The Tree and the Post

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 29, 1875

The Tree and the Post.

If an oak a hundred years old, or any giant tree is cut down, in the place where it stood there is a visible vacancy—a vacancy that is felt. For many years, as you look at the place, you miss it. The branches of the neighboring trees do not fill the empty space, it is as if they shrunk from occupying the place where the mighty neighbor once stood. There are hollows even in the ground—depressions which show how massive were its roots, and how far they extended. But if you draw out of the ground a wooden post, you soon forget where it stood. The surface of the ground is not disturbed, the landscape is not changed. There is no vacancy. No eye misses anything.

Art thou, dear reader, a cedar, planted in the house of the Lord, spreading all around thee on every side a grateful and cooling shade? Art thou a palm tree, bringing forth blossoms and rich fruit, so that all pronounce blessings upon thee? Art thou so useful, that, if thou wert taken away, it would seem impossible to fill the place? Or art thou only a dry post—a thing without leaf, or sap, or fruit—which might at any time be taken away, and no one would ask, "What is gone there?"

Blessed be God, that there is One who can guide the streams of life even into the dry post, so that it shall be covered with blossoms.—Sel.