The Palm Tree Blessing

by William Edward Shepard

We have never been very visionary, nor have we been carried away in trances; but we did have a dream once that we felt sure was from the Lord; at least the interpretation came so clearly and quickly at the moment of waking, that we have felt the Lord's hand was in it. The dream ran thus: We had gone into a cemetery and followed a lady into a tomb. At the center of this tomb was a casket. The lady walked up to the casket and quietly lifted the lid and laid it aside. She then gently placed her hands inside the casket and lifted out of it the form of a young man. This young man seemed to come to life as she took him out. She then placed him on her lap, took a clothes brush and nicely brushed his clothes. He then stood up. We were standing near the wall, and this young man was observed to roll a cigarette between his fingers and looking our way, asked for a match. We had none for that purpose and never do. Immediately we said, "Just out of the grave and yet he continues in his sins." Then the lady gently took this young man and laid him within the casket, and he was as dead as before. The lid was placed in shape and immediately we awoke, whereupon a voice seemed to say clearly, "This is a modern revival." And is it not true? Do they not have many who stand up or sign their names and join the church? They seem to have a little life for awhile; are brushed up and stood up, when, lo, and behold the old sinful life clings to them, and in a few days they are back in their old state of death just as dead as before. Surely, this is not the kind of life Jesus came to bring.

Now, if in the incipient life which Jesus brings, there are manifestations of the same, does it not hold true that in the life more abundant there should be expected greater manifestations of that life? We read that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc. This obtains in the justified relation, when the power of an endless life begins to work in the heart and life of an individual. Then when that life becomes more abundant in the sanctified experience, the love, joy, peace, and all the rest are more abundant. In pardon we have love; in purity, perfect love. In pardon we have joy; in purity, fulness of joy. In pardon we have peace; in purity perfect peace. In pardon we have salvation; in purity, full salvation. In pardon we have life; in purity life more abundant. Surely, the sanctified soul ought to manifest more love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and the rest of the imparted graces than those who do not enjoy sanctification. Alas, too many who profess this "second blessing, properly so-called," do not manifest it in their lives. The palm tree abundance seems to be wanting. When our dear mother was very old, and did not always get her letters properly connected in her letter writing, one time she wrote us a letter in which she spoke of the blessing of sanctification. She got all the letters in, but placed the "c" before the "a" and made it spell "scantified." We thought that was true of far too many; their sanctification is scantification; alas, far too scant.

We had this life more abundant wonderfully illustrated on a certain occasion while holding a meeting in the city of Indianapolis. We stepped into a doctor's office and observed a platform about four feet square. This platform was perfectly insulated by having glass feet beneath. The object of the platform was to form a place for an individual to sit and then fill him full of electricity. A chair was placed on this platform, and we were asked to take a seat on it. At first we were somewhat dubious. We had read of the electrocuting chair, and did not know to just what extent the lightning might be turned on. After a little persuasion, and looking at the matter rather philosophically, thinking that others had been there without being killed, we ventured to take a seat. At once the power was turned on and in a moment every hair on our head was standing straight up, we observed in the mirror. The power went through and through our body from head to foot. It felt glorious, and no one needed to tell us that something was going on inside. The doctor placed his hand near our body, and a sharp crack was heard, a spark of lightning flew out to meet him. Every time the hand approached any part of us, the report was heard and lightning would flash. Our friend was sitting near and he was asked to shake hands with us, whereby he responded, "No, you don't." He felt there was too much going on for him to trifle with lightning that way. Now, we would not want to convey the thought, that necessarily when one obtains the blessing of holiness there will be felt electric shocks throughout his being; but we do mean to say that when an individual places himself and all that he has on God's platform of consecration, and becomes perfectly insulated from this world, that God will turn on the power of the sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost, and that individual will surely know that the mighty work has taken place. And not only the one who receives the blessing will be cognizant of the fact, but others who come in contact with him will ascertain the same. To say that one has the blessing of holiness, but has no power, is to say what is not true. To say, "I am still sanctified, but I have lost the power," is to speak contradictory to the Word of God. There are some things which God has joined together, and surely we have no right to put them asunder. When the individual becomes perfectly insulated from the world and worldliness, and makes proper connection with the dynamos of the skies, something is surely going to happen.

