THE PALM TREE WILL NOT ADMIT OF GRAFTING
For many years the process of grafting has been known and practiced by
horticulturists. This is accomplished by taking a scion, usually of the
previous year's growth, from a shrub or tree, and inserting it into
another shrub or tree more or less closely related to the first. It must
be so inserted that the cambium layer of the scion, that is, the layer
of formative tissue between the bark and natural wood, is closely united
to that of the stock. In time, these two parts grow together into a
perfect union. The scion thus inserted will derive its life and strength
from the original root and stock, but will bear its fruit according to
the nature of the scion.
When we come to the palm tree, we find something that is opposed to this
method and will not respond. It will not yield to any mixture. It has
not the qualifications that admit of grafting processes. It can neither
be grafted in with any other tree, nor can any other tree be united with
the palm. It will not mix. It is an endogenous tree, and the cambium
layer does not obtain. It has no joining tissue that can be thus united
with any other plant.
Did the Omniscient Inspirer of the Word make any mistake when He said,
"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree?"
The Word of God is diametrically opposed to unholy mixtures. Hear the
word of the Lord in Deut. 22:9-11. "Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with
divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the
fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an
ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of
woolen and linen together."
Who has not seen the evil effects of mixing the planting of various
seeds together, such as melons and pumpkins, or other incompatible
varieties? Why not yoke an ox and an ass together? They are neither
mated in size, breed, nor disposition. It makes a lopsided pair. One is
classed with the clean animals, and the other with the unclean. We once
saw an oriental picture in the back part of a Bible where some native
was plowing with an ox and an ass together, and they had the appearance
of being ashamed of themselves. It looked as if the poor plowman would
have a hard job to get any work out of the pair.
But why not the mixed garment, of woolen and linen? "They shall be
clothed with linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them, whiles
they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall
have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon
their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth
sweat" (Eze. 44:17, 18). God did not want them to chafe and sweat in
performing their religious service; hence, the prohibition of the
mixture in garments.
In this we find a beautiful lesson for spiritual experience. We have too
much of the linsey-woolsey type of religion in our day. How God must
abhor unholy mixing up!
In this threefold prohibition we see the three sides of religion. Pure
religion consists of three things: doctrine, service, and experience.
First, they were not to mix the seed. What does seed typify? Read the
parable of the sower in the eighth chapter of Luke. "The seed is the
word of God." Here we have the thought: it is the doctrine of God. One
part of religion is doctrine, and we must not be mixed in this respect.
When the Bible speaks of that teaching which comes from God, it is put
in the singular and called "doctrine." When it comes from men or devils
it is called "doctrines." God's doctrine is one; men and devils' are
many. Paul admonished Timothy to take heed unto the doctrine. In Paul's
time, and in the times of the early fathers, heresy abounded. In our own
time, Christendom is rent with heresy. Unscriptural doctrine obtains
everywhere. Universalism proclaims the mercy of God reaching "from
everlasting to everlasting." So, in the ultimate outcome, all, because
Christ died for all, will be housed safely, in spite of a
Christ-rejecting life. Unitarianism, as the name suggests, believes in
one God; hence, rejects the deity of Jesus Christ, and being
Universalists also in belief, they are all going to get in by the
example of the Savior. While the Universalist believes that God is too
good to damn him, the Unitarian believes that he is too good to be
damned. Then comes along the soul-sleeper, who mixes with his doctrine
the heresy of no conscious existence after death till the resurrection,
and the utter annihilation of the wicked following the judgment, all of
which is in direct opposition to the plain teaching of the Word.
