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 1901 
 
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 BV 4832 .M53 1901 " 
 
 Miller, J.R. 
 
 Summer gathering for 
 winter's need 
 
■ 
 
SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 FOR 
 
 WINTER’S NEED 
 
 WORDS FOR LIFE’S SUNNY DAYS 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 J. R. MILLER, D.D. 
 
 Author of “ Making the Most of Life,” “ The Every 
 Day of Life,” “Strength and Beauty,” etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO, 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, iqoi, 
 
 By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. 
 
We ought to begin in early youth 
 to gather beautiful things into our life 
 — gentle thoughts, noble truths, pure 
 memories, inspiring influences, enrich¬ 
 ing friendships. Then we shall have a 
 treasure-house from which to draw in 
 the days when work is hard, when sor¬ 
 row comes, when the resources of glad¬ 
 ness fail. 
 
 J. R. M. 
 
 Philadelphia, U.S.A. 
 
 3 
 
“ He that gatheretk in summer is a wise son; 
 
 But he that sleepeth in summer is a son that causeth 
 shame.” 
 
 “ A little spring had lost its way 
 Amid the grass and fern; 
 
 A passing stranger scooped a well 
 Where weary ones might turn. 
 
 He walled it in, and hung, with care, 
 
 A ladle at its brink. 
 
 He thought not of the deed he did, 
 
 But judged that toil might drink. 
 
 He passed again, and lo ! the well, 
 
 By summers never dried, 
 
 Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues, 
 And saved a life beside.” 
 
 5 
 
SUMMER GATHERING FOR WINTER’S 
 
 NEED 
 
 But two ways are offered to our will: 
 
 Toil with rare triumph, ease with safe disgrace. 
 
 Nor deem that acts heroic wait on chance ! 
 
 The man's whole life preludes the single deed 
 That shall decide if his inheritance 
 Be with the sifted few of matchless breed 
 Or with the unmotived herd that only sleep and feed. 
 
 Lowell. 
 
 Life’s providential adjustments are perfect. 
 For every need there is a supply. Those who 
 do each day’s duty in its day shall not lack in 
 any future. When there is a want for which 
 there is no provision ready there has been a 
 thread of duty dropped somewhere in the past. 
 An opportunity has been allowed to pass unim¬ 
 proved, and now — perhaps long afterward — 
 a need emerges and there is nothing with which 
 to meet it. If we are always diligent and faith¬ 
 ful we shall always find ready to our hand what 
 we need in any new experience. 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 So we carry in onr present the provision for 
 our future. There is a Bible proverb which 
 says, “He that gathereth in summer is a wise 
 son.” In its simplest form this saying refers to 
 the gathering and laying up of food in the sum¬ 
 mer days. There is a season when the harvest 
 is waving on the fields, when fruits hang on the 
 trees and vines, when earth’s good things wait 
 to be gathered. That is the time when men 
 must be diligent if they would lay by in store 
 for their winter’s needs. Not long does the 
 opportunity wait. No sooner are the fruits ripe 
 than they begin to decay and fall off. 
 
 li On the wild rose-tree 
 Many buds there be, 
 
 Yet each sunny hour 
 Hath but one perfect flower. 
 
 “ Thou who wouldst be wise, 
 Open wide thine eyes; 
 
 In each sunny hour 
 
 Pluck the one perfect flower! ” 
 
 No sooner is the harvest golden than it be¬ 
 gins to perish. Winter follows summer. Then 
 
FOR WINTER'S NEED . 
 
 9 
 
 there are no fruits on the trees and vines, no 
 harvest waving on the fields. The hungry man 
 cannot then go out and find food, and if he has 
 not gathered in summer and laid up in store, he 
 must suffer want. 
 
 The other part of the proverb teaches : “ He 
 that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth 
 shame.” We have all seen that kind of son. A 
 great deal of the world’s want is caused by the 
 failure to gather in summer. A man idles away 
 the days when he ought to have been diligent, 
 and then finds himself in need in the days when 
 even diligence would not avail, and when he 
 may as well sleep on and take his ease. If we 
 accept life’s opportunities and make reasonable 
 use of them we shall not likely want even in 
 the time of famine. 
 
