VIIIHelps to Interpretation

Free from the intrusion of littleness,Standing on the shores of our great Western Sea,My groping thoughts, O sea,Now grapple with thy tempestuous waves.My ecstatic soul argues with thy gales for an interpretation of the message flowing clean and strong from the "million-acred meadows" of the out-lying seas.My straining ear listens to the clamorous, reiterating almost uninvokable voice of thy tides.For able to speak to man, like brooks and flowers,I am inquiring, what you are about, the knowledge of your place in the amelioration of the world?

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And lo, now nature's cord is struck,The secret word is caught,And this is what I hearAs again I plead, "thou are not a purposeless, lifeless plangent deep.O great sea, who's purpose doest thou fulfill?What are thou almightily about, what doing?"

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"Doing!" seems to murmur its sustained voice with its rhythmic storming of my soul,"Doing! I am doing what man is doing, what the nations are evolving, what the eternal, creative spirit living within me is urging,I am resolutely movingâ€”crest, wave, tide and ponderous deep in sympathy with world harmony, toward democracy.Moving from ponderous deep, tide, wave and crest toward distant lands.Eagerâ€”so providencedâ€”to carry to all pagan shores,The ships, the statesmen and the life giving trade winds of democracy."

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"It is true, astonishingly," I said,"Yes now I sense it and I feel it.And what an unconquerable will, what a purpose!The very shores, they tremble with its resolution,For with man even the seas are sympathically for freemen at work!"

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And then looking outward and skyward, the God of our sea going fathers, the spirit of the very God of Hosts, awoke this stronger message to my thought:"Fear not, O sons of PilgrimsFor the waters engulfed not Columbus' freemen when they sailed a shoreless sea,Nor was the Mayflower immeshed in the black jaws of an angry deep.And yours are ships of fate!He who omnipotently palms the oceans pilots them.To let them passâ€”O shipsâ€”to bear them safely on,The tides, the storms and the winds are stayed.

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"Move on, move on befriended by an illimitable peace.Move on, move on to every slave desecrated shore!Move on, the harmless, but forward momentum of these tides will take you on and on.For the Creator worketh hitherto and they must work.For He hath given "to the sea His decree."Move on to Hindu, Confucian and Teutonic shores.O ships of freemen, sail on!"

"Winnow me through with thy keen, clean breathWind with tang of the sea."

â€”Ketchum.

To become a good world citizen, it is not necessary to distribute oneself by travel everywhereâ€”although travel is most valuableâ€”any more than it is absolutely necessary for a worthy citizen of the United States to cross the continent or have homes in both California and New York, desirable as that may be.

Nor would one lose any interest in his nationâ€”remembering that only a bigoted and selfish nationality does harm; and that even in a federation of the nations of the world each individual nation, like each individual State in the Union, would have its own interests and would have to do its part towards expressing the life of the whole.

Of course with the realization of a federation of the world in the future, there would be public world citizens as well as private world citizens, just as there are public and private citizens in every nation; and the public world leaders should necessarily have a higher training, a wider experience and a broader travel than the private world citizen, judging from the standpoint of leadership alone.

But independent of these things it should be remembered that every manâ€”private or publicâ€”can acquire full world citizenship by learning to think in world terms and developing the world consciousness which makes you feel that you are a necessary part of all that exists. And this can be done by developing an unprejudiced love for humanity, by persistently opposing war, by keeping in touch with world statesmen and reading world literature, by acquiring a love for nature and the seas which comes from a faith in God, by helping to unify the world's languages and religions, by advocating constantly a central world government for the nations, by traveling when one canand by making it as easy for people to travel as possible, by attending all public meetings that deal with international movements, by never losing sightâ€”especially in the hour of perplexity,ridicule and hardshipâ€”of the world vision which is championed on these pages and by becoming sanely religious so that you will feel that the same good spirit throbs in your breast that quickens the whole universe into harmony and beauty as well as every flower and living thing on the globe.

Here are some of the exceptional world citizens. Hear them talk in their own words:

Whitman:

"There is no trade nor employment but the young man following it may become a hero,And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel'd universe,And I say to any man or woman, let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes."

