MOMENT-BY-MOMENT POWER.
By Cornelia Snow
Look at this beautiful tree. How stable it appears, as if it had strength in itself to withstand the storm; yet, like the fig tree which Jesus cursed, if God's power were withdrawn it would go back to its elements, and be no more a tree. We are apt to entertain the idea that God set the tree growing, but now it can grow and live itself. The evolutionist says, "The First Great Cause may have started the atoms into being; but now they develop themselves, according to circumstances and surroundings." This is a mistake. We see a strong Christian, and say, "What a good man! How firm in the Christian life!" Or, "What a beautiful character; she is almost perfect. O that I were only as good!" As in the case of the tree, one, in looking at the result, many lose sight of the continuous upholding power of God. It is the evolutionary idea over again—the creation before the Creator. As the fig tree withered away when the moment-by-moment power was withdrawn, so the man's life would go back to its natural elements, if the divine life was intercepted. He does not stand an instant by acquired strength. God upholds "all things by the word of His power." When a thing has to be upheld, it can not stand of itself. This word gives the original elements of the wood the form of a living tree. There is nothing in the elements themselves to work out such a result. They are only dust and ashes, and the atoms of one tree are as powerless as those of another; but in this one the life may have freer course. We need not look upon one person as better by nature than another; the original element, selfishness, is the same, only manifested in different forms. God takes these unpromising elements, and works a miracle in the man as well as in the tree. It is hard to believe that the tree has no power or life in itself, because it has the appearance of strength; and it is difficult to understand that the man has no power in himself, because there is the appearance of stability. The moment-by-moment power alone holds the elements in proper relation to each other, and supplies a continuous flow of life. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." Cornelia Snow. Cliff Island, Me., Feb. 17, 1902.