As I see these historic trees bowing and bending in the cold and cutting breeze, I am naturally reminded of a thought beautifully expressed by the “sweet singer of Israel” where he says: “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth on the tops of the mountain; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of that city shall flourish like grass.” We are told also that “the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree and grow like a Cedar of Lebanon.” I wonder why and how it is that the righteous can grow like a Cedar in Lebanon. Upon examination I find that these Cedars grow on a mountain top; that they grow out of a rock; that they are rooted in barrenness. I find that every crack and crevice in the rock is filled with their roots and fibres. The roots of the trees shoot themselves deep down through the rended rocks and take a firm hold upon the eternal hills. And when earthquakes come and the mountains reel and totter on their bases; when cyclones come with death and destruction locked up in their wings; when the storms howl and the sea is lashed into rage and fury,—the Cedars of Lebanon do then bow and bend gracefully in the breezes; but they are uprooted never. They say, “Let the winds be shrill, Let the waves roll high, We fear not wind or wave.” And when the earthquakes have ceased and the mountains no longer reel; when the cyclones have passed; when the sea is lulled to sleep and the winds are only a whisper, then the Cedars of Lebanon lift themselves up in their pillared majesty, spread wide their broad arms and look up smilingly in the face of God as if to say: “We thank thee, O Lord God Almighty, for the firm footing that thou hast given us in the eternal rocks—in the everlasting hills.” I thank thee, O God, that the righteous grow like the Cedars of Lebanon. I bless thee that the righteous grow on a mountain top—on mount Calvary; that they grow out of a rock—Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages. Wherever the nails have torn His hands and His feet, where the cruel spear has pierced His side, these are the cracks and crevices where the roots and fibres of my heart can so fix and fasten themselves that when earthquakes social and cyclones moral shall come, I will be uprooted never. I may bow and bend with the breezes, but when the earthquakes have passed and the storms are no more; when the waves of infidelity have passed, as always passed they have and always pass they must, then I will look up smilingly in the face of Jehovah and say: “I thank thee, O God, that none of these things move me; that I can say with Paul of old, ‘I am rooted and grounded in Christ;’ that I stand now and forever unmoved and immovable, like the Cedars!”