TWO friends were trying to express the thrill of an early April day in Tennessee, when a fresh, tender, gold-and-silver green mantles the world. "Did you ever see anything more soul satisfying than such a spring day?" asked one.

"Yes," said the other, "an autumn harvest day. It is more soul satisfying, for it is the end for which this day is made." Then she added: "Did you ever think in what season of the year the earth was created?"

"No. What season?"

"Autumn-harvest time. When the grass was created, it was 'yielding seed,' and the tree was 'yielding fruit.' [Genesis 1:12.] The lower creatures were created adult as were Adam and Eve. Creation was not a springtime of germinating seeds, budding leaves, and helpless infant creatures.

What God does is perfect to begin with. 'Everything that He had made . . . was very good' at once. [Verse 31.)"

"That's true," replied the other. "Is that what the Bible means when it says, 'God . . . calleth those things which be not, as though they were'?"

. To God the end He purposes is real now, with no trial-and-error process of development. The Spirit of God brooded-planning, anticipating; and what was brought forth in creation week was perfect. It is the harvest of which our God is Lord. Even though sin has brought imperfection into every phase of nature and human existence, yet God sees a finished salvation as already accomplished. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." 1 John 3:2. To Abraham God showed a countless multitude of redeemed posterity figured by the starry host. Of Israel in the wilderness He could truthfully say: "He bath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither bath He seen perverseness in Israel: ... according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What bath God wrought!" Numbers 23:21, 23. God saw as real then what Israel would be when their sanctification would be perfected. So God sees us-in Christ. So may we see ourselves by faith;

October need not be to us "fall"—the "falling of the year," a melancholy time. Let us look at the harvest. Let us see next year's dogwoods already with blooms tipping every twig (they are there, if you look). Next year's leaves are already on every bough. Next year's lilies lie in every buried bulb.

The earth was created at the time of what we now call the Autumnal Equinox. That is capable of astronomical proof,* though we don't need it. The Bible shows it was created in harvest, adult, perfect. So is everyone who is born into the kingdom of God. God visualizes us now as we may be. If we share His faith, it will help us to be content with the discipline of life that seems long.