News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-12-18

III OSlliSCl~Iib oJLIll, NLICl
the stroke of some one without sense
or reason we saw beautiful tree pros,
trated:
Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bought
In youth it sheltered me-
And I'll protect it now.
Twas my forefathers hand
| That placed it near his cot;
There, woodman let it stand,
Thy ak shall harm it not.
When but an idle boy
sought its grateful shade;
| In all their gushing Joy
Here, too my sisters play'd
Ny mother kiSS'd me here,
My father press'd my hand
Forgive this foolish tear,
But let that old oak stand
Ny heartstrings round thee cling
| Close as thy bark, old friend.
| Here shall the wild bird sing,
| And still thy branches bend,
! Old treet the storm still brave!
And, woodman, leave the spot.
While I've hand to save.
Thy ak shall harm it not
As we ride along on these mountains
of Lebanon we bethink how its cedars
spread their branches and breathe their
aroma and cast their shadows all
through the Bible. Solomon discoursed
about them in his botanical works
when he spoke of trees from the ce-
dar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto
the hyssop that springeth out of the
wall" The Psalmist says, The right
eous shall grow like n cedar in Leba-
non," and in one of his magnificent
doxologies calls on the cedars TO praise
the lord. And Solomon says the coun-
tenance of Christ is excellent as the
cedars, and Isaiah declares, THE day
of the Lord shall be upon all the ce-
dars of Lebanon" And jeremiah and
Ezekiel and Amos and Zephaniah and
Zechariah weave its foliage into their
sublimest utterances
As we ride over Lebanon today there
is bowling wind sweeping past and
| dash of rain, all the better enabling us
to appreciate that description of tenn
pest, which no doubt was suggested by
what David had seen with his own eyes
among these heights, for as q soldier he
carried his wars clear up to Damascus,
and such a poet as he, | warra MT, spent
many a day on Lebanon. And perhaps
while he was seated GU this very rock
against which our carriage jolts he
writes that wonderful description of a
thunder storm: THE voice of the Lord
is powerful The voice of the Lord is
full of majesty. The voice OF the Lord I
breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. Yea.
the Lord breaketh the cedars of Leb-
anon. He maketh them also to skip
Iit-a Golf Tahonnn or,I Siria,, 1fL-O
young unicorn. The voice of the Lord
divideth the flames of fire"
As the lion is the monarch of the
fields and behernoth the monarch of
the waters, the cedar is the monarch of
the trees And think one reason why
it is so glorified all up and down the
Bible is because we need more of its
characteristics in our religious life. We
have too much of the willow, and are
easily bent this way or that; too
much of the aspen, and we tremble I'M
der every zephyr of assault; too much
of the bramble tree. and our sharp
points sting and wound; but not
enough of the cedar, wide branched
and heaven aspiring and tempest Crap
ping.
But the reason these cedar stand so
well is that they are deep rooted. They
run their anchors down into the cav
erns of the mountain and fasten to the
very foundations of the earth, and
twist around and clinch themselves
on the other side of the deepest layer
of rock they can reach. And that is
the difference between Christians who
stand and Christians who fall 1t is
the difference between u superficial
character and one that has clutched its
roots deep down around and under
the Rock of Ages.
ABIDE IN EVERLASTING STRENGTH.
One of the Lebanon cedars was ex-
amined by a scientist and from its con- |
centric circles it was found to be thirty !
five hundred years old and still stand
ing, and there is such thing as ever
lasting strength, and such a stanchness
of Christian character that all time and |
all eternity instead of being its demo-
ition shall be its opportunity. Not |
such are those vacillating Christians
who are SO pious on Sunday that they
have no religion left for the weekday
AS the anaconda gorges itself with
food and then seems for a long time to
lie thoroughly insensible, so there are
men who will on Sunday get such
religious surfeit that the rest of the /
week they seem thoroughly dead to all
religious emotion.
They weep in church under charity
sermon, but if on Monday a subject of
want presents itself at the door the beg
CARS safety will depend entirely on
quick limbs and an unobstructed stair
way. 1t takes all the grace they can
get to keep them from committing as
sault and battery on those intruders
who come with pale faces and stories
of distress and subscription papers
The reason that God planted these
cedars in the Bible was to suggest that
we ought, in our religious character, to
be deep ike the cedar. high like the
cedar, broad branched as the cedar.
A traveller measured the spread of
the boughs of one of these trees, and
found it one hundred and eleven feet
from branch tip to branch tip, and
have seen cedars OF Christian character
that through their prayers and chart
ties put out one branch to the utter
most parts of America and another
branch to the uttermost parts of Asia,
and these wide branched Christians
will keep on multiplying until all the
earth is overshadowed with mercy.
But mark you, these cedars of Leb-
anon could not grow if planted in mild
climates, and in soft air, and in care
fully watered gardens. They must
have the gymnasium of the midnight
hurricane to develop their arms. They
must play the athlete with thousand
winters before their feet are rightly
planted, and their foreheads rightly
lifted, and their arms rightly muscled
And if there be any other way for de-
veloping strong Christian character ex-
cept by storms of trouble, never heard
of it. Call the roll of martyrs, call the
ron of the prophets, call the roll of the
apostles, and see which of them had an
easy time of it. Which of these cedars
grew in the warm valley2 Not one of
them. Honeysuckles thrive best on
the south side of the house, but cedars
in Syrian whirlwind.
Men and women who hear this or
read this. instead of your grumbling
because you have it hard, thank God
that you are in. just the best school for
making heroes and heroines. 1t is true
both for this world and the next. Rock