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AUTUMN MUSINGS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 18, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 50, No. 16.

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AUTUMN MUSINGS.

By Nellie F. Heald

October’s rich and varied hues of crimson, green, and gold, robe hill, and vale, and forest, in superb autumnal beauty; and mark the “final triumph of the perfect year.” Well may our hearts soar upward in adoring gratitude to Him who holds within his hand the penciling sun, with which he paints the rural landscape and its autumn foliage in such varied and pleasing colors.
“But while gay autumn gilds the fruit and leaf, And doth her fairest garments wear, Lo! Time, all noiseless, in his mighty sheaf Binds up the year.”
The seal of the recording angel will soon be affixed to the record of the present year. As we come to its last quarter, the inquiry arises, What shall be the character of its closing report? We have no power over that which is past, even to change a single item in its completed record; but the unwritten page of the future is subject to our own dictation. As the clay is plastic in the hands of the sculptor, so is our future capable of being molded in our hands. As “sculptors of life,” it remains for us to determine whether we carve our future characters into moral beauty or deformity.
The fading glories of this autumn scene remind us, that the “fashion of this world passeth away.” The law of change is impressed on every varying form of nature whose hidden agencies are ever at work, producing new forms and combinations. If we rest, nature is still active; and the world in which we wake, is not the same as the world in which we slept. In all this activity we recognize God’s presence. The fragile flowers that strew the wayside path, the products of his care and skill, soon perish. Their delicate beauty fades, and swift decay is sent through every vein; yet they are not lost, for from this waste new life shall spring. So friends, around whom our affections twine, and who, like the leaves of autumn, fade, and are buried in earth’s cold bosom, shall at the Archangel’s voice arise to new, immortal life. But, while “passing away” is written on all that our eyes behold, we have the joyful assurance that “he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
As autumn is nature’s grand harvest season, when the ripe, luscious fruit that has been gathering richness and sweetness of flavor amid summer’s sun and showers, is collected by careful hands, and toiling reapers thrust in their sharp sickles to the fields of yellow grain, all ready for the harvest, and gather it into the garner of the husbandman, so, at the appointed time, in life’s grand harvest, will precious souls that have ripened for God’s kingdom of glory beneath the sun and showers of divine grace, be gathered by angel-reapers into the garner of the Lord.
Oh, blissful hour! when angelic messengers who have ministered to the heirs of salvation during their earthly pilgrimage, shall, with joyful alacrity, gather their precious charge, and bear them on angel pinions to the presence of Him who hath bought them with his blood. Who would not wish to be counted among that happy throng? God, in his rich mercy, has provided a way, though not such as is gratifying to the natural heart; for it is not a way of ease and self-pleasing, but a sacrifice of both, for the sake of One who made himself a sacrifice for us. Who will follow in his footsteps, and choose to lose this present life, for the sake of eternal gain? Who will refuse to make the needed sacrifice, and, clinging to the transient treasures of this brief existence, meet with eternal loss?
While God’s message of love and truth, of merciful warning and threatened judgment, is speeding onward, rising in power and influence, moving the hearts and consciences of the people as never before, shall we remain idle and indifferent? In the present success of the cause of truth, have we not fresh incentives to inspire us with hope and courage in the tract and missionary work, while we trust under the shadow of His wings who hath said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” shall the work be accomplished?
God’s blessing has been richly bestowed upon his tried servants, in which all who have sought him with full purpose of heart have shared. Is it not a time to rejoice in the Lord, while we seek to bring every thought and purpose into unison with his righteous will? The “Captain of the Lord’s hosts” is leading his people; and by faith in his divine power, and obedience to his word of command, they shall overcome the hosts of the enemy. The great work of purifying the heart, and developing a character that will endure the final test, will be carried forward till the Church of Christ shall “look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” May none of us be excluded from that shining host that shall ascribe blessing and honor and glory unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever.
NELLIE F. HEALD.