 The Bible is a wonderfully wise book. It is 
 full of counsels which touch every point of life. 
 It abounds in exhortations to diligence. It has 
 no sympathy with idleness or indolence. The 
 Book of Proverbs is specially full of the gospel 
 of work. “ He becometh poor that dealeth with 
 a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent 
 
10 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 maketh rich.” “Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; 
 consider her ways and he wise; which . . . 
 
 gathereth her food in the harvest.” So, every¬ 
 where, this lesson of timely diligence is 
 pressed. “ He that gathereth in summer is a 
 wise son.” He does not want in winter. When 
 the bitter cold comes and he cannot work, when 
 the fields and vines are bare and he cannot 
 gather food, he has but to turn to the stores he 
 has laid up, and there he finds all that he needs 
 to feed his hunger. 
 
 Primarily the counsel is for the farmers, who 
 gather their sustenance from fields and orchards, 
 where only for a brief season do the harvests 
 and fruits remain. He who does not sow in 
 seed-time will have nothing to reap in the time 
 of ingathering. But the principle has wide ap¬ 
 plication. Life has its summers and its winters, 
 its times of health, plenty, and opportunity, and 
 then its times of sickness or want; and these 
 seasons of need must feed from the stores laid 
 up in the days of abundance. 
 
 There are times when men can have employ¬ 
 ment, with corresponding wages, and then they 
 
FOR WINTER'S NEED. 
 
 11 
 
 should save from their earnings and lay by 
 in reserve for the times when they will have 
 no work and consequently no wages. If they 
 do this they will never suffer want. But if 
 they eat up all their harvest in the time of 
 plenty, they will go hungry when the fields are 
 bare. Every life, every home, has experiences 
 of special need. Sickness comes. The bread¬ 
 winners must cease their toil. Then there are 
 pinching times if there has been no forethought, 
 and if nothing has been saved and stored from 
 the plenty of brighter days. 
 
 It is a wise rule to be adopted in youth and 
 steadily adhered to through all life, never to 
 spend quite all one’s earnings or income, but 
 always to lay by at least a little in store. If 
 one’s income is small, one’s expenditures should 
 be less. We should learn always to live within 
 our means. If we fail to do this, debt is the 
 inevitable result, and debt is a bondage which 
 soon crushes out hope and paralyzes energy. 
 The rainy day comes sometime in every life, 
 and if there is no reserve spared and garnered 
 from the sunny days of plenty, there can be no 
 
12 
 
 8 UMMEE GA TIIEEING 
 
 escape from debt. We must borrow then from 
 some source, either from the stores of the past 
 or from the avails of the future. To turn to 
 the latter resource is to make life harder in 
 the days to come until the debt is cancelled. 
 Young people should learn this lesson. If it 
 was thought important enough to be put into 
 the Bible, among the words of eternal life, it is 
 important enough to put into a human book 
 and to be heeded by every one : 
 
 “ He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; 
 
 But he that sleepeth in summer is a son that causeth 
 shame.” 
 
 The lesson falls under two heads. Every one 
 must gather in harvest. Every one must work 
 while it is day. The promise that we shall not 
 want is conditioned upon faithful diligence in 
 the time when we can be busy. When we pray 
 for daily bread, it is our daily bread for which 
 we are taught to ask, and no bread can be ours 
 until we have earned it. The lazy and indolent 
 man is preparing poverty for himself. He can¬ 
 not have God’s blessing, and he has no promise 
 
FOR WINTER \S NEED. 
 
 13 
 
 of divine care when the empty days, days of 
 need, come upon him. 
 
 Then every one should gather, that is, lay by, 
 in harvest, in the plentiful season, because it 
 will not always be harvest-time. There will 
 surely be a winter after the summer, and the 
 winter must feed off the summer or be in want. 
 After the seven years of abundance there will 
 be other seven years with no ingathering. But 
 he who stores away the surplus of his plenty 
 will not go hungry in the times of scarcity. 
 
 There are other harvest-times in life in which 
 we must gather, or we shall be in want in the 
 other winters that will also come. 
 
 Youth is a summer. It is a time for educa¬ 
 tion, for receiving instruction, for gathering 
 knowledge. It is a time for the formation of 
 habits, for the knitting of the thews and sinews 
 of character. It is a time for the choosing of 
 friends and the weaving of friendships. Then 
 the days are long and quiet, and free from care, 
 burden, and responsibility. Other hands toil 
 then, other brains think and plan, other hearts 
 love and suffer, that youth may be happy and 
 
14 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 unanxious. Later comes real life with its du¬ 
 ties, its responsibilities, its cares and strug¬ 
 gles, its sorrows, its burdens. But lie who has 
 gathered in the summer days shall not lack in 
 the winter. A youth-time diligently improved 
 prepares one for whatever severer days may 
 bring. 
 
