“The Mountains Shall Drop Sweet Wine”
He promise seems to convey the idea of surprising ingatherings; and I think there is also
the idea of amazing rapidity. How quickly the crops succeed each other. Between the harvest and the ploughing there is a season even in our country; in the East it is a longer period. But here you find that no sooner has the reaper ceased his work, or scarce has he ceased it, ere the ploughman follows at his heels. This is a rapidity that is contrary to the course of Nature; still it is quite consistent with grace. Our old Baptist churches in the country treat young converts with what they call summering and wintering. Any young believer who wants to join the church in summer, must wait till the winter, and he is put off from time to time, till it is sometimes five or six years before they admit him; they want to try him, and see whether he is fit to unite with such pious souls as they are. Indeed, among us all there is a tendency to imagine that conversion must be a slow work — that as the snail creeps slowly on its way, so must grace move very leisurely in the heart of man. We have come to believe that there is more true divinity in stagnant pools than in lightning flashes. We cannot believe for a moment in a quick method of travelling to the kingdom of heaven. Every man
* Amos ix.
who goes there must go on crutches and limp all the way; but as for the swift beasts, as for the chariots whose axles are hot with speed, we do not quite understand and comprehend that.
Now, mark, here is a promise given of a revival, and when that revival shall be fulfilled this will be one ot the signs of it — the marvellous growth in grace of those who are converted. The young convert shall that very day come forward to make a profession of his faith; perhaps before a week has passed over his head you will hear him publicly defending the cause of Christ, and ere many months have gone you shall see him standing up to tell to others what God has done for his soul. There is no need that the pulse of the Church should for ever be so slow. The Lord can quicken her heart, so that her pulse shall throb as rapidly as the pulse of time itself; her floods shall be as the rushing of the Kishon when it swept the hosts of Sisera in its fury. As the fire from heaven shall the Spirit rush from the skies, and as the sacrifice which instantly blazed to heaven, so shall the church burn with holy and glorious ardour. She shall no longer drive heavily with her wheels torn away, but as the chariot of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, she shall devour the distance in her haste. That seems to me to be one of the promises of the text — the rapidity of the work of grace, so that the plougher shall overtake the reaper.
God does not promise that there shall be fruitful crops without labour; but here we find mention made of ploughmen, reapers, treaders of grapes, and sowers of seed; and all these persons are girt with singular energy. The ploughman does not wait, because, saith he, the season has not yet come for him to plough, but
seeing that God is blessing the land, he has his plough ready, and no sooner is one harvest shouted home than he is ready to plough again. And so with the sower; he has not to prepare his basket and to collect his seed; but while he hears the shouts of the vintage, he is ready to go out to work.
Now one sign of a true revival, and indeed an essential part of it, is the increased activity of God’s labourers. Why, time was when our ministers thought that preaching twice on Sunday was the hardest work to which a man could be exposed. Poor souls, they could not think of preaching on a week-day, or if there was once a lecture, they had bronchitis, were obliged to go to Jerusalem, and lay by, for they would soon be dead if they were to work too hard. I never believed in the hard work of preaching yet. But the cry used to be, that our ministers were hardly done by, they were to be pampered and laid by, done up in velvet, and only to be brought out to do a little work occasionally, and then to be pitied when that work was done. I do not hear anything of that talk nowadays. I meet with my brethren in the ministry who are‘able to preach day after day, day after day, and are not half so fatigued as they were; and I saw a brother minister who has been having meetings in his church every day, and the people have been so earnest that they will keep him very often from six o’clock in the evening till two in the morning. “Oh!” said one of the members, “our minister will kill himself.” “Not he,” said I, “that is the kind of work that will kill no man. It is preaching to a sleepy congregation that kills good ministers, but not preaching to earnest people.” So “Lhe Mountains shall Drop Sweet Wine.” 203
when I saw him, his eyes were sparkling, and I said to him, “Brother, you do not look like a man who is being killed.” “Killed, my brother,” said he, “why I am living twice as much as I did before; I was never so happy, never so hearty, never so well.” Said he, “I sometimes lack my rest, and want my sleep, when my people keep me up so late, but it will never hurt me; indeed,” he said, “I should like to die of such a disease as that — the disease of being so greatly blessed.’ There was a specimen before me of the ploughman who overtook the reaper, — of one who sowed seed, who was treading on the heels of the men who were gathering in the vintage. And the like activity we have lived to see in the church of Christ. Did you ever know so much doing in the Christian world before? There are grey-headed men around me who have known the church of Christ sixty years, and I think they can bear me witness that they never knew such life, such vigour and activity, as there is at present. Everybody seems to have a mission, and everybody is doing it. There may be a great many sluggards, but they do not come across my path now. I used to be always kicking at them, and always being kicked for doing so. But now there is nothing to kick at — everyone is at work — Church of England, Independents, Methodists, and Baptists — there is not a single squadron that is behindhand; they have all their guns ready, and are standing shoulder to shoulder, ready to make a tremendous charge against the common enemy. This leads me to hope, since I see the activity of God’s ploughmen and vine-dressers, that there is a great revival coming, — that God will bless us, and that right early.
