THE PALM TREE IS NOTED FOR ITS UTILITY

The uses to which the different palm tree varieties are put are something marvelous in the extreme. There is nothing like it in all the vegetable world. All parts are utilized, from the trunk and branches to the sap. From the branches they make cages for poultry, and fences for gardens. From the leaves they manufacture couches, baskets, bags, and mats. From the fiber they make thread, ropes, and rigging. From the sap is manufactured a drink, while seeds are ground up for provender for camels.

The following will show some of the many uses of the various kinds of palms: Fuel, clothing, building material, tents, cages, crates, fences, thatching, bridges, masts, boats, oars, canes, umbrellas, umbrella sticks, couches, baskets, bags, matting, mattresses, hammocks, pillows, cushions, carpets, sail cloth, oakum, paste-board, kites, thread, fishlines, bowstrings, ropes, rigging, tables, stands, chairs, bedsteads, cradles, window blinds, brooms, brushes, utensils, cooking vessels, weapons, shields, tools, hooks, spear tips, arrow heads, needles, fans, ornaments, hats, bonnets, musical instruments, paper, writing paper, candles, wax, resin, tannin, dying materials, medicines, tonics, refreshing drinks, vinegar, sugar, starch, meal, bread, sago, syrup for cooking, substitute for salt, oil for butter, oil for light and lubrication, and for making soap. And the carnal ingenuity of depraved man has even discovered how he can get drunk on the fermented juices. Besides all these a substance is used in tanning leather. The shell of the stems is used for making gutters, timber for flooring and wharf material, stems for blowpipes for poisonous arrows. One kind of palm is used in the construction of rude suspension bridges. Another affords a substitute for ivory. One part is used for fattening hogs. It is said that the various uses are declared to be three hundred sixty. Thus we see that it could be of some use about every day in the year. Reader, are you flourishing like this, and good for something every day in the year?

God certainly intends us to be useful. It means something to fill one's sphere in the world as Christ intended. There is something more to do than to plow corn, milk cows, and feed hogs; something more than to keep house, wash clothes and scrub floors. There is more at hand than the mere avocations of life, necessary as some of them are. God never called anybody to labor alone for the perishable things of this life. "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth." The real business of every Christian is primarily to serve God, and glorify Him; the other services are merely incidental. The old shoemaker had it right. When asked what his business was, he replied: "My business is to serve the Lord; but I make boots and shoes to pay expenses."

Even those who are shut indoors through feeble health may find avenues for usefulness, and do service that will tell for eternity. In Pasadena, Cal., is a blind girl, and almost entirely deaf, yet she applies herself to the Lord's work, and makes articles for sale, devoting the proceeds to the foreign missionary work.

A remarkable story has been published in the Ladies' Home Journal of March 1, 1911, showing what a girl can do without hands and arms. Through the kindness of The Curtis Publishing Company, we are permitted to insert the article in this book. It was written by the young lady herself.

"I was not born a cripple. Even as a child I did not always have to make hands of my feet. Indeed, till I was nine years old, I not only had arms and hands like other children, but I was also a strong, healthy, normal child like my two brothers, who were older than I, and my sister, who was two years younger. Our family was in poor and humble circumstances as far back as I can remember. My parents were both English, but my father became naturalized as a citizen of this country in 1882—the year in which I was born.

"Since I grew up I have learned that my father and mother were in good circumstances at the time of their marriage, and for some ten or twelve years afterward; that my father was a steady, hard-working, kindly man; and that he and my mother were devoted to one another and were very happy together. But after the birth of my brothers my mother was taken ill and was in poor health for a long time. Then, just as she was at the worst of her illness, my father lost his position, and matters speedily began to go from bad to worse. A tendency to strong drink, which he had kept well curbed for my mother's sake, now began to get the better of him. Her failing health made it impossible for her to look out for him as she had hitherto done. The new work which he succeeded in obtaining was hard and distasteful, and the family grew poorer and poorer until at last there were times when we had not enough of food and clothing, and the charitable societies of Chicago, where we lived, began to look after us.