 We are not living in a world of chance ; this 
 is our Father’s world. There is no doubt, there¬ 
 fore, that in the wise providence of God there 
 come to every one in youth opportunities which 
 if properly improved will prepare for noble, 
 beautiful, and successful life in the mature 
 days. It is easy to see how this is true in good 
 homes, where children are trained by faithful 
 parents, in the midst of kindly and encouraging 
 circumstances, under healthful and wholesome 
 influences. Their youth-time is one long sum¬ 
 mer, with golden harvests on its hundred fields, 
 with nothing to do but to reap and gather into 
 life’s barns. But it is true likewise of those 
 who grow up in poverty, amid hardship and in 
 stern conditions. These have their opportuni¬ 
 ties too. It is well known that many of the 
 
FOR WINTER ’ S NEED. 
 
 15 
 
 world’s best and greatest men have gathered on 
 what seemed bare and rugged fields the store of 
 good and of strength winch in later years gave 
 them power. A true and wise use of the oppor¬ 
 tunities that are given in youth, whether they 
 come in the sunshine of comfort and ease, or in 
 circumstances of poverty and hardship, will fit 
 one for whatever of task or struggle may fall to 
 one’s lot in the after days. God has a plan for 
 every life, and that plan takes in the life’s train¬ 
 ing and preparation as well as its work and ser¬ 
 vice. There is always opportunity, too, for just 
 the preparation that is needed for the mission 
 which is God’s thought and plan for the life. 
 
 But if we miss the preparation we shall fail 
 in the work that we were meant to do. If we 
 would be ready for the opportunities and re¬ 
 sponsibilities of to-morrow, we must accept 
 those of to-day. There is an old Persian legend 
 of a pavement under which lay lumps of gold. 
 The man who lifted none of the pavement 
 would get none of the gold. He who lifted 
 part of it might or might not find the gold. But 
 he who lifted the whole of it would certainly 
 
16 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 secure the treasure. Under every day’s pave¬ 
 ment gold is buried. But we must lift the 
 stones if we would find it. If in our indolence 
 or neglect we leave one stone unlifted, the gold 
 may be under that one, and we shall miss find¬ 
 ing it. 
 
 The important thing is that opportunities 
 shall be improved. Youth must gather in its 
 summer time, whatever the harvest may be. 
 Nothing is surer than that indolent early years 
 mean failure in manhood. One may neglect the 
 tasks that the days bring, because play is easier 
 or more congenial to the taste, but these tasks 
 are links in the chain which brings one to suc¬ 
 cess, and if any of them are dropped, even one, 
 the chain is broken. A lesson missed in school 
 may be the cause of failure some day, years 
 hence, when the little fragment of knowledge or 
 instruction or discipline lost that hour shall be 
 necessary in order to win some high honor or to 
 accept some coveted promotion. Every oppor¬ 
 tunity a boy loses is a chance for misfortune in 
 after life. By and by when he stands before 
 life’s open doors he will not be able to enter 
 
FOh WINTER'S NEED. 
 
 17 
 
 them. When he ffioes great duties and solemn 
 responsibilities he can only hang his head in 
 shame. He has idled away his summer, his 
 gathering-time, and now when winter is upon 
 him and he cannot work, he has no reserve from 
 which to draw. 
 
 But the young person who improves all his 
 opportunities in youth, who is diligent in his 
 studies, who gathers knowledge, wisdom, and 
 strength, and the qualities of noble character in 
 this summer-time of his life, will come up to 
 the responsibilities of his later years prepared to 
 accept them and meet them with honor. We 
 grow by bearing burdens, by doing difficult 
 things, by enduring hardship, by toil and 
 struggle. 
 
 “By the brave things thought or spoken, 
 
 By the true deeds simply done ; 
 
 By the mean things crushed and conquered,. 
 
 And the bloodless battles won; 
 
 By the days when the load was heavy, 
 
 Yet the heart grew strong to bear; 
 
 By the dearth, the dole, and the labor, 
 
 The fulness, reward, and cheer; 
 
 By the book of the angel’s record,” 
 
18 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 do we reach upward to noble and worthy charac¬ 
 ter. The easy life may seem more pleasant, but 
 it does not yield the heroic qualities that belong 
 to the highest manhood. 
 
