December Twenty-first.
THE SEASONS.—SUMMER AND AUTUMN.
"While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."—Gen. viii. 22.
THE state of summer in our spiritual existence, is representative of that period when the love of the Lord bears the supreme rule, when each degree of truth manifests itself by putting forth the degrees of goodness, charity, and love, best adapted to shew forth its purity and perfection. The good is not fully matured, but it exists in union with the truth; the fruit is not fully ripe, but it gives promise of ultimately supplying the soul with all that is nourishing and heavenly; and of so multiplying in production as to furnish secd for the sower, as well as bread for the eater.
The state represented by autumn, introduces all the plants of piety, charity, and holiness, in their fulness; poverty of spirit; meekness, and lowly-mindedness; an ardent desire for everything good and true; a keen appetite of the spirit for love and wisdom; a kind, loving, merciful, and forgiving disposition; a settled confidence and trust in all the Divine dispensations; purity of heart, and peacefulness of soul,—indicative of the kingdom of Christ, even of God, being established within; a state in which every thought and affection is hallowed and consecrated to the Lord; a state in which the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills, rejoice on every side; a state in which the pastures are clothed with flocks, and the
