Philemon 1:9 Yet for love's sake I rather beseech you, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. One winter morning, as the Wind set out on his day's work, he found the trees loaded with ice. Every tiny twig was bending under an armour many times its weight. The little white lady birches had drooped until their heads touched the ground. A great groan to be delivered went up from all the trees. "This will never do!" cried the Wind; and straightway he went to work with all his might. The branches of the giant elms swung and creaked. The brown, curled leaves still clinging to the oaks were snatched away and went whirling through the air. There was a great rustling in all the wood. But the ice did not move. Still harder the wind blew. And now whole branches came crashing down, until they lay thick on the ground in their glittering winding sheets. But still the ice did not move. At last the Spirit of the Woods came forth, frowning. "Do you call this helping?" cried she. "You are ruining my trees. To get rid of the ice, forsooth, you are breaking off the boughs. Get you gone!" The Wind retired to his cave, and was melancholy all day. He had had a sincere desire to do good, but now he saw that he had only done harm. He shuddered as he thought of the wrecks he had made in his untempered zeal. "What is the use of nay trying to do anything?" he sighed. Many an eager soul has known such hours, when it had thought to add its note of praise to the great chorus, and has only succeeded in making a discord. The next morning the Sun knocked at the door of the cave, and cried, in genial tones, "Come on, friend! I want your help. The trees must be rid of their load. I will shine on them, and then do you gently wave their branches and shake off the loosened ice." They went forth together, and the Sun shone on the forest. An hour passed. The only visible result was here and there a drop of water from the icy boughs. "We shall never get through at this rate!" panted the Wind. "Gently, friend, gently! All in good time!" replied the Sun. "The ice was a day and a night in forming. Could you hope to get rid of it by one fierce gust? When I get higher in the sky, I can strike the trees more directly with my beams." After another hour of silent shining, the Sun whispered, "Now, friend, with your wings! But not too violently. See, now, some pieces are falling. Two or three hours of work like this, and our task is done. There is another piece loose." So the Sun shone on, and the wind from time to time shook down the loosened pieces of ice, and what did not rattle down dissolved in fast-flowing tears under the gentle yet burning eye of the Sun. The birches gradually lifted their pliant forms. The Spirit of the Woods came out with her blessing for the two workers. And that night the Wind returned to his cave humbled but joyous, because he had found the "more excellent way." Parallel Verses KJV: Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. |
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