Spring in the Garden

Hat which is sown in the garden springs up from out of the ground because there is vitality in it. The life is dormant for a while, but it displays itself in due season. There is at the appointed hour for all the buried seeds a bursting of grave clothes,a rending of sepulchres, and an upheaval of the earth, and then in resurrection freshness comes forth the blade, to be succeeded by the ear, and that by the full corn in the ear. Even so the truth of God is a living and incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever; or, to use another figure, it is as the teil tree and as the oak, whose substance is in them when they lose their leaves. It is not possible that the truth of God should perish; even if it be cut down, at the scent of water it will bud and send forth new shoots. Life in garden seeds may be destroyed, under certain influences the life-germ may perish, but the living truth of God is immortal and unconquerable. The Lord has Himself declared that it abideth for ever: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever,” Therefore do we assuredly look for a blessed spring time, we wait to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living; yea, we expect to see the universal reign of the everlasting Gospel.

But seed springs up not only because of its own vitality, but because of its surrounding circumstances. Put the seed away in the mummy’s hand, and hide it in the pyramid, and though it may be vital, still it is not quickened into growth. The seed under a clod waits awhile till all its surroundings become propitious, and then it begins to germinate. The moisture and the warmth co-operate, and the soil begins to yield its nourishment to the little life-germ. So we may rest assured that God will make all things propitious in His providence to the growth of His own truth. He knows under what conditions religious thought will spring up in the minds of men, and He can create those conditions; He has created them, and He will! The dews, are they not in His hand? The rains, doth He not pour them forth from His palm? The sunlight, is it not the smiling of His face; and the heat, is it not the breath of His love? Is not the residue of the Spirit with Him? Can He not open the bottles of heaven? Is He not the Father of Lights also, who can pour forth the brightness of His grace upon men’s hearts? We may rest assured that because all conditions are in the hand of God, and He can order them according to His own will, He will cause the seed which He has sown in the earth to spring up. Why, methinks I may say of the Gospel, that, under the Divine superintendence, everything is in league with it. They fight from heaven — the stars in their courses fight for the Gospel of Jesus. For it winds blow and tempests rage. It is in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field are at peace with it. The stupendous wheels of Providence as they revolve are full of eyes, and all those eyes are fixed upon Christ and upon His cross, and as they turn upon their mystic axles, they revolve for ever with one design; methought I heard them speak as they move onward, and a voice from among them said, “Let the name of God be glorious, and let the Christ of God be king among the people.” The Gospel must spread therefore; it is, in itself, vital and energetic, and the Lord of hosts ordereth all things to secure its growth.

But the corn comes not up out of the earth because it is vital, or because of its surroundings merely, for, as we believe, there is the actual power of God at work throughout Nature. We have never been able to agree with the theory that Nature once started, works of itself, like a clock which has been wound up. We believe that its operations conform to certain laws, but there must be some power to carry out the laws, or else they would be a dead letter. Everything that exists is a continuous emanation from the Most High, and everything that is done anywhere in the world, God lendeth the strength and giveth the power whereby it is done. If we were to see performed upon this stage, in a single moment, the turning of one grain of wheat into a full-grown ear, we should exclaim, “Wonderful!” and regard it as a miracle. But if God is pleased to take some few months in performing the same operation, it is not the less wonderful. If spring came but once in a century, what wonder it would excite in all hearts! If it had never happened but once, it would be considered to be the crown of miracles, and sceptics would ridicule those who believed in its possibility; yet God creates our harvests as surely as if there never had been a harvest before, and: He forms our ripe fields by His omnipotence as truly even as He fashioned man in the Garden of Eden, perfect at once!

God is alive, and God is at work; He hath not betaken Himself into His secret chambers and shut

the door behind Him, and left us orphans in the world, and the earth without a ruler and without a friend! He worketh everywhere; in the deepest caverns of the sea and among the highest pinnacles of the heavens: and there, He worketh among the violets of yonder bank, and the primroses which peer forth from amidst the sere leaves around the underwood of the copse: and there also, where the bees begin to hum, the lark to sing, and the lambs to play.

It is God that sendeth “Spring, the Awakener,” to fill earth’s bosom with flowers. He doeth it all! And it is because of this that we expect the Gospel to flourish — not merely because the Word of God is vital, and because God will order Providence in its behalf, but because He is at work in it — mysteriously at work, it is true, but certainly at work, for the Spirit of the living God which was given at Pentecost has never gone back to heaven; He is here still, and He that wrought amongst the crowds of the streets of Jerusalem and made them cry out, “Sirs, what must we do to be saved?” is working in our cities even at this day. Where Jesus Christ is preached, His Spirit is pledged to be present. God’s Spirit worketh evermore. He is breaking hard hearts as the winter pulverises the clods; He is melting stubborn wills into obedience as the vernal showers soften the hard earth; and He is awakening the young germs of hope, and prayer, and desire, just as the warm sunlight is calling up the green blades and the flowers. The Spirit of God worketh ever, O ye adversaries of the Gospel, it is not the Gospel alone that ye have to stand against, but the God over all, blessed for ever, omnipotent and eternal, is engaged in the battle! If the Gospel be His sword ye may well tremble at its edge, but ye may be much more afraid when ye remember the arm which wields that deadly weapon, which can divide asunder soul and spirit. The Gospel is His arrow and His bow, but He who draws that bow and directs that arrow is the same God who launches thunderbolts in the day of tempest, and touches the hills and they smoke. The God of the Gospel is He who wheels the earth in its orbit, and marshals all the stars, Jehovah invisible, but also almighty, is engaged to show Himself strong for the Gospel, therefore do we expect victory. Despite the times of depression and of sorrow, days of refreshing must come from the presence of the Lord. The spring must follow the winter; “As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and peace to spring forth before all the nations.”