THE MINISTRY OF TREES 



the old home was strongest in him, remem- 

 bered first the trees. He said, 



Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen bliihen? 



Though the nature lovers' cult had no 

 place amongst the old Hebrews, their poets 

 and prophets could find no better images 

 than the trees with which to dress their 

 most vivid revelations o£ things eternal and 

 divine. The sinless Paradise was a garden 

 full of trees; and in its center the knowl- 

 edge of good and evil grew upon the tree 

 of life. The psalmist said that the 

 righteous shall flourish "like the palm-tree." 

 The cedars on Mount Lebanon will be re- 

 membered by thousands of generations yet 

 to come. 



A single tree is beautiful in itself. Next 

 to the human form the most beautiful unit in 

 nature is a tree. The symmetry of the per- 

 fect elm or pine or palm satisfies the eye like 

 the symmetry of a Greek temple. There is 

 something more in the tree, though, than 

 in any piece of statuary or architecture. 

 There is life. And the symmetry of life 

 is always more beautiful than that of any 

 dead or inert thing. 



A tree is beautiful, too, for texture and 



35 



