The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1903-12-03
Gorge p. Morris pleaded with elo-
ir'.t verse, but when the human being
.it.id he cannot even lift himself into

,'id he cannot even lift himself into
! cC.an which may have been made
| Iu the tree trunk which his own
'is hewed down. He cannot even
.-.s.@ ont TO his own grave, but has to
Ic carried there like a helpless log be-
n: dragged TO the dam. One second
after the pulse has ceased TO beat he
cannot raise his little fiager one inch
| or .Hngc one word in his last will and
.cSGmrnt any more than fallen tree
:rGNa. Z ii had the power of thought,
could lift itself and stand upon the
ragged stump which the buried roots
are still anchoring in the ground and
live its life over again. Choice may be
given to the living man-choice to live
right or wrong; choice to reach after
the higher or the lower life-but the
time will come when man, like the
tree, which may live many centuries
beyond the age of man. shall fall.
What has been done by him is done
and never can be changed. What has
been left undone by him will be left
undOne and will never. never he done
by him as long ms eternity lasts. n
fallen log symbolizcs it.
The fallen tree is dead tree, which
nearly always falls in the direction it
has grown. | say nearly, because there
are exceptions, which. though rare. do
occur. Once in II great while a tree
does not fall in the direction in which
il has grown. But these exceptions are
very rare. They are rs exceptional as
the man who has always lived bad
life and at the last moment is convert
ed by dcathbed repentance and who is
thereby able to fall, when the clock is
striking ~, into the outstrctchcd arms
of loving Christ. Most trees indeed.
II might he said practically all trees
when they die fall in the direction in
which they have grown. About the
trees trunk and above the trees
branches and underneath the trees
roots are the great ever influencing
laws Of specific gravity. If Il tree leans
a little to the right. II almost invari-
ably falls to the right; If to the left. it
falls to the left.
When a man comes to die, rs rule,
the only thing he can do is To die.
When the messenger comes. he has not
any inclination to think about any
thing else but dying. If the fatal dis
ease gnaws at the vitals for many
months and perhaps years. the doctors
and nurses and loved ones conceal the
truth from the patient for fear Of de-
pressing him. Or death comes like a
stroke Of lightning out Of clear sky
1t comes, rs it did to my father, one
ing tour, the next upon deathbed and
unable to speak Il word.
Death often comes suddenly-as a
thief, as watch in the night a man
dies us a tree falls. He dies as he has
lived. Among all the Bible records
there is but one exception TO this rule.
The pages of the Bible contain only
one account of n deathbed repentance.
The fallen tree is dead tree, the in
fiuence of whose past life never dies.
lIttS nave luty
are mighty factors in the planets daily
life. In the celebration of Arbor day
by the schools and educational institu-
tions it would be appropriate, although
it is not especially enjoincd by statute,
TO couple with study of trees lessons
on our birds and the great Importance
Of their protection. The young people
cannot have too great an appreciation
of nature or too keen u sense of the re-
lation between hnr many beauties and
utilities. Atmospheric changes are
more or less influenced 10y trees.
DroughtS ana frvShrtS are often caused
by the lack of trees. Many countries
of the far east have been absolutely
ruined by the ruthless destruction Of
the forests. From an inhabitable coun-
try they have been changed into great
wastes of arid deserts So the influence
of a human life. like that of a tree,
never dies. Its good or evil lives on
and on. long after the human tree has
fallen.
Earthly demise would not be appall-
Ing if when a man died the bad he did
while upon the earth should die with
him. But the trouble is that the bad
lives ON as well as the good. The Won
derful book of Eugene Sue called The
Wandering Jew is founded upon a
well known Roman legend. 1t runs
that when Christ had been condemned
in Pilates judgment hall the Jewish
doOrkeeper struck at him and cried:
Move on, man. Move on faster. Why
dost thou linger? Move on. With
that the condemned Christ turned and
said, II will go, but thou shalt remain
until come" And so, says the legend,
the brutal Jewish doorkeeper wanders
up and down the world, begging God
for death, but lie cannot die. He can
not die. Though that is only a legend,
it is a solemn truth that every good
word we have spoken or evil deed we
have done lives on after we are dead.
II lives on in the lives Of others with
whom we come in contact. We live
on in the good we have done. Then we