The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-27

speak an exultant life to the open ear,
he had grown calmer and stronger.
Old forces walked within him. Hope
once more unfurled her wings and
found medium through which to
take her homing flight back to his
childhoods God.
The wonderful calm of the nights,
the sweetness of the mornings and
evenings, the restfulness of the noon
time,-these things entered into his
soul and gave rare promise of health
for the struggling spirit.
1t was late in the day when his
tramping led him to the great tree and
the water beside it. He threw himself
down within the trees shadow and
rested.
His imagination, long a victim to
tact with those who had forgotten the
existence of so wonderful a faculty,
had begun to stir during these days
of communion with Nature.
AS he lay there listening to the soft
lap and gurgle of the water, he
gentle signing of the breeze through
the leaves overhead, the tWitter of
birds, his imagination leaped forth and
with unwonted vigor Jared back
through the fountains history and
learned therefrOm a lesson of beauty,
of trust, for hihSelf: Use me, oh!
use me. Gods plan for me is service
to others. Drink. drink"
He threw his arms outward, up
ward, and touched with tender rever-
ence the SCARED trunk of the tree
Thus many man. many a wiman,
scared to the Utmost heart by the
sorrows of life, still hold brave front
and like the tree, become to other suf-
ferers as the shadow of a great rock
in weary land. Yea, it is only the
man whose soul has been through tri-
bulation's fire who can enter into wide
and loving sympathy with humanity.
AS he looked up into the magnit-
cent greenneSS of the tree. the green
ness which gave rest to the eye, the
GOODNESS which soothed the tired
nerves, he felt throb of loving pity
for his kind. Pity for the young whose
troubles lay in the far future; pity for
the old whose years were counted by
the bereavements that marked the
way as the milestones of a journey;
pity for the mature who had not yet
learned that in. service to others lay
the great secret of healing.
The traveller took broad leaf from
the poplar and fashioned a cup there
with as he had done in boyhood days.
From this cup he drank of the spark
ling water, and with the spiritual
strength of one born anew, he went
his way casting back toward the tree
a look of loving gratitude.
Often in the after time, when the
hum of the great city was in his ears;
when the cry of the poor, the neglect
ed, the unloved rich, the stricken of
every age and condition, would strike
into his souls hearing. there would
come to him this vision of mountain
beauty and wildness,-the music IF
living water and the shadowing rest
fulneSS of great tree whose
heart had been SCARED by the flames
but whose mighty arms still out
stretched as if longing to give rest TO
the overburdened soothing to those
who had borne the heat of the day
Then men and women began to turn
to him. They came to him for COM
fort when in sorrow, for strength
when in weakness, for richness of
sympathy when in sorest need. And
in giving these things his own nature
was enlarged and strengthened and
ennobled, while up on the noun
tain side the great tree still spreads
its green branches and the waters of
the fountain go singing on ever muir
muring: use me, use me. l am for
thy service. Drink, drink"