August 5

Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.” Joel 3: 13.

The season renders the language interesting; and we may consider the words literally as an address to husbandmen.

“The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain.” He casts the seed into the ground, where it seems lost. For a while he sees nothing to reward his labor and expense; for that which he soweth is not quickened except it die. But it soon revives and rises, and he perceives the blade gently breaking through the earth. Then comes winter. The wind howls over it; the frost bends and binds it; the snow covers and oppresses it. But it weathers all. The spring arrives.

The stalk shoots up; the ear appears, and the full corn in the ear; the crop ripens, and the golden harvest waves its treasures, and calls for the reaper to fill his hand, and he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. The husbandman may think little or nothing of God, unless he wants fine weather; but it is He that worketh all in all. Whatever interventions there may be, He is the first cause: “I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.”

And herein we see the power of God. The spectators wondered when five loaves were multiplied into a sufficiency for more than five thousand consumers. Why are not we struck, when we see the grain in the earth annually increasing thirty, sixty, a hundred fold? It is the commonness of the effect that prevents astonishment. The only difference in the cases is, that in the one instance the operation is sudden; in the other, it is slow; but this magnifies the agency, instead of detracting from it.

And here we see the truth of God. When Noah and his family left the ark, and saw the new world, every appearance of cloud awakened their fears; and God, to tranquillize them, said, “I will not again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.” And every time the sickle is put in, he tells us that he is a faithful God, and that we may always rely upon his word.

Here we behold his goodness. For whom does he thus constantly and plenteously provide, but an unworthy, guilty, ungrateful world, who will overlook his kindness, and abuse his benefits, and turn his gifts into weapons of rebellion against him! Were he to deal with them after their desert, or reward them according to their iniquities, the heavens over us would be brass, and the earth iron; the grain would perish in wetness, or be burnt up with drought, and we should have cleanness of teeth in all our dwellings, and while the children cried for bread, the mother would have none to give them.

Here we also trace the wisdom of God. For though all things are of God, he does not encourage sloth. Our activity is as necessary as our dependence. Though there is a part we cannot do, there is a part we can do; and if this be neglected, God will do nothing. We cannot furnish the soil; but we must manure it. We cannot produce the seed; but we must sow it. We cannot ripen the field; but we must reap it. “What thou givest them, that they gather.”

Let us be thankful that another of these pleasing and instructive periods has arrived. And while we see the valleys standing thick with corn, and hear the little hills rejoicing on every side, let us pray for the appointed weeks of harvest.

And remembering another and an infinitely more important opportunity, may we give all diligence, while it continues, to secure its blessings; lest, in the anguish of disappointment and the remorse of despair, we are forced to exclaim, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.