Seethe leaves around us falling,Dry and wither’d to the ground;Thus to thoughtless mortals calling,In a sad and solemn sound.On the tree of life eternal,O let all our hopes be laid;This alone, for ever vernal,Bears a leaf that shall not fade.
Seethe leaves around us falling,Dry and wither’d to the ground;Thus to thoughtless mortals calling,In a sad and solemn sound.On the tree of life eternal,O let all our hopes be laid;This alone, for ever vernal,Bears a leaf that shall not fade.
Seethe leaves around us falling,Dry and wither’d to the ground;Thus to thoughtless mortals calling,In a sad and solemn sound.
Seethe leaves around us falling,
Dry and wither’d to the ground;
Thus to thoughtless mortals calling,
In a sad and solemn sound.
On the tree of life eternal,O let all our hopes be laid;This alone, for ever vernal,Bears a leaf that shall not fade.
On the tree of life eternal,
O let all our hopes be laid;
This alone, for ever vernal,
Bears a leaf that shall not fade.
Horne.
Tome, no season of the year brings with it so many solemn and instructive reflections as Autumn. When I look around me and see everything looking so barren and desolate, I cannot help feeling sad. The fields which a few months since looked so gay and beautiful, with their flower-dressed meadows and waving grain, are now parched and dead. The busy scythe of the reaper has laid many a proud stalk level with the ground, and the frugal husbandman has gathered his abundant harvest into his garner, or left it carefully stacked in the field to breast the storms of the approaching Winter. The variegated blossoms of the apple-tree have matured, ripened,and fallen to the ground. The garden which, a short time since, sent forth such delightful fragrance, now lies barren and bare. The leaves have fallen one by one from the sturdy oak, and left it in its lonely barrenness to battle with the piercing winds and howling tempests of the winter king. I have sat by my window and seen the green leaf of Summer first fade into a pale amber color, grow darker and darker by degrees, till it finally turned to a beautiful russet, and then flutter to the ground. When I first noticed the tree, it was covered with a heavy foliage. In a few days it became thinner and thinner; in a few more days a few leaves lingered on its topmost boughs, and at last they, too, fell to the ground, and left it perfectly solitary.
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 enablethose 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 notdesert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I’ll never—no,never—no,never forsake.”
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not—I will notdesert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I’ll never—no,never—no,never forsake.”
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not—I will notdesert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I’ll never—no,never—no,never forsake.”
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not—I will notdesert 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 fallethto 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.