If I have a certain sum of money, I can calculate what
necessities it will meet, and how far it will go; but it will go
only so far; beyond that is exhaustion. But if I have a bed of
strawberries in my garden, after it has borne the crop of the
season, and there is no more to be got from it, I can weed and
cultivate and fertilize it, and next year it will bear again.
And tho the whole bed shows exhaustion, I can set its runners
in new rows and nurture them into new life, tho the old plants
are only fit to be dug under; and I can renew the life of my bed
and after a season it will be as young and fresh and fertile as
ever. I have completely renewed its life. So I can renew the
life of a note, or lease, or partnership. So bodily strength,
tho exhausted every day, is renewed every night; and even if
impaired by disease, it may be recovered. There is nothing
necessarily hopeless in the exhaustion of anything that has
life in it; but all living things need renewal.--FRANKLIN
NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”
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