Thomas Mayhew was one of those early missionaries to the North American Indians. When on his way to the old country to seek further aid for his work, he was lost at sea. His old father, then past his seventieth year, regarded this sad bereavement as God's call for him to fill the place made vacant by the death of his son. He immediately began to study the Indian language, and went forth to carry on the mission of his son, which he did until his death at the age of ninety-three. In his travels, the old man would often have to walk twenty miles through the woods to preach to the Indians. Surely, this was better than idle sorrow. It was bringing forth fruit in old age. He had the palm tree vitality and blessing.
I am thinking just now of an aged minister. For over half a century he has served God in the regular ministry, and now although over six years past the "allotted time" of life, he is untiring in his work and zeal for God. He is up to date in all the departments of the work. He is superintendent of the home department of the Sunday school, and does work like a pastor in his regular visitations. He enters open doors and preaches many sermons. He is a most zealous advocate of prohibition, and stands in the forefront ranks in pushing that important work, and is president of the prohibition work in his community. His zeal for the foreign missionary field is most inspiring, and by faith, with all the other blessings of giving that he takes upon himself, he has just taken a native missionary to support from his limited means. While he is so active on all the live issues of the church, and is at his post to push and pull, yet he is seemingly most at home in the battle for souls. You can count on him at the revival unless he is providentially hindered. And when the seekers line up at the altar, he is at hand to pray and shout the battle on. He has the word "superannuated" applied somewhere, but we think it a misnomer and that a more appropriate word would be "superabundant."
CHAPTER VII
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.