Mormonism comes in with its deluded adherents and claims a new
revelation in the Book of Mormon, and repudiates hell, flaunts its
mantle of polygamous fornication over its dupes, and gives the world a
mixture indeed. Christian Science, the greatest misnomer in modern
parlance, foists its counterfeit religious currency over our fair land
and makes the unwary deny the existence of sin, death, Devil, and the
real personality of God himself. The blood atonement of our Savior is
obnoxious to them, and hell is not in their creed. Surely theirs is a
mixed seed, with scarcely any real truth. Then springs up the _ignis
fatuus_ fallacy of Russellism with its promised "Millennial Dawn,"
spreading out the "Plan of the Ages" so that its deceived votaries
discount the deity of Christ until His resurrection. They claim that His
body was not resurrected, but may have passed off into gases; that one
is not born again till he is resurrected; that hell is a farce; that the
world will have a further chance of being saved after death. Not content
with these forces, the disseminator of mixed seeds raises up a regiment
of Higher Critics, who, with their Jehoiakim penknives, have cut and
slashed the blessed, inspired Word of God till it is beyond recognition
as it comes from their hands. To follow their vandalism is to get into
the meshes of mysticism and doubt, and wonder what part, if any, is to
be relied upon as actual inspiration. Then we have the "New Thought,"
and the "New Theology," and the "Aquarian Gospel," and their name is
Legion, the "isms" that are foisted upon gullible humanity in these
latter days. Occasionally one pokes up his personality above the horizon
and declares himself Jesus Christ, when, lo, and behold a following! Sad
indeed is it that so many people and many good people, have been
beguiled into the unscriptural teaching couched in the creed of the
so-called "Tongues Movement." When it first claimed the attention of the
Christian world their theory was first, justification, in which all sins
were forgiven; then following this experience came sanctification, which
involved the cleansing of the heart from all inbred sin; following this
definite work, comes the baptism with the Holy Ghost, accompanying which
is the speaking in tongues as an evidence of said baptism. No one must
rest satisfied that he has received his Pentecost till he has spoken in
tongues. Then the factions began to arise. Leaders opposed each other,
and all spoke in tongues as claimed. Their creed began to change, and
now one of the leading factions of the movement ridicules the thought of
sanctification as a second work of grace, and declares, that while
sanctification does come in, yet all the cleansing one gets is in the
first work when pardon takes place; that is, all inbred sin is then
eradicated from the heart. They still hold to the baptism with the Holy
Ghost and speaking in tongues. Many of the good people of the land have
been caught in this theological mix-up, and have dropped out of the
old-time holiness ranks. What does it all signify? It signifies a mixing
of seed--a mixing of doctrine. The theocracy of the Old Testament
forbade it in the literal, and the inspired Word also forbids it in the
spiritual, in the present dispensation.
A person who is mixed in his doctrine is a dangerous element in the
community. His work is not to settle, root and ground others in the
faith, but rather to unsettle them. "A heretic after the first and
second admonition, reject." Has it ever occurred to the reader that
heresy is one of the works of the flesh, or carnal mind? Read it in Gal.
5:20. The Conservator of orthodoxy is the Holy Ghost in a purified
heart. Outside of that, where is the hope of preserving inviolate the
purity of the doctrine of God? Let me illustrate how this works. There
enters an intelligent, so-called expounder of the truth, into a pulpit,
and he proceeds to teach the people. There sits in the congregation one
with a purified heart, in whom dwells the Holy Ghost, the Author of the
inspired Word. As this ingenious mixer of seed throws out some good
truth, he adroitly mixes into it his heresy, and makes it so plausible,
that, if possible, it would deceive the very elect. His arguments are so
clear, and he uses the Scriptures so well to prove his statements, that
even to the minds of the most spiritual, it seems that he has made the
points scripturally plain. The head responds and says, "It looks that
way," but the Holy Ghost dwelling in that purified heart causes a
shrinking. The soul closes in, and the listener says, "I do not feel
right somehow. I am not comfortable." What is the matter? It is the
blessed Conservator of orthodoxy, the Preserver of the purity of the
Word of God operating in that heart to hinder it from accepting heresy.
But here sits another who has not been so fortunate as to have the
element of inbred sin purged from the heart; hence, has not the abiding
fulness of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The speaker appeals to him in
the same way he did to the other. The head nods assent, for he certainly
makes it plain. But he has that in his heart from which heresy springs,
and so the heresy from this man appeals to its kindred spirit in the
listener, and the result is, it is swallowed down, the poison has done
its work, and another victim is numbered. Oh, reader, is it of small
import that we should be filled with the Holy Ghost, and thus have our
spiritual Protector always guarding us from poisonous seed? We would not
want to take the stand that this is the infallible rule with all people,
but we do certainly believe that this is the secret of some remaining
firm and immovable in doctrine, while others are swept from their
moorings.
