Show i i 1 IT Rev P FA A Simpkin Answers Mes Message A i j AUTUMN 11 U I U LY N ings sage age of of Eternal the Falling Spring leaf With Tid Tidings I J At Phillips Congregational church Sun Sunday Sunday Sunday day Rev Bev P A Simpkin preached a sermon appropriate to the autumn season Coming at a time when political dissen dissensions slon had stirred and vexed the community ity IW for lor weeks the th message came as sooth soothIng soothIng Ing draught to a tL i fevered patient The congregation congre was deeply Impressed the verdict being that the sermon was one ot of the tIie best of ot Mr lr Simpkins efforts Speaking from the text We Ve all do fade 1 as a leaf Is 18 61 64 C Rev Mr Simpkin said In the of the autumn glory we are drifting out of another year of life lire The patter of the leaves as they Ute rain through the mellow and golden sunlight Is I the musical accompaniment of every ever hour Resting on the dIg grasses of the lawn I and field fl ld whirling In the eddies of or the winds trodden In the dust to whose en enrichment they give their fragile fra lIe tissue they hold a message for life The naming flamIng beauty of the hillside clumps the Ivy i burning with the last crimson energy of i Its It clinging ng life lire on wall wail and rock and ad a d fence the golden or the brown garment I 1 of oC this tree or that shimmering In the haze of ot these long ous afternoons t i is ls but the transformation scene that pre presages pret t sages ages e the winters winter falling tailing curtain the ther r touch of ot death It Is but the setting for tor forthe I j the message ringing through all nil the change of ot the years speaking the lading fading j of all aU lifer singing the song of ot yesterday 1 and tomorrow which Is pricked In a score J f where hope balances bal regret and mem memory memI I ory 01 has Its note of triumph that dims the I minor chord dissolution speaks The word of oC tho the prophet of Israel may be a truism but It Is one we cannot af at afford arfOrd atfOrd ford to forget torget We all do fade tade as a leaf lear leafF Fall lo F ll ii not as men and women endowed with wih wisdom and tho power of oC reason renson to learn lear this lesson of ot nature as ns it i is spoken so eloquently In the metamorphosis of the autumn nU fading The poet well wel calls calla this period one of or melancholy And yet et It I is not ro no wise to count count that a disadvantage e That hat melancholy Is soothing and gentle gente and one can an but think that In the divine order the th heart of man Is to be finely touched to fine tin Issues by Its ith It Influence J ts a season seMon whose lesson is apt to tea toa teab h hu hui u ui how hown Ih iti tho pres pr t of or life lre we WP disquiet I o f hearts In vain over the vain things things SNot Not for i despair or for tor narrow view but for lifes abiding values should we dwell upon tho the death de lesson For as a one re remembers members that hat the end comes come for tor us and andas andas andas as Gray Gr says ss so well The he boast of heraldry the pomp of power And alt all that beauty beut all al that wealth eer gave Await Awalt alike alke the inevitable hour The paths of or glory glor lead but to the grave The Te fact tact should sober us at t least enough to point our souls to the achievement The he fact that we are to pass pas Is in It Itself Itself Itself self only an incident as a a natural as a birth It I Is 15 not the passing It I is I what lies les be behind behind behind hind us and what lies les before us beyond the veil veI If It as the autumn shades and In Influences Influences touch your hearts hear In tha silent forest and the whitened fields over which the birds are winging to answer the mys mystic mystic tic tc call caI of the te warm lands of the far south and the mists mist and haze hae soften the ardor of the sunlight If It mid the enchanted te scenes you ou hear only the call cl of Azrael the stiller of hearts hear you OU arc deaf for In Inthe Inthe inthe the word of ot revealing there Is that which tells teIs of yesterday and tomorrow Think for a space of yesterday yester a Put Pt back again on the dancing twigs and swaying branches the beauty of spring springtime springtime time and on the sear landscape the ver verdant verdant er dant robe of the June field Hear again from the treetop at daybreak the liquid beauty of oC the robins song pulsing puling through your chamber window making your heart dance Hance with wih the marvelous music of the worlds words renaissance In returning summer Turn Tur the of or memory again to that spring evening with Its Is Ineffably sweet appeal its It sense sens of a universe of throbbing lre life eger cage to flower fower And nd riot rot rotIn In beauty CatCh again agin the first frt green of oC the spring the odor of Q f the first frt wild wildflower wid wildflower flower fower of or this dead lead summer the perfume perfumer