Marching Orders, No. V
“Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.” — Luke x. 2.
Look at these two “therefores.” The first gives the reason for one of our Master’s sayings; the second for one of His commands.
1. The Lord Jesus sent out the seventy: not to go where they liked; not to take their chance of lighting on the right place or persons. Not to begin His work where it might or might not be followed up. But He sent them before His face into every city and place whither He Y udould come. Unto Him should the gathering of the people be, and the coming presence of the Lord of the harvest proved that a harvest was waiting fur the reapers. “Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.” Is it not encouraging to think that He, in whose ways is continuance (Isa. lxiv. 5), works in the same way now, and sends us, whether at home or abroad, into the places whither He, Himself, is coming? Whether an English or American Sunday School, or an Indian city, if the Master Himself sends His servant or His handmaid into it, it is because He, Himself, will come thither, blessing His reapers and receiving His sheaves. What an honor to be one of the “few” forerunners of the King, the herald of a silent yet real and mighty advent of the Very God of Very God!
II. Because the harvest is great and the laborers few, the Lord Jesus said, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.” If the fact remains, the command remains. And the fact does indeed remain. And we have no excuse in not knowing it. We, the readers of the Church Missionary Gleaner and of Woman s Work, know how great the harvest is, and we know how few the laborers are. We cannot say, “Behold, we knew it not.” The need is recognized, and the Lord has put the supply within reach of the voice of prayer and the hand of faith. He has told us what to do, and so now the responsibility rests upon us.
7o MARCHING ORDERS.
Perhaps we read these pages and we sorrow a little for the burden of the King of princes, and wish the accounts were more glowing. But we do not turn the passing emotion into obedient and faithful and purposeful prayer, and so our sluggard soul desireth and hath nothing. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged7’; but if we fail as His “helpers” in this easiest and most graciously appointed share of His glorious work, how shall we hope to share in our Master’s harvest joy, and what claim shall we have to join in the great harvest Hallelujah?