“How typical is this little illustration of the Savior whose resurrection we celebrate today.  While He was on the earth, the beauty of his life brightened everyone, and all that time He knew that He must give up his life that we might live.

“How typical also of our lives may this Easter lily be.  What seems more lifeless than the bulb of a lily?  Plant it, bury it, and lo! it is resurrected into a thing of wondrous beauty.  That which seemed like its tomb has proven to be the gateway into true life.  Thus our faith gives us the blessed assurance, with Paul, that ’if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.’”

THE WOUNDED TREE
    —­Steadfastness
    —­Constancy

It Tells the Story of Courage and Patience that Approaches the
Sublime.

THE LESSON—­That steadfastness in the right not only keeps the life upright but it restores the repentant one to righteousness.

Each one of us needs the quality called steadfastness—­not the obstinacy which denies us the right to judge fairly every condition about us, not the bigotry which prevents us from a charitable consideration of the views of other people—­but the steady adherence to positive Christian principles which keep us constant in our faith and unwavering in our hold on heavenly virtues.

The Talk.

“Today, we are going to talk about steadfastness.  And what does it mean to be steadfast?  It means that with God’s love to protect us against every temptation, we shall never willingly do anything to grieve Him.  A life ruled by this power may grow to be so truly in harmony with the spirit of the Master that even though the waves of trouble dash wildly against it, it will continue to stand firmly, because it knows that ’Jehovah will give grace and glory and no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.’

“We shall turn to Nature for our object lesson today.  We might select the mighty oak, ‘the king of the trees,’ to represent the stalwart Christian life which not only withstands the storms, but which, as it strives against the winds, sends its mighty roots ever deeper into the earth; and we might choose as the type of the weak and sinful life the bay tree which does not send its roots deep into the earth and which is in danger of being torn away by every passing storm.  But we shall look not at these but at two other trees which are described by Julia Ellen Rogers in her beautiful book, ‘Among the Trees.’  Says this author, ’There is something almost sublime in the patience and courage of plants!’ Doesn’t that sound strange?  The idea of claiming that plants are courageous and patient!  But the writer goes on to prove her words.  One tree of which she writes was thrown prostrate upon the ground, crushed down by another tree which fell upon it.  There it lay, with some of its roots torn loose from the earth and drying in