nt ot r the withered rosen rosea the gorgeous pageantry pageantry of or God robed in the splendor of color clor col r and gl ry r n Iid d build again your summer For as In one ono with withered withered ered er rose roe one faded dried bunch of vio 10 violets yb lets a womans heart hear and memory recon reconstructs reconstruct reconstructs th that lie le dead memorY under the spell of misunderstanding or the thc blow of faithlessness and people a ghastly desert with wih lire life le over or It I with wih beauty In the light of or that the heart once shared so 5 we may in the th dry dr url uri of the dead leaf leat In the tn tiny hollow bollow of its brown cup find the beauty and sweetness that wa was and may maybe my maybe be forever in the of human hearts hert Yes Over against the treasure of the the unspent that that youth has Is the thO treasure of the spent which Is In life and memory For memory Is greater than anticipation as deed Is titan than dream And the yester yesterday yesterday day dl a that of the waned wane summer sumer Is his hi who has lived lve Wit really lived The trou trouble t ble his Is that so many go through summer ummer as goes I the mot rt by the most mat exquisite landscapes hidden bidden In a cloud of ot his own dust For the te reverent observant soul every overy bush h sh is aflame with God And whether you OUm A ilI or no the sum summer summer summer mer abides either a ribbon of charming sweetness stretched over weeks of at delight delightsome delightsome some beauty buty or a blur of ot dust dust rising from lifes chariot charlot as you u have walked Ies with God or driven like a a Jehu In Inthe Inthe inthe wih the quest for Cor things whose passion Is heedless heedles of all al save it own fever for pos possession possession possession p session Ah and so all nl lifes yesterday Is ig ours The most pathetic plaints plaint of middle life lre are those which voice olce the plaint of the te lost years yeam ear No Xo need Is I there for any an life lre to sing Backward oh backward bac ward turn tur time in your Our flight And make mae me a child again just for to tonight to tonight tonight night night As all the tender green of the spring the full al beauty of ot the summers gloss and d the tul richness or 0 the th suns and the frosts s perfecting Is in the dry dr lea leaf that rustles s against your cheek as a a it I tails falls so is I all al of or our yesterday in today toda It I Js s not only so In what we are but It Is so In what is writ in In book In the great gret hall hail hallof of or the soul soul There are those who boast that the child things are all al outgrown For F r them Its It dream m and d fancy fanc are gohe gone forever and the cherubs He lie le broken in i the dust that once arched arche the gate ate of ot heaven Do you ou remember yesterday In the morning when you played PlaYe in childhood In Innocence innocence and andrla The Th noontide when school play pla and friend and book book and the UnfoldIng unfold unfolding ing lag experience of the world wold gripped you The maying and the nutting days the little feasts and gifts that made mado It so abidingly reat dear Yes You YOI have hae It all l Do you you bare hare your soul For as you have all the sweets sweet of yesterday so 5 you have haveIs al Its Is bitters biters As your our body bod is scarred and seamed and wrinkled so is your our soul soul Yes Recall Recal it all al for Its It fruitage is in you of good goo or evil evil And If I you ou must go goy gob goby b by y rooms which you pass pa with averted race face spots that th t have memories to blanch or to crimson your yo r cheeks so O on n back to the sunny yesterday of your our childhOod and live lve again with the dear little ghosts of what you OU were then for go far as a you will wl through the world ord beside God you shall find no company com pan so sweet and re rewarding rewarding warding no Influence so sanctifying as that hat of your own springtime self for the gate of Jour heaven Is in your our childhood and you must build agan the door of innocence Inn ence ere el er you ou pass to the ho place of or hearts hed 8 desire wh te it Is I always summer because the heart beart will wi bo be the tle we heart of or childhood E And In inthe the fading of the leaf lear I would wod woi d dhave have you ou see tomorrow Tomorrow The e egy gray gy skies and the tho the the black k frost frt and the thE dead world the long long l ng winter That is the thing back of the dead leaf The winter storm that shall shaH whip and break the branches brances the cold that shall kill kl the tender sprouts sprout of the late summer he sky void of birdsong and the dried grass hung hang with wih the artistry of the frost Even so Out of or the te chamber hamber of the south shall shaH creep the miracle of God The winter wilt will vl pass pas and tho the time of or singing of or birds will wi come The snowbank