STORMY WINDS

Stormy wind fulfilling his word ((Psalm 148:8)

Did you ever go into the woods late in the afternoon on a day of howling wind and driving rain; and did you ever see a drearier spectacle, or hear drearier sounds? The sough of the winds through the almost bare branches, the drip, drip of the rain upon the masses of withered leaves, the air filled with flying leaves fluttering down in the gloom of the forest as into a grave, the delicate colors of trunk and moss all changed and stained and blended by the soaking of the rain; how hard to believe that such dreariness is related in any way to the beauty of a summer forest!

And yet we know that it is that very wind which is rocking the trees and howling so dismally-just that steaming rain and those rotting leaves which will help to clothe the forest trees next year with verdure, and to make the woods sing with joy and pulsate with life. All winds and weather are favorable to the sturdy, well- routed tree; even the hurricane which strips it of its leaves and branches, quickens all its vital powers, challenging it to put forth greater strength.

If the tree is cut down in part, the result is a sturdier trunk and a more compact and symmetrical growth. Even if it is toppled over by a storm, its acorns are scattered and become the seeds of the forest. In its ruin it goes back to the soil from which spring other trees.

So you are better and purer and stronger today because of the tears and the sighing of the desolation. You know, and the world knows, that your life is richer, better poised, more trustful, less selfish, more detached from the things of sense-that the whole atmosphere is somehow purer and more vitalizing.

“Stormy wind fulfilling his word,” and the soul that hears in their tumult the rustling of Almighty Wings praises God for the storm-the storm that swings free from enervating ease; the flood that casts upon the Eternal Rock.

Storms make a strong tree-

Sufferings make a strong saint!

Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Springs in the Valley, page 191