Harvest Time

“Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” — 1 Samuel, xii. 17.

I suALL not notice the connection; but I shall simply take these words as a motto, and my sermon will be fomided upon a “harvest field.” I shall rather use the harvest for my text than any passage that I find here. “Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” I suppose the dwellers in cities think less of times and seasons than dwellers in the country. Men who were born, trained up, nourished, and nurtured among cornfields, harvests, sowings, and reapings, are more likely to notice such things than you who are ahvays engaged in mercantile pursuits, and think less of these things than rustics do. But I suppose, if it is almost necessary that you should less regard the “harvest” than others, it ought not to be carried to too great an extent. Let us not be forgetful of “times and seasons;” there is much to be learned from them, and I would refresh your memories this morning by a harvest field. What a wondrous temple this world is; for in truth it is a temple of God’s building wherein men ought to worship him. What a wondrous temple it is to a mind spiritually enlightened, which can bring to bear upon it the resources of intellect and the illuminations of God’s Holy Spirit! There is not a single flower in it that does not teach us a lesson; there is not a single wave or blast of thunder that has not some lesson to teach us, the sons of men. This world is a great temple; and as, if you walk in an Egyptian temple, you know that every mark and figure in the temple has a meaning, so when you walk this world you must believe that every thing about you has a meaning. It is no fanciful idea that there are “sermons in stones;” for there really are sermons in stones, and this world is intended to teach us by every thing that we see. Happy is the man who only has the mind, and has the spirit to get these lessons from nature. Flowers, what are they? They are but the thoughts of God solidified, God’s beautifulthoughts put into shape. Storms, what are they? They are God’s terrible thoughts written out that we may read them. Thunders, what are they? They are God’s powerful emotions, just opened out that men may hear them. The world is just the materiaUzing of God’s thoughts; for the world is a thought in God’s eye. He made it first from a thought that came from his own mighty mind; and every thing in the majestic temple that he has made has a meaning.

In this temple there are four evangelists. As we have four great evangelists in the Bible, so there are four evangelists in nature; and these are the four evangelists of the seasons — spring, summer, autumn, winter.

First comes spring, and what says it? We look, and we behold that, by the magic touch of spring, insects which seemed to be dead begin to awaken, and seeds that were buried in the dust begin to lift up their radiant forms. What says spring? It utters its voice — it says to man. Though thou sleepest thou shalt rise again; there is a world in which in a more glorious state thou shalt exist; thou art but a seed now, and thou shalt be buried in the dust, and in a little while thou shalt arise. Spring utters that part of its evangile. Then comes summer. Summer says to man. Behold the goodness of a merciful Creator — “he makes his sun to shine on the evil and on the good,” he sprinkleth the earth with flowers, he scattereth it with those gems of creation, he maketh it blossom like Eden, and bring forth like the garden of the Lord. Summer utters that; then comes autumn. We shall hear its message this morning. It passes — and fourth — comes winter crowned with a coronal of ice, and it tells us that there are times of trouble for man; it points to the fruits that we have stored up in autumn, and it says to us, Man, take heed that thou store up something for thyself — something against the day of wrath; lay up for thyself the fruits of autumn, that thou mayest be able to feed on them in Vvdnter. And when the old year expires, its death-knell tells us that man must die; and when the year lias finished its evangelistic mission, there comes another to preach the same lesson again.

We are about to let autmnn preach this morning. One of these four evangelists comes forth, and it says — “Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” We are about to take the harvest into consideration, in order to learn something from it. May God’s most blessed Spirit help his feeble dust and ashes to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to your soul’s profit!

We shall talk this morning of three joyful harvests and of three sorrowful harvests.

First, we shall speak of three joyful harvests that there will be.