 This law applies also to spiritual life. In one 
 sense we cannot lay up grace in store any one 
 day for another. No summer’s gathering will 
 do for winter’s use. To-day’s help will not do 
 for to-morrow’s needs. To-day’s strength will 
 not suffice in to-morrow’s temptations and trials. 
 To-day’s comfort will not lighten the darkness 
 of to-morrow’s sorrow. The manna fell each 
 morning, enough and enough only for the one 
 day. It could not be kept over. It is so with 
 spiritual food. It must be received every morn¬ 
 ing fresh from heaven. We cannot lay up in 
 seasons of special devotion supplies of divine 
 grace to suffice through periods of prayerless- 
 ness and worldliness. We cannot pile away in 
 our heart’s storehouses on Sunday spiritual 
 vitality to last us through a whole week of 
 secularity. We must keep ourself all the 
 while in living communion with Christ, receiv¬ 
 ing continuously from Him fresh supply for our 
 
FOR WINTER ’ S NEED. 
 
 19 
 
 continuous need. “Abide” is the word our 
 Lord himself uses. We must abide in him. 
 Life must be received hour by hour direct from 
 Christ’s warm, throbbing heart. There must be 
 no breaks in the believing that receives of the 
 divine fulness, grace after grace. We carry in 
 us no reservoirs in which divine life may be 
 stored to last us over times of spiritual drought. 
 
 Yet there is another sense in which in our 
 spiritual life we may gather in summer for 
 winter’s use. For example, in the times of 
 quietness and security we may store in our heart 
 the resources we shall need to draw upon for 
 meeting temptation. Childhood and early youth 
 in a true Christian home are in a large measure 
 sheltered from stern assaults and conflicts. The 
 atmosphere is kindly and genial. The influences 
 are helpful. There is a mother’s bosom to hide 
 in. There is a father’s hand to lead and protect. 
 The family altar, with its daily worship which 
 brings us together in prayer, holds all the house¬ 
 hold close to God’s feet. The sin of the world 
 outside washes the very threshold, the spray of 
 its tides dashing against the windows; yet 
 
20 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 within the sacred walls there is a holy life, un¬ 
 perturbed, unstained, loving, gentle, and true. 
 The child that grows up amid the kindly in¬ 
 fluences of a home of love and prayer is shel¬ 
 tered from the temptations that make the world 
 without so perilous a place in which to live. 
 This period is the summer of life to those who 
 are blessed with its privileges. 
 
 But the winter comes. No one can live 
 always in such a shelter. There will come a 
 time earlier or later when the children must go 
 out of the sweet, safe home to face the tempta¬ 
 tions and meet the antagonisms of the world. It 
 is possible, however, in the days of quiet in the 
 home so to gather and garner spiritual resources 
 that in the conflicts and struggles of the after 
 days the life shall be safe. 
 
 When men build a great ship to go upon the 
 sea they store away in its keel tremendous 
 reserves of strength — stanch ribs, massive 
 beams and stays, and heavy plates of steel. 
 What does it all mean ? There is no need for 
 such immense strength now. If the ship were 
 to sail only in some peaceful river or even on 
 
FOR WINTER'S NEED. 
 
 21 
 
 the ocean on its quiet days, it would be a foolish 
 expenditure at such great cost to put such 
 strength in her frame. But the builders are 
 equipping the vessel for the wildest storms that 
 she may ever have to face on the sea. They are 
 building her, not for ordinary sailing in smooth 
 waters, but for the fury of the most terrific 
 tempest. 
 
 So human lives should be built in the home, 
 in the days of happy youth, not merely for the 
 sweet experiences of the sheltered home itself, 
 with its love, gentleness, and peace, but to meet 
 the sternest buffetings and the sorest testings that 
 any possible future may bring. Principles should 
 be fixed in the heart so firmly that nothing can 
 ever swerve the life from them. Habits should 
 be so wrought into the conduct that nothing can 
 ever change them. Conscience should be so 
 trained that it shall do its duty with inexorable 
 fidelity in the sorest stress of temptation. 
 
