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Show 101 01 "IHE MniH LLJSF" Sunday being the national day designated desig-nated as the day to bo observed as a two-fold rally day, In which both Sunday Sun-day school and church should rally to a new spirit of Blblo study, tho day was observed In a fitting manner by the First Presbyterian church. The auditorium was lavishly decorated deco-rated with autumn loaves and fall flowors, and at 12M5 the school gave a short program, in which the primary and intermediate departments participated partici-pated with much credit The evening sermon was upon "Tho Autumn Leaf," ja which Rev. Carver said In part: It is in one of the most earnest and heart-seachlug chapters in the Bible that Isaiah says "We all do fade as a leaf." Isaiah g no superficial student of nature. His figures of speech have a deep and Underlying basis of fact and meaning. He Is not one who either has a low estimate of lifo or one who uses wordB without a senso of their meaning. He believed thnt a life should be full of meaning, purposo and rich in result tbat would abide. Let us then study the best toachings sclonco can give us aoout the leaf and itsfadiug, and sec If wo can find strength In It for our life today. In the first place, we arc told that wo owo more to the common leaf in naturo than to any other one earthly agency, because of Its two-fold service ser-vice as a transforming and purifying agency. As a transforming agent it does tho largest and most wonderful chemical work of which we know, for it alone transforms inorganic matter into organic matter through life Thus it gives us the starting point of all life. Every other agency consumes and tears down life, the leaf alone builds II It is thus our one link between be-tween lifo and death. Our earth's surface sur-face was once lifeless as tho moon, and the one power that has changed it from a lifeless desort Into teeming life Is the agency of the leaf in some of its countless forms and stages. During Dur-ing long cycles the leaf has been slowly, with the nld of the sunbeams, developing life matter until whatever "we llnd now upon the earth's surface that Is unburnt, wood, coal, animal or vegetable tissue, we owo to the quiet work of the leaf. Nor is that all. Nature Na-ture stilt enlarges the leaf's field of labor, for all other forces In life arc silently destroying and reducing to dust and ashos, decav and corruption that which the leaf builds up. Over all this decayed and burnt realm of Inorganic In-organic matter the labors of the leaf is spreading with all the beauty of the flower and foliage, all tho richness rich-ness of fruit and harvest, all tho strength of timber, a llfe-glvlng and , life-strpngthonlng world. And the leaf not onl feeds, but purifies the world as well. In ages agone, when the globe was surrounded with dense carbonic acid gas, so that animal life could not live, then the great rank forests of palm, pine and fern grew, nbsorblng the gas, and In death storing stor-ing the earth with coal, and today that purifying procoss is In a lesser degree continued Wo owo our life-giving pure air today to tho work of the leaf, as It steadily builds what Is death to us Into life and strength There Is a theory advanced by some that the leaves are constantly absorbing elec-trlo elec-trlo power from the air and freeing It from surcharged power "Wo do know that we owo our rain and flow of tho streams to tho leaf agency, for they give back Into tho air the molBture of tho earth. A leafleBs realm has as much to do with a ralnloBS one aB a rainless aroa has with a leafless one. Why does tho leaf color and fall In the autumn? Not primarily because be-cause of frost for In sunny climates they also fall. They fall Just exactly as ripened fruit falls. Their work Is done, they aro maturod, and nature cuts them off. Their work is done WUeil tuej V) uii-aua UJ LU DUU OUU chlorophyll agencies have stored the parent stem with sugar matter and the parent thus stored, the tiny veins are more and moro clogged until thoy themselves are filled or ripened with It, then their mission is fulfilled and they like maturod fruit fall. Na- ! ture aids fruit and leaf allko to fall. I At tho base of the stem a row of cells ' circles the stem and In their growth ' completely severs the leaf from tho , twig, thus it 1h that they fall silently on a quiet day. Of course there are two other agencies which offtimes aid, the froBt, and as with the oak, where tho cutting cells grow slowly the now leaf oftltnes pushes them off In tho spring, Have you ever noted how the first new bud tints foretell tho autumn colore? The spring buds usually have the colors of autumn foliage If you look well. It is a beautiful thought that each plant at some time during the summer gives back each of the colors of the sun from which It receives re-ceives life. Tho yellow grOen, blue, or-ango or-ango and clear white, show In buds, bark, leaf, blossoms or fruit, wo are told In each plant. It is Indeed an apt figure of the true life then that it fades as a leaf. Aftor a life of life giving strength bestow-Ing bestow-Ing fruit, nourishment, community purifying toll. Aftor a life which reflects re-flects tho graces of the Son of Rlght-pouRneBB, Rlght-pouRneBB, Christ Jesus, from whom It draws lifo and strength; aftor a lifo which In Its reliance and faith in Christ shows at its close tho faith of the child, and by his blood looks to the child's innocenco, its work well done, It returns again to the life from which it sprang leaving a world better and rlchor, purer for its having lived. Tho leaf as matter returns to earth. Our lift, coming1 from and bom oi God returns unto him. ! For many, there in a tlngo of sadness sad-ness in tho fall; tho dying leavos speak of death and wintor. To mo It Is fitting that no season Bhould Bhow such wealth of color as the season which spoalts of lifo well BpenL And In human life no day bo filled with the thought of praiso as the day when at the cIobo of lifo well spent, be that life lontr or brief, wo turu to meet our God and at his just hand receive our reward. |