The first joyful harvest that I will mention is the harvest of the field which Samuel alluded to when he said, “Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” We can not forget the harvest of the field. It is not meet that these things should be forgotten; we ought not to let the fields be covered with corn, and to have their treasures stored away in the barns, and all the while to remain forgetful of God’s mercy. Ingratitude, that worst of ills, is one of those vipers which makes its nest in the heart of man, and the adder never can be slain until divine grace comes there and sprinkles the blood of the cross upon man’s heart. All vipers die when the blood of Christ is upon them. Let me just lead jow for a moment to a harvest-field. You shall see there a most luxuriant harvest, the heavy ears bending down almost to touch the ground, as much as to say, From the ground I came; I owe myself to the ground; to that I bow my head, just as the good Christian does when he is full of years. He holds his head down the more fi-uit he has upon him. You see the stalks with their heads hanging down, because they are ripe. And it is goodly and precious to see these things. ‘Now, just suppose the contrary. If this year the cars had been blighted and withered; if they had been like the second ears that Pharaoh saw, very lean and very scanty, what would have become of us? In peace we might have speculated on large supplies from Russia to make up the deficiency; now, in times of war, when nothing can come, what would become of us? We may conjecture, we may imaoine: but I do not know that we are able to come to the truth. We can only say, Blessed be God, we have not yet to reckon on what would have been; but, God, seeing one door closed, has opened another. Seemg that we might not get supplies from those rich fields in the south of R^issia, he has opened another door in our land. Thou art my own favored island, says he; I have loved thee, England, with a special love; thou art my favored one, and the enemy shall not crush thee; and lest thou shouldst starve, because provisions are cut off, I will give thee thy barns full at home, and thy fields shall be covered, that thou mayest laugh thine enemy to scorn, and say to him, Thou thoughtest thou could starve us and make us afraid; but he who feeds the ravens has fed his people, and has not deserted his favored land. There is not one person here who is uninterested in this matter. Some say the poor ought to be thankful that there is abundance of bread. So ought the rich. There is nothing which happens to cne member of society wdiicli does not affect all. The ranks lean upon each other; if there is a scarcity in the lower ranks, it falls upon the next, and the next, and even the queen upon her throne feels in some degree the scarcity, when God is yleased to send it. It affects all men. Let none say, whatever the price of corn may be, I can live; but rather bless God who has given you more than enough. Your prayer ought to be, “Give us this day our daily bread;” and remember, that whatever wealth you have, you must attribute your daily mercies as much to God as if you lived from hand to mouth; and sometimes that is a blessed way of living, when God gives his children the hand-basket portion, instead oi sending it in a mass. Bless God that he has sent an abundant harvest! O, fearful one, lift up thy head! and thou discontented one, be abased, and let thy discontent no more be known! The Jews always had a feast of tabernacles vdien the harvest time came. In the country they always have a “harvest home;” and why should not we? I want you all to have one this day. Rejoice! rejoice! rejoice! for the harvest is come: “Is it not wheat-harvest to-day?” Poor desponding soul, let all your doubts and fears be gone. “Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy waters shall be sure.’* That is one joyful harvest.

Now, the second joyful harvest is the harvest of every Christian. In one sense the Christian is the seed; in another, he is a sower. In one sense he is seed sown by God, which is to germinate, grow, and ripen till the great harvest time. In another sense, every Christian is a sower sent into the world to sow good seed, and to sow good seed only. I do not say that Christian men never sow any other seed than good seed. Sometimes, in nngnarded moments, they take garlic into their hands instead of wheat; and we may sow tares instead of corn. Christians sometimes make mistakes, and God sometimes suffers his people to fall, so that they sow sins; but the Christian never reaps his sins; Christ reaps them for him. He often has to have a decoction made of the bitter leaves of sin; but he never reaps the fruit of it. Christ has borne the punishment. Yet bear in mind, my brethren, if you and I sin against God, God will take our sm, and he will get an essence from it that will be bitter to our taste; though he does not make us eat the fruits, yet still he will make us grieve and sorrow over our crimes. But the Christian, as I have said, should be employed in sowing good seed, and as such he shall have a glorious harvest. In some sense or other the Christian must be sowing seed. If God calls him to the ministry, he is a seed-sower; if God calls him to the Sabbath-school, he is a seed-sower; whatever his office, he is a sower of seed. Here I stand. Sabbath after Sabbath, and on week-days too, and sow seed, broadcast, all over this immense field; I can not tell where my seed goes. Some are like barren ground, and they object to the seed that I sow. Let them; I have no objection that any man should do so. I am only responsible to God, whose servant I am. There are others, and my seed flills upon them, and brings forth a little fruit; but by-and-by, when the sun is up, because of persecution, they v.’ither away and they die. But I hope there are many here who are like the good ground that God has prepared, and when I scatter the seed abroad, it falls on good ground, and brings forth fruit to an abundant harvest. Ah! the minister has a joyful harvest, even in this world, when he sees souls converted. I have had a harvest time when I have led the sheep down to the washing of baptism; when I have seen

