Treasures of Truth from the Golden Days of Autumn
C. S. Lewis once opined that “autumn is really the best of the seasons” (Letters 308). While we have no desire to quibble for, or against, this opinion, we certainly do concur with the following lines we read many years ago under the title, “The Foliage of Autumn”:
The foliage of Autumn,
The painted leaves of Fall
Are gifts from God the Father
Delighting one and all.
How very much He loves us
To send such beauty rare,
When golden days of Autumn
Unfold their treasures fair.
There is a special gladness
At this time of the year,
When every heart says welcome
To bright October’s cheer.
I will remember always
The glory of it all –
The foliage of Autumn,
The painted leaves of Fall.
Beverly J. Anderson
In contrast to what we continue to see as a truthful and powerful simplicity in the above brief verses, we also recall the exuberant feeling experienced years ago when we came across four volumes totaling more than 1500 pages under the title, Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, authored by Henry Duncan and published in 1856. Our appreciation for these unusual volumes (one for each of the seasons—Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall—originally published in that order) has only deepened with the passing of the years during which we often have consulted these four books. Duncan, at the time of their initial publication, described these books on natural theology as extremely unique in their field, because they “are alone as those that have been devoted to . . . the Seasons of the Year” (Winter iii). His thesis can be summed up in his following statement: “The changes of the seasons display in themselves, a remarkable and beneficent arrangement; and . . . during these changes, afford ample materials for a beautiful and striking exhibition of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator” (iii).
The Argument from Beauty
“Simply stated, natural theology refers to the knowledge of God acquired through nature” (Sproul, Gerstner, and Lindsley 25). One of the elements in nature that implies the reality of God is nature’s beauty. “Nature is sublime or beautiful, and the exceptions do but prove the rule” (Tennant 91). The implications in such Scripture passages as Psalm 19:1-6; Isaiah 40:25-26; Jeremiah 33:20-25; Romans 1:20, et al. provide biblical basis for a logical argument that moves from absolute and objective beauty in the world to the existence of God as its Source. Oxford University Emeritus Professor Richard Swinburne has addressed the soundness of such an argument. He wrote:
. . . [T]he universe is beautiful in the plants, rocks, and rivers, and animal and human bodies on Earth, and also in the swirl of the galaxies. . . . [I]f the universe came into existence without being created by God, there is no reason to suppose it would be a beautiful universe. . . . [B]eauty is an objective matter. . . . [T]here are truths about what is beautiful and what is not. [Cf. O’Connell 249-50; Warren 103-21.] If this is denied and beauty is regarded as something that we project onto nature or artefacts, then the argument could be rephrased as an argument from human beings having aesthetic sensibilities that allow them to see the universe as beautiful. In the latter case, there is certainly no particular reason why, if the universe originated uncaused, psycho-physical laws . . . would bring about aesthetic sensibilities in human beings. (190)
The absolute an objective beauty of the seasons, in conjunction with the necessary factors we know must be in place for the Earth to be hospitable to life, and in particular, human life, show how “data for design are diverse and numerous. They include design as order, purpose, simplicity, complexity, and beauty at both the [macroscopic] and microscopic levels” (Groothuis 700).
The Changing of Seasons
Following the most radical extreme in weather that Earth has ever experienced, the 40 days and nights of torrential rain and 150 days of world-wide flood, Scripture reports that God provided an assurance that ultimately is impervious to human neglect. “While the Earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22; cf. Jeremiah 33:20, 25-26). Of a certainty, the seasons may (and do) vary in degree and are characterized from within, and from year to year, by variation even sometimes to great extremes. However, the infallible witness of the Creation is that there will be cold and hot weather, Summer and Winter, seedtime (spring), and harvest (autumn} as long as the Earth remains unto the last day (cf. 2 Peter 3:8-18).
The very fact that the seasons exist and move from one to another with such order bears witness to the Creator. In his popular Seven Reasons Why a Scientist Believes in God the late A. Cressy Morrison provided this brief explanation concerning the precise order behind the occurrence of the seasons:
The earth is tilted at an angle of twenty-three degrees. This gives us our seasons. If it had not been tilted, the poles would be in eternal twilight. The water vapor from the ocean would move north and south, piling up continents of ice and leaving possibly a desert between the equator and the ice. Glacial rivers would erode and roar through canyons into the salt-covered bed of the ocean to form temporary pools of brine. The lowering of the ocean would expose vast new land areas and diminish the rainfall in all parts of the world with fearful results. (13-14)
Scripture always says it best and, in this case, the affirmation of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra attests to this. They said, “. . . [Y]ou should turn . . . to the living God, who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them. . . . He did not leave Himself without witness in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:15, 17).
Duncan speaks of one “who saw nature with the eye of an accomplished artist” and remarked: “Painters have chosen autumn, with almost universal [preference], as the season of landscape” (Autumn, 64). He continues with the following:
. . . [T]he wild forest. . . will present a thousand beauties which no skill of man can rival. . . . No person who, at this season, has, with an eye of taste, observed . . . can misunderstand the meaning implied in the observation, that none can paint like Nature. (66)
The seasons change, but the change of the seasons is unchanging, bearing witness to the unchanging provision of the unchanging God (cf. Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).
The Fall of Leaves
There are impressive images in the Scriptures that draw upon the leaves. Job likened himself to “a leaf driven to and fro (12:25). Isaiah wrote of those who are “like an oak whose leaf withers [fades]” (1:30), and “we all fade as a leaf” (64:6). Mark Twain, in an eloquent passage, wrote of “the woods and their autumn dress, the oaks purple, the hickories washed with gold, the maples and sumachs luminous with crimson fires and . . . the rustle made by the fallen leaves as we plowed through them” (86). The leaves reach their peak of color and then the November wind comes and strips them from the trees to send them whirling over the fields.
