THE AUTUMN CROCUS. 



197 



of these natural things, according to the Divine Sacra- 

 mental law by which spiritual blessings and their 

 influences on the heart are best enjoyed in the presence 

 of their material representatives, shares in the perpetual 

 youth of nature. It will have a perennial well of glad- 

 ness springing up in it an artesian well gladdening the 

 desert of old age, whose waters come from the far-off 

 hills of childhood ; and under the snows that have 

 whitened the mountain-tops of life, there will be pre- 

 served many a bright nook, green with all the spring 

 freshness of thought and feeling. 



But it is in the sphere of the soul that the autumn 

 crocus blooms most beautifully. The rejuvenescence 

 of the mental faculties, the renewal of the intellect, 

 belongs only to the exceptionally great and gifted. It is 

 only men of rare faculty and genius who become young 

 again in their minds ; whose intellectual life acts more 

 vitally and intensely when decay has touched all their 

 physical life. But the rejuvenescence of the soul, the 

 renewal of the spiritual life, may be the experience of all. 

 This youthful victoriousness the inward man being 

 renewed more and more while the outward man is 

 decaying is the glory of every true Christian's old age. 

 Only the fire that comes down from Heaven can preserve 

 the youth of the spirit amid all the changes and sorrows 

 of life. Religion really lived keeps the heart always 

 young, always tender. Its truths belong to a world 

 which knows no change, no succession of time ; and 

 therefore the soul that cherishes them, and is moulded 

 by their power, partakes of their unchanging freshness. 