Once we heard a preacher tell an experience he had when a telegraph operator. It sometimes fell to his lot to go down the line and see what caused obstructions to the messages. One time while out on such duty he observed the line was broken. Usually he took along with him a telegraph instrument with which to send and receive messages. This time he had neglected to carry such an instrument. He saw the importance of sending back a message, but having no instrument, he did not see how it could be done. At length he thought of placing the two ends of the wire together, and by joining them in the proper way he could use the Morse code of dots and dashes, etc. He accordingly tried the experiment and it worked so successfully that he managed to get a message through to the office. The next thing was, how could he get a message from the office to himself? He could not hear the dots and dashes as they might pass along the wire to him. Finally, the thought struck him, that he could make his body a means of transmission of the message. Accordingly, he took hold of one end of the wire with one hand and the other wire with the other hand, when here came along the message and passed right through his body, making the dots and dashes of the system perceptibly realized by the jerking of the hands and arms. Here he had hold of one wire connected with the office, and with the other hand he had grasped the wire that connected with the other side and through him came the message. Would to God that more people had learned the secret of perfect insulation, and could have their very being so transformed that they would become channels through which the Holy Ghost could pour His own messages of divine truth out on a careless and deceived world! We need to become channels of life, abundant life to a lost and ruined world.

The world is perishing for life. The old humdrum of lifeless religion is too repulsive. When a certain noted preacher was asked why more people did not attend church, the answer was, "Because they can not stand the humdrum." There is something about life that is attractive. A jumping, laughing, rollicking baby always attracts attention. The frisking lamb, the playing pups, the rollicking children, all attract. Folks don't like death. Funerals are sad. Graveyards are quiet places. The heart of man cries out for life. God puts a spiritual hunger within the breast for the life more abundant. The lifeless, emotionless, joyless prayermeeting or preaching service never had its origin in the pentecostal upper room. They are not the congregations of Spirit-filled, fire-baptized souls. David said, "My cup runneth over." Isaiah said in that memorable twelfth chapter, that people would do five things: praise, pray, testify, sing, and shout. Then he gives as a cause for it all, that "Great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." And it is true to the letter. When God gets in the midst of people there are these beautiful manifestations. The people praise the Lord, call upon His name, make mention that His name is exalted, sing and shout. When the meeting dies, these things are wanting. "Life, life, eternal life!" Let this be our cry till the dead wake up, and the slumbering church arouses from its stupor, and the pulpit pulsates with pentecostal fire.

The last thing a person wants to meet is death. No wonder it is termed an enemy. If then death is so dreaded in the material world, why should we not abhor spiritual death? Thank God we do not need to have it around. With Christ the very embodiment of life, who was dead, but now is alive forevermore; with heaven's mighty reservoir of the elixir of life at our command, there is no need of spiritual cemeteries. We do not have to leak out our life because somebody said so; because some persecutor said something detrimental to us, or used some weapon of war against us. Did not martyrs of old face death at every turn? Paul said, "I die daily." He was in constant jeopardy. He never could tell when an angry mob would swoop down upon him, or he would be cast to the wild beasts. Yet none of these things moved him. He had a life like the palm tree, so hidden inside that external things did not affect. Indeed some of the early martyrs seemed to be endowed with miraculous physical life. It is recorded that the Apostle John was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil, but was miraculously delivered, the oil having no effect on him.

When Blandina, a Christian lady, was undergoing such tremendous tortures by her persecutors, though weak in her constitution, yet she sustained such aid from heaven, that her tormentors several times became weary in their wicked work, and declared that she must have been supported by some invisible power.

Sanctus was a deacon at Vienne. He was tortured for Jesus' sake and bore it all with marked fortitude and exclaimed, "I am a Christian." When red-hot plates were applied repeatedly to the most sensitive parts of his body, till the sinews were contracted, still he remained unmovable, inflexible in his steadfastness, and he was again placed in prison. In a few days he was brought forth again, when his tormentors were wonderfully astonished to find that his wounds were healed and his body sound and perfect. He was again put to the torture, but being unable to take his life, he was again remanded to prison, where soon afterward he was beheaded.

We may not be called upon to suffer physical torture at the hands of heartless persecutors in these days, but "They that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." We surely will have it in some form if true to God. The world does not love our Christ. Jesus told His own brothers that the world could not hate them, but it hated Him, because He told them their deeds were evil. When our persecutors come, what are we going to do? If we have the palm tree blessing, we have a life hidden so deep that the world can not reach it. This life is a heart life. It does not lie on the surface where the enemy's tortures can reach it. Look at the sainted martyrs in the early day; how they endured the afflictions that were heaped upon them, without a murmur, and would not flinch, nor compromise a hair's breadth. Their tormentors were taxed to the extreme in devising modes of suffering by which they hoped to succeed in getting the Christians to deny Christ. In order to show the real hidden life of the palm tree saint we will record the case of two martyrs as told in "The Historic Martyrs of the Primitive Church," by A. J. Mason.

Probus was presented. "Put away all foolish language," said Maximus, "and tell me what you are called."