Milford chronicle., 1904-11-11
NInn Dies as the Lenf.

But, after all, most leaves do not die
sudden death. They live on through
the spring. They live on through the
summer. They live until the cold Of
| oncoming winter makes dormant the
wonderful forces which give life to the
tree. They die as gradually as the
summer days slip into the fall days;
as gradually as the ebblng tide, each
wave of which is little lower down
the beach than the preceding wave; as
gradually as the twilight slowly grows
DINNER; as gradually as the echoes in
the mountain ravine become softer and
softer. Man dies as the leaf, gradual
ly. 1t is sickness after sickness. 1t
is fewer walks, less work, less physical
energy. 1t is a gradual benumbment
of the mental and physical faculties.
You know you are not as strong as
you used to be. What is the matter?
We are all fading away as the leaf, as
the autumnal leaf.
But this autumn day, as the leaves
are everywhere falling from the trees
know God has a purpose in their
death as well as in their life. One rea-
son why God every fall strips the trees
Of their leaves is that the next year
the forests may be robed with another
covering Of green. And one reason
why God makes one generation Of hui
man beings pass away from earth is
that another generation may be born
and live and have the opportunity to
do the work which is necessary for
them to do and then pass on to the
eternal life beyond the grave, as past
generations have done and as we must
do
Did you ever stop to consider from
an earthly standpoint the blessings Of
death as well as the blessings of life?
Every year in order to make the fruit
trees and vineyards bear well the
farmer with his pruning hook has to
20 among them and ruthlessly destroy
hundreds of buds in order that the
other buds may have enough nourish-
ment to grow and do their work. In
order that the human race may be
strong and physically well God has to
keep his pruning hook busy or else
this Old earth would soon be over
populated. and there would not be
room for man to live by the side of
man. 80 great are the possibilities
Of growth" said the old sage, Benja-
min Franklin. that the productiveness
Of the vegetable and animal life is in
conceivable and almost without limit
BY the Malthusian doctrine we learn
that if death did not destroy one gen
GRAFTON almost as soon as it was born
tie world would soon be an impossible
place FOR human residence. BY that
Malthusiln doctrine if there was no
death the human race would double
itself every twenty-five years. In the
United Stntes there are today over
70.000,O00 people. In twenty-five years
from now there would be 140.0O0OOO.
In fifty years from now there would
be 2S0.O0O,OOO people. In seventy-five
years from now there would he $780,
100000 and in a hundred years 1920
100000 people. Thus the race would
keep on doubling and redOubling until
at last man as a cannibal might be
NAAtN III ~ ANIA AloAA man. Ao AAC EeAANlf
with all its productiveness. would be
incapable ultimately Of supporting
such multitudes.
Span of Life Is Short.
The span of human life on earth is
very short. yet like that Of the leaf
God does not permit mans life. short
as it is, to end until his work has been
fully accomplished. The Bible tells
us that mans earthly days are as
grass. as the flower of the field, 80 he
fourisheth. For the wind passeth over
it and it is gone and the place thereof
shall know it no more" But, though
the life Of the grass or the leaf may be
short as that of an insect, yet its life is
absolutely vital to bis country. Once
destroy the vegetation of a land and
you turn that land into a Sahara.
Leaves suck in the moisture. They are