By John Hames
"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree." -- Psalm 92:12.
God often compares His people to trees. But whenever He does, He selects the fruit-bearing palm to represent the Spirit-filled believer. There is a divine reason for this. The palm tree is full of sap. We read in Psalms 104:16, "The trees of the Lord are full of sap." This has reference to the palm. The very life of the tree is in the sap which flows through the trunk and branches producing fruit and beauty. In like manner every grace and fruit of the Spirit must be fed and nourished by the heavenly sap of the Spirit. Let us notice some traits of the palm tree which has its counterpart in the palm tree saint.
I. The palm tree is noted for its deep roots which go down until they strike the living springs of water. This is a type of a Spirit-filled saint, who has struck the living streams of Pentecost and is constantly fed by the indwelling Comforter. Just as the flowing water feeds the roots of the palm tree and sends its life-giving sap to the very top leaf, in like manner the Holy Spirit floods the soul with the love of God until all the fruits and graces of the Spirit grow and flourish with a living freshness the year round.
II. The palm tree is an evergreen which characteristically typifies the constant freshness of the Spirit-filled life. Nearly all of the fruit-bearing trees put on their beauty in the spring of the year. Then when the cold winter approaches, they shed their foliage and the life goes down into the roots. This is typical of a great many Christians who have religious spells during a special revival meeting and then seem to shed their freshness and their beauty until another revival comes.
The palm tree saint lives below the surface where the streams are constantly running over the hidden roots of his soul. There is an eternal freshness in his inward being.
D. L. Moody said that after he received the mighty; fiery baptism with the Holy Ghost, he preached the same sermons and used the same illustrations, but it all seemed so new to the people, and not a single sermon did he preach after that but that souls were saved. How blessed and refreshing to meet those who have not lost their freshness of first love! Everything they say seems to grip and bless the people.
III. The palm tree is noted for its beauty. It has a green, flourishing top the year round. As it basks in the sunlight, it is beautiful to behold. In this respect it typifies the palm tree saint that has been clothed with the graces and tempers which grow and flourish in the bosom of Jesus. The Holy Ghost imparts a Christly manner, a tenderness of speech, and gives one a winning disposition, a power to draw, and a heavenly influence. There is a beauty that belongs to the life of true holiness that is sadly neglected these days. Some people are noted for their straight, radical life. They stand out against everything that is wrong, such as lodges, tobacco, and worldliness in every form. But oh, how they lack the beauty and sweetness of the Spirit! God wants to beautify the saints until they will be attractive and manifest the sweetness of Jesus to a lost world. The Holy Ghost can take the most uncouth person that ever lived and save, sanctify, and fill him with a heavenly charm so that he will be attractive.
IV. The palm tree is noted for its sweet fruit. How true this is in the truly sanctified life. All bitter roots of carnality have been burned out, and the longer the indwelling Comforter abides, the sweeter one's life will be. The Holy Ghost wants to sweeten our dispositions so that we will become lamb-like and Christlike in our spirits and in all our behavior. There is nothing that so surprises and convicts the unsaved as when they see one manifest a sweet spirit while under pressure. A holiness that does not keep sweet under all circumstances is a sham. It is said of the mother of John Wesley that one of her children asked several times for the same privilege and was denied with a "no." The child asked again and again. The answer was always "no." The patient mother responded . "no" twenty times, and the last time was in the same sweet tone of voice as the first. We are not saying that this was right. The point we are making is that the mother kept sweet and calm under trial. We are not surprised that such a mother gave to the world two of the greatest preachers that ever lived since the apostles' day.
There are two little words in the English language, which, if only put into practice would transform any life. They are the two words "keep sweet." Keep sweet when the pressure is on; keep sweet while tongues are wagging and mud is being flung; keep sweet and win the day.
V. The palm tree is noted for its hidden life. The life of most of the other trees is near the surface, just under the bark. All that is needed to kill them is to girdle the tree -- just cut down to the wood, and the sap quits flowing, and the tree dies. There is a class of professed Christians who live near the surface. Their feelings are easily hurt, and a little persecution discourages them. They cannot stand a long siege of opposition. You may hack, peel, and girdle the palm tree, and it continues to live. This is true of a palm tree saint. You can peel, slander, and cut their reputations to pieces with cruel tongues, and still they have unbroken fellowship with God.
VI. The palm tree will grow in the desert. There is no more beautiful sight on earth to the weary traveler in the hot sands of the Sahara Desert than to catch a glimpse of a palm tree. It not only means shade and shelter from the hot, burning sun, but a spring of water is usually found where the palm grows. The human heart without God is like a moral desert. God's plan in this gospel age, which exceeds all other ages in light and privileges, is to so fill the palm tree saints with the holy sap of divine grace that they will flourish and grow right in the midst of deadness and formality. This is true of those saints who have martyr's material in them. They will grow anywhere. Look at Bishop Taylor and his missionaries who made dark Africa bloom like a rose wherever they went and planted the gospel. It was like an oasis in the desert.
VII. One more thought about the palm tree. It will get others started. Palm trees grow better in families than alone. How true this is of the palm tree saint. The Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit. There is something seriously wrong with the person's experience who never has a burden and longing to see others saved. Some holiness professors will dry up or tone down when they move into a strange community where there is not a holiness church. But this is not true of a real palm tree saint. They will start a prayer meeting, a mission, or something for God and holiness.
Some years ago there lived a little woman in Kentucky who kept a toll-gate. As she stood at the entrance of the bridge to collect fares of those who crossed in vehicles, she would greet them by saying, "Good morning, beloved, our Heavenly Father is good to us in giving us such wonderful rain." The people had just been complaining about the muddy roads. "May God bless you," she would say as they passed on. Then she was ready for the next person with the same words. She kept this up and was the talk of the whole country.
Dr. H. C. Morrison was sent to this town near the toll-gate and became this woman's pastor. As he went in and out among the people, everyone was talking about the little woman who kept the toll-gate. The new pastor called on an infidel doctor in his visits, who told him that he did not believe in religion, but said the infidel, "There is a little woman who keeps the toll-gate who has got it." Finally a city editor sent one of his reporters to interview her. He asked her the secret of her Christian life. She told him that she was sanctified. That was a rare experience fifty years ago. He wrote an article stating: "Mary McAfee who keeps the toll-gate in Kentucky says she is sanctified." This paper went over the different states.
Rev. W. W. Hooper, a Methodist minister in the Mississippi Conference, read this account of her marvelous experience and immediately took the train for Kentucky. He inquired for Mary McAfee, and she taught him the more excellent way and prayed with him until he obtained the blessing. Rev. Hooper helped Rev. B. Carradine in a revival meeting and told his experience and made Dr. Carradine hungry for the blessing. On the morning of the third day of seeking the fire fell, and the blessing rolled into his soul with such billows of glory until he had to ask God to stay His hand or he would die of glory. Dr. Carradine entered the evangelistic field and preached full salvation in every state in the Union and in Canada. It would take volumes to tell of all that happened as the result of this great blessing for thousands point to Dr. Carradine as the one who led them into the experience of sanctification, but it all started back with a little woman, Mary McAfee, who kept the toll-gate. We shall never know until time is no more, and the books are opened what one Spirit-filled life has meant to a broken-hearted world.
May God help those who are hungry for the palm tree blessing to never stop seeking until the fire falls, and the glory floods their soul, and others are brought into the palm tree blessing.