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Browning's Christian Creed:

"That face far from vanishes, ever growsOr decomposes only to recomposeBecome my universe that feels and knows."

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Emersonâ€”

"I am the owner of a sphereOf the seven stars and solar yearOf Caeser's hand and Plato's brainOf the Lord Christ's heart and Shakespeare's strain."

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And so the star that shines from above moves on, calling all noble souls to move out by sea and landâ€”with the God whoshepherds us with His love and joy everywhere as the guideâ€”to the grandest work of human history, the work of essentially unifying theglobe. And as they go forward with this stupendous task, they will not forget to pluck the flowers by the wayside, look into the faces of children and take the hand of their fellows; but rather they will do it with a grander simplicity and a better humanity.

The very last and most important thing that must be said on the subject of world consciousness is that man himself is the key to the visionâ€”is that man is the fullest expression of God and that man can conquer nature and build nations, republics and a world democracy. The immanence of God in man is the secret of sanity and balance in the study of this question and also the power that is going to make the vision a reality.

And I have purposely refrained from saying anything about the superb position that man holds in this mighty work in order that you might feel the grandeur of the world vision through the power of the seas; might feel the awful majesty of the vision, its divine gloryâ€”in order that people might be arrested and caught up in its mighty enthusiasmâ€”before discovering that the secret of bringing it to pass is the wholesome secret of a simple human life. O wonder of wonders, the simple key that balances our thought and puts our feet on the earth in this hour of tremendous vision is in man himself; is right here in our own livesâ€”is in the engineer, the educator, the missionary, the preacher, the financier, all of whom can rise superior to nature and gain dominion over the earth. Let me express what I mean in the following on "Balboa" who is so intimately associated historically with the Panama canal and with the Pacific ocean, as its discoverer:

Can a man discover a sea?Can a human eye that's sealed by a night and sun-dazed by day discover a sea?Discover, O discover a far-going, a far-coming endless, sky-meeting, infinitely finite sea?Could a Balboa discover a sea?

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Yesâ€”A dew-drop can orb a sun.A telescope can enfold the stars of a sky.A pure heart can incarnate God.And an eye opened by fate, visioned by providence, looking out from a Panama peak can discover an endless sea!

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And great explorerâ€”could you arise and speakâ€”How did you feel when you discovered a sea?Did you feel like a babe first opening its eyes from marge to marge on heaven's blue skys?Did you feel like a mariner sailing the ship of the Earth out through the gates of the dawn?Did you feel like a soul just escaping from its clay out into the joy of the freedom of space into a home built from the light of the suns?Looking, looking, looking far outward, how did you feel when you first saw the sea?Descending, walking towards the shores, approaching the waters; how did you feel when, with the ineffable shock of a glorious discovery, you first touched the sea?

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And great explorerâ€”could you but speakâ€”What would you say to a whole coast with pilgrims from all the world inquiring of thee?What would you say, standing now at the mingling of two vast seas.Looking west, west, west until west becomes east,Looking east, east, east until east becomes west,You could not declare consistently that this is for England, for Germany or America alone.But inspired by the thought of the hour, we feel sure you would exclaim:"Iâ€”the first to touch both the hemispheric watersâ€”Hear me, all nations, O hear me,Claim the intermingling oceans for 'The Republic of The United Seas.'"

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Yes a man can discover a sea and also cross a seaAnd also chart a sea and even unite the seas,And civilize and uplift all the people in the nations bordering and tributary to their shores.Made in the image of God, a little lower than the angels.He can gain full dominion over its wide flowing waters,And on the pillars of courage build essential, earthwide democracy.

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Strong men, this, then is the hour's decree!Look upward in faith, move outward in serviceFrom the harbor of the present to the wide-emancipating future that is to be.

A new inspiration for literature is at hand. The times, with its mighty impetus for world movements, more than ever demands a class of literature that has at its heart the world consciousness. And the man that is to write the literature, it seems to me, must familiarize himself with three master-minds:

Walt Whitman, who chatted in terms of world democracy and whose spirit was as readily attuned to the earth as to the dew drop and flower.

Homer, the blind bard of Greece, the masterful interpreter of the power of the oceans, who talked about the seas as easily as the ordinary man converses about village events.

