WHY IT FELL by J. R. Miller, D.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 24, 1900

WHY IT FELL.

By J. R. Miller, D.D.

A MAJESTIC tree fell in its prime—fell on a calm evening when there was scarcely a breath of air stirring. It had withstood a century of storms, and now was broken off by a zephyr. The secret was disclosed in its falling. A boy's hatchet had been stuck into it when it was a tender sapling. The wound had been grown over and hidden away, but it had never healed.

There at the heart of the tree it stayed, a spot of decay, ever eating a little farther and deeper into the trunk, until at last the tree was rotted through, and it fell of its own weight when it seemed to be at its best.

So do many lives fall when they seem to be at their strongest, because some sin or fault of youth has left its wounding and its consequent weakness at the heart. For many years it is hidden, and life goes on in strength. At last, however, its sad work is done, and at his prime the man falls.—J. R. Miller, D.D.