 Daniel and his young Hebrew friends had 
 been brought up in godly homes, where they 
 were taught the word of God with great faith¬ 
 fulness. There they had gathered into their 
 
22 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 souls rich stores of divine truth which had been 
 wrought into materials for noble character — 
 reverence, courage, strength, wisdom, and all 
 needful moral qualities. In their early man¬ 
 hood, when they were scarcely more than boys, 
 they were carried away into a strange land, 
 among heathen people. There they were ex¬ 
 posed to peculiar trials. But they resisted 
 every temptation and stood the severest test. It 
 was because away back in the quiet days of 
 early training and discipline they had gathered 
 reserves of moral strength and courage in their 
 hearts. 
 
 The same thing is continually occurring. 
 Young people go out from their sweet homes, 
 from love, prayer, and obedience, into a world of 
 spiritual enmity and antagonism, where they en¬ 
 counter all forms of subtle temptation. Yet 
 they pass unharmed through these insidious 
 dangers because in the summer days they have 
 gathered into their life the qualities of character 
 which make them invincible. The reason many 
 men fail in the hard testings is that they have 
 not used their opportunities to make ready. 
 
FOR WINTER'S NEED. 
 
 23 
 
 They get through the easy times without seri¬ 
 ous trouble, but fail when the hard days come. 
 
 “ Common chances common men can bear, 
 
 And when the sea is calm all boats alike 
 Show mastership in floating. 
 
 But in the gale of life, 
 
 And when the adverse winds 
 Are wildly raging, 
 
 Then the staunch ship only 
 Answers nobly to her helm, and can 
 Defy the fury of the tempest’s wrath.” 
 
 We have a suggestion here of the responsi¬ 
 bility of parents and teachers and of all who 
 have to do with the education and training of 
 the young. Their sacred work must be well 
 done if the lives they send out into the world 
 are to be prepared not only for the largest use¬ 
 fulness, but for stanchness, stability, and in¬ 
 corruptibleness of character. They should teach 
 truth with conscientious carefulness. They 
 should train mind and heart with all wisdom. 
 They should seek the most perfect discipline of 
 character in those they are training. They 
 know not in what circumstances these lives shall 
 
24 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 be placed in after years, through what experi¬ 
 ences they shall pass, what serious and delicate 
 duties shall be put into their hands, in what 
 positions of responsibility and trust they shall be 
 called to stand, what vital interest may some¬ 
 time depend on their wisdom, fidelity, and 
 strength. 
 
 Men said the old smith was foolishly careful 
 as he wrought on the chain he was making in 
 his dingy shop in the heart of the great city. 
 But he heeded not their words, and only 
 wrought with greater painstaking. Link after 
 link he fashioned, and at last the chain was 
 finished and carried away. In time it lay coiled 
 on the deck of a great ship which sped back and 
 forth on the ocean. There seemed no use for 
 it, for the great anchor was never needed, and 
 the chain lay there uncoiled. So years passed. 
 But one night there was a fearful storm, and the 
 ship was in sore peril of being hurled upon the 
 rocks. Anchor after anchor was dropped, but 
 none of them availed; the chains were broken 
 like threads. At last the great sheet anchor 
 was cast into the sea, and the old chain was 
 
FOR WINTER ' S NEED. 
 
 25 
 
 quickly uncoiled and run out until it grew taut. . 
 All watched to see if it would bear the awful 
 strain. It sang in the wild storm as the vessel’s 
 weight surged upon it. It was a moment of 
 intense anxiety; the ship with its cargo of a 
 thousand lives depended upon this one chain. 
 What now if the old smith had wrought care¬ 
 lessly even on one link of his chain ! But he 
 had put honesty, truth, and invincible strength 
 into every part of it, and it stood the test, hold¬ 
 ing the ship in safety until the storm was over 
 and the morning came. 
 
 Those who, in home or school or college, 
 train a young life, know not for what moment¬ 
 ous responsibilities they are fashioning it, for 
 what hours of testing, for what mighty issues. 
 But they should do their work so well that 
 never in any circumstances shall the life fail 
 through ignorance, through weakness, through 
 want of truth. It is theirs now, in the life’s 
 summer, to store away in it the reserve of 
 wisdom, of strength, of faith, of love, of 
 endurance, which it may need. Should the life 
 break or fail in the testings of future years, 
 
26 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 because of the inadequacy of its early furnishing, 
 the mistakes of its training, or the imperfectness 
 of its discipline, it will be the fault of those who, 
 as parents or teachers, were unfaithful to their 
 trust. 
 