God’s people coming out from the mass of the world, and telling what the Lord has done for their souls. When God’s children are edified and built up, it is worth living for, and worth dying ten thousand deaths for, to be the means of saving one soul. What a joyful harvest it is when God gives us converted ones by tens and hundreds, and “adds to his church abundantly such as shall be saved.” Now I am like a farmer lust at this season of the year; I have got a good deal of wheat down, and I want to get it into the barn, for fear the rain comes and spoils it. I believe I have got a great many here, good pious Christian persons; but they will persist in standing out in the field. I want to get them into the barns. They are good yeople; but they do not like to make a profession and join the church. I want to get them into my Master’s granary, and to see Christians added to the church. I see some holding down their heads and saying, he means me. So I do. You ought before this to have joined Christ’s church; and unless you are fit to be gathered into Christ’s little garner here on earth, you have no right to anticipate being gathered into that greater garner which is in heaven.

Every Christian has his harvest. The Sabbath-school teacher has his harvest. He goes, and he toils, and he plows very stony ground often; but he shall have his harvest. O, poor laboring Sabbath-school teacher, hast thou seen no fruit yet? Dost thou say, “Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Cheer up, my brother, thou dost labor in a good cause; there must be some to do thy work. Hast thou seen no children converted? Well, fear not, you can not expect to see the seed spring up very early; but remember —

“Though seed he buried long m dust,
It sha’n’t deceive your hope;
The precious grain can ne’er be lost,
For God insures the crop.”

Go on sowing still, and thon shalt have a harvest when thou shalt see children converted. I have known some Sabbath-school teachers who could count a dozen or twenty, or thirty children who have one after another come to join the church, and know the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you should not live to see it on earth, remember you are only accountable for your labor, and not for your success. So still toil on! “Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it again after many days;” for God will not allow his word to be wasted’: “It shall not return unto him void: it shall accomplish that which he pleases.” But there is a poor mother who has been often sad. She has got a son or a daughter, and she has been always praying that God might convert their souls. Mother, thy son is an ungainly boy still; he grieves thy heart; still the hot tears scald thy cheeks on account of him. And thou, father, thou hast reproved him often; he is a wayward son, and he is still runnmg the downward road. Cease not to pray. O, my brethren and sisters, who are parents, you shall have a harvest I There was a boy once, a very sinful child, Vvdio barkened not to the counsel of his parents; but his mother prayed for him, and now he stands to preach to this congregation every Sabbath. And when his mother thinks of her first-born preaching the gospel, she reaps a glorious harvest, that makes her a glad woman. Now, fathers and mothers, such may be your case. However bad your children are at present, still press toward the throne of grace, and you shall have a harvest. What thinkest thou, mother, wouldst thou not rejoice to see thy son a minister of the gospel; thy daughter teaching and assisting in the cause of God? God will not sufier thee to pray, and thy prayers be unheeded. Young man, thy mother has been wrestling for thee a long time, and she has not won thy soul yet. What thinkest thou, thou defraudest thy mother of her harvest. If she had a little patch of ground, hard by her cottage, where she had sown some wheat, wouldst thou go and burn it? If she had a choice flower in her garden, wouldst thou go and trample it under foot? Thou art going on in the ways of the reprobate; thou art defrauding thy father and thy mother of their harvest. Perhaps there are some parents who are weeping over their sons and daughters, who are hardened and unconverted. God turn their hearts! for bitter is the doom of that man who goes to hell over the road that is washed by his mother’s tears, stumbles over his father’s reproofs, and tramples on those things which God has put in his way — his mother’s prayers and his flither’s sighs. God help that man who dares to do such a thing as that! And it is wondrous grace if he does help him.