and the bound brook shall have a bridal day and sing the te mad song of or resurrection as they hasten to the chiming sea se that swallows swallows swallows lows the secret of ot the seasons In his depths The arch of or the sky shall ring with the songs song of oC the birds that went on the long quest and ad will wl return return Life Lie In InIs its Is full ful tide shall flow fow again over the face of or earth and all al the winters death and the storms destruction shall be covered with the green gren beauty of ot renewal For not only Is yesterday in the dead leaf but tomorrow Is ther there That which lived and charmed shall feed fee the life that makes tha th charm of the years to be God is the economist Law Lw is the utilitarian Nature Is the Jealous spendthrift who wh has ha the alchemy which hleb can gather every even bit of color every eer line lne of or gold every gem of living Hying beauty that makes m kes the seasons glory and In fn the procession of the te age repeat herself with a garment ever new Aye dead leaf l thou boldest hold st tomorrow In thyself And the sighing heart that thal has lived and sinned and failed Caled as it takes the curling leafage of its It soul into Int the room where are the wintering shadows of the lh time wishes for the power of tomorrow Does your our heart hear sing sins with the sad pessimism of But mans chilling winter Is 15 and nd dim For no second springtime eer dawns upon him The gloom of Its Is coming time dissipates never His Hi son when departed departe is vanished for forever forever forever ever Men that is a He lie All Au 1 that the leaf leat speaks speak of tomorrow Is spoken for tor your hearts There Is no field Cel so black with wih frost no tree so stripped of its It leafage leafage no soul so wrapped In the deep sleep of selfs selfs winter Inter that it I may ma not know the sweetness of n ft spring that shall answer all al the beauty baut of that which lay In the yesterday Far ar across the bleak bleal landscapes of life lre there walks one who has power to re renew renew renew new to give gle you ou your our yesterday tera again ani to bring the miracle mirce of to tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow morrow Into the now For down the era ho he has been ben taking men out of Winter Into spring out of or deadness into life He who is the Resurrection ton and the Life Lire makes resurrection In life wherever the doors don are arc opened for his coming The Tue to th the message of oZ the fad fading fadIng lag ing Ing leaf the fhe he fading life the tho fading Cading age ago the fading world worl the tho th dying universe of things Is the r nf nt him whO Is the eternal springtime He IJ who Is the sun sun tle of rf f righteousness rises to shine upon dead lives i and make the springtime perpetual And for Cor you YOI who have h e lost your yester ster day daJ and have haw not entered your tomorrow tomoo who have lost your May 1 and have naught but bleak December know this It need not always be winter you 01 need not nee wail longer loner for the lost yesterday for Cor as ns Val life lifes lre IS s opened to him who woul us the life abundant every winter shall change to spring and ad all al lifes R childhood Inno limo Innocence Innocence cence dud ami n dream m be b aUs In the grow lag ing form fOt of oC an eternal e unfolding sow of ot beauty balty Will WI you Ol let l t him com to the tho dead ex cx expanse pase of your our experience with the re renewing renewing breath of his life He alone can give gh you ou back Y ur yesterday p It can only be le ru possessed po essed of you 01 i In the tho stainless I en beauty of oC your childhood Otherwise It I possesses you ou In the bondage of fading And as ns the pitiful winter of the thinks things that destroy has ha upon your thing lives Ues and the springs have chilled to stillness that once rippled with living music as the tha sunny fields that once were sweet with asphodel He lie le bleak and cheerless and all al the songbirds so of your soul have ha winged their way wa to leave leao you voiceless of the eternal music that only Innocence and faith fat hear bear and pure lips Ups can sing know this this that he can give again agin your your yesterday instinct with ge all al its It vanished beauty for he Is the life And tomorrow Yes he can give you tomorrow for Cpr Ye to tomorrow to tomorrow morrow Is spring sunlight happiness love lore In the land of ot desire the place of summer And this ht h lays before you ou will 1 put within you ou the certitude the te sweetness the te pow r of abiding and in Its It grip gIp your life lre may swing sing In the autumn life me of of earth to the fading but In the dying the sunlight the music the perfume of yes shall all al be stored store to be b b again ye in tomorrow touched with wit a life Ufe unfading a spirit of ot divineness s that shall make the I paradise of an unchanging today |