p. 170 | THE LEAF SHALL FADE

The Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · November 27, 1879

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 54, No. 22

“THE LEAF SHALL FADE.”

AND what is a leaf? I am no botanist to tell you scientifically, but the poetry of common life expressively calls leaves the lungs of plants. And, indeed, I believe they carry on not merely respiration, but digestion. They are, then, the powers which appropriate first, and assimilate next, the health-inspiring qualities around them. They represent the powers which appropriate the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the work of the Spirit, and all the redemptive mercy of our God. How needful, then, to keep a watch over anything that could hurt or harm the prayer-power, or the praise-power, or the word-power of the soul! Deem anything an enemy that comes between you and your God; for as the fading begins with the leaf,—begins with the receptive powers,—you see in a moment that the plant or the person in whom these are weakened will be starved for want of fresh air—starved for want of grace.

For though the decay begins with the leaf, it does not end with it. It begins with the leaf, but it affects the life. If I am not taking air to inflate the lungs, the whole frame feels it; and if I am not taking in afresh the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, all that I do, all that I am, will be sure to languish and get weak. There is not a part of my frame, not a bit of my conduct, not a trait of my character, but will be, must be, affected thereby. O my friends, take care! Do take care about the organs you breathe with, about the air you breathe; and take care, too, that you surround yourselves with an atmosphere of truth, and with an atmosphere of spirituality. Take care of the books you read, the company you keep, and of everything that could vitiate the air of the soul; for if the leaf shall fade, be sure the life will feel it.—Evangelical Magazine.