You shall have a harvest, whatever you are doing. I trust yoa are all doing something. If I can not mention what your peculiar engagement is, I trust you are all serving God in some way; and you shall assuredly have a harvest wherever you are scattering your seed. But suppose the worst: if you should never live to see the harvest in this world, you shall have a harvest when you get to heaven. If you live and die a disappointed man, you shall not be disappointed in the next world. I think how surprised some of God’s people will be when they get to heaven. They will see their Master, and he will give them a crovrn. “Lord, what is that crown for?” “That crown is because thou didst give a cup of cold water to one of my disciples.” What! a crown for a cup of cold water? “Yes,” says the Master, “that is how I pay my servants. First I give them grace to give that cup of water; and then, having given them grace, I will give them a crown.” “Wonders of grace to God belong.” He that soweth liberally shall reap liberally; and he that soweth grudgingly shall reap sparingly. Ah! if there could be grief in heaven, I think it would be the grief of some Christians who have sown so very little. After all, how little the most of us ever sow. I know I sow but very little compared with what I might. How little any of you sow. Just add up how much you give to God in the year. I am afraid it would not come to a farthing per cent. Remember, you reap according to what you sow. O, my friends! what surprise some of you will feel when God pays you for sowing one single grain. The soil of heaven is rich in the extreme. If a farmer had such ground as there is in heaven, he would say, I must sow a great many acres of land; and so let us strive, for the more we sow, the more we shall reap in heaven. Yet remember, it is all of grace, and not of debt.

Now, beloved, I must very hastily mention the third joyful harvest. We have had the harvest of the field, and the harvest of the Christian. We are now to have another, and that is the harvest of Christ. Christ had his sowing times.

What bitter sowing times were they! Christ was one who went out, bearing jDrecious seed. O, picture Christ sowing the world! He sowed it with tears; he sowed it with drops of bloo’J; he sowed it with sighs; he sowed it with agony of heart; oid at last he sowed himself in the ground, to be the seed of a glorious crop. What a sowing time his was! He sowed m tears, in poverty, in sympathy, in grief, in agony, in woes, in suflering, and in death. He shall have a harvest too. Blessings on his name! Jehovah swears it; the everlasting predestination of the Almighty has settled that Christ shall have a harvest. He has sown, and he shall reap; he has scattered, and he shall win his yrize. “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days; and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.” My friends, Christ has begun to reap his harvest. Yea, every soul that is converted is part of his reward; every one who comes to the Lord is a part of it. Every soul that is brought out of the miry clay and set On the King’s highway, is a part of Christ’s crop. But he is going to reap more yet. There is another harvest coming, in the latter day, when he shall reap armsful at a time, and gather the sheaves into his garner. ‘Now men come to Christ in ones, and twos, and threes; but then they shall come in flocks, so that the church shall say. Who are these that come as doves to their windows?

There shall be a greater harvest time, when time shall be no more. Turn to the 14th chapter of Revelation and 13th verse: “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me. Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” They do not go before them, and win them heaven. “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud. Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” That was Christ’s harvest. Observe but one particular: when Christ comes to reap his field, he comes with a crown on. O, see that crowned reaper on his throne! There are the nations gathered together:

“They come, they come, the ransomed tribes,
Where’er they rest or roam;
They heard his voice in distant lands,
And hastened to their home.”