"In the summer just before my ninth birthday, I was one of a number of children who were sent into the country for a two-weeks' outing by the managers of a fresh air fund. Those were the two pleasantest weeks of my life. The beautiful, green country, the grass, flowers, trees, and birds delighted me. I was well and robust, and I ran and picked flowers and played and enjoyed myself to the utmost. A few weeks after I came home from this wonderful outing my mother died, and I became the housekeeper of the family. I was then just nine years old. I did the work as well as I could, although there was not much to do nor much to do it with, in the bare place which we called 'home,' in the basement of a small city dwelling. Soon after I had lost my mother's companionship I lost my sister's also, for she was adopted by well-to-do people, whose identity I did not know and have never learned.

"On the afternoon of the following Thanksgiving day, while my brothers were playing outdoors and my father and I were alone in the house, I was puttering about when I found a bottle filled with what I afterward knew must have been whisky. Being only a child, and possessed of a child's thoughtless curiosity, I took a long drink from the bottle. The effect was almost instantaneous. I grew weak and stupefied. At that moment my father, who was in an adjoining room, told me to go and put some wood on the kitchen range. I said that I felt sick and could not go, but he insisted and I obeyed. No sooner had I got the lids off the range, however, than the combined effect of the liquor and the heat overpowered me, and I fell forward upon the open fire, unconscious.

"My younger brother, who came in from play and lifted me off, saved me from death. But at the hospital it was found necessary to amputate both my arms. The burns about my neck and chest were severe, but not serious, and two months later I was discharged from the hospital. A state society for the care of children had already arranged with my father to take full control of me. A fund contributed to by generous people far and near was raised for my support and education, and after spending some months in a nursery I became an inmate of the Home for Destitute Crippled Children in Chicago.

"In this home I was given instruction in the common school studies, and I learned to write and sew with my feet. After four years I was transferred by the Illinois Home Society to the care of a private family in Wisconsin, where I lived for eight years, going to the public school and practically completing the high school course. During all this time I continued to learn how to make hands of my feet, and I have kept on perfecting myself in this necessary acquirement ever since. It has, of course, taken a great deal of perseverance and determination, and has required constant effort and practice, coupled with no little physical skill and suppleness. But it must be borne in mind that for nearly twenty years I have been without hands and arms, and that during most of this time I have had to wait on myself. So my feet have been in almost continual training. I have never found a task too hard to undertake nor too tedious to finish, and no one appreciates the truth of the old saying, 'Where there's a will, there's a way,' better than I do.

"As a result, I have learned to dress myself, almost completely. I can take a bath by myself, wash my face, brush my teeth, put on most of my clothes, and comb my hair when it is not too long. I can put on and take off my eyeglasses. I can use the scissors to cut paper, cloth, or any other material with which I am working, and then thread the needle, knot the thread and do the necessary sewing. I can sweep and dust, mop and scrub, and even blacken stoves. I can sketch and draw, although I have never had a lesson in these accomplishments and have acquired the little knowledge and skill I possess in this art solely by practice. In the same way I have also learned to sharpen my own pencils, opening and closing the knife myself. I have even made articles of furniture, such as small bookcases and writing desks, sawing all the lumber, driving the nails, putting on the hinges, and finally varnishing the completed article. In short, I do with my feet almost anything that others do with their hands.

"At the close of my high school course I found myself, at the age of twenty-one, left practically on my own resources. The fund which had been raised for me was exhausted, the obligation of the state society which had taken charge of me had ceased, my father had passed away, my brothers were poor and could not help me, and my sister had gone out of my life. For a while I earned a little money by selling my drawings, name-cards and other work. Then I gave exhibitions, in homes and elsewhere, of my skill with my feet. Eventually I found it possible to attend Taylor University at Upland, Indiana, and while there the hope I had long cherished of some day being able to be of some help to poor, deserving, crippled children took shape and my life work was made plain to me.

"A Home for Disabled Children was planned and eventually started in Maywood, Illinois. I took special studies to qualify me to handle properly and capably the work of financial secretary of the Home. During the year and a half between the starting of the Home and the writing of this article five children have been cared for and a great deal of improvement has been observed in all of them.

