Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-12-03

are like that beautiful tree mentioned
In an Easter fable whose branches
were laden with apples Of solid gold
and Its leaves covered with silver bells.
When the leaves Of that tree were
shaken by the soft winds those bells
would begin to chime the sweetest
music, and that would be the signal
for the poor and the starving to come
and gather the falling fruit Or we
shall live on after we are dead In the
evil we have done to our neighbors.
Down through the centuries has the
evil been perpetuated OF that first sin.
when tempted man and woman
plucked the fruit hanging from the
branch Of tree. So through all time
the influence Of our lives for good or
evil shall go on bringing forth fruit.
As the Tree Grows, So IL Falls.
| There Is another significant reason
why the dead tree nearly always falls
in the way it has grownthe direction
is determined by the influences which
were at work upon its younger life.
The proverb declares that 'old trees
cannot be transplanted." The knots
are too big. The trunk Is too bent.
The branches are too heavy. The roots
are too wide to be lifted and moved.
The impcrfections Of trees may be the
more readily recognizable In their cd
| age, but the influences which caused
the tree to grow to the north or TO the
south nearly always do their work for
good or evil when the trees are hardly
more than small saplings. II this fact
be true, Is it not Of utmost Importance
that parents should carefully look after
the work Of rearing their children? A
middle aged man said to me, some time
ago: "The most awful realization that
l have Of life's duty is that am IA
Their. When l look back and see the
influence my parents had upon my life,
and when l see my boys every day
copying me in dress. in speech, in &C.
ton, In wanting to wear clothes as
wear mine and do things because do
them, 1t makes me tremble." Yes, par
ents, the most important part Of your
earthly influence is that which you are
now exerting over your children. You
are now influencing them at the critical
time Of their lives. They are now
young trees. to be easily bent as you
will, and If you set the wrong kind Of
an example before them. as did that
parent who one day saw his boys play
ing that they were intoxicated. as THEY
father often was. you will destroy those
young lives as easily as n herd of swine
can root up g ssgebush.
A Word to the Young
Young people, I would like to speak
| just one word to you. You are apt to
think that the period Of youth does not
amount to much. want to tell you
! that you are now forming the habits
that will grow stronger and stronger
as the years roll on. The bark of the
tree is the place where the life is sup
posed to exist. But if the inside of the
tree, or the wooden part, is allowed to
be tunneled by n worm the inside of
| the tree will soon be eaten out Then
the whole tree will soon totter and fall
One small sinful habit can destroy the
human heart. One little ting in youth
In the wrong direction can pull off the
branches Of truth and purity and love
and honor and make a lopsided tree
What you do now will decide the moral
character Of your future. Trees 1000
years old are neither more nor less
than the fully developed and expanded
projections and imperfections of a tree
only four, FIVE, ten, twenty, thirty
years old. Nearly all the hardened
criminals who spend most of their lives
in the penitentiary committed their
first crime when they were nothing
more than boys under twenty years of
age. Many a murderer has started on q
quick journey for the gallows by whet-
ting his taste for blood when as child
he tortured a dog or Gagged rat Old
trees bear the scars upon their sides
from the wounds inflicted in youth
These scars can be seen upon the tree
even after the tree has tumbled to the
ground and is dead.
The Tree of Life.
But though a fallen tree Is a dead
tree, which nearly always falls in the
way 1t has grown, a living tree, no
matter how young or old, can become
an ingrafted tree. Grating may be
accomplished in many different ways.
III buuulHs STdltinS Dun Is seleCteu.
Then strong young branch Is cut
crosswlse with sharp knife. Then
Re bud Is placed upon the bare branch
and the four pieces of bark are Joined
at the buds base and the wound Is COW
cred over with Japanese mating. So
the young human trees may be ingraft-
ed. They can have Christ's PROJECTIONS
in all their freshness and fragrance
made to grow into them. They can
grow into the Christian life so gradu-
ally and sweetty that they will not be
able to tell the exact moment Of their
conversion. They will be like that
young girl who was asked on joining
the church when she commenced to
love the Lord Jesus. Why" she an
swered. Il never commenced to love
the Saviour. l feel that i have always
loved him."
But there Is another way Of grating
There Is the sprouting grating. BY
this process whole limbs will be cut OF
and new limbs from other trees will be
placed into the fork shaped crotches
If necessary nothing need be left but
the trunk of the old tree. This was
the way Christ's life was ingrafted
into Pauls. This was the way Baxter
and Bunyan and Jerry McAuley and
|