Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-04-21
GLORIOUS PALM.
IMAGE SPEAKS or THE TYPE
or cHRIsT's TRIUMPH.

BEooKLYS, April IO.-This day Is recog-
nised as Palm Sunday throughout the
world, and that fact gave direction to Dr.
Taimage's sermon. Among the hymns
sung was the hymn
Clad In raiment pure and white,
Victor palms In every hand.
Text, John xii, IS. They took branches Of
palm trees and went forth to meet him."
How was that possiblei How could
palm branches be cast in the way Of Christ
as he approached Jerusalem! There are
scarcely any palm trees in Central Pales-
tine. Even the one that was carefully
guarded for many years at Jericho has
gone. | went over the very road by which
Christ approached Jerusalem, and there
are plenty Of olive trees and fig trees, but
no palm trees that could see. You must
remember that the climate has changed.
The palm tree likes water, but by the cut
ting down of the forests, which are leafy
prayers for rain, the land has become un-
friendly to the palm tree. Jericho once
stood in seven miles of palm grove. Oil
vet was crowned with palms. The Dead
sea has on its banks the trunks of palm
trees that hoated down from some oldtime
palm grove and are preserved from decay
by the salt which they received from the
Dead sea.
SPARE THE TREES.
Let woodmen spare the trees of America,
II they would not ruinously change the eli
mate and bring to the soil barrenness in
stead of fertility. Thanks to God and the
legislatures for Arbor Day, which plants
trees, trying to atone for the ruthlessness
which has destroyed them. Yes, my text
is in harmony with the condition of that
country on the morning of Palm Sunday.
About three million people have como to
Jerusalem to attend the religious festivi
ties. Great newsl Jesus will enter Jeru-
salem today. The sky is red with the
morning, and the people are fiocking 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 a
turn in the road, where Jerusalem sud-
denly bursts upon the vision.
We had ridden that day all the way from
Jericho, and had visited the ruins of the
house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus,
and were somewhat weary of sight seeing,
when there suddenly arose before our Wis
ion Jerusalem, the religious capital of all
Christian ages. That was the point of OBJ
servation where my text comes in. Alex
ander rode Bucephalus, Duke Ellie rode his
famous Marchegay, Sir Henry Lawrence
rode the high mettled Conrad, Wellington
rode his proud Copenhagen, but the con-
queror of earth and heaven rides colt,
one that had been tied at the roadside. 1t
was unbroken, and | have no doubt frac-
tious at the vociferation of the populace
An extemporized saddle made out of the
garments of the people was put on the
beast. While some people griped the
bride of the colt, others reverently waited
upon Christ at the mounting.
The two professions of people now be-
come one--those who came out of the city
and those who came over the hill. 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 emo
tions more significant. The people who
left Phocea, in the far east, wishing to
make impressive that they would never
return, took a red hot ball of iron and
threw it into the sea, and said they would
never return to Phocea until that ball rose
and floated on the surface. Be not sur
prised, therefore, ut the demonstration in
the text.
THE VISTA OF PALMS.
A. the colt with its rider descends the
slope of Olivet, the palm trees lining the
road are called upon to render their contri-
button to the scene of welcome and rejoic-
ing. 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 described it. Layard
finds the palm leaf cut in the walls of
Nineveh, with the same significance. In
the Greek athletic games the victors car
ried palms. | am very glad that our Lord,
who five days after had thorns upon his
brow, for little while at least had palms
strewn under his feet. Oh, the glorious
palml Amarasinga, the Hindoo scholar,
calls it ''the king among the grasses" Lin
n@us 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 multi
tudinous uses. Do you want flowerss One
palm tree will put forth hanging garden
of them, one cluster counted by scientist
containing 207, 900 blooms. Do you want
food? 1t is the chief diet of whole nations
One palm in Chill will yield ninety gallons
of honey. In Polynesia it is the chief food
of the inhabitants In India there are null
titudes of people dependent upon it for sus-
tenance.
Do you want cable to hold ships or cords
to hold wild beasts? 1t is wound into
ropes unbreakable. Do you want articles
of house furniture? 1t is twisted into mats
and woven into baskets and shaped into
drinking cups and swung into hammocks
Do you want medicine2 Its nut is the chief
preventive of disease and the chief cure for
vast populations. Do you want housess
It's wood furnishes the wall for the homes,
and it's leaves thatch them. Do you need
supply for the pantry9 1t yields sugar
and starch and oil and sago and milk and
salt and wax and vinegar and candles
GIVE US MORE PALM TREES.
Oh, the palml 1t has a variety of endow-
ments, such as no other growth that ever
rooted the earth or kissed the heavens. To
the willow, God says, Stand by the water
courses and weep" To the cedar he says,
Gather the hurricanes into your bosom" !"
10 the fig tree he says, Bear fruit and
put it within reach of all the people," But
to the palm tree he says BE garden and
storehouse and wardrobe and ropewalk
and chandlery and bread and banquet and
manufactory, and then be type Of what
meant when inspired David, my servant,
to say, The righteous shall flourish like a
palm tree"
Oh, 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 perform them. II plans of