AGE OF EXOGENS. 179 
when the fury of the adversary is “as a storm 
against a wall,” far from hurling us to the 
earth again, it is the very means by which our 
strength comes to us, and is increased continually 
in us. But be it also ever ours to remember 
that ‘we bear not the root, but the root us;” 
and that the root which bears us, is none other 
than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; for, 
severed from Him, we are, and can do, nothing. 
It appears probable that there is really no 
fixed limit to the age of a tree formed on the 
Exogenous plan, where the youngest part is out- 
side; for with every year, it continues te become 
strengthened with new and young material so 
as to counterbalance the decay which goes on 
in its interior. Notwithstanding this source and 
cause of perpetual youth, the events and acci- 
dents of rolling years write upon the stoutest of 
the vegetable children of the earth, “‘ Thou, too, 
art mortal.” The change which influences every 
earthly object affects the tree likewise; and as 
we shall see in our concluding chapter, the period 
of its death, sooner or later, certainly arrives. 
In the trees which are youngest in their 
centre,—that is, the new additions to which are 
