Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-04-22
like the palm tree. Planted in the Bible that

| tan work, and in the after part or life we
take ten or twenty years for the gradual
| closing OF active WORK, and that leaves only
| so little time between opening AMI stopping
| work that all we accomplish is 50 little an
| angel OF God needs to exert himself TO see 1t
| all.
Nearly everything l see around, beneath
| and above in the natural world suggests
| useful service If there is nothing in the
| Bible that inspires you to usefulness, go out
and study the world around you this spring
| time, and learn the great lesson or useful
ness What art thou doing up there, little
| star? Why not smut thine eyes and sleep.
| for who cares for for thy shning?" NO
| saith the star II will not sleep. I guide
| the sailor on the sea. l cheer the traveller
among the mountains. l help tip the dew
with light. Through the window OF the
poor mans cabin l cast beam Of hope, aud
the child on her mothers lap asks in glee
whittier come and what do and whence |
go. To CLEAN and glitter. God set me here.
Away! have no time to Sleep"
The snowflake comes struggling down
"Frail, tickle wanderer, why contest thou
here" 81 am no idle wanderer," responds
the snowflake. ''High up in the air [ was
born, the child of the rain and the cold, and
at the divine behest [ come, and am no
straggler, for God tells me where to put my
crystal heel. To help cover the roots, the
grain and grass, TO cleanse the air, to make
sportsmen more happy and the ingle fire
more bright come. Though 50 light [ an
that you toss me from your muffler and
crush me under your foot, [ am doing my
best to fulfill what [ was made for. Clothed
In white come { a heavenly mission, and
when my work is done and God shall call in
morning vapor I shall go back, drawn by
the fiery courses CT the sun"
what doest thou, insignificant grass
blade under my feet?" II am doing a work"
says the grass blade ''as best I can. I help
to make up the soft beauty Of field and
lawn I am satisfied, if, with millions Of
others no bigger than l, we can give pasture
to focks and herds. am wonderfully made.
He who feeds the ravens gives me substance
from the soil and breath from the air, and
He who clothes the lilies of the field rewards
me with this coat of green"
''For what, lonely cloud, goest thou across
the heavens?' Through the bright air a
voice drops from afar, saying: ~ p and
down this sapphire floor pace to teach men
that like me they are passing away. gather
up the waters from lake and sea, and then,
when the thunders toll, l refresh the earth,
making the dry ground to laugh with har-
vests Of wheat and fields of corn. Icatch
the frown of the storm and the hues of the
| rainbow. At evening tide the western
slopes I will pitch my tent, and over me
shall dash the saffron, and the purple, and
the fire of the sunset. A pillar Of cloud like
me led the chosen across the desert, and sur
rounded by such as I the Judge of Heaven
and Earth will at last descend, for 'Behold
He cOmeth with clouds %
Oh, my friends, if anything in the IMAM
innate world be useful, let us immortal men
and women be useful, and in that respect be
like the palm tree. But I must not be
tempted by what David says of that green
shaft of Palestine, that living and glorious
pillar OF the eastern gardens as seen IN olden
times-the palm tree; must not be tempted
by what the Old Testament says Of it, to
lessen my emphasis Of what John, the evan.
gelist, says of it in my text.
Notice that it was q beautiful and lawful
robbery of the palm tree that helped make
up Christ's triumph on the road to Jerusalem
that Palm Sunday. The long, broad. green
| leaves that were strewn under the feet of the
| colt and in the way Of Christ were torn off
| from the trees. What pity, some one
! might say that those stately and graceful
| trees should be despoiled. The sap oozed out
| at the places where the branches broke
| The glory of the palm tree was appropriately
sacrificed for the Saviour's triumphal pro-
| cession. So it always was, so it always will
| be in this world--no worthy triumph of any
sort without the tearing down of something
! else.
Brooklyn Bridge, the glory of our CONT
| nent, must have two architects Frustrated,
| the one slain by his tolls and the other for a
| lifetime invaded. The greatest pictures of
the world had, in their richest coioring, the
blood of the artists who made them. The
| mightiest oratories that ever rolled through
| the churches had in their pathos. the signs
| and groans of the composers, who wore their
| lives out in writing the harmony. American
| independence was triumphant, but it moved
| on over the nfeless forms of tens of thou
sands of men who fell at Bunker Hill and
Yorktown and the battles between which
were the hemorrhages of the nation.
The kingdom of God advances in all the
| earth, but it must be over the lives of mis-
| sionaries who die of malaria in the jungles
| or Christian workers who preach and pray
| and toll and die in the service. The Saviour
| triumphs in all directicns-but beauty and
strength must be torn down from the palm
| trees of Christian heroism and conservation
and thrown in His pathway.
| To what better use could those palm trees
| on the southern shoulder of Mount Olivet
| and clear down into the Valley of Geth-
| semane put their branches than to surrender
them for the making of Christ's journey
| toward Jerusalem the more picturesque, the
| more memorable and the more Triumphant!
| And to what better use could we put our
| lives than into the sacrifice for Christ and
His cause and the happiness of
| our fellow creatures? Shall we not be
willing to be torn down that right
| eousness shall have triumphant way? Christ
| was torn down for us. Can we not afford
| to be torn down for Him? If Christ could
| suffer so Inuch for u.s. can we not suffer
| little for Christ? If He can afford on Palm
! Sunday to travel to Jerusalem to carry a
| cross, can not afford a few leaves from
our branches to make emerald His way?
The process is going on every moment in
all directions. What makes that father
have such hard work to find the hymn TO-
| day? He puts on his spectacles aud holds
| the book close up, and then holds it far Off
| and is not quite sure whether the number of
! the hymn is $50 or 100, and the fingers with
which he turns the leaves are very clumsy.
He stoops good deal, although once he was
| STRAIGHT as an arrow and his ewes were keen