Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-11-30

quent verse. but when the human being
Is dead he cannot even lift himself into
the coffin which may have been made
from the tree trunk which his own
hands hewed down. He cannot even
walk out to his own grave. but has to
be carried there like helpless log be-
ing dragged to the dam. One second
after the pulse has ceased 10 beat he
cannot raise his little finger one inch
or change one word in his last will and
testament any more than a fallen tree
trunk. if it 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
Then there will be no power of choice.
What has been done by him is done
and never can be changed. What has
been left undOne 10y him will be left
undone and will never, never be done
by him as long as eternity lasts. A
fallen log symboliZes it.
The fallen tree is a 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 a great while a tree
Il g. IN, ;oI,
il has grown. \ city merchant. loving
natures widest haunts, might 90 into
the woods to build there a little cottage.
The site is selected near the bank of Il
running stream. When the foundations
are laid the architect finds that an old
tree is leaning dangerously toward the
rising walls. The merchant would like
to have the virgin beauty of the trees
untouched. but fearing lest the tree
might fall upon his future home and
/ injure some one, he gives orders to the
workmen to cut the tree down. The
ropes are tightly twisted about the
| branches and tied to other trees grow
ing in an opposite direction from the
house. The sharp AK begins to bury
| its head into the wood. The workmen
| pull. With mighty groan the old for
est monster falls where it never SEEM
| ed likely to go. Or tornado sweeping
up the valley might push the tree over
| in q direction toward which it had
never leaned. But these exceptions are
very rare. They are as exceptional as
| the man who has always lived q bad
| life and at the last moment is convert
j ed by deathbed repentance and who is
/ thereby able to fall. when the clock is
J striking -. into the Outstretched arms
| of loving Christ. Most trees-indeed.
] it might be 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 tree leans
little to the right. it almost invari-
ably falls to the right; if to the left it
falls to the left.
Swiftness of Death.
When a man comes to die. as a 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 a clear sky.
1t comes. as it did to my father. one
moment clear Drained and on preach
ing tour. the next upon a deathbed and
unable to speak a word. 1t comes. as il
came to Robert G.. Ingersoll. a diZzi.
ness, a fainting fit, and he is gone. II
comes by an accident, as it came to that
young man on the night he was attend
ing religious meeting. The minister
urged and entreated him to make q de
cision for Christ, but he refused. "Yor
must make up your mind one way OF
the other" Then answered the
young man, eff | must. | refuse Christ
for tonight" That night on his way
home, while riding on horseback. his
brains were dashed out by an over
hanging bough.
Death often comes suddenly-as {
thief. as a watch in the night. A mar
dies as a tree falls. He dies as he ha:
lived. Among all the Bible records
there is but one exception to this rule
The pages of the Bible contain onl.
one account Of a deathbed repentance
"Oh," said a young man in my Pitts
burg church, Il am so sorry you salt
there are no deathbed repentances.
NO" answered an elder. "he neve
said that He said that though yol
might want to repent upon your death
bed in all probability you will have n,
time to repent You will have onl,
time TO die. You might repent if vol
would. but you will not Death
bed repentances are as exceptiona
among the human race as it is for
tree in the forest untouched by human
hand TO fall in a different direction