THE seasons as they come and go bear with them lessons for our faith. The old trees, rent and torn by many storms and tempests, put forth their spring leaves as brightly and freshly as the saplings springing up far down beneath their branches. The wear and tear of years, the broken twigs and rotten boughs, the countless dead leaves at the old trees’ feet, in no way affect the tenderness of their young shoots, nor the sweetness of their flowers. The freshness of life and the grace of spring are perhaps more marked in the old tree than in the sapling.
This life in old age, this renewal of beauty, is a voice to the Christian who has long known his Lord. The circumstances of life, its storm and trial, must not hinder the outcome of these graces, which in younger believers are so pleasant, and which once, it may be, were attractive in himself. Neither must the sense of inward weakness mar the putting forth of the New Life’s vigor. It is of no avail mourning over the dead leaves of past years—nay, let us forget the things which are behind that savor not of Christ: instead may the present love of Christ flow up every avenue of the soul, like the new year’s sap rising to the topmost branches and farthermost boughs.
“Rooted in Him—established in the faith,” the Divine Life in the believer causes the tenderness and grace of Christ to manifest themselves in young and old, as the spring season calls forth freshness and clothes the forest with resurrection beauty.
H. F. W.