Christ, the child-like but universal minded Leader of the human race, who has quickened men to move toward the essential unity of the races and nations.

Literature can now come to its own as never before. Writers of fiction now have a new and superb opportunity of introducing a majestic back ground to their stories. Men everywhere feel the lure of a new inspiration. They want to talk and write in grander terms, bringing new glory to the simple and common place. And they are sure to break forth in the song of a better literature, orchestral with the spirit of world consciousness and broadly sympathetic with the yearning for essential world democracy. Commerce, science and religion are active in world movements, and what a mighty help it will be toward the realization of the ideal when many writers of fiction and poetry, as well as of history and politics, begin to take advantage of this opportunity. I can think of no higher calling that can engage the attention of man than that of trying to express the inspiration of these days in a worthy literature; which shall be majestically spiritual, and will tell what the unscaled eyes see, microscoped and telescoped to find the message of nature and history thrilling with a divine life.

And when the masses who have not had the opportunity to travel, catch the spirit of a world patriotism and learn to think and talk in world termsâ€”interested not only in their city, their state, their nation, but also in their world movements,â€”then a world government unifying the nations will be more easily formulated. I say, when the people once glimpse the vision of world peace, world harmony (or democracy) in its full grandeur, a spirit will be aroused that all the warring kings and illegitimate trusts on earth cannot check! David Starr Jordan well says in a most capable and thorough series of articles on "How to End War" that"people under the stress of immediate excitement might vote for war, especially if told of some vicious aggression." How true that is! And we should also add that there is a cure, a substitute for this false excitement. For the excitement about war is only coarse vaudeville in comparison with the noble passion that takes hold of men's lives when they become interested in the struggle and movements that make for world harmony.

And to create this higher enthusiasmâ€”which can never be quenched when once it is kindled in a man's heartâ€”the constructive workers need the co-operation and help of the deepest and clearest visioned men of letters in every nation. The task of reconstruction will be so stupendous that the orator, the press, the writer, must be enlisted to bring the vision to the people so that they and their rulers can be more readily led by the constructive international statesman into essential world democracy.

And it is the uniting of the two hemispheric seas that so irresistibly suggests the essential union of the nations. There never was an Exposition held, nor ever will be, affording such a vision of world unity; not only because of the union of these two oceans associated with this event, but also because of the world war, which cannot avoid being interpreted by some of the most penetrating thinkers as the darkness before the dawn. Any man of clear vision who stands with Goethals at the mingling of the two hemispheric bodies of water looking through the clouds of war cannot help but speak prophetically. The world has been brought together geographically. It will also be brought into essential harmony politically and racially. The new proximity of the nations created by the canal demands it. And above all, it is the inevitable drift of things. Blessed then are the people that have the vision! And twice blessed are those who give it to others! And above all, blessed are the men who are laboring to make the vision a reality!

The following two chapters were prepared for special occasions commemorative of typical California life. The one on "The Olive in Biblical History" was written by the author in compliance to a request from "The California Ripe Olive Day Association" to be used in the observance of the first California Ripe Olive Day, March 31st, 1915, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

The chapter on "The Modern Parable of the Orange Tree" was delivered as a special address at Porterville, California, just previous to the beginning of the harvesting of the golden fruit in that section, and is in keeping with "Orange Day" as observed at the Exposition.

And it is well for us to close the book with these chapters for the world view only helps us to appreciate the inland beauty more, and the valleys with their restricted vision only prepare us in return for the world enterprises again.

In the Old Testament times the olive was recognized as the "fruit of fruits." But during the hurry and rush of Western progress a gross oversight has been committed, especially on the part of the American people, in failing to fully appreciate its value; and as a result the olive has not as yet gained its true leadership here among the elect of the trees, composed of the orange, pear, apple, pomegranate, fig, and date.

But the oversight has been discovered by the pioneers of the olive industry in America, and the signs of the time indicate that the olive will be known here as it was in the Holy Land. And, with the unprecedented developments in the ripe olive industry, it has an opportunity of becoming even more favorably known than ever before.

By a careful study, recall the place that the olive held in the old Promised Land and you will get a faint idea of what we mean by the rediscovery of the olive in this new Promised Land situated here on the coast of our Western empire.

