The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-10

natural for persons In any kind of dis
tress to resort to them. In this, all
such resemble the sheltering Saviour.
who was thronged by people with
every imaginable need of spirit, mind
and body.
into the woods my Master went
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master. came
Forspent with love and shame. ga
But the olives were not blind to Him,
The little gray leaves were kind to
Him,
The thorn tree had a mind to Him,
When into the woods He came.
Out of the woods my Master went
And He was we'll content.
Out of the woods my Master came
Content with death and shame.
When Death and Shame would WOO
Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him
last,
Twas on a tree they slew Him last.
Sidney Lanfer.
r.
Trees are toughened by tempests.
The tree that has stood out in the
open, where it has had to wrestle with
every wind that blows, makes the best
timber, for strength and fibre, and for
ability to take on the highest polish.
And the life that has been buffeted
by the storm and stress of outward cir
cumstances is the one which has
learned the secrets of strength and
beauty.
A forest has a beauty all it's own.
Whose eye has not dwelt in delight
upon the beauteous green's of a. distant
woodland, with all the delicate tintS
and shades that make it Gods fairest
bouquet? There is a restfulness, a
substantialness, a constancy about a
mass of tree foliage, outlined against
the blue sky, which even a mountain
does not possess. There is not the
brilliance of the flowers about the
trees; but in their quieter beauty they
typify the lives of commonplace peo-
pie, who lack the more conspicuous
excellencies. but who, in storm and
shine, are always the same.
Spurgeon has said something to the
effect that when God wants a mush-a
room he makes 1t over night; but
when he wants an oak tree, he takes
years to the task. The same is par
able of character. A great character.
one that will last and be shelter and
shade for decades, and finally be built
into the lives of others. is not to be
achieved in a twinkling. Sun and rain.
shadow and frost, wind and earth, all
must contribute their part through
the unhasting years to make the heart
of oak.
The way a tree lives in the wood is
by ever reaching up to where the free
sunlight shines. No matter how cir
cumstances throng and crowd and re-
press; the free spirit may rise above
them all and find life in the smile of
God.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civil good.
His blessing on the neighborhood
Who IN the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our
land;
A nations growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants tree.
The Century.
Out of my window as write stands
a tall, symmetrical and beautiful pop
lar. at the top of hill and outlined
against the sky. That poplar is a
close friend: I have sympathetically
watched its growth for years. Not al
ways was 1t thus. Half a dozen years
ago a cruel ice-storm tore and gashed
marred, its fair proportions complete
ly destroyed. But my tree was wiser
than some human friends. Instead of
dropping in the directions of its
wounds. 1t straightway bent all It's
energies toward covering these hid
eous scars. Now. 10, the years have
wrought the wonder. The scars are
hidden. The old form could, OF course,
never be regained, but new and
more beautiful shapeIiness has result
ed. Today. the tall, aspiring, beautiful
tree is not only a shade to my neigh
boris home, but a delight TO the eye of
every one who observes IL.