Years ago a pastor by the name of Mr. Jennings presented a healthy young apple tree to a lady on a farm in England. It was not a very string incident, as someone might say, except that it was a rather unusual thing for a preacher to give such a present to a lady. However, she was an earnest Christian, who loved to see the gospel go forth, and the desire of her heart was that the Lord would use the little tree to further His work in far off lands.
The lady planted the sapling, and I believe it was with a prayer for God’s blessing, because she made a promise that all the fruit which the tree should bear during her lifetime should be used to further the work of the gospel missions.
The sapling grew up to be a sturdy tree. For fifty-nine years this Christian lady had the joy of gathering its annual fruit, and the revenue from it was used for the work of the gospel. And the remarkable thing about it was that a special blessing seemed to rest on this missionary tree. During all those years the fruit failed only twice. All the other years it worked and yielded up its fruit. Many missionaries take a furlough or come home for a rest about every seven years or less. But this missionary tree took a furlough only about every twenty years. Was it not a faithful tree?
The years passed by, summer had come again, but before the apples were gathered that year from the tree, the good woman who had planted it was gathered as a ripe sheaf into the Saviour’s heavenly garner. Only a few weeks later the apple tree itself gave up its life, which it had lived so well. But it seemed its testimony did not end there. One day, after a severe storm had swept the country, the apple tree was found uprooted, and lying on the ground. Some of the people who had learned the lesson of the good lady and her faithful tree, took the wood, carefully preserved and dried it, and out of it made many different articles which were sold, and the returns were used in the cause of the gospel.
It may interest you to learn what became of Mr. Jennings. He died in India where he was buried, but his name is still remembered in the little village made memorable by the missionary apple tree.
ML-05/29/1966