to tell you why I am here
tonight. This little boy who sits here by my side is my grandson. You
know that he is an unfortunate lad. It is because of that we have loved
him so. This morning he came home and threw his arms around my neck and
said, "Oh, grandpa, I have got religion, and have joined the church. And
grandpa, I am so happy that I don't know what to do. I wish grandma was
here. Oh, grandpa, you know she went to heaven three months ago and I
have nobody to talk to about Jesus."' The old man said, 'Just as the
child said that, something struck my heart that had not struck it before
since I was a boy and left home to go to college. You can call it what
you please, but if you can, by your prayers, bring the grace of God into
my heart, I will be thankful.' Before we left that night he was
converted.
"The next morning the little fellow went out in the town and climbed
over his father's bar counter, for he was a barkeeper, and said, 'Papa,
won't you come and go with me to hear our preacher?' He promised he
would that night, which he did, and at two o'clock the father was
converted.
"The next day he went out, declaring he was going to be a missionary to
his fellow saloon keepers. He got them, every one of them, to close up
their places and come to church. There were seven in number, and during
that week six out of the seven gave their hearts to God, and all of them
agreed to close up their business. A great revival broke out in that
town which extended all through the county, and several counties, and in
six months' time there was not a barroom in that county. Every barkeeper
agreed to quit the business, and so far as I know, there has never been
one in the county until this day.
"Such a gracious revival of religion! How did it all come about? Not by
preaching; not by great manipulations; not by great singing, valuable as
these all may be--they did not bring it about. It came about through a
little half idiot boy, who had no better sense than to trust God the
best he knew and do his level best."