The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-22
STREWING PALMS.
DR.. Talmage Delivers a Palm Sum
day Discourse.
The Entry of Christ Into Jerusalem-strew-
ing Palms Before the Divine Master
The Palm Tree Typical of Triumph
Tribute to Mothers.

How was that possible? How could
palm branches be cast in the way OF
Christ as he approached Jerusalem?
There are scarcely any palm trees in
central Palestine. Even the one that
was carefully guarded for many years
at Jericho has gone. 1 went over the
very road by which Christ approached
Jerusalem and there are plenty of olive
and fig trees, but no palm trees as
could see. You must remember that
the climate has changed. The palm
tree likes water, but by the cutting
down of the forests, which are leafy
prayers for rain, the land has become
unfriendly to the palm tree. Jericho
once stood in seven miles of palm groves.
Olivet was crowned with palms. The
Dead sea has on its banks the trunks of
palm trees that fioated down from some
old time palm grove and are preserved
from decay by the salt which they re-
ceived from the Dead sea. Yes. my
text is in harmony with the condition
of that country on the morning of Palm
Sunday. About 100000 people have
come to Jerusalem to attend the relig-
ious festivities.
Great newsl Jesus will enter Jerusa-
lum to-day. The sky is red with the
morning and the people are flOclling
out to the foot of Olivet and up and on
over the southern shoulder of the
mountain, and the procession coming
out from the city meets the procession
escorting Christ as He comes toward the
city. There is turn in the road where
Jerusalem suddenly bursts upon the
vision. We had ridden that day all the
way from Jerico and had visited the
ruins of the house of Mary and Martha
and Lazarus, and were somewhat
weary of sight seeing, when there sud
denly arose before our vision Jerusalem,
the religious capital of all Christian
ages. That was the point of Observa-
ton where my text comes in. Alexander
rode Bucephalus, Duke Eli rode his
famous Marchegay, Sir Henry Lawrence
rode the high mettled Conrad, Yelling
ton rode his proud Copenhagen, but the
Conqueror of earth and Heaven rides a
colt, one that had been tied at the road
side. 1t was unbrol1en and have no
doubt fractions at the vociferatiOn of
the populace. An extemporized saddle
made out of the garments of the people
was put on the beast. While some peo-
pie gripped the bride of the colt others
reverently waited upon Christ at the
mounting. The two professions of peo-
pie now become one-those who came
out of the city and those who came over
the hills. The Orientals are
more demonstrative than we of
the western world, their voices louder,
their gesticulations more violent and
the symbols by which they express their
emotions more significant. As the colt
with its rider desceuds the slope of
Olivet, the palm trees lining the road
are called upon to render their con-
tribution to the scene of welcome and
rejoicing. The branches of these trees
are high up, and some must needs climb
the trees and tear off the leaves and
throw them down, and others make of
these leaves an emerald pavement for
the colt to tread on.
Long before that morning the palm
tree had been typical of triumph.
Herodotus and Strabo had thus dc
scribed it. Layard finds the palm leaf
cut in the walls of Nineveh with the
same significance. In the Greek athletic
games the victors carried palms. am
very glad that our Lord, who five days
after had thorns upon his brow, for a
little while, at least, had palms strewn
l. y lA rrl.N V,sal lr1,f
Amarasinga, the Hindoo scholar, calls it
"the king among the grasses" Lin
naus calls it "the prince of vegetation" "
Among all the trees that ever cast a
shadow or yielded fruit or lifted their
arms toward Heaven, it has no equal
for multithdinous uses. Do you want
flowers? One palm tree will put forth a
hanging garden of them, one cluster
counted by a scientist containing
270, 900 blooms. Do you want food? 1t is
the chief diet of whole nations. One
palm in Chilli will yield ninety gallons
of honey. In Polynesia it is the chief
food of the inhabitants. In India there
are multitudes of people dependent up
on it for subsistence. Do you want
beasts? 1t is wound into ropes unbreak-
able. Do you want articles of house
furniture? 1t is twisted into mats and
woven into baskets and shaped into
drinking cups and swung into ham
mocks. Do you want medicine? Its
nut is the chief preventive of disease
and the chief cure for vast populations,
-
nishes the wall for the homes and its
leaves thatch them. Do you need sup
ply for the pantry? 1t yields sugar and
starch and oil and sago and milk and
salt and wax and vinegar and candles
o, Lord God, give us more palm trees
men and women made for nothing but
to be useful; dispositions all abloom
branches of influence laden with fruit
people good for everything, as the palm
tree. If kind words are wanted, they
are ready to utter them. If helpful
deeds are needed, they are ready to per
form them. If plans of usefulness art
to be laid out, they are ready to project
them. If enterprises are to be for
warded. they are ready to lift them
People who say, ''Yes! Yes.' when they
are asked for assistance by word or deed
instead of No. Nor Most of the mys
teries that bother others do not bother
me, because l adjourn them, but thu
mystery that really bothers me is why
God made so many people who amount
to nothing so far as the worlds better
ment is concerned. They stand in the
way. They object. They discuss hin
ORANGES. Over the road of life, instead
of pulling in the traces, they are lying
back in the breechings. They are th'
everlasting no. They are bramblc trees
they are willows, always mourning; ol
wild cherry trees, yielding only th'
b;ttay-- or crnh annie trees DrOlueinC