A time of revival shall be followed by very extraordinary conversion. But, albeit that, in the time of revival, grace is put in extraordinary places, and singular individuals are converted, yet these are nota bit behind the usual converts; for if you notice, the text does not say, “the mountains shall drop wine” merely, but they “shall drop szweet wine.” It does not say that the hills shall send forth little streams; but “all the hills shall melt.” When sinners, profligate and debauched persons, are converted to God, we say, “Well, it is a wonderful thing, but I do not suppose they will be very first-class Christians.” The most wonderful thing is, that these are the best Christians alive; that the wine which God brings from the hills is sweet wine; that when the hills do melt they all melt. The most extraordinary ministers of any time, have been most extraordinary sinners before conversion. We might never have had a John Bunyan, if it had not have been for the profanity of Elstow Green; we might never have heard of a John Newton, if it had not have been for his wickedness on shipboard. I mean he would not have known the depths of Satan, nor the trying experience, nor even the power of Divine grace, if he had not been suffered wildly to stray, and then wondrously to be brought back. These great sinners are not a whit behind those who have been trained under pious influences, and so have been brought into the church. Always in revival you will find this to be the case, that the converts are not inferior to the best of the converts of ordinary seasons — that the Romanist, and the men who have never heard the Gospel, when they are converted, are as true in their faith, as hearty in their love, as accurate in their knowledge, and as zealous in their efforts, as the best of persons who have ever been brought to Christ. “The mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.”
God does not say zf men ave willing; but He gives an absolute promise of a blessing. As much as to say, “J have the key of men’s hearts; 7 can induce the ploughman to overtake the reaper; J am master of the soil — however hard and rocky it may be / can break it, and I can make it fruitful.” When God promises to bless His church and to save sinners, He does not add, “If the sinners be willing to be saved.” No, great God! Thou leadest free will in sweet captivity, and Thy free grace is all triumphant. Man as a free will, and God does not violate it; but the free will is sweetly bound with fetters of the Divine love till it becomes more free than it ever was before. The Lord, when He means to save sinners, does not stop to ask them whether they mean to be saved, but like a rushing mighty wind the Divine influence sweeps away every obstacle; the unwilling heart bends before the potent gale of grace, and sinners who would not yield are made to yield by God. I know this, if the Lord willed it, there is no man so desperately wicked that he would not be made now to seek for mercy; however infidel he might be, however rooted in his prejudices against the Gospel, Jehovah hath but to will it, and it is done. Into thy dark heart, O thou who hast never seen the light, would the light stream; if He did but say, “Let there be light,” there would be light. Thou mayest bend thy fist and lift up thy mouth against Jehovah; but He is thy Master yet — thy Master to destroy thee, if thou goest on in thy wickedness; but thy Master to save thee now, to change thy heart and turn thy will, as He turneth the rivers of water.
