THE LIFE OF THE PALM TREE IS AT THE CENTER
This is unlike the life of all the exogenous trees, which is at the
surface, or rather just beneath the bark. When the life-giving sap
circulates along the length of these trees, it moves in its course close
to the outside surface. When the maple tree is tapped they catch this
flow of sap, because it is near to the outside. When farmers want to
destroy a tree, all they have to do is to girdle it, or, in other words,
cut the bark down to the wood all around the tree, and thus stop the
circulation of sap, and the tree soon withers and dies. Such a tree can
not stand too much abuse. If it is chopped and hacked and peeled, or
girdled, it seems to discourage it, and it gives up and dies. Not so
with the palm tree. It has its life at the center. One may rip it and
peel it and girdle it, and it grows just the same; it has a hidden life.
We have actually seen a row of palms which had been burnt, and yet they
had pushed out of their dismal darkness, and thrown out fresh foliage.
They do not get discouraged and quit when the odds are against them.
Does the reader still find himself flourishing like the palm tree? The
perplexing and persecuting times will come more or less to all of us,
and then how we will need the palm tree blessing!
Take the professor of religion minus the real possession, and let him be
placed under the distressing ordeal of certain lines of adversity. Let
him be cut with the cruel tongue of the talker, peeled with popular
prejudice, girdled with the scalpel of the religious dissecter, crunched
by cruel cannibals who love to devour one another, and see how quickly
the spiritual sap ceases to flow. See how soon he withers and shrinks up
and says, "What is the use of trying any more; I might as well give up
my religion." He may not come out openly and above board and declare his
intentions, but that is about the outcome. But see how it works on the
palm tree saint, whose life is "hid with Christ in God." Drag him
through the streets by the hair of his head as they did John Wesley;
incarcerate him as they did John Bunyan; incinerate him as they did the
martyrs of old; excommunicate him and revile him as they did some in our
own day; ecclesiastically decapitate him and skin him alive and girdle
him clear around, and then see him leap and dance, and sing and shout
"Hallelujah! You can't hurt me, for I have the palm tree blessing, and
my life is hidden inside." The sap flows right on, and, though the
outside may be somewhat worse for the wear, yet the Christ-life within
surmounts it all and shouts its victorious way over all obstacles.
Had the early saints not known this wonderful blessing, they surely
would have failed in the struggles of life. Hear the Apostle Paul as he
faces the guillotine block: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth, there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
Hear the Apostle John on that dreary Isle of Patmos: "He that
overcometh, shall inherit all things." "These are they which come out of
great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb."
See the martyrs all down the ages with an inner current of joy as they
faced fagots, and with unfaltering step gave up their lives and flew to
heaven in chariots of fire. There were no outside punishments that could
cut off their life flow. It was hidden so deep that stripes, nor stocks,
nor sword, nor stones, nor any other kind of affliction or infliction
could reach its fountain head.
There are those of our present day who know by actual experience the
joys of this inner, invulnerable gift. Had it not been for this, they
would have been swept into the vortex of discouragement and despair long
ago. O, the unspeakable joy of a life that is not superficial, but
hidden so deep that the Devil's darts or any of his devices can not
reach it!
How is it that sister can sing and smile when a thousand trials
conspire to cut off the flow of holy joy? Because she has the palm tree
blessing, and her life of devotion and blessing is not external where
the things of earth can reach it.
When one murmurs and complains, and finds fault with environments and
the things which would tend to annoy, let him know that he is living at
the external, and does not know the joys of internal rest where these
things do not intrude. Thank God for an inner current of holy life,
which flows on, supplying the life more abundant and keeping the soul in
blessed equipoise amidst the surging of life's storms.
So we see that the palm tree is endowed with an abundant life. Jesus
said in John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly." The palm tree is certainly a fine type
or illustration of life more abundant. Now, if the Christian is to
measure up alongside of this characteristic, then he must have that
which Jesus meant by the more abundant life. It is not sufficient to
have life in Christ; he must have it abundantly.
