Autumn by J. Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 30, 1866

Autumn.

By J. Clarke

AUTUMN is here. The withered, faded leaf, the dull, cloudy sky, and the sullen winds, all speak out in their peculiar way that winter is near.

Already the winds are ominous, and recklessly do they toss the falling leaves. Fitfully the gusts come and go. Now the air is still and calm, and again it is stirred by the passing breeze; and the winds seem to rest a moment, preparing for greater strife.

The rich harvests, lend to Autumn a charm; and its varied sombre hues and tints, its few splendid days, cast over it a halo of excellence and glory; and as the lengthening shadows in their beautiful melancholy way, tell us night is at hand, so do the fading leaves, and stormy winds, and cloudy skies of autumn, tell us of coming winter.

The lengthening shadows speak a language understood by all. So do the winds of autumn. And its falling leaves speak to us in language intelligible, and distinct, reminding us not of the lapse of the day, or the year only, but of the brevity of life.

Life has its calm and quiet afternoon, when pressing upon its threescore years and ten; or it may be called its autumn; and happy is he who is then laden with the precious fruits of a well-spent life.

So the world has its autumn; and as political tempests arise, stirring up the passions of men, we compare them with the winds of autumn; and as we think of the sublime exhibition of the falling meteors in 1833, we are forcibly reminded of the falling leaves of the autumnal season; and the coming desolation of the earth, is its cold bleak winter, its dark dismal night.

J. Clarke.