AUTUMN LEAVES
Isaiah 64:6. And we all do fade as a leaf.
Men have ever been ready to associate the seasons of the year with the periods of human life: to compare our youth with the spring time, &c. We all know we are rapidly passing away, &c. Everything tells us that we are under a law of change and uncertainty, and decay and death; and my object will be to justify and account for this state of things, and to see what reliefs and supports the Gospel gives. Consider—
I. THE ORIGIN OF THIS STATE OF THINGS in the history of our fallen humanity. This was not the primitive condition of the race, but was superinduced and brought about by the entrance of sin. Man was not originally designed to perish like a leaf, &c.
II. THE DESIGN OF IT. For wise reasons God has placed us in a world of change, and under a law of uncertainty. Partly as a scene of discipline and spiritual education, and partly as a preventative against the outbreak of much depravity, which would be sure to arise from a state of changeless prosperity, in our sinful natures. We could not be trusted with unbroken happiness; and it would not be safe for us to be without the benefits which the changes of life produce. The law is universal: “We all,” &c. Who has not lost a friend, &c.
III. THE MERCY OF THE APPOINTMENT. It is well that we do fade as a leaf, that we are often subject to gradual changes, as preparatory to the last great one. We might have been cut down like a tree, suddenly, without preparation, &c. The leaf as gradually fades, as it was gradually matured. God bears with much longsuffering. We ought to bless God for time and space for repentance, &c.
IV. THE IMMEDIATE CLAIMS OF GOD AND TRUTH upon you before the leaf fades from the tree.
1. Think much of the shortness and brevity of life.
2. Seek grace that you may know the day of your visitation, before life, like a withered leaf, drops from the tree, or is shaken down by the storm. “That life is long that answers life’s great end.” It is impossible if salvation be lost to repair by a second opportunity the loss of the first.—Samuel Thodey.
I. Though “we all do fade as a leaf,” we do not perish as a leaf. II. We are not forgotten as a leaf. III. The Gospel cheers us in this fading condition. IV. The ripening of the soul may be going on in the midst of the fading.—Studies for the Pulpit, p. 107.
I. Man is unclean.
1. His nature is unclean. In its source, flow, fruits.
2. His righteousness is as filthy rags, mixed, defective, insufficient. II. Man is frail (see p. 420). Like a leaf he fades. By a natural law. Gradually, &c. III. Man is perishing. Like a leaf he decays. Rapid decay. Short lived existence. Certain fall. Dissolution.
Our iniquities, &c. I. Have torn us from God, as the leaf from the parent tree. II. Have destroyed our moral strength and beauty. III. Have overcome all our power of resistance. IV. Have plunged us into ruin and misery. V. Will if unchecked by the grace of God sweep us into eternal ruin.—J. Lyth, D.D.