The next department of religion we wish to notice in connection with
wrong mixtures is that of service. The ox and the ass were not to be
yoked together. This signifies service. Service constitutes a large
portion of our religion. Without proper service to God we could not hope
to continue in the grace of God. Certainly it stands one in hand to know
what kind of service he should engage in.
The world and the religion of Jesus Christ were never calculated to mix.
It is the unholy mixtures all down the ages that have brought the stigma
upon the Church of God. It always causes trouble. "And the mixed
multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel
also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?" The children
of Israel fell into line with the murmurings of the mixture they had on
hand. God's plan has always been for His people to be separated people.
That is the reason He took them out of Egypt. He warned them before they
ever got to Canaan, that they must remain separated from the inhabitants
of the land. They were not to intermarry; they were not to mix. When
Balaam utterly failed to curse the children of Israel for Balak's sake,
because the Lord would not let him, yet on his departure he told Balak
how he could succeed anyway. He told him to mix up with the children of
Israel in an unholy and abominable alliance. He did so and brought the
curse and plague of God upon Israel, and thousands were slain thereby.
When Nehemiah was sent to rebuild Jerusalem, he found a terrible state
of affairs had arisen by the intermarriage of the Jews with the women of
Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. There were a lot of little half-breeds running
around that could not talk the Jews' language. So Nehemiah had a great
cleaning up time on his hands.
God has called His Church to stand out clean and spotless from the
world. What a power she would have been had she always taken the
separated, clean way! But how sad to see those who profess to be
followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene, courting the world and mixing
with them in their pleasures, pride, popularity, and polluted politics!
One of the saddest things to behold today is the reckless transgression
of that plain command, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers." See the unhappy homes everywhere, because Christians did
not counsel with God and His Word in taking a life-partner. Oh, the
anguish, and heartaches, and backslidings, because the plain Word was
not followed! There was a certain Christian lady, who neglected to
follow the Guide Book in this important step, and right soon after the
marriage she knelt down to offer a little prayer to God, and His voice
was heard clear and distinct: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers." It was too late now to remedy the affair, but the same
word was in the Book before she got into trouble. For thirty years this
lady wandered on in darkness thereafter and never heard the voice of
God, till in mercy she was brought back to saving grace.
How many there are who take upon them the name of Jesus Christ and yet
are mixed up in secret societies and labor unions. Let the world have
these institutions if they want, for they are simply worldly. Their
methods and practices and pleasures are not conducive to spiritual life.
It is a wrong mixture. "Come out from among them and be ye separate."
Let me not pass by another mixing which does not have the blessing of
God upon it. It is that of partnership in business with the unsaved. How
many of God's people have found themselves in serious difficulty on
account of unscriptural business partnership. More than once God has had
to force the alternative upon one of His children to buy out or sell
out; that he could not continue in such alliance to the glory of God. We
have been astonished and grieved at the careless and reckless way so
many professing Christians, yea, holiness people have disregarded this
command of separation, and allowed themselves to be drawn into stock
companies with the unsaved. Is it not an unequal yoking together? Shall
we take God's money, and put it in the control of the world? No wonder
so many who have been so fortunate as to possess a little of this
world's goods have suddenly found their money taking wings and flying
away. Had they counseled with God in the business, they would not have
been beguiled into the unequal yoking with unbelievers. Let us not think
we can fly in the face of the plain Word of God and take matters in our
own hands with impunity.
Neither should we yoke up in church fellowship with those who are not
saved. We would not take the stand, that perchance some might not be
taking the track, that it should bar us from church membership, but when
the mass of members are not obeying God, and are opposed to holiness,
and are worldly in their trend, it is no place for one who wishes to be
spiritual and keep blessed. How long will it be if one mixes in with
such a crowd till he will be like them? We once were passing through the
state of Colorado and saw from the car window a beautiful, clear stream
of water join with another stream that was dark and muddy. How long did
it take the crystal stream to become muddy like the other? It certainly
did not clarify the muddy current, but the muddy current mixed right
into it and all became impure.
