a reference to the
palm was recognized in St. John's description of the Tree of Life,
"which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every
month." "Thus the palm-branch of Christian martyrs was not only the
emblem of victory adopted from the well-known heathen use of it, but
typified still more {80} strikingly their connection with the tree of
divine life, 'whose leaves were for the healing of the nations.'"

The palm, however, was not the only instance of such adoption into
Christian symbolism from pagan use. The influence of Christianity was
felt in many like cases. Trees and plants held sacred to heathen gods
became associated with holier names and ideas.

Thus the _Laurel_, "the meed of mighty conquerors and poets sage,"
became for the humble Christian who had "fought a good fight, and
finished his course," the emblem of triumph and glory.

The _Pomegranate_, with mystic association from remote antiquity with
the idea of life, became the symbol of a hopeful future, the emblem of
immortality.

The _Oak_ is the representative of supernatural strength and power. In
pagan antiquity it was especially dedicated in the West to Thor, the
thunder-god. The familiar story of St. Boniface, the apostle of
Germany, relates how he found in the country of the Hessians an
enormous tree, called the Oak of Thor, greatly revered by the people
and held inviolably sacred. St. Boniface cut it down in token of the
triumph of Christ. When it fell with a mighty crash, and Thor gave no
sign, the {81} heathen folk, who stood about in awe, accepted the token
and were converted. The stroke of St. Boniface's ax overthrew Thor,
but could not altogether destroy the associations of the ancient
belief. The reverence for the oak long survived; and the veneration
for it, Christianized in meaning, led to its reproduction, with
symbolic reference to the power of the God of gods, in many beautiful
forms of leaf and spray and clustered acorn, in church decoration.

In like manner, we find flowers held sacred to heathen goddesses lifted
out of that association and invested with higher and purer emblematic
meaning.

The _Lily_, the flower of Juno, became the flower of the holy Virgin,
and its snowy whiteness the symbol of Christian purity. It is often
seen in the conventional form of the fleur-de-lis.

The _Rose_ before the coming of Christianity was a mystic flower among
Northern races. Among the Greeks and Romans it was the