Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1843-10-20

The following are the closing paragraphs Of the
Address Of the Rev. Mr.. Sargent OF Boston, before
the Massachusetts, Horticultural Society, at its late
annual exhibition:
"The harvest is passing, the summer is
ended, and we are not saved !" Are we
trying to be saved? Are we trying to ma
ture within ourselves "the peaceable fruits
of righteousness" by prayerful self disci-
plne, communion with God, the study OF
scripture, and the practice Of the Savours
life? Are we trying to ripen for the ac-
count we all must render, working out with
fear and trembling our own acceptance p
| appeal to all who have sensible hearts or
improveable powers. put the question to
those of every class or age whom it so deep
ly concerns.
CHILDREN hear me We who are now in
the morning'of life Yours is indeed the
spring-time, and | ask you, are you now
sowing in your souls the seeds Of virtue and
of useful truth? Do you even suffer the
seeds which others SOW to remain, or are
you pulling them up and planting only
weeds in their places Remember ! when
the summer comes we cannot so well do the
work of spring Remember, too, the wise
precept of holy writ, "In the morning SOW
thy seed"
And you, teachers Ye whose privilege
it is in the more secular academy, or in the
Sunday-school, to prune and cultivate and
watch over the vineyard Of youthful intel
lects-are you diHgenb faithful, piouS, per-
seUering in your labors? Do the tendrils
begin to shootl Are the buds bursting into
flowers! Do you see any germs of fruit
DO you care to see any!
Young men young women ! yours,
mine, is the Summer of life Are we out
in the full sunshine! Are our spirits ex-
banded with meridian bloom? Have our
characters put forth any thing like frucii-
| flying promise Are the flower cups turned
up to receive the showers of heaven! Is the
fruit reddening and swelling on our branch
es! Is there no fierce annoying canker at
our hearts go.
Middle-aged! Ye whose branches are
bending, autumn is yours Look to your
harvest! Are your fruit baskets ready D.
Can you show a rich in-gathering! Are
you content, say, are you content to be
known or judged by such fruits as are now
depending from your characters Have you
any mellow results of righteousness or expe-
rience heaping up against the time of need ?
| And We, more venerable ones, with the
front of few silver hairs on your foreheads |!
/ Yours is indeed, the ciRter of ife-cheer-
less winter, indeed, if it show no fitness OF
fidelity or of hope in your granaries And
tell me, trembling patriarchs, now that your
gamers are locked up and your crops are all
in, tell me, if there in the sealed-up treasure
house Of experience, there are no blighted
crops or bitter membranes Tell me
now whether your wheat sheaves are foil,
and without meagerness! Are there no
worm-eaten fruits in your store! Tell me
land let the lesson go forth to those who are
younger,) whether in the magazines of your
memory, you find no widowed results, or
the ruined shock of corn which timely
precaution might have savedl Are there
not within your conscience, the remnants oil
disregarded duties; virtuous plans but hall
ripened virtuous principles all decaying
like neglected fruit In fine, have you Hred
as you should Are you ready to die Z
In the sad answer you may give 10 these
questions, let us all see the admonition Ia
our duty, the call TO a greater watchluIness
and more entire fidelity to our trusts and
Of this let us be sure, that ",chatsoeucr MAI
sOiceth, that shall he also reap" A life Of
wordliness or impiety, life characterized
by the neglect of moral aud religious duties
will assuredly be life of misery in all its is
sues. The harvest of such life will be the
souls famine while the life which is devot
ed to God and duty, after the pattern of the
Redeemer's shall shine as the sun, while il
heaps upon the affairs of the soul such fruits
and wreathes around IFS chamber such per
rennial flowers, as the most gorgeous hOrti
cultural shows of this world can but feebl,
image. In the words of the scripture, "Ht
who soweth to the flesh shall reap corrup
ton and he who soweth TO the spirit shal
reap life everlasting" Nothing can BE-
palmer, and nothing more impressive, thar
this verdict in regard to spiritual life and ex
perience. Let us endeavor, therefore, t.
) plant and cultivate within our souls sucl
principles as may make them fruitful in al
, excellence, very garden of the Lord, fillet
with branches of the true yine--a Paradis,
I in which the angels may delight to dwell
andwherein the Lord may find no "barren Fl.
tree" when he cometh. And let u
not falter, nor fall away, nor be weary il
well doing; for sin due season blessed hop,
revealed to us by Him who ordereth al
things in the spiritual as in the natural har
vest y 'oe shall reap if ace faint not"
THE GOSPEL does what was never effected b
any other system. 1t dethrones sin from the heal
it restores the impress of Deity upon the soul
reconces man to his Maker-t bears up its posses
sor under n weight of afiictons-it converts n Ann