"It is not the intention to overcrowd the Home with children, or make it institutional in any way, but to give them a real home with good care and Christian training, and also an education which will enable them to become self-supporting. In this way I hope to show that even a girl without arms, born and raised under the most unfavorable circumstances, can accomplish much good by lending a 'helping hand' to other cripples, and thus make their lives better, sweeter and more useful."

This lady's name is Kittie Smith, and the written article would be much more interesting could we accompany it with the dozen or more illustrations in the Ladies' Home Journal, where she is seen writing a letter, using the telephone, making fancy-work, drinking water at dinner, using the typewriter and cutting out material for a dress. Pictures of her drawings, the desk, the table and quilt she made are also given.

Here is a lady, educated, trained, and equipped for a life of special usefulness, who has had to battle through difficulties which would tend to discourage the stoutest hearts. Yet, in spite of all, she is engaged in Christian work and proving to the world what one is enabled to do who will.

We have lately seen the half-tone picture in Popular Mechanics, of a man who had lost both legs and both arms in a railroad accident, yet he makes his living by selling the pictures which he paints. He brings into requisition his chin and the stump of his right arm in handling the brush.

About fifty years ago there was a member of the British Parliament by the name of Cavanaugh. This man was born with no legs whatever and with no arms, save stumps half way up to his elbows. His penmanship was good, using a false hand for his writing. He was wheeled in each time by a valet, and was the only member who was allowed to address the Parliament without standing.

There are some men who will not down, even from the standpoint of the world. May we not take a lesson from these "unfortunates" and rise above every impediment, and yet succeed in the kingdom of God?

How many powerful revivals have occurred, when it was discovered that they were the result of the faithful, intercessory praying of some shut-in saint, who had on the prayer list the very ones who got saved!

Let me cite a quotation from Charles G. Finney's Revival Lectures:

"A pious man in the western part of this state (New York) was sick with consumption. He was a poor man, sick for years. An unconverted merchant in the place had a kind heart, and used to send him now and then something for his comfort, or for his family. He felt grateful for the kindness, but could make no return, as he wanted to do. At length he determined that the best return he could make would be to pray for his salvation. He began to pray and his soul kindled, and he got hold of God. There was no revival there, but by and by, to the astonishment of everybody, this merchant came right out on the Lord's side. The fire kindled all over the place, and a powerful revival followed, and multitudes were converted.

"This poor man lingered in this way for several years, and died. After his death, I visited the place, and his widow put into my hands his diary. Among other things, he says in his diary: 'I am acquainted with about thirty ministers and churches.' He then goes on to set apart certain hours in the day and week to pray for each of these ministers and churches, and also certain seasons for praying for the different missionary stations. Then followed, under different dates, such facts as these: 'Today,' naming the date, 'I have been enabled to offer what I call the prayer of faith for the outpouring of the Spirit on——church and I trust in God there will soon be a revival there.' Under another date, 'I have today been able to offer what I call the prayer of faith for such a church, and trust there will soon be a revival there.' Thus he had gone over a great many churches, recording the fact that he had prayed for them in faith that a revival might soon prevail among them. Of the missionary stations, if I recollect right, he mentions in particular the mission of Ceylon. I believe the last place mentioned in his diary, for which he offered the prayer of faith, was the place in which he lived. Not long after noting these facts in the diary, the revival commenced, and went over the region of country, nearly I believe, if not quite in the order in which they had been mentioned in his diary; and in due time news came from Ceylon that there was a revival of religion there. The revival in his own town did not commence till after his death. Its commencement was at the time when his widow put into my hands the document to which I have referred. She told me that he was so exercised in prayer during his sickness, that she often feared he would pray himself to death. The revival was exceedingly great and powerful in all the region; and the fact that it was about to prevail had not been hidden from this servant of the Lord. According to His Word, 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.' Thus, this man too feeble in body to go out of his house, was yet more useful to the world and the Church of God, than all the heartless professors of the country. Standing between God and the desolations of Zion, and pouring out his heart in prevailing prayer, as a prince he had power with God, and prevailed." (Finney's Lectures, pp. 112, 113).