What is this life more abundant? Look at the schoolboys as they file out
of school. They can scarcely contain themselves, having been pentup
through the day. Some are yelling, some are running and some are
manifesting their life in other ways. They seem to have more than they
know what to do with. Look at the stall-fed calf. See it gamboling over
the meadow. Notice the lambs frisk and frolic. Every action signifies
abundant life. This is all physical life; yet the Holy Ghost coming
into the believer's heart and life will impart the spiritual life more
abundant. Wherever there is life, we may hope to see the manifestation
of that life. If there is life more abundant, then we may hope to see
more abundant manifestations of that life. The sinner is dead in
trespasses and sins. The believer is made alive in Jesus Christ. The
difference between a Christian and a sinner is the difference between a
living body and a corpse. If a funeral was in progress and Jesus Christ
should come by as He did when the procession was on the way from Nain to
the cemetery, and speak life into the dead body, how long would it be
before the person in the coffin would find it out, and also the people
looking on? When a soul is born again, regenerated by power divine,
there are manifestations of that life, and the individual certainly
finds it out, and it is obvious to those who know him. Where there are
no manifestations of life it is certainly taxing to one's credulity to
believe there is life. The other day we read in the paper of a funeral
in progress, and in the midst of the service the child who was dead or
supposed to be, arose in the casket and looked quietly around. The
grandmother sitting near by was so shocked at the sight that she
instantly fell over dead. It would not take the observers long to
ascertain that the child on the one hand was alive and that the
grandmother on the other hand was dead. There is too much in these
latter days that passes for life when it is death. It is certainly a
marvelous experience to be made alive unto God. We pick up a paper and
read of a certain revival where hundreds and perhaps thousands have
been converted. The question is: Have they really been made alive from
the dead, or have they simply made a resolution and joined the church?
We have never been very visionary, nor have we been carried away in
trances; but we did have a dream once that we felt sure was from the
Lord; at least the interpretation came so clearly and quickly at the
moment of waking, that we have felt the Lord's hand was in it. The dream
ran thus: We had gone into a cemetery and followed a lady into a tomb.
At the center of this tomb was a casket. The lady walked up to the
casket and quietly lifted the lid and laid it aside. She then gently
placed her hands inside the casket and lifted out of it the form of a
young man. This young man seemed to come to life as she took him out.
She then placed him on her lap, took a clothes brush and nicely brushed
his clothes. He then stood up. We were standing near the wall, and this
young man was observed to roll a cigarette between his fingers and
looking our way, asked for a match. We had none for that purpose and
never do. Immediately we said, "Just out of the grave and yet he
continues in his sins." Then the lady gently took this young man and
laid him within the casket, and he was as dead as before. The lid was
placed in shape and immediately we awoke, whereupon a voice seemed to
say clearly, "This is a modern revival." And is it not true? Do they not
have many who stand up or sign their names and join the church? They
seem to have a little life for awhile; are brushed up and stood up,
when, lo, and behold the old sinful life clings to them, and in a few
days they are back in their old state of death just as dead as before.
Surely, this is not the kind of life Jesus came to bring.
Now, if in the incipient life which Jesus brings, there are
manifestations of the same, does it not hold true that in the life more
abundant there should be expected greater manifestations of that life?
We read that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc. This
obtains in the justified relation, when the power of an endless life
begins to work in the heart and life of an individual. Then when that
life becomes more abundant in the sanctified experience, the love, joy,
peace, and all the rest are more abundant. In pardon we have love; in
purity, perfect love. In pardon we have joy; in purity, fulness of joy.
