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By a natural instinct, man reads in all the short-lived objects around him the images of his own decay. Nothing is lovelier to look upon, nothing is more evanescent in its loveliness, than the varied vegetation which clothes the landscape. And in its evanescence man has ever contemplated the emblem of his mortality. These emblems are not altogether mournful. While there are those suggestive of an untimely fate, there are others that delineate the end of man in its seasonableness as a natural close, a full consummation, a ripeness as of the harvest. Contemplate the true maturity of man.

I. THE MATURITY OF MAN IN ITS CHARACTERISTICS. To die old seems a natural wish. Death in old age comes not with a shock, as of something abrupt, unexpected, but as a natural issue — the culmination of life's manifest destiny, the measurement of the full circle of life's journey. It carries the associations of the sunset, of the harvest — tender, but not sombre and sad. And these are right and religious feelings. For man's life on earth is a great thing, a sacred power, a most momentous and immeasurable trust. The error of mankind is not that they place life too high, but that they think far too little of its true value, of its most awful responsibility. Scripture has not taught us to think lightly of life, or to wish an early removal from it. It cultivates the appreciation of life as a great and holy thing. Used as a power of getting and of doing good, life is a glorious privilege. Life on earth has its completed circle — its threescore years and ten — when it has rounded that little orbit, the bodily life has reached its maturity, beyond which it is not fitted to survive, and sinks into the dust as naturally as the ripened corn falls into the ground. But if that were all, it were hard to tell why it should be a thing of Divine promise. That were a poor consolation, to have the full term of life, and to come to the grave in however ripe an age, if the grave were all. But the body is not the man — only the vehicle and tabernacle of the man. It is the soul that is the man; and the man is then only "as a shock of corn in his season," when he is mature in the spiritual and immortal part. The decay of the body imposes no inevitable decline in the soul's higher life. Time leaves no mark on the mind, except of growing power. If, then, the full age of man be of the spirit — ripeness for immortality — what are the characteristics of one ready to be garnered into heaven?

1. Christian maturity is the fulness of spiritual life. Man is of "full age" when the whole circle of Christian excellences is present in the character, and each unfolded in its due proportion. When all the graces meet in a person, they robe him with a glory known only to Christianity. The last attainment is completeness. Christianity is the union of all the graces, not only in their completeness, but in their individual fulness. In our second birth are included all the elements of final perfection — not then come to their full measure, but from that moment the formative principles of character should advance to maturity.

2. Christian maturity is the fulness of spiritual experience. We associate experience with life — Christian experience with the Christian life; and this adds elements and aspects to the piety, which are not found in its first rise — mellowing, sobering, enriching the whole spiritual man, as with the golden glow of autumn. There is a wide difference between the effect of worldly experience and of Christian experience. The former dis. enchants the heart of all its youthful illusions, and makes it distrust all appearances and persons, and hope for nothing better than vanity and vexation of spirit. The effect of Christian experience is to transfer the hopes and affections to the realities of a higher world, and to deepen their power. The follower of Christ is conducting a great experiment as to the power of the Gospel. And he finds as he goes on, that it justifies all his confidence. Faith becomes experience — less liable to be moved away by blasts of unbelief, or by assaults of temptation. The disciple becomes an established Christian.

3. Christian maturity is completed by spiritual usefulness. Christianity will make a man useful in every way, secular as well as religious. But no measure of secular service can be accepted as an apology for the neglect of the higher work, which is laid to every man in Christ's kingdom. Spiritual life and experience are the preparatives and the power of usefulness. As they are enlarged, they nourish and enrich that spiritual fruitfulness which puts the crown on Christian maturity.

II. THE CONDITIONS OF CHRISTIAN MATURITY. How is it prepared? The shock of corn is the result of a process. Christian maturity represents the whole course and combination of influences that have been at work in the man. Nothing can mature that has not life. Among the conditions of a Christian maturity we name —

1. Early decision for Christ. True piety takes its rise in a cordial surrender to Christ, and it reaches its maturity in the completeness of that surrender.

2. Progressive piety. There would be no harvest if the seed plant only rooted and sprung up above ground, and never advanced any further. There is a succession of stages of growth — "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." No man, at whatever stage of his Christian course you find him, is all that he needs to be. There must be progress in Christian intelligence, growth in Christian faith — which worketh by love. There must be assiduous cultivation of piety, which will include a growing love to the sanctuary, to the Bible, to the service of prayer, to the scene of communion. There will be a growing devoutness approaching ever closer to the spirit of heaven, and waiting the call to enter into the joy of the Lord.

(J. Riddell.)

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KJV: Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

WEB: You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.