 There are many ways in which this lesson 
 may be applied. One is in preparation for 
 meeting temptation. In one of Holman Hunt’s 
 pictures he shows Jesus in the carpenter’s shop 
 at Nazareth. It was in his early youth. Along 
 the side of the shop is a little case containing a 
 collection of ancient rolls. The artist would 
 represent our Lord as having his little library of 
 sacred Hebrew books in the shop where he 
 worked at his trade, the suggestion being that 
 in his resting moments he turned often to them 
 to read and ponder over their words. Thus he 
 stored the sacred truths in his memory. No 
 doubt this was the custom of Jesus. He studied 
 his Father’s words diligently, until his heart was 
 full of them. Then, when he went out from 
 his quiet home, and when the tempter came to 
 him, he had but to bring out a divine promise, 
 a word of Scripture, as one would draw an 
 
FOR WINTER ’ S NEED. 
 
 27 
 
 arrow from a quiver, and with it repel the 
 enemy. 
 
 Young people should take the lesson. Now 
 life is easy for them. Home’s shelter is over 
 them. Home’s love shields them. They have 
 opportunity now to read the Bible and other 
 good books. By and by they must meet temp¬ 
 tation in some of its insidious forms. In these 
 bright, sunny days they should gather into 
 their life stores of moral and spiritual strength 
 from which to draw when they go forth to 
 encounter the world’s fierce temptations. Mem¬ 
 ory should then be filled with words of God. 
 The essential principles of Christianity should 
 be so established in their mind that no assaults 
 of scepticism can ever make them doubt. The 
 fundamental laws of morality should be firmly 
 fixed in their conscience as the inflexible rule 
 of conduct, from which nothing ever can cause 
 them to depart. Their habits of spiritual life 
 should be so wrought into the very texture 
 of their being that they will carry their re¬ 
 ligion with them, out into the world, as they 
 carry the features of their face or their throb- 
 
28 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 bing heart. Into the ship of their life, their 
 character, as they build it in the quiet bay of 
 youth, they should pile massive strength which 
 the wrathful energy of the stormiest life can 
 never possibly overcome. 
 
 Gathering thus in summer, they shall not want 
 in winter. But if they do not do it now, they 
 never can do it. The soldier cannot learn the 
 art of war after the battle has opened. If he 
 has not been diligent in the days allotted him 
 for instruction and for discipline, he cannot 
 stand before his foes when the conflict opens. 
 Losing yesterday’s opportunity for training, we 
 cannot meet today’s stern struggle. 
 
 “ The key of yesterday 
 I threw away, 
 
 And now, too late, 
 
 Before to-morrow’s close-locked gate 
 Helpless I stand — in vain to pray ! 
 
 In vain to sorrow ! 
 
 Only the key of yesterday 
 Unlocks to-morrow! ” 
 
 The same is true of preparation for sorrow. 
 Into every life, sooner or later, sorrow will 
 
FOR WINTER’S NEED. 
 
 29 
 
 come. In one sense, too, we should not seek 
 to forecast it. We ought not to look forward 
 to sorrow with fear and foreboding. God does 
 not want us ever to do this. He does not 
 promise us grace in advance; we are to live 
 by the day. 
 
 “ God broke our years to hours and days, 
 
 That hour by hour, 
 
 And day by day, 
 
 Just going on a little way, 
 
 We might be able all along 
 To keep quite strong.” 
 
 We are not to think of grief before it comes; 
 it is better that we let God lead us on step by 
 step, preparing us for each event as he brings 
 us to it. Yet we ought to live so that when 
 grief comes we shall not be taken unready, 
 without any resource of comfort to which to 
 turn. The foolish virgins had only their own 
 little lampful of oil, with no reserve. When 
 the midnight hour came and they wanted light, 
 their lamps were going out, and they could not 
 refill them. The wise virgins, on the other 
 hand, were not left in darkness when their own 
 
30 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 lamps had burned out, for they had a reserve 
 of oil in their vessels. If we have a store of 
 divine promises and consolations hidden in our 
 heart, gathered and laid away there during the 
 sunny days, we shall never be left in darkness, 
 however suddenly and deeply the shadow may 
 fall upon us. 
 