Theio they stand, one great army, before God. Then comes the crowned reaper from his throne: he takes his sharp sickle, and see him reap sheaf after sheaf, and he carries them up to the heavenly garner. Let ns ask the question of ourselves, whether we shall be among the reaped ones — the wheat of the Lord? Notice again, that there was first a harvest, and then a vintage. The harvest is the righteous; the vintage is the wicked. When the wicked are gathered, an angel gathers them; but Christ will not trust an angel to reap the righteous. “He that sat on the throne thrust in his sickle.” O, my soul! when thou coniest to die, Christ will himself come after thee; when thou art to be cut down, he that sits upon the throne will cut thee down with a very sharp sickle, in order that he may do it as easily as possible. He will be the reaper himself; no reaper will be allowed to gather Christ’s saints in, but Christ the King of saints. O! will it not be a joyful harvest, when all the chosen race, every one of them, shall be gathered in? There is a little shriveled grain of wheat there, that has been growing somewhere on the headland, and that will be there. There are a great many who have been hanging down their heads, heavy with grain, and they will be there too. They wuU all be gathered in:

“His honor is engaged to save
The meanest of his sheep;
All that his heavenly Father gave,
His hands securely keep.”

But now we are obliged to turn to the three sad harvests. Alas, alas! the world was once like an ^olian harp; every wind that blew upon it gave forth melody. Now the strings are all unstrung, and they are full of discord, so that when wo have the strains of joy, we must have the deep bass of grief to come after it.

The first sad hanest is the harvest of death. We are atl living, and what for? For the grave. I have sometimes sat me down, and had a reverie like this: I have thought — man, what is he? He grows, he grows, till he comes to his prime, and when he is forty-five, if God spare him, perhaps he has then gained the prime of life. What does he do then? He continues where he is a little while, and then he goes down the hill; and if he keeps on living, what is it for? To die But there are many chances to one, as the world has it, that he will not live to be seventy. He dies very early. Do not we all live to die? But none shall die till they are ripe Death never reaps his corn green; he never cuts his corn till it is ripe. The wicked die; but they are always ripe for hell when they die: the righteous die; but they are always ripe for heaven when they die. That poor thief there, who had not believed in Jesus perhaps an hour before he died, he was as ripe as a seventy years’ saint. The saint is always ready for glory whenever death, the reaper, comes; and the wicked are always ripe for hell whenever God pleases to send for them. O, that great reaper! he sweeps through the earth, and mows his hundreds and thousands down. It is all still; death makes no noise about his movements, and he treads with velvet footfall over the earth — that ceaseless mower, none can resist him. He is irresistible, and he mows, and mows, and cuts them down. Sometimes he stops and whets his scythe; he dips his scythe in blood, and then he mows us down with war; then he takes his Avhetstone of cholera, and mows down more than ever. Still he cries. More! more! more! Ceaseless that work keejDS on. Wondrous mower! Wondrous reaper! O, when thou comest to reap me, I can not resist thee; for I must fall like others: when thou comest, I shall have nothing to say to thee. Like a blade of corn, I must stand motionless, and thou must cut me down! But, O! may I be prepared for thy scythe! May the Lord stand by me, and comfort me, and cheer me; and may I find that death is an angel of life — that death is the portal of heaven; that it is the outward porch of the great temple of eternity; that it is the vestibule of glory!

There is a second sad harvest, and that is the harvest that the wicked man has to reap. Thus saith the voice of inspiration, “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap.” ‘Now, there is a harvest that every wicked man has to reap in this world. No man ever sins against his bodi, without reaping a harvest for it. The young man says, I have sinned with impunity: stay, thou young man! go there, to that hospital, and see the beings writhing in their disease. See that staggering, bloated wretch, and I tell thee. Stay thy hand, lest thou become like him! Wisdom bids thee stop; for thy steps lead down to hell. If thou enterest into the house of the strange woman, thou shalt reap a harvest. There is a harvest that every man reaps if he sins against his felloios. The man who sins against his fellow-creature shall reap a harvest. Some men walk through the world like knights, wdth spurs on their heels, and think they may tread on whom they please; but they shall find their mistake. He who sins against others, sins against himself — that is, nature. It is a law in nature, that a man can not hurt his fellows without hurting himself. Now, you who cause grief to others’ minds, do not think the grief wdll end there: you will have to reap a harvest even here.

