16 LIKE A TREE 



When I was in college there was an old colored 

 man, janitor of one of the school buildings, and 

 good old Silas would give his testimony once a 

 year, telling us, with great unction, how long 

 ago, when he was a young fellow in his 'teens, he 

 got caught one night and in the woods, by a 

 great thunder storm. So terrified, and not know- 

 ing what to do, he climbed up into a big tree, and 

 then God so scared him that he vowed he would 

 be a good man all the rest of his life ! And he 

 was a good man let me bear my testimony to 

 that. But apparently the only guarantee, the only 

 certainty of it was that he remembered that awful 

 experience in the midnight darkness in a big tree. 

 I recall Mr. Moody 's story to us college boys 

 about the man with a tree experience, who came 

 to him and said, "Mr. Moody, I know I am a 

 Christian man; I was soundly converted years 

 ago." Mr. Moody said, "How do you know 

 you were soundly converted?" He said, "I will 

 take you back over the mountains to such a place, 

 and we will go about three miles on the south 

 road and then turn off into a lane, and go a mile 

 and a half down the lane, and then turn off at a 

 certain barn, and go about a hundred yards, until 

 we come to a chestnut tree ; on the northeast side 

 of that tree there is an oak stake. Right there, 

 thirty years ago, I was converted, and drove that 

 stake into the ground to mark the spot." "Sup- 