 Here we see the value of memorizing Scrip¬ 
 ture in days of childhood and youth. Some¬ 
 times people ask, “ What is the use of teaching 
 children long Bible verses, the words of which 
 they do not understand ? ” The use may not be 
 apparent at the time, but later in life it will 
 appear. The words lie in the memory, and 
 seem to avail nothing. But they are set in the 
 life, and some day there will be a sorrow or a 
 trouble, and it will grow very dark. Then, 
 through these divine words, long waiting for a 
 time of use, there will flash out the pure, sweet 
 light of divine love, making them like incandes¬ 
 cent lamps to pour the soft rays of heavenly 
 comfort upon the night of grief. 
 
 Many older Christians know this from per¬ 
 sonal experience. Verses of God’s word mem- 
 
FOR WIN TER ’ S NEED. 
 
 31 
 
 orized in youth, which have lain in their heart 
 for years, not seeming to have any real meaning 
 for them, giving no light of comfort, have sud¬ 
 denly begun to flame out in heavenly brightness, 
 yielding precious comfort. Gathered in sunny 
 hours and stored away in the memory, they were 
 like stars in the sky, invisible in the sunshine, 
 but coming out in calm, steady light when night 
 came on. 
 
 “When the sun withdraws his light 
 Lo ! the stars of God are there, 
 
 Present hosts unseen till night — 
 
 Matchless, countless, silent, fair.” 
 
 A touching story is told of a young man who 
 was rapidly losing his eyesight. The physicians 
 told him that he would be able to see but for 
 a few months. At once, accompanied by a 
 sister, he set out to travel over Europe, taking 
 a last look at the beautiful things of this world, 
 before his eyes should be closed forever. He 
 wished to have his memory stored with lovely 
 pictures of mountains, lakes, and waterfalls, of 
 noble buildings and works of art, so that, when 
 
32 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 he should no longer be able to see, he might 
 have these beautiful visions in his soul to lighten 
 his gloom. 
 
 To-day we are in life’s rich sunshine, with 
 beaut}^ all about us. But darkness will come to 
 us sometime — days when the light will fade 
 away, the vision grow dim, and the shadows 
 thicken. We should prepare now, while we can 
 see, against the coming of these dark days. We 
 should walk in the light while we have the light. 
 We should train ourself to see all the beauty 
 we can find in God’s works and words. There 
 really is beauty everywhere in the natural 
 world as well as in the spiritual, and we ought 
 to see as much of it as we can, to get the pict¬ 
 ures printed upon our soul. We should gather 
 while we may into our heart all the love, joy, 
 and gladness that we can store there. Then, 
 when the night settles down about us, we shall 
 have light shining within. 
 
 Some one writes of sitting on a winter evening 
 by an open wood fire, and listening to the sing¬ 
 ing of the green logs as the fire flamed about 
 them. The writer’s fancy is that, when the tree 
 
FOE WIN TEE'S NEED. 
 
 33 
 
 stood in the forest the birds came and perched 
 on its boughs, and sang their songs. The wind, 
 too, breathed through the branches, making a 
 weird, strange music. One day a child sat on 
 the moss by the tree’s root and sang its happy 
 gladness in a snatch of sweet melody. A peni¬ 
 tent, wandering in sadness in the evening 
 shadows, knelt there, and with trembling tones, 
 amid falling leaves, spoke to God of his sorrow 
 for sin, and his desire for forgiveness. And all 
 these notes and voices sank into the tree, and 
 hid away in among its fibres. There they slept 
 until the tree was cut down and part of it be¬ 
 came a backlog in the cheerful evening fire. 
 Then the flames brought out the stored music. 
 
 This is only a poet’s fancy. But is there not 
 in it a little parable of many a life ? Along the 
 years a thousand influences play about it. Child¬ 
 hood’s songs fall upon the ear. Home’s sweet 
 music breathes around it. Love sings its gentle 
 songs. Nature’s voices cease not to make 
 melody in the ear. Life has its varied notes 
 and tones, some glad, some choked in tears. 
 Books, companions, friends, circumstances, ex- 
 
34 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 periences, emotions, feelings, all manner of 
 scenes in their ceaseless play about the life, 
 drop their myriad notes of music, and they all 
 steal down into the heart and hide there. Years 
 pass, and the life gives out no praise, sings no 
 song to bless others. At length grief comes, 
 and in the flames of trial the long-imprisoned 
 music is set free, and afterwards sings itself out 
 in praise to God, and in notes of love to cheer 
 and bless the world. Gathered in life’s long 
 summer and stored away in the heart, it is 
 brought out in the hours of suffering and pain. 
 Many a rejoicing Christian never learned to sing 
 till the flames kindled upon him. 
 
