LIKE A TREE 15 



But again! A man is like a tree; the tree is 

 like a man, in that each of them is immortal. 



How easy it is to kill a tree, yet how hard it 

 is to kill a tree ! You may see in some of our 

 great groves a "chimney tree," and you learn 

 that as the tree grew great, the inner growths 

 of the tree became dry ; by and by came along 

 some careless hunter, who dropped a spark, 

 kindled a fire under the tree and it found its way 

 into the interior, smouldered slowly, slowly, may- 

 be for months, until at last when a limb was 

 broken off the flame bursts out and the trunk 

 became a great, roaring furnace, a veritable chim- 

 ney, but the tree still grows strong and vigorous. 

 Why? Because the tree does not live on the in- 

 side, but on the outside. 



The real, vital thing about a tree is not the life 

 of a hundred years ago, but the life of last year 

 and the year before that. You can burn out that 

 which grew centuries ago, but if you will kill 

 the tree, you must take your axe and cut all 

 around and girdle it until you have cut through 

 all the fresh growth of the last year; then your 

 tree is doomed. 



Do you not see the meaning of the parable? 

 The vital question of a man's life I am speak- 

 ing, of course, of his spiritual life the real life is, 

 not how much or how deeply a man has lived in 

 some far-back time. The question is, how live 

 and vital was he yesterday and is he today! 