Where the olive originated, we do not know. Some think in Syria. Others are not afraid to say that it is as old as man himself. For not only did it grow previous to the flood, as is indicated by the dove bringing an olive leaf to the ark. But some actually maintain that it was one of the trees that grew in the Garden of Eden, wherever that may have been. And whether such an assertion is far-fetched or not, there is absolutely no reason why this wonderfully fruitful tree should not have been one of the very first trees appearing on the globe for the sustenance of human life.

But wherever it came from, of this Bible students are absolutely certainâ€”that it was the most populartree in the Promised Land. Indeed, it seems to have been one of the inducements that led the children of Israel escaping from Egyptian captivity to move toward Canaan, the Land of Promise with an irresistible expectancy. For the Promised Land that they were to enter is describedâ€”a description which would most accurately apply to our own Californiaâ€”vividly in the Bible as follows:

"For the Lord thy God bringeth them into a good land, a land of brooks and water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills. A land of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive and honey."

And not only were these freemen from Egypt encouraged by the fact that they would find the olive with other trees flourishing in the Promised Land; but they were also commanded, according to the author of Deuteronomy, to recognize its superior importance and cultivate it everywhere, in these clearly put words: "Thou shalt have olive trees through all thy coasts." And today the very names of different localities in Palestine, such as the Mount of Olives and Gethsemaneâ€”that is, Gath-Semen, which means the "oil press"â€”indicates the love of those people for the beautiful olive groves, which gently nodded at each other across roads and lanes when wooed by the winds, even as they do in California, this newer Land of Promise.

No one saw how conspicuously and romantically the olive was associated with the early Bible history of these people, as well as the prophet Jotham, who spoke the famous fable of the oliveâ€”in which he unmistakably infers that people should recognize it as the most important of the fruitsâ€”in these striking and beautiful words, found in the book of Judges:

"And Jotham went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice and said, 'Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem *Â *Â *The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them and they said unto the olive tree, "Reign over us" (or, as one of the versions so suggestively translates the Hebrew, "Wave your branches over us").'"

The olive also held a most conspicuous place in the religious life of the peoples of the Promised Land. Indeed, in the building of Solomon's temple 480 years after the Babylonian captivity, the olive wood was honored by being used in completing the most sacred parts of the edifice. The cherubims, the sacred symbols of Divine wisdom, one on each side of the oracle and each with wings five feet long extending over the temple walls, were made of the olive tree.

In fact, the book of First Kings shows that the olive wood was built into most of the conspicuous parts of the temple, in these definite words:

"And for the entering of the oracle, be made doors of the olive tree; the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall. So was also made for the door of the temple posts of the olive tree, a fourth part of the wall."

Not only was the olive given a primary place industrially and religiously; but it was also pressed into service on festive occasions of joy, commemorating historic events. It was used at the great feast of the Tabernacles, in constructing the booths, made principally of olive branches, intermingled with branches from other trees. And when spring hangs her infant blossoms on California's thousands of olive trees, rocked in the cradle of the western breeze, we will not fail to understand why Nehemiah reminds us of the early Jews' deep appreciation of the olive branch as a symbol of joy, in these words:

"So the people went forth and brought them olive branches (with pine and myrtle) and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof ofhis house, and in their courts. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths and sat under booths, and there was very great gladness."

And the Psalmist himself must have been inspired by the joy that came from the prosperity of these olive groves, when he wrote, in the one hundred and twenty-eighth Psalm:

"For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy children shall be like olive plants round about thy table."

Indeed, with the Greeks and Romans, the Israelites found that there was no tree that could be used for so many purposes as the oliveâ€”its fruit for food, its wood for costly decorations, its branches and blossoms for festive occasions, and its oil for medicine and light. For not only was the olive itself used, but the oil was also used for the anointing of the bodies of the sick, the captive and the dead. And the oil was likewise valued for illuminating purposes in the lamps and vessels in the tabernacle. And how highly they regarded it, we can fully understand by reading these words from Leviticus:

"Command the children of Israel that they bring in to thee pure oil of olive beaten for the light to cause the lamps to burn continually."

