But the greatest care could not preserve the trees. Some of
them have been struck down by lightning, some broken by enormous loads
of snow, and others torn to fragments by tempests. Some have even been
cut down with axes like any common tree. But better care is now taken of
them; so that we may hope that the grove will live and increase."
"But why weren't they saved," asked Clara, "when people thought so much
of them?"
"It seems to be a part of the general desolation of the land of God's
chosen but rebellious people. In the third chapter of the prophet
Isaiah, verses eleven and twelve, it is said, 'For the day of the Lord
of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every
one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low; and upon all the
cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of
Bashan.' The same prophet says, in the tenth chapter and nineteenth
verse, 'And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a
child may write them.' These words have been particularly applied to the
stately cedars of Lebanon, for 'the once magnificent grove is but a
speck on the mountain-side. Many persons have taken it in the distance
for a wood of fir trees, but on approaching nearer and taking a closer
view the cedars resume somewhat of their ancient majesty. The space they
cover is not more than half a mile, but, once amidst them, the beautiful
fan-like branches overhead, the exquisite green of the younger trees and
the colossal size of the older ones fill the mind with interest and
admiration.
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