In pardon we have peace; in purity perfect peace. In pardon we have
salvation; in purity, full salvation. In pardon we have life; in purity
life more abundant. Surely, the sanctified soul ought to manifest more
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and the rest of the imparted graces
than those who do not enjoy sanctification. Alas, too many who profess
this "second blessing, properly so-called," do not manifest it in their
lives. The palm tree abundance seems to be wanting. When our dear mother
was very old, and did not always get her letters properly connected in
her letter writing, one time she wrote us a letter in which she spoke of
the blessing of sanctification. She got all the letters in, but placed
the "c" before the "a" and made it spell "scantified." We thought that
was true of far too many; their sanctification is scantification; alas,
far too scant.
We had this life more abundant wonderfully illustrated on a certain
occasion while holding a meeting in the city of Indianapolis. We stepped
into a doctor's office and observed a platform about four feet square.
This platform was perfectly insulated by having glass feet beneath. The
object of the platform was to form a place for an individual to sit and
then fill him full of electricity. A chair was placed on this platform,
and we were asked to take a seat on it. At first we were somewhat
dubious. We had read of the electrocuting chair, and did not know to
just what extent the lightning might be turned on. After a little
persuasion, and looking at the matter rather philosophically, thinking
that others had been there without being killed, we ventured to take a
seat. At once the power was turned on and in a moment every hair on our
head was standing straight up, we observed in the mirror. The power went
through and through our body from head to foot. It felt glorious, and no
one needed to tell us that something was going on inside. The doctor
placed his hand near our body, and a sharp crack was heard, a spark of
lightning flew out to meet him. Every time the hand approached any part
of us, the report was heard and lightning would flash. Our friend was
sitting near and he was asked to shake hands with us, whereby he
responded, "No, you don't." He felt there was too much going on for him
to trifle with lightning that way. Now, we would not want to convey the
thought, that necessarily when one obtains the blessing of holiness
there will be felt electric shocks throughout his being; but we do mean
to say that when an individual places himself and all that he has on
God's platform of consecration, and becomes perfectly insulated from
this world, that God will turn on the power of the sanctifying baptism
with the Holy Ghost, and that individual will surely know that the
mighty work has taken place. And not only the one who receives the
blessing will be cognizant of the fact, but others who come in contact
with him will ascertain the same. To say that one has the blessing of
holiness, but has no power, is to say what is not true. To say, "I am
still sanctified, but I have lost the power," is to speak contradictory
to the Word of God. There are some things which God has joined together,
and surely we have no right to put them asunder. When the individual
becomes perfectly insulated from the world and worldliness, and makes
proper connection with the dynamos of the skies, something is surely
going to happen.
Once we heard a preacher tell an experience he had when a telegraph
operator. It sometimes fell to his lot to go down the line and see what
caused obstructions to the messages. One time while out on such duty he
observed the line was broken. Usually he took along with him a telegraph
instrument with which to send and receive messages. This time he had
neglected to carry such an instrument. He saw the importance of sending
back a message, but having no instrument, he did not see how it could be
done. At length he thought of placing the two ends of the wire together,
and by joining them in the proper way he could use the Morse code of
dots and dashes, etc. He accordingly tried the experiment and it worked
so successfully that he managed to get a message through to the office.
The next thing was, how could he get a message from the office to
himself? He could not hear the dots and dashes as they might pass along
the wire to him. Finally, the thought struck him, that he could make his
body a means of transmission of the message. Accordingly, he took hold
of one end of the wire with one hand and the other wire with the other
hand, when here came along the message and passed right through his
body, making the dots and dashes of the system perceptibly realized by
the jerking of the hands and arms. Here he had hold of one wire
connected with the office, and with the other hand he had grasped the
wire that connected with the other side and through him came the
message. Would to God that more people had learned the secret of perfect
insulation, and could have their very being so transformed that they
would become channels through which the Holy Ghost could pour His own
messages of divine truth out on a careless and deceived world! We need
to become channels of life, abundant life to a lost and ruined world.