There was no spot in all of Palestine that Christ loved to frequent more than the Mount of Olives, to which he retired for meditation and rest. And why was this? It may have been because of the general outlook that he gained upon nature; which is doubtless true in part. But it was not the primary nor exclusive reason why He resorted to the Mount of Olives. For if there are tongues in trees, as well as sermons in stones, Ithoroughly believe that those beautiful olive groves must have said something to Hisobserving mind. What was it? Why did He go to the Mount of Olives?

Perhaps it was because the olive is the symbol of peace. As Ovid said, "In war the olive branch of peace is in use." So the olive groves which the poet Browning says "have the fittest foliage for dreams," may have helped Him in coming from the turmoil ofJerusalem to regain calm and self-control for a warring soul.

Or, as He walkedthrough the orchards, noticing that each tree was sympathetic to the rest and that each appeared to be a neighbor to the rest, He may have been inspired by thoughts similar to those of the eloquent naturalist who said, "The trees live but to love and in all the groves the happy trees love each his neighbor." And as a result He found it more possible to return to His work with a quickened love for His fellow-men.

Or perhaps suggestions for chivalrous meekness came to Him as He observed the gray foliage of the trees modestly glistening in the sunlight. It might have helped Him to say, "Blessed are the meek."

It may have been that the inspiration of timeless time, the power of eternal years, was awakened in His thought by the knowledge of the marvelous age of those trees. He may have known that well cared for trees will live for three hundred years and even longer. For so great is the olive's hold on life that even when a dying tree is cut down close to the ground, its vigorous root will give birth to still another tree.

Or it may have been that the Mount of Olives, clothed with green beauty, like many of our own olive-planted foothills, helped Him more to find the spiritual inspiration of nature than a trip to some other, bald and naked, mountain; helped Him to say:

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole"Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;"Great in the earth as in the ethereal frame;"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,"Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees."

All these inferences may be true and doubtless are in part. Butâ€”if I dare say itâ€”it seems to me that the primary lesson that Christ learned in frequenting the Mount of Olives was the importance of fruitfulness of life. For the predominant characteristic of the olive is fruitfulness. So much so that Spencer in his "Faerie Queen" speaks of the warlike birchâ€”"the beech for shafts," "the ash for nothing ill," "the willow for forlorn paramours;" but always and every time, he speaks of the olive as the "fruitful olive."

And this is the reason why the olive should wave its branches over the other trees. For, like manna, it is a composite growthâ€”a food, a fruit, a medicine. Always fruitful for a three-fold end; and never failing to be prolific, the trees bearing even for centuries.

And this is why the prophet Jotham reports the trees as first urging the olive to become king; and why he felt disappointed when the olive tree, in the beginning, refused, saying:

"Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?"

For, according to the fable, the trees after consulting the fig and vine were finally compelled to temporarily enthrone the worthless bramble as king, even as Israel had selected the most incompetent man for ruler, instead of choosing the most efficient statesman who was available.

But justice and good judgment would not long tolerate the rule of a worthless potentate. So they ultimately succeeded in enthroning a worthy king, in throwing away the bramble and finally crowning the olive to wave its branches modestly but worthily over the other fruit-bearing trees.

It is most appropriate at this season when California is just beginning to harvest its "golden crop" to open wide our eyes and find the message of these beautiful fruit bearing trees. For the Christ, who's mind was quick to pronounce a curse on idleness in the parable of the barren fig tree, would no doubt have been just as alert to have emphasized worthy success by speaking a parable of the orange tree, had there been orange groves in Palistine then as there are today.

But there were no citrus trees in the Holy Land when He walked its highways and crossed through its orchards. Hence the religious worker of today has the advantage over the founder of our faith of a visual acquaintance with this luxuriant tree. Indeed this fruit has, because of its color, become the most attractive of all fruits in modern life, so universally in demand that it seems to me that the orange itself has and is still seeking interpreters. So if, with Ruskin, we can only "open our eyes and see things"â€”see through and back of things, I am sure that we will clarify the vision of our souls and find emphasized some abiding truths in a new parable of the orange tree.

