The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-09-13
The Palm Tree.


The frequent illusions in the Bible to
the palm-tree, make it often present in
our minds, as a symbol of all that is most
winning and beautiful in Christian life.
But only those who have travelled in
Oriental lands, and have seen the grace
tul stem so 1.-the and straight and tall,
rearing itself In aerial symmetry, crowned
with It's sheaf of waving green, can take
to their thought the full glory of the
palm. The Rev. DIR. w. Fleming Steven
son, writing of this splendid Eastern tree
in recent number of Good Words, .
gives some suggestive particulars:
We saw the palm-tree first at Singa-
pore, and the taper trunks, the glorious
leaves, and the punches of fruit, gave a
character to the landscape. They fringed
the still and clear and narrow straits,
they tringed the roads, they hung over
the transparent water, they shaded the
house, and they impaired a wonderful
richness and dignity to everything. The
Southern coast of India is a long fringe
OF palm-trees over long fringe of surf
and inland it is not uncommon to meet
with stately avenues of palms, or pass
through woods of them; and they tower
above the Indigenous and above the
bananas in the orchards.
"The beauty of the palm is not its
only feature; There is its great strength.
Heavy weights hung at the top will not
defect it. We have often watched men
climb the branches trunk for sixty or
seventy feet in the south of India for
that is their business, to climb it twice a
day In the season, and empty the vessel
that is filled with the sweet sap taken
from the crown; and it was more like
climbing an iron pillar. And have we
not all seen Christian men and women
carry great burdens of duty that would
have bent others down, and yet with
such erectness of purpose and such sim
phcity and cheerfulness, that it might
have been thought easy?
1.-THE palm-tree grows SLOWLY more.
over, and it is long before it Yields its
fruit. The early dates are not the best
they are never so good as when the fruit
OF other trees would begin to fail; for the
palm is reported to be at its best from
twenty-five years up to one hundred {;
and, indeed, an Indian proverb DECLARES
that 1t takes thousand years to grow.
And is it not true that the life and
strength and spirit OF an aged Christian.
are the most beautiful of all?
And in old age when others fade,
They fruit still forth shall bring,
They shall be fat and full of sap
And aye be fourishing
"And there is another merit of the
tree to which the natives of palm-grow-
ing countries attach the largest impor-
lance: [ mean the multitude of uses to
which it can be put. There is a saying
IN the South of India that there are three
hundred and sixty uses CT the PALMYRA
palm; and 1t is no exaggeration TO say
that it meets half the wants of peasant
household. The sap and the fruit are
excellent food, and ripe or unripe the
fruit is wholesome; the beams and rafters
OF the house are made of the trunk, the
roof OF the leaves; but the leaves also
make the mats and baskets of the home
the vessels for drawing water, and the
pages of the books which until lately
were the only books known among the
IamlIs, the writing scratched upon the
hrm surface with an iron pen. Is not
true Christian lite the Useful life? Chris
tlans may or may not have brilliant en-
dowments; the greatest number Of them
are probably persons of commonplace
lives; but they are useful and helpful,
helpful to their neighbors, of infinite use
and blessing to the great world about
them; and they are this, simply because
they are living a loving life, after the
pattern set by Christ. - Christian In
telJ(gencer.