Fanny Crosby was blind, yet see how she has blessed the world with her thousands of beautiful hymns, written even down to her old age. Let the weak ones look up and take on fresh courage. "My grace is sufficient for thee," and "He giveth more grace," are promises that should encourage those who are seemingly shut off from opportunities of service. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." The avenue to God in prayer, and the way to hearts are still open. Be of some service still. Like the palm tree, every Christian can be of much use in the world.

Three young ladies had just graduated from school and were talking over their ambitions in life. One said her great ambition was to be an author and write some great book. Another said her ambition was to be an artist and paint some great picture which might be hung up in some gallery for people to see. The other young lady was silent, and hung her head. Her teacher saw her and remarked that she had not yet expressed her ambitions in life. Finally, she replied: "I know that I do not amount to much, and that I have not much talent, but I was just thinking that my greatest ambition is so to live in this world, that when Jesus finally sees me coming, He can say, 'There comes one who has filled just the niche in the world that I wanted her to fill.'"

As all parts of the palm tree are utilized, so will all of the palm tree saint be consecrated to God, so that God may call upon him at any time for any service which He in His infinite wisdom may require. But it will take a complete yielding up of all one's parts; his spirit, soul and body; his hands to work, his feet to walk, his eyes to see, his ears to hear, his tongue to talk, his mind to think, his heart to love, his talents, time, and earthly store at God's disposal, his family, his service, his all simply abandoned to the Holy Ghost.

Reader, this is the way to be useful, and the way to have all there is of you used. If you are not thus consecrated, look into your experience.

Fifty years ago seven shoemakers in a shop in the city of Hamburg said, "By the grace of God we will help to send the gospel to our destitute fellow-men." It is said that in twenty-five years they had established fifty self-supporting churches, had gathered ten thousand converts, had distributed four hundred thousand Bibles and eight million tracts, and had carried the gospel to five million of their race. How many men would it take like that to carry the gospel to the world in twenty-five years?

Mrs. Adelaide L. Beers, wife of Rev. Alexander Beers, principal of the Free Methodist Seminary at Seattle, Wash., has furnished the following information concerning a family who moved to Seattle a number of years ago. It beautifully illustrates the thought before us of utility in the Christian life. It not only illustrates utility itself, but like the palm tree, utility of all parts.

Mr. and Mrs. M——, formerly of Goldendale, Wash., had a family of six boys and two girls. Having received the blessing of entire sanctification, and wanting their children educated for God, they felt they could not endanger their souls by placing them in worldly, Christless schools.

They owned a farm at Goldendale, but had little means available. They were not daunted, however, by the difficulties in the way, but with the heroic spirit of the "ancient worthies," they arranged to move to Seattle. The mother took the train, while as many as could, rode in a large wagon, and the others walked, leading several horses and cows. In turn they rode and walked, making the wearisome journey across the mountains, filled with hope and courage for the future. Soon after the mother's arrival in Seattle, a girl baby was born, being the ninth and last child.

The first year of their stay in their new home was one of great hardship and self-denial. They lived on the plainest food, while every member of the family except the baby worked very hard to obtain a livelihood. The two older girls were already saved and sanctified and were placed at once in the Free Methodist Seminary. The boys were soon entered as students, and one by one converted to God. Two of the little boys, with knee trousers were clearly saved in the children's meeting which was regularly conducted by Mrs. Beers.

A few years of consecrated service and Christian education have passed and we sum up the results. A faithful father and mother have trained their family for heaven, and gladly yielded their all to Christ. The mother has left the toils and cares of earth, and has gone to be with Jesus. One is now at the head of the Free Methodist missionary work in China. Another has been accepted as a missionary to China by the General Missionary Board and is to labor with his brother. One of the daughters is a successful missionary, laboring with her husband, who is at the head of the missionary work in Japan. She received her call while a student in the Seattle Seminary. Another heard the Macedonian call and gladly left all to go to China. One son is filling the principal's chair at the Free Methodist Seminary at Spring Arbor, Mich., while another is principal of a high school in Seattle. All the family are saved, and are proving the Scripture true: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." While Sister M—— has finished her work and gone home to heaven, "her children rise up and call her blessed."