It would be informing to speak of the first orange fruit found in Americaâ€”to tell in detail how the Spanish explorers gave the citrus fruit to the Indians of Florida, who in eating it dropped the seeds in the soil, making possible the wild orange groves now beautifying the valley of the Indian river. For this is the romantic story of the origin of the orange tree in America.

Or it would be keenly interesting to every Californian to read about the arrival of the Franciscans in the southern part of our State, who established twenty missions in the rear of each of which was a garden where the orange, olive and fig were planted and bore fruit. Because this explains the inception of the industry in our great commonwealth and puts into our hand the key which unlocks the entrance to these modern gardens of Hesperidesâ€”these orange belts now scattered throughout our State.

Or in this day when scholars are feverish to learn the origin of things, we could speak of the world's first orange trees which were found in India. From the two originalspicesâ€”the bitter and sweetâ€”which were first discovered there, we could trace the evolution of the one hundred different varieties of the citrus fruit which are found in the world today, the original fruit being imported by merchants from India into China in the ninth century and into Europe in the fifteenth century, and then finding its way to America during the period of Spanish exploration.

But we prefer to be interpretive, to come closer home than this. We prefer to consider these fruit bearing orchards as an object lesson immediately at hand and to think of the labor and activity of the people co-operating with nature's forces that have made this golden crop about to be harvested possible. Thus recognizing at once the suggestion coming so eloquently from these trees that, the fundamental secret of all growth in character as well as in nature is adaption to environment and service, not the passive submission of Calvinism alone, nor the uncontrollable egotism of an unrestrained Arminianism, but the union of both, the working of God with manâ€”spiritual co-operation, the most helpful phrase in modern religious thought. So with this primary principle as a premise let us try to interpret in detail the new parable of the orange tree. For the man that has learnedits parable has found, as Dr. McClaren would say, the secret of a fine soul culture.

Some days past as I stood upon an elevation commanding a view of that great area of eight thousand acres of orange groves, spreading off into the distance with its wide expanse of tree tops blended into a continuous luxuriant green and its myriads of ripening oranges nestling in the deep green back ground, like countless numbers of gold fish at the surface of a sea or like circular stars in some new sky, these were the three suggestions that came to me as I tried to learn its beautiful parable.

First, the secret of a refined Christian character is an abiding sense of the reality of God, as revealed in Christ. For the finest spirits, the deepest minds and the most arresting personalities from Gladstone and Lincoln down to the ordinary citizen, have been those that have drawn their inspiration and thought from hidden sources. Just as the fruit and leaves of these trees receive their rich color from the sunbeams and absorb their health from the moisture coming from the heart of God's hills, so the cultured souls of history have received their winsome illumination of personality from a light that shineth neither by land nor sea.

We realize that these trees could not grow where there is limited sunshine and a restricted water supply. Neither can men find moral maturity and health until they possess that type of mind which is characterized by spiritual reality. We know that California's far-famed orange orchards would not be possible without incessant sunlight; and that our golden fruit would never again pass through the Golden Gate to the markets of the world, if the sun did not appear to shower down upon our orchards its magic beauty gathered in its own paradise beyond the gates of the morning. But Tennyson, who had a sane knowledge and appreciation of the Sun of Righteousness, was alsowell aware of the secret of a beautiful life when he said of those who had not discovered it,

""For what are men better than sheep or goats"That nourish a blind life within the brain,"If, knowing God, they lift not bands of prayer"Both for themselves and those who call them friend?"

At first I could not understand why the owners cultivated their orchards so incessantly. But when I was told by one of the experts that continual pulverizing of the soil made the moisture more accessible to the roots, permitted the oxygen of the air to find its way to the tree, and liberated the nitrogen in the soil so that it would be absorbed, then I saw clearly that there was a scientific reason for the constant harrowing; and felt that it might be very practical to demand that we deepen our convictions so that we can go into the fields of human life equipped with the mighty contagion of something to say that will go deeper than the ears, to harrow the inner life of patronizing listeners. For without the prophet whose harrowing words opens up a way to the nerve of conscience and quickens the deeper emotions of the soul men will not become eager to receive truth and the masses will remain proselytes of mammon and low ideals. Indeed the irresistible characters in religious service like the great singers are those who have had their hearts broken; but at the same time and as a result, their interest in righteousness deepened and their wills nourished and strengthened.