Poor Ephraim ought to stand out as a warning to those who think they can
mix with the world with impunity. Hear the Word on his case: "Ephraim,
he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned."
Poor, unturned cake. He had mixed so much among the people that he did
not have fire enough to bake him on both sides; it did not pay to turn
him over. What is an unbaked cake good for? It is so sticky that it will
adhere to almost anything. Ephraim adhered to this people and that, and
met with sad failure. Sticky, soggy, heavy, indigestible, unpalatable!
Who wants it? "Hot cakes" is the call, and not cold, unturned ones.
The next department of religion we wish to notice is that of experience.
Here we have the prohibition of the linen and woolen garments mixed.
What is closer to a person than his garments? God has seen fit to
express salvation under the fitting emblem of garments. "For fine linen
is the righteousness of saints" (Rev. 19:8). "These are they which came
out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7:14). "Let thy garments be always
white, and let thy head lack no ointment" (Eccl. 9:8). "Put on thy
beautiful garments, O Jerusalem" (Isa. 52:1). "He hath clothed me with
the garments of salvation; he hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness" (Isa. 61:10). We have given these beautiful Scriptures to
show that garments are used to symbolize Christian experience. Now, as
the garment is the closest thing that comes to a person, so one's
experience is the closest thing in his religion. It certainly gets up
close to a man. God forbade under the theocracy the wearing of linen and
woolen garments mixed. This mixture causes chafing and sweat and
hardship that He wanted avoided in their religion. But in this present
day we find, alas, too frequently a linsey-woolsey religion.
Let us carry out the figure. Linen is the pure, clean, vegetable
creation, and is used to signify the righteousness of the saints. Wool
is the product of the animal, and is carnal; hence, signifies the carnal
element in one's experience. This carnal element sometimes called the
flesh, obtains in every Christian's heart until he obtains the baptism
with the Holy Ghost, wherein his heart is thus made pure.
"Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen come upon thee"
(Lev. 19:19). As the Word of God was against the garment of this
mixture, so that experience today that is allowed to remain in the
heart whereby there is righteousness and carnality dwelling together is
forbidden. There must not remain carnality where grace has taken up its
abode. There will be spiritual sweating and chafing, and one's religion
will be hindered and thwarted, and in all probability there will be
failure in the end. As it was scientifically incompatible, the mixing of
linen and woolen together for a garment, so it is spiritually
incompatible, the mixing of righteousness and carnality in the same
heart. There is always more or less chafing and hardships and
discouragements. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other;
so that ye can not do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5:17). Thank God,
in the economy of grace there is provided an elimination of the carnal
element of one's experience, leaving the pure, clean linen of
righteousness. Then the chafing, and galling, and spiritual
perspiration, working against carnal odds, will cease.
Now for a word of application. "The righteous shall flourish like the
palm tree" in preclusion of uniting or mixing with others. There is
something in the very nature of the palm that precludes the graft, or
intermixing. There is something in the spiritual makeup of the holy,
palm tree saints that have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness. They are a class by themselves. They will not mix their
religion with the world. In doctrine they are clean, true, clear, and
scriptural. They are holding to the old landmarks which their fathers
have set. They are not running after the new fads under the guise of
religion. They are settled, rooted and grounded in the truth. In service
they are separate from the world. They are not mixing with the fun,
frolic and general pastime and pleasure of the worldly element. They
scrupulously adhere to the admonition to "come out from among them" and
not to be unequally yoked together in any way. In experience, they have
no admixture of the carnal and spiritual elements. They have had their
hearts cleansed from all sin, and are really clothed with the pure,
spotless garment of salvation. They lack that cambium layer of formative
tissue that unites them to any other stock. Of course the world hates
them for standing out against them and failing to unite. The worldly
minded church members steer clear of them, for these members retain a
formative tissue that will admit of joining with the world and allowing
the world to join with them; but the palm tree saints stand aloof; they
do not mix.