The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-08-04
LIVES WITH LEAVES
But NO FRUIT
The International Sunday School Les
SOn For August . is The Barren
Fig Tree II the Dcfiied Temple"
Temperance LcsSOn) Mark II:
l2-y3
BY William Il. Ellis.

some persons live TO be looked at
but they are not the ones best
10y large classes. in our day. to dress
and toilet makes the thoughtful OBJ
server recall effete Rome in the hour
of her decline. The merely orna-
mental bulks too large with us. Out
ward appearance gives us more con-
Germ than inward worth. or thorough
efficiency. Leaves. rather thar fruit.
are our criterion of success. We are
planting too many ornamental
shrubs in the garden Of our modern
life, and too few fruit trees. 1t is
high ti1ne that WE should study over
again the incident of the barren fg
tree. blasted by our Lord.
This puzziine miracle Of Jesus ap-
pears to deal with those who seem
10 be more han they are: who are
not fulfilling their promise. On the
road to Jerusalem He saw a fig tree
abundant with leaves, but with no
fruit. Now a characteristic of the
fig tree is that it commonly puts out
its fruit before it's leaves. Jesus was
deceived by the ~ppearance of this
unscasonably forward tree. as he saw
il by the roadside, but when he found
that it bore nothing but leaves. he
condemned it to fruitlessness forever.
The Sheep Dog That Pointed.
Ii one is an ornamental tree and
nothing more, then, of course. leaves
are a satisfactory output. If, how
ever. the world las a right to expect
fruit, then no amount Of foliage can
he accepted as a substitute. In the
matter of human lives. it is not how
you appear, but hat you produce
that really tests your wOrthwhileneSS.
All the tailorS and maSSeurS and
BARRIERS and manicuriStS and haber-
dasher and jewelers. cannot offer any
acceptable substitute for doing a
Iuan-siZed task in the service of the
world. The gilded youth of both
sexes who adorn our city highways
and who have never done a useful
stroke Of work in their lives, are
the objects of all mems scorn. Bar
rem fig trees and barren lives merit
nothing but condemnation.
Down in Virginia, on a plantation
where | have gone hunting, there is
an old sheep dog who will follow tC
the field a man with a gun. H.
Will go through all the motions o.
a fine bird dog; he points perfectly
hut there are never any birds Wher'
he points. He is a hypocrite dog, 70,
H. consciously tries to appear to b.
what he really is not. This lesson i
The Bibles WI picture of all such
The Lives Tha Produce.
The central idea of both parts o
tolay'S lesson passage accords wei
with the temperance theme; for tn
International Sunday School Lessor
Committee has marked this as a tenn
perance lesson. The first inciden
carries the moral, that lives shout
bear fruit; each in it's own kind, an
all the fruit of which it is capable
Few of us have to go outside Of on
own neighborhOOdS to find an illus
tration for this proposition. Many
promising fig tree has been shorn c
its expected fruit by the blastin
power of strong drink.
The editor of the most widely Gil
cuiated periodical in the world, tol
me. a few weeks ago. that he wa
convinced that in his business a ma
could not SO much as drink a singl
cocktail with his luncheon. withO,
lmpairinS his efficiency. With re:
fervor he vent on to argue for ten
pcrance on the basis of economic e
hciency. He is making the temper
ance fight his own, for the arch
enemy of the fruit of civilization
the traffic in alcohol.
The whitening Judgment of an Ell
hehtened social conscience has bee
turned against strong drink with!
our W time. The forms Of activi'
against it are many and varied. He
IL a working temperance pledg
which the Pennsylvania Anti-SaloC
League mas put out. AS q mat
OIL conscience. | purpose to stand
all men. movements and newSpape
that stand against the liquor traffic
When the Church is Corrupted.
The contrast seems sharp betwe'
the blasting of a single fig tree al
the cleansing of the great temple
HerOd. yet both were in the daA
work of Jesus. and both were of
piece with his on ministry. He WI
did the great small things also If
christian cannot be a missionary
China. at least he can help to
higher level the shiftleSS. ignOra
and irreligiOuS folk around the &C
ner. The work is one work, wheth
Ia America or in Africa.
Great evils do not spring fulf-pr
portioned into being. They are