The world is perishing for life. The old humdrum of lifeless religion is
too repulsive. When a certain noted preacher was asked why more people
did not attend church, the answer was, "Because they can not stand the
humdrum." There is something about life that is attractive. A jumping,
laughing, rollicking baby always attracts attention. The frisking lamb,
the playing pups, the rollicking children, all attract. Folks don't like
death. Funerals are sad. Graveyards are quiet places. The heart of man
cries out for life. God puts a spiritual hunger within the breast for
the life more abundant. The lifeless, emotionless, joyless prayermeeting
or preaching service never had its origin in the pentecostal upper room.
They are not the congregations of Spirit-filled, fire-baptized souls.
David said, "My cup runneth over." Isaiah said in that memorable twelfth
chapter, that people would do five things: praise, pray, testify, sing,
and shout. Then he gives as a cause for it all, that "Great is the Holy
One of Israel in the midst of thee." And it is true to the letter. When
God gets in the midst of people there are these beautiful
manifestations. The people praise the Lord, call upon His name, make
mention that His name is exalted, sing and shout. When the meeting dies,
these things are wanting. "Life, life, eternal life!" Let this be our
cry till the dead wake up, and the slumbering church arouses from its
stupor, and the pulpit pulsates with pentecostal fire.
The last thing a person wants to meet is death. No wonder it is termed
an enemy. If then death is so dreaded in the material world, why should
we not abhor spiritual death? Thank God we do not need to have it
around. With Christ the very embodiment of life, who was dead, but now
is alive forevermore; with heaven's mighty reservoir of the elixir of
life at our command, there is no need of spiritual cemeteries. We do not
have to leak out our life because somebody said so; because some
persecutor said something detrimental to us, or used some weapon of war
against us. Did not martyrs of old face death at every turn? Paul said,
"I die daily." He was in constant jeopardy. He never could tell when an
angry mob would swoop down upon him, or he would be cast to the wild
beasts. Yet none of these things moved him. He had a life like the palm
tree, so hidden inside that external things did not affect. Indeed some
of the early martyrs seemed to be endowed with miraculous physical life.
It is recorded that the Apostle John was cast into a cauldron of boiling
oil, but was miraculously delivered, the oil having no effect on him.
When Blandina, a Christian lady, was undergoing such tremendous tortures
by her persecutors, though weak in her constitution, yet she sustained
such aid from heaven, that her tormentors several times became weary in
their wicked work, and declared that she must have been supported by
some invisible power.
Sanctus was a deacon at Vienne. He was tortured for Jesus' sake and bore
it all with marked fortitude and exclaimed, "I am a Christian." When
red-hot plates were applied repeatedly to the most sensitive parts of
his body, till the sinews were contracted, still he remained unmovable,
inflexible in his steadfastness, and he was again placed in prison. In
a few days he was brought forth again, when his tormentors were
wonderfully astonished to find that his wounds were healed and his body
sound and perfect. He was again put to the torture, but being unable to
take his life, he was again remanded to prison, where soon afterward he
was beheaded.
We may not be called upon to suffer physical torture at the hands of
heartless persecutors in these days, but "They that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." We surely will have it in some
form if true to God. The world does not love our Christ. Jesus told His
own brothers that the world could not hate them, but it hated Him,
because He told them their deeds were evil. When our persecutors come,
what are we going to do? If we have the palm tree blessing, we have a
life hidden so deep that the world can not reach it. This life is a
heart life. It does not lie on the surface where the enemy's tortures
can reach it. Look at the sainted martyrs in the early day; how they
endured the afflictions that were heaped upon them, without a murmur,
and would not flinch, nor compromise a hair's breadth. Their tormentors
were taxed to the extreme in devising modes of suffering by which they
hoped to succeed in getting the Christians to deny Christ. In order to
show the real hidden life of the palm tree saint we will record the case
of two martyrs as told in "The Historic Martyrs of the Primitive
Church," by A. J. Mason.
Probus was presented. "Put away all foolish language," said Maximus,
"and tell me what you are called."
"My first and best name is Christian; my second, by which men call me,
is Probus."
"Of what station in life?"
