I walked one day within a forest old,
And learned a lesson there among the trees.
The autumn days had passed, and winter’s cold
And bitter breath was felt in every breeze.
The sky, so bleak and cloudy, gave no sign
That e’er again the sun in glorious rays
Would break the sullen canopy, and shine
In mellow softness as in other days.

Forlorn, the leafless trees their branches tossed
Like bony arms of ghosts in shadows dim­—
All stripped and naked now, for they had lost
All signs of life save that which flowed within;
The wind sighed low and moaned whene’er it passed,
As only it can do in branches bare;
And now and then some sifting snow it cast­—
A token of old winter’s chilly air.

Then, here and there, I noticed hanging still
A few stray leaves, dry, dead, and faded gray,
As if they feign would yet their office fill
Of decking out the trees in garments gay.
It seemed that anywhere I turned, I found
The stately trees in every way bereft
Of coverings rich, in which they did abound;
And saw on all the cruel hand of death.

Howe’er, in spite the very sight of death,
I knew that life was coursing in each tree;
And though perhaps no sign of life were left,
Still there was growth and progress constantly.
How clearly then I saw that in each life
God, too, must strip us many, many times;
And on the natural life of man indite
A sentence too of death in all its lines.

The old creation life must pass away,
Of good or evil, whatsoe’er it be.
No garb of natural talent dares to stay—
The old life, doomed, must pass without a plea
And we must stand as helpless and forlorn
As did the leafless tree so scarred and bleak;
For we are helpless as a babe just born,
And need the new creation life to seek.

So let us not discouraged be, but pray
The life of Christ, our living Head, to flow
In streams of strength through us in every way­
Our life to lose, and only His to know.
And let us not forget, that all the time
The leafless trees no sign of life could show,
That still, unseen, the hand of One divine
Was working there, and causing them to grow.