Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-12-05

Ill an Easter IuDle whose DTduCueS
were laden with apples of solid gold
and It's 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 Il tree. So through all time
the influence Of our lives for good or
evil shall 30 OH bringing forth fruit.
Az the Tree Grows, SO II Falls.
There is another significant reason
why the dead tree nearly always falls
in the way it has grown-the 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 imperfections of trees may be the
more readily recognizable in their old
age, but the infuerce 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. If this fact
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
| have of life's duty is that am ia
ther. When | look back and see the
influence my parents had upon my life,
and when | see my boys every day
copying me in dress, in speech, in ac-
ton, in wanting to wear clothes as
wear mine and do things because l 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 their
father often was. you will destroy those
young lives as easily as herd of swine
can root up a sagebush.
A Word to the Young.
Young people, 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 worm the inside of
the tree viii soon be eaten out. Then
the whole tree will soon totter and fall.
One small sinful habit can destroy the
human heart. One little tug in youth
in the wrong direction cal pull off the
branches of truth and purity and love
and honor and make n 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 |
perfections and imperfections Of tree |
only four. five. ten. twenty. thirty |
years old Nearly all the hardened |
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 murderer has started on
quick journey for The gallows by whet-
ting his taste for blood when as child |
he tortured IL dog or Il 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 it has grown. living tree. no
matter how young or old. can become
an ingraftcd tree. Grating may be
accomplished in many different ways.
In budding grating Il bud Is selected. |
Then a strong young branch Is cut
crosswise with a sharp knife. Then
the bud Is placed upon the bare branch
and the four pieces Of bark are Joined
1t the buds base and the wound is COW
cred over with Japanese mating. So
The young human trees may be ingraft-
I'd. They can have Christ's perfectlons
n all their freshness and fragrance
made to grow into them. They can
grow into the Christian life so gradu
llly and sweetly that they will not be
lble TO tell the exact moment OF their
They will be like that
Ioung girl who was asked on joining
he church when she commenced to
owe the Lord Jesus. why" she an
iwered, Il never commenced to love
he Saviour. feel that | have always
owed him."
But there is another way Of grating.
There is the sprOuting grating. BY
his process whole limbs will be cut off
md new limbs from other trees will be
placed into the fork shaped crotches.
f necessary nothing need be left but
he trunk Of the old tree. This was
he way Christ's life was ingrafted
nto Paul's. This was the way Baxter
md Bunyan and Jerry McAuley and
Harry Monroe and the seven-deviled
dary of ancient and modern times
AVE been converted. Whole branches
f sin, which have been growing for
many years upon these sinful trunks,
ave been cut off. Gnarled and worm
aten and disease producing branches,
which have only produced poisonous