ADRIFT ON THE SEA OF LIFE.
By Louis Albert Banks
[Dr. Louis Albert Banks in The Sunday School Times.] A tree adrift in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is a rare sight reported by Captain Freeman of the British steamer Sidra, which recently arrived in port, according to the Baltimore American, from a voyage in the Mediterranean. It was early morning, when in 35° 19' North and 38° 22' West, that an unusual-looking object was seen floating ahead of the steamer. Those on the ship’s bridge made out the trunk and limbs of a tree about twenty feet long, canted to one side, and the roots sticking out of the water. The body of the tree had been bleached white by the sun, and it was covered with barnacles. It evidently reached the sea by being washed down some Atlantic Coast river in a freshet. Many months ago a tree with green foliage, standing upright, was seen off Cape Henry, and the captain of the Sidra has no doubt that the bleached and spoiled tree he saw was the same, after having drifted about on the ocean many thousands of miles. There are many men and women like that tree. They live lives without purpose. They do not choose their course, and then with persistent effort and divine help set sail for it. Men who have made great success of life are men who, like Moses and Joshua, have the wisdom to choose their course, and then follow it to the end.