THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 149 



even he has always sufficiently relied upon the mercy 

 and faithfulness of a God, who is pledged by promise, 

 by covenant and by oath, **to make all things work 

 together for his good ;" and he may feel humbled by 

 the reflection, that in seasons of difficulty and tempta- 

 tion he has but too feebly felt the force of that decla- 

 ration, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 

 Yet although the return of the present season may serve 

 to reprove these doubtings of a mind compassed with 

 infirmity, and to call forth with more fervour that de- 

 vout supplication of the disciples of old, "Lord in- 

 crease our faith ;" still, upon the whole, it affords to 

 the sincere Christian matter of consolation, rather than 

 of reproof. To him it is the type and pledge of that 

 glorious day, when those *' who have been redeemed 

 from the earth" shall be safely gathered into the final 

 granary of their Father and their God. And there are 

 many things in the earthly Harvest Home, which seem 

 to point to the heavenly Harvest Home in which he 

 hopes to share. For, 



1st. In what a soil have these fruits, which the farmer 

 beholds with so much pride r,nd joy, been long grow- 

 ing ; and who could naturally have supposed that from 

 "the filth and offscouring of all things," a crop of 

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