Again, a man can not sin against his estate without reaping the effects of it. The miserly wretch who hoards up his gold, he sins against his gold. It becomes cankered, and from those golden sovereigns he will have to reap a harvest; yes, that miserly wretch, sitting up at night, and straining his weary eyes to count his gold, that man reaps his harvest. And so does the young spendthrift: he will reap his harvest when all his treasure is exhausted. It is said of the prodigal, that “no man gave unto him” — none of those that he used to entertain — and so the prodigal shall find it: no man shall give any thing unto him. Ah! but the worst harvest will be that of those wdio sin against the church of Christ. I would not that a man should sin against his body; I would not that a man should sin against his estate; I would not that a man should sin against his fellows; but most of all, I would not have him touch Christ’s church. He that touches one of God’s people, touches the apple of his eye. When I have read of some people finding fault with the servants of the Lord, I have thought within myself, I would not do so. It is the greatest insult to a man to speak ill of his children. You speak ill of God’s children, and you will be rewarded for it in everlasting punishment. There is not a single one of God’s family that God does not love, and if you touch one of them, he will have vengeance on you. Nothing puts a man on his mettle like touching his children; and if you touch God’s church, you will have the direst vengeance of all. The hottest flames of hell are for those who touch God’s children. Go on, sinner! laugh at religion if thou pleasest; but know that it is the blackest of sins in all the catalogue of crime. God will forgive any thing sooner than that; and though that is not unpardonable, yet, if unrepented of, it will meet the greatest punishment. God can not bear that his elect should be touched; and if you do so, it is the greatest crime you can commit.

Now we must conclude, by simply mentioning the third sad harvest; and that is the harvest of Almighty wrath, wdieu the wicked at last are gathered in. In the 14th chapter of Revelation, you will see that God commanded the angel to gather the grapes, and they were all put into the wine-press together, and after that the angel came and trod them down until the blood ran out, so that it was up to the horses’ bridles for the space of one hundred and twenty miles. Wonderful figure to express the wrath of God! Suppose, then, some great winepress, in which our bodies are put like grapes, and suppose a mighty giant comes and treads us all under foot, that is the idea — that the wicked shall be cast together, and an angel shall crush them under foot until the blood runs out up to the horses’ bridles. May God grant of his sovereign mercy that you and I may never reap such a harvest as that: that God may never reap us in that fearful harvest! but that rather we may be written among the saints of the Lord.

Concluding now, let me speak to the children of God once more; for that is the last thought I have upon my mind. You shall have a harvest in due season if you faint not. Soav on, brother — sow on, sister; and in due time thou shalt reap an abundant harvest. Let me tell you one thing before you go away, if the seed thou hast sown a long while has never come up. I was told once, “When you sow seeds in your garden, put them in a little water over night; they will grow all the better for it.” So, my brother, if thou hast been sowing thy seed, put them in tears, and it will make thy seed germinate the better. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” Steep your seed in tears, and then put it into the ground, and you shall reap in joy. No bird can devour that seed; no bird can hold it in its mouth. ISTo worm can eat it, for worms never eat seeds that are sown in tears. Go thy way, and when thou weepest most, then it is that thou sowest best. When most cast down, thou art doing best. If thou comest to the prayer meeting, and hast not a word to say, keep on praying, do not give it up, for thou often prayest best when thou thinkest thou prayest worst. Go on, and in due season, by God’s mighty grace, you shall reap, if you faint not.