Children, can you look upon such scenes as these, and not feel that they were intended by God to teach you many important truths? Does not the barren field remind you of that soul from which the light of God’s countenance has been withdrawn? The gathered harvest of that great harvest of mankind which shall take place at the judgment day? Does not the oak teach you, if you wish to encounter the trials and tempests of the world, that you must lay aside everything, however small it may seem, which will enable those trying tempests better to uproot your faith and cast you headlong into destruction? May you, like it, the more violent the storm, the deeper penetrate the roots of your trust into the soil Christ Jesus.
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not—I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never—no, never—no, never forsake.”
When we look upon the fading leaf and the withering flower, may we feel that “We all do fade as a leaf,” and that “All flesh is grass, and the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” How frequently do we see it the case, that those whom we consider friends, when the sun of prosperity shines brightly upon us, cannot be drawn away; but, like the leaves of the forest, as soon as the pinching frosts of adversity begin to wither our hopes and blast our cherished expectations, they can nowhere be found, but have left us to struggle against difficulties, when we most needed their advice and counsel. Let us not, then, put too much trust in an arm of flesh, but always rely upon God, who will never desert us or leave us to the mercy of our enemies. As the leaf falleth to the ground, and moulders into dust, so does the body of man; but his spirit returneth to God who gave it, and shall spend an eternity amid the joys of Heaven or the woes of Hell.
THE VOICE OF AUTUMN.
There comes, from yonder height,
A soft repining sound,