Cypress Trees

^’Sovie talk, but do nothing; like cypress trees, tall and beautiful, but unfruitful; or, like the carbuncle, afar off seeming all on fire, but the touch discovers it to be key -cold: their zeal is more 17t their tongues than their actions” These are a numerous race, and never more so than at this time. Persecution is an unhealthy season for false professors, who prefer to flourish in the piping times of peace, when godliness is gain, and it pays to get Christ to-day and sell him to-morrow. The cypress tree is an excellent emblem of the more prominent specimens of this class. They are conspicuous, and aim to be so: rising above their fellows, they invite attention; but when you turn your eyes towards them you cannot discover even a tiny apple upon them, or any other useful fruit. Certainly they are shapely and stately, and when you have said that you have said all. They look most at home near the grave and a melancholy air surrounds them, but still they are not half as valuable as the more lowly fruit-bearers which flourish unobserved with a cheerful verdure. Certain professors whom we know are prim, stiff, orderly, and melancholy, but we are not fond of their neighbourhood; for they yield no refreshing shade or nourishing fruit, and make us feel doleful to the last degree.

Lord, let me be as low and unnoticed as thou pleasest, but do enable me to bear fruit, to the honour of thy name and to the comfort of thy people.