The North Wind | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 5, 1872

The North Wind.

THE north wind, in angry, discontented mood, one morning entered a flower garden, disposed to quarrel with all he saw. Irritable at perceiving that peace and harmony reigned there, he asked, “Are there never contentions among you?”

And all the flowers raised their heads in wonder, saying, “How could we quarrel? We are flowers of one garden.”

“Still,” continued the north wind, “There must be cause for disputes; do not the lofty flowers conceal the lowly from the passers’ admiration? Are not those who are surrounded with leaves, or whose color and scent are indifferent, overlooked?”

“This has often been,” replied the flowers; “yet why should we quarrel; are we not all of one garden?”

The wind, vexed at their simplicity, betook himself to a wood, where he asked the trees, “Are there never contentions among you?”

All their branches quivered with astonishment, as they replied, in one voice, “Nay, verily, are we not trees of one wood?”

“What does that matter?” cried the wind, angrily, “you might find many reasons for quarrelling; such as—”

“But we look not for them, nor on them,” interrupted the trees, “and so we dwell in peace.”

“I will ask the birds,” thought the wind, as he entered a lovely little grove where the birds were building their nests and singing their morning song of praise; and they replied in chorus, “Is there strife amidst our labors? Is there discord in our song? Are we not birds of one grove?”

So the wind was uneasy, and said to himself, “Are all at peace except me?” Then passing by an ivy-covered church, he saw a little group of villagers issue from it, and thought, “Oh! would that the human race could understand my language, that I might ask if they ever dispute.”

And if the wind could have made his thought known to that little band, would this have been the reply? “We are all children of one Father; members of one church; travelers in one wilderness; heirs of one home; why should we contend? Are we not all children of one Father?”