valleys covered with corn. In other words, our minds, which once were barren as the wilderness, now rejoice with abundant truths conjoined with goodness. Our affections are purified by, the love of the Lord, and innocence takes up its delightful and peaceful abode in our souls; and, with cheerfulness of understanding and gladness of affection, we break forth into the song of gratitude, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."
December Twenty-second.
THE SEASONS.—WINTER.
"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.
WINTER corresponds with a state of coldness and apathy, in which there may be no want of intelligence, light, or truth, but in which there appears little inclination to put forth the energies of the will in doing—a state analogous to that of the winter's sun, which shines, but does not warm; or equivalent to that described by the prophet (Jer. viii. 20), "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved;"—a state of which our Lord speaks when he advises us to "pray that our flight be not in the winter."
If summer represents, by the fervour of its heat and light, the state in which truth and goodness are in union, winter, as its opposite, must represent the direct contrary—a state in which there is no love to the Lord, and consequently, no charity to the neighbour. To depart in a state like this, to take our flight to the