If it were not for this doctrine, I wonder where the ministry would be. Old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon. The power of our preaching is nought — it can do nothing in the conversion of men by itself; men are hardened, obdurate, indifferent; but the power of grace is greater than the power of eloquence or the power of earnestness, and once let that power be put forth, and what can stand against it? Divine Omnipotence is the doctrine of a revival. We may not see it in ordinary days, by reason of the coldness of our hearts; but we must see it when these extraordinary works of grace are wrought. Have you never heard the Eastern fable of the dervish, who wished to teach to a young prince the fact of the existence of a God? The fable hath it, that the young prince could not see any proof of the existence of a first cause; so the dervish brought a little plant and set it before him, and in his sight that little plant grew up, blossomed, brought forth fruit, and became a towering tree in an hour. The young man lifted up his hands in wonder, and he said, “God must have done this.” “Qh, but,” said the teacher, “thou sayest God has done this because it is done in an hour; hath He not done it when it is accomplished in twenty years?” It was the same work in both cases; it was only the rapidity that astonished his pupil. So when we see the church gradually built up and converted, we lose the sense, perhaps, of a present God; but when the Lord causes the tree suddenly to grow ‘from a sapling to a strong, tall monarch of the forest, then we say, “This is God.”
We are all blind and stupid in measure, and we want to see sometimes some of these quick upgoings, these extraordinary motions of Divine influence, before we will fully understand God’s power. Learn, then, O
church of God to-day, this great lesson of the nothingness of man, and the Eternal All of God. Learn, disciples of Jesus, to rest on Him: look for your success to Hzs power,and while you make your efforts, trust not in your efforts, but in the Lord Jehovah. If ye have progressed. slowly, give Him thanks for progress; but if now He pleases to give you a marvellous increase, multiply your songs, and sing unto Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will.
The duty of the church is not to be measured by her success. It is as much the minister’s duty to preach the Gospel in adverse times as in propitious seasons. We are not to think, if God withholds the dew, that we are to withhold the plough. We are not to imagine that, if unfruitful seasons come, we are therefore to cease from sowing our seed. Our business is with act, not with result. The church has to do her duty even though that duty should bring her no present reward. “If they hear thee not, Son of man, if they perish they sall perish, but their blood will I not require at thine hands.” If we sow the seed, and the birds of the air devour it, we have done what we were commanded to do, and the duty is accepted even though the birds devour the seed. We may expect to see a blessed result, but even if it did not come we must not cease from duty. But while this is true so far, it must nevertheless be a Divine and holy stimulant to a Gospel labourer, to know that God is making him successful. And in the present day we have a better prospect of success than we ever had, and we should consequently work the harder. When a tradesman begins business with a little shop at the corner, he waits awhile to see whether he will have any customers. By-and-bye his little shop is crowded; he has a name; he findshe is making money. What does he do? He enlarges his premises; the back yard is taken in and covered over; there are extra men employed; still the business increases, but he will not invest all his capital in it till he sees to what extent it will pay. It still increases, and the next house is taken, and perhaps the next: he says, “This is a paying concern, and therefore I will increase it.” I am using commercial maxims, but they are commonsense rules. There are, in these days, happy opportunities. There is a noble business to be done for Christ. Where you used to invest a little capital, a little effort, and a little donation, invest more. There never was such heavy interest to be made as now. It shall be paid back in the results cent per cent; ’ nay, beyond all that you expected you shall see God’s work prospering. If a farmer knew that a bad year was coming, he would perhaps only sow an acre or two; but if some prophet could tell him, “Farmer, there will be such a harvest next year as there never was,” he would say, “I will plough up my grass lands, I will stub up those hedges; every inch of ground I will sow.” So do you. There is a wondrous harvest coming. Plough up your headlands; root up your hedges; break up your fallow ground, and sow, even amongst the thorns. Ye know not which shall prosper, this or that; but ye may hope that they shall be alike good. Enlarged effort should always follow an increased hope of success. When revival comes, an instrumentality will still be wanted. The ploughman is wanted, even after the harvest, and the treader of grapes is wanted, however plentiful the vintage; the greater the success the more need of instrumentality. The ploughman shall never be so much esteemed as when he follows after the reaper, and the sower of seed never so much valued as when he comes at the heels of those who tread the grapes. The glory which God puts upon instrumentality should encourage you to use it.