These trees are peculiarly beautiful and strong because they send their roots into a well prepared soil thrilling with the liberated elements of life and their branches into God's air to woo the purity of the sunlight. And the young who are to lead us safely in the future are those whose souls have been cultured by helpful and trying experiencesâ€”those who have been taught to think deeply, to see far in vision and to act bravely because the conviction of truth andexperience has liberated from the subconscious mindâ€”or the subsoil of their livesâ€”those elements which send through the whole man the iron of the prophet and the revealed wisdom of the apostle.

One of the strange characteristics about the orange is that the tree is unusually sensitive and the fruit very hardy. Indeed the tree can be blighted by a frost that will not injure deciduous fruits so that it must be planted in localities protected by a warm climate and God's hills, and often watched and tended like an infant child. But the orange itself, which is so hardy, has anadvantage over many other varieties of fruits and can be shipped into any market in the world. For the citrus fruit is not perishable in the same sense that the plums and peaches are and after being removed from the trees may be kept for weeks with advantage without being destroyed by decay or losing its beauty.

I say this is rather unusual. But, to mention the second lesson of the parable, it is no stranger than the guiding of youth through the formative years into a maturity, morally beautiful and capable of vision. And it is only as the home and school, the church and state watch over these sensitive periods, protecting the young from the blights of the frosts of skepticism and sensuality that their lives will mature into characters as golden and hardy as our native fruit. Sane, honorable evangelism never excludes Christian nurture any more than the sunlight obviates the necessity of soil cultivation.

The orange tree, it is true, does not tower in height and conspicuous leadership like the giant Sequoias and Redwoodsâ€”although it is said that the bitter specie of the tree occasionally acquires considerable diameter and that the trunk of one near Nice still standing in 1789 became so large that two men could scarcely embrace it. The citrus tree does not tower like Babel. But better yet, it simply bears fruit for foodâ€”whichthe giants of the forest fail to doâ€”like the strong men who prefer only to be reliably useful.

And this third thought suggested by our object lesson is most apparent. For with the instinct of good Americans we hasten to declare that the sight of these trees all comparatively of the same height and vibrant with the same beauty and glow of health does not suggest a monarchy, an aristocracy or even a plutocracy but rather a successful democracy; not only one of an equality of rights, because they all have access to the same sunlight and soil, but also an equality of duty because they all seek to bear fruitâ€”a commonwealth in which every private citizen is capable of being an uncrowned king. This must have been the lesson that Ruskin interpreted from nature when he said: "A forest of all manner of trees is poor, if not disagreeable in effect, a mass of one species of trees is sublime."

And thus as I stood on the highest foothill overlooking these valleys, these were the most important thoughts that were suggested to me by what I sawâ€”the necessity of these three qualities in the forming of mature character, faith in God, the guidance and protection of friendship and education for youth, and useful service, all of which condensed into a single phrase means the co-operation of God with man in producing the beautiful fruit of a refined, symmetrical life.

And then it dawned upon me that a number of other men had also learned parables from the trees. For as I looked over that great expanse of orchards to the south, detecting the irrigating streams flowing among the trees, with patches of the barren desert appearing here and there in striking contrast, the results of an abiding faith in God came to me in the words of David:

"Blessed is the man that walked not in the counselof the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

"Blessed is the man that walked not in the counselof the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

"He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

And finally as I descended the foothill and came long side of an orchard and saw a barren, scrubby trunk next to a splendid orange tree vigorous and laden down with fruit, the words of Christ pressed to my lips for utterance: "By their fruit ye shall know them. *Â *Â *Â A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bear good fruit."

It was then that I said to myself, why should not all men observe and find the helpful parable in this favorite California tree. Because we are more than mere animals we should rebel against hearing the terrible parable of a barren fig tree pronounced on our lives. But if we profit by the thoughts suggested by a modern parable of the orange tree, then our spirit will be as beautiful and wholesome as the eternal green of its leaves, our character as golden as its fruit and our deeds as numerous as its blossoms, for often the new blossoms appear before the ripe fruit has been picked from the branches.

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