 In Rose Porter's delightful little book, “Sum¬ 
 mer Driftwood for the Winter Fire,” an old man 
 bids goodby to his grandchild as she goes away 
 on her vacation, and says to her, “ Remember, 
 little one, gather the driftwood that will light the 
 winter fire.” The child laughs and says that she 
 is going to have a good time while absent, that 
 she will bask in the sunshine and gather flowers 
 and listen to the birds. “ Ah, Annie,” says the 
 old man, “ the flowers will fade, the sunshine be 
 
FOR WINTER ’ 8 NEED. 
 
 35 
 
 hidden when the winter storm-clouds come, and 
 the song-birds will grow silent. Find something 
 lasting. Begin to gather wood now, that will 
 warm your heart when the winter of life comes, 
 child.” 
 
 No wiser counsel could be given to the 
 young. People lay up firewood in the summer 
 when there is no need of fire, to burn in the 
 winter, when bitter winds blow and the air is 
 keen and cold. So youth should gather into its 
 heart the thoughts, lessons, memories, and truths, 
 which will make both warmth and light when 
 old age draws on. Let the sunshine into your 
 heart these bright days, you who are young,— 
 God’s sunshine of grace and truth. Read good, 
 cheerful, helpful books, that will leave lofty and 
 inspiring thoughts in your mind. Especially 
 read the Bible daily, study it, and hide its 
 divine words in your heart. Do beautiful 
 things, things of love, of unselfishness, of help¬ 
 fulness, things that are true, honorable, just, 
 pure, and lovely. Nothing darkens life’s winter 
 days as do memories of sinful things. Nothing 
 makes life so sweet in old age as does the mem- 
 
36 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING 
 
 ory of right, good, and kindly things wrought 
 along the years. 
 
 Gather about you, too, in the sunny days, 
 gentle and worthy friends. Be sure they are 
 worthy, those you take into your heart, for un¬ 
 worthy friends oft-times make bitterness and 
 sorrow for the dark days of those whom they 
 disappoint. Weigh well the character of your 
 friends and choose and take into your life only 
 the good, the pure, the noble, the honorable. 
 Above all, gather into your soul the sweet 
 friendship of Jesus Christ and let his words 
 bless your life and fill and sweeten your heart. 
 
 Then when the winter days come the 
 memories of all these precious things will abide 
 and will shine like soft lamps in the gloom. 
 Truly has it been said, “ The memory of things 
 precious keepeth warm the heart that once did 
 hold them.” Such gathering in the summer 
 days of life will make the winter cheerful within 
 and bright, when the fire burns on the hearth, 
 let the winds wail and the storms beat as they 
 will outside. 
 
 In youth, then, lay up for manhood and 
 
FOR WINTER'S NEED. 
 
 37 
 
 womanhood. In the school-days prepare for 
 meeting life’s duties and responsibilities. In 
 the years of strength gather for the times of 
 feebleness and old age. In time of plenty store 
 up for times of famine. In joy find the divine 
 comforts to turn to in sorrow. In the bright 
 days prepare lamps to light at nightfall. In 
 summer put away wood for winter’s fires. All 
 earthly life is a time for gathering. Not a day 
 should pass when we do not lay up something 
 for the future — some new bit of knowledge, some 
 new lesson of experience, some new word of God 
 to rest upon in trouble, some new joy of pure 
 friendship to warm the heart, some new strength 
 received by overcoming, some new meaning of 
 love or beauty. That is the way to grow strong 
 and rich and good and helpful. Old age is the 
 harvest of all the years that have gone before. 
 A life of summer gathering gives a beautiful, 
 wise, noble, happy, and useful old age. 
 
 Then this world is a place to gather in for 
 heaven. We shall be there what we make our¬ 
 selves here. We shall find there the treasures 
 we have gathered here. We shall gather 
 
38 
 
 SUMMER GATHERING. 
 
 there the harvest from earth’s sowing. Our 
 crown there will be woven of the blessedness of 
 faithful obedience to God and service of love for 
 our fellow men. 
 
 Says Ruskin: “ What fairy palaces we may 
 build of beautiful thoughts, proof against all 
 adversity, — bright fancies, satisfied memories, 
 noble histories, faithful sayings ; treasure-houses 
 of precious and restful thoughts, which care 
 cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor 
 poverty take away from us — houses, built with¬ 
 out hands, for our souls to live in ! ” 
 

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