Perhaps there are not many reading this who are familiar with the name E. H. Ijams (1886-1982). He preached the gospel for seventy years and was President of Lipscomb University (1934-43). Among his writings is a book, The Reality of God, originally published in 1978, and reprinted in 2009. According to the author, the book is “a rationally-based” affirmation and defense of God—“the central reality of all existence”—“New Testament theism,” which he describes as “irrefutable” (“Foreword”). Relevant to the truth implied in the falling of the leaves during the golden days of autumn is the following passage from E. H. Ijams:
Have you ever thought how marvelously coordinated are the processes represented in the shedding of leaves by trees? Pull off a leaf in mid-season and you leave a raw wound; but when the plant drops its leaves in due season, no wounds exist. This is due primarily to the fact that even while the leaves are in full vigor, the tree prepares to throw them off when their work is finished This preparation for dropping them at the right time begins almost as soon as the leaf is fully mature. Quite early in the history of the leaf, a special arrangement of cells is formed where the leaf is attached to the stem, so when the leaf is dropped there is no open or exposed surface. There are few more beautifully or intelligently contrived processes in the natural world than this fall of the leaf with which the tree passes into its winter rest. (54)
Pause, and behold the state of the trees in late autumn. Apply the lessons impressively taught. Duncan wisely urged:
Linger awhile amidst the bared and melancholy woods, no tossing in the cold winds of October. . . . As trees of every kind, and in every locality, lose their leaves, so all nations and families fleet rapidly away. . . . The vigorous youth, the full-formed man, and the old man bowing under his years, are equally withered by the blast of death. . . . If some leaves, also, are not violently snatched from their boughs by the freezing gale, the surer process of natural decay at length effects their fall, and they at last follow their decaying predecessors. Thus again it is with man. The violence of various accidents, fire and flood, war, famine and pestilence, or the diseases which he brings on himself, or inherits, cuts off most of his race, many of them in the full prime of their days. If a few, escaping all these casualties, remain behind in their homes, they are only like the last leaves upon the bough. . . . Surely the race of man is frail and fleeting as the leaves! (Autumn, 362-63)
The corn turns brown in the fields. The pumpkins turn bright orange. The leaves on the trees change into their autumn dress. The days get shorter. The nights get longer. Autumn can, and should be a time to impress on us the “fall of life” when work on Earth is completed and “in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). Autumn is a time of great beauty, but it should also be a time for deep reflection. The haze of Indian Summer will fade from the fields. The meadow brook will be turned to ice. Jeremiah challenged his people with the following words: “The harvest is past, the summer has ended and we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20, emp. added). As we reflect on autumn’s rich and beautiful display may each of us give deep thought to what follows the “fall of life” learning from the season, before the spiritual winter comes. Yes, this truth reminds us of our mortality and the death to which we are appointed (cf. Hebrews 9:27). However, we behold Him Who is “the resurrection and the life”” (John 11:25). He is “our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). He takes the gloom out of the grave and provides hope that is steadfast and sure!
Among Henry Duncan’s summary observations concerning truths illustrated through autumn in the sacred philosophy of the seasons is the following passage, which is a powerful reminder of the marvelous hope revealed in the Christian worldview:
Were it not for our assurance of immortality, the fall of the leaf would suggest to us mournful thoughts indeed. It would disturb all our enjoyments, and feed our despair. Nature teaches us our feebleness and death; but it is Revelation that, while it directs our attention to such lessons as nature gives, assures us that we shall rise from the grave to a new life, and thenceforth be immortal. The winds of winter ravage the groves, and a feeling of death arises in the mind; but in the unchanging word of God, we find what robs this feeling of its sting, and fills us with enlivening hope. There we behold Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, of whose rising from the grave—the pledge of our immortality. . . . There also we learn, that if we . . . obey Him . . . we may contemplate death, and all the images that shadow forth his power, without shuddering or dismay. O then, let Nature, in all her moods and seasons, only direct us to this source of all consolation,--this sovereign remedy for all the pains and diseases of the soul. (Autumn, 363-64)
“. . . [T]hanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director
WORKS CITED
Morrison, A. Cressy. Seven Reasons Why a Scientist Believes in God. Old Tappan: Revell, 1962.
Duncan, Henry. Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons Illustrating the Perfections of God in the Phenomena of the Year; Autumn. New York: Carter, 1856.
- - -. Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons Illustrating the Perfections of God in the Phenomena of the Year; Winter. New York: Carter, 1856
Groothuis, D. “Theistic Proofs.” New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics. Eds. Campbell Campbell-Jack, and Gavin J. McGrath. Leicester/Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2006.
Ijams, E. H. The Reality of God. 1978. Winona: Choate, 2009.
Lewis, C. S. Letters of C . S. Lewis. Ed. W. H. Lewis. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1966.
O’Connell, David. “The All Sufficiency of the Bible.” The Utterance of God: An Extended Treatment of Thomas B. Warren’s Argument with Proof that Assures Man the Bible is the Word of God. Parkersburg: Warren Christian Apologetics Center, 2021
Sproul, R. C., John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsley. Classical Apologetics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1984.
Swinburne, Richard. The Existence of God. 1979. Oxford: Clarendon, 2004.
Tennant, F. R. Philosophical Theology. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1930. 2 vols.
Twain, Mark. Autobiography of Mark Twain. 1906. N.p.: Mint Ed., 2021.
Warren, Bart. “The Argument from Beauty to the Existence of God.” Sufficient Evidence. 7. 2 (2007): 103-21.