Growing New Wood

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 7, 1907

ONE of our exchanges has this beautiful thought, and it is worth passing along: “One day when Longfellow was well along in years, his head as white as snow, an ardent admirer asked him how it was that he was able to keep so vigorous and write so beautifully. Pointing to a blossoming apple-tree near by, the poet replied: ‘That apple-tree is very old, but I never saw prettier blossoms upon it than those which it now bears. The tree grows a little new wood each year, and I suppose it is out of that new wood that those blossoms come. Like the old apple-tree, I try to grow a little new wood each year.’ And what Longfellow did we all ought to do. We can not stop the flight of time; we can not head off the one event that happeneth to all; but we can keep on ‘growing new wood,’ and in that way keep on blossoming until the end.”