"My father was a Thracian, but I was born at Sida in Pamphilia. I am a
civilian, but a Christian."
"Little good you will get from that name. Follow my advice, and
sacrifice to the gods, that you may receive honor from the emperors, and
be a friend of mine."
"I do not want the honor of the emperors, nor am I anxious for your good
offices. I had a considerable property, but I gave it up, to serve the
living God through Christ."
"Take off his cloak. Gird him up. Put him at the stretch. Beat him with
thongs of rawhide."
The compassionate centurion, Demetrius, again spoke: "Spare yourself,
man; you see your blood running to the ground."
"My body is at your disposal," answered Probus. "But your punishments to
me are an anointing with sweet ointments."
After a time Maximus began again his attempts at persuasion: "Will you
not have done with this madness now? Do you persist in it, unhappy man?"
"I am not mad. I am wiser than you. I do not serve devils."
"Turn him over and beat him on the belly."
"Lord, help thy servant."
"As you beat him, say, 'Christian man, where is your helper?"
"He has helped, and He helps me still. I care so little for your
punishment, that I will not obey you."
"Think of your body, unhappy wretch. All the floor is covered with the
blood from it."
"Let me tell you this: the more my body suffers for Christ's sake, the
better it is for the health of my soul."
"Put him in irons, and stretch him to the fourth hole. Let him have no
attention paid to him."
Tarachus is then brought before Maximus.
"Well, well, Tarachus," said Maximus. "I suppose that the reason why
people honor old age is because of the greater wisdom in counsel that
comes with it. Therefore, give yourself good advice, and do not today
persist in your former notions, but sacrifice to the gods, and earn the
praise of piety."
"I am a Christian," answered Tarachus, "and I pray that you and your
emperors may earn the same praise, and may put away all hardness of
heart and blindness, and be quickened by the true God to a higher and
better grounded conviction."
"Knock his mouth with stones, and say to him, 'Cease your folly.'"
"If I were not of sound mind, I should be a fool as you are."
"See, your teeth are all loosened. Have pity on yourself, unhappy man."
"Nothing that you can do hurts me, not if you were to cut off all my
extremities. I stand steadfastly before you in Christ which
strengtheneth me."
"Follow my advice. You had better. Come and sacrifice."
"If I knew that I had better do it, I should not suffer as I do."
"Strike him on the mouth and tell him to cry out."
"When my teeth are dashed out, and my jaws crushed, I can not cry out."
"Will you not even now comply, impious man? Come to the altars, and pour
a drink-offering to the gods."
"Though you have stopped my voice so that I can not cry out, you can not
hinder the thoughts of my soul. You have made me bolder and firmer."
"I will take down your firmness, ruffian."
"I am at your disposal. Whatever you devise, I shall be more than a
match for you in the name of God who strengtheneth me."
"Open his hands and put fire in them."
"I am not afraid of your fire, which endures for a moment; but I am
afraid lest, if I were to obey you, I should become a partaker of the
eternal fire."
"Look, your hands are consumed with the fire. Will you leave off your
madness, senseless man, and sacrifice?"
"You talk to me as if I had begged you not to use your arts of
persuasion upon my body. I am proof against all that you are doing to
me."
"Tie his feet and hang him aloft by them; then send up a thick smoke in
his face."
"I thought nothing of your fire; do you suppose that I shall be afraid
of your smoke?"
"Consent to sacrifice, now that you are hung up."
"_You_ may sacrifice, sir; you are accustomed to sacrificing--even to
sacrificing men. But God forbid that I should do so."
"Put strong vinegar, mixed with salt up his nostrils."
"Your vinegar is sweet and your salt has lost its saltness."
"Mix mustard with the vinegar and pour it into his nostrils."
"Your officers are deceiving you, Maximus; they gave me honey instead of
vinegar."
"I will think of some punishment for you next court day, and I will put
an end to your folly."
"And I shall be the readier for your devices."
"Take him down; put him in chains and give him over to the gaoler. Call
the next."