 CHAPTER XI. And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself. First the blade, then the ear. After that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. CHAPTER IV. V. 26-29 There is a lesson for laborers together with God. It is a parable for all who are concerned in the kingdom of God. It will be of little value to those who are in the kingdom of darkness, for they are not bidden to sow the good seed. Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes? But all who are commissioned to scatter seed for the royal husbandman will be glad to know how the harvest is preparing for him whom they serve. Listen, then, ye that sow beside all waters, ye that with holy diligence seek to fill the garners of heaven. Listen, and may the Spirit of God speak into your ears as you are able to bear it. We shall first learn from our text. What we can do and what we cannot do. Let this stand as our first head. So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground. This the gracious worker can do. And the seed should spring and grow up. He knoweth not how. This is what he cannot do. Seed once sown is beyond human jurisdiction, and man can neither make it spring nor grow. Yet ere long the worker comes in again, when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puteth in the sickle. We can reap in due season, and it is both our duty and our privilege to do so. You see, then, that there is a place for the worker at the beginning, and though there is no room for him in the middle passage, yet another opportunity is given him further on, when that which he sowed has actually yielded fruit. Notice, then, that we can sow. Any man who has received the knowledge of the grace of God in his heart can teach others. I include under the term man, all who know the Lord, be they male or female. We cannot all teach alike, for all have not the same gifts. To one is given one talent, and to another ten. Neither have we all the same opportunities, for one lives in obscurity, and another has far-reaching influence. Yet there is not within the family of God an infant hand which may not drop its own tiny seed into the ground. There is not a man among us who needs to stand idle in the marketplace, for a work suitable to his strength is waiting for him. There is not a saved woman who is left without a holy task. Let her do it and win the approving word. She hath done what she could. We need never quarrel with God because we cannot do everything. If he only permits us to do this one thing, for sowing the good seed is a work which will need all our wit, our strength, our love, our care. Holy seed sowing should be adopted as our highest pursuit, and it will be no inferior object for the noblest life. You will need heavenly teaching that you may carefully select the wheat and keep it free from the darnal of error. You will require instruction to winnow out of it your own thoughts and opinions, for these may not be according to the mind of God. We are not saved by our word, but by God s word. We need grace to learn the gospel right, and to teach the whole of it. To different men, we must, with discretion, bring forward that part of the word of God which will best bear upon their consciences, for much may depend upon the word being in season. Having selected the seed, we shall have plenty of work if we go forth and so it broadcasts everywhere. For every day brings its opportunity, and every company furnishes its occasion. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand. Sow beside all waters. Still, wise sowers discover favorable opportunities for sowing, and gladly seize upon them. There are times when it would clearly be a waste to sow, for the soil could not receive it. It is not in a fit condition. After a shower, or before a shower, or at some such time as he that hath studied husbandry prefers, then must we be up and doing. While we are to work for God always, yet there are seasons when it were casting pearls before swine to talk of holy things, and there are other times when to be silent would be a great sin. Sluggards in the time for plowing and sowing are sluggards indeed, for they not only waste the day, but throw away the year. If you watch for souls and use hours of happy vantage and moments of sacred softening, you will not complain of the scanty space allowed for agency. Even should you never be called to water or to reap, your office is wide enough if you fulfill the work of the sower. For little though it seemed to teach the simple truth of the Gospel. Yet it is essential. How shall men hear without a teacher? Servants of God, the seed of the word, is not like thistle down, which is borne by every wind. But the wheat of the kingdom needs a human hand to sow it. And without such agency it will not enter into men's hearts. Neither can it bring forth fruit to the glory of God. The preaching of the Gospel is the necessity of every age. God grant that our country may never be deprived of it. Even if the Lord should send us a famine of bread and of water, may he never send us a famine of the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and how can there be hearing if there is no teaching? Scatter ye, scatter ye, then, the seed of the kingdom. For this is essential to the harvest. This seed should be sown often. For many are the foes of the wheat, and if you repeat not your sowing, you may never see a harvest. The seed must be sown everywhere, too. For there are no choice corners of the world that you can afford to let alone, in the hope that they will be self-productive. You may not leave the rich and intelligent under the notion that surely the Gospel will be found among them. For it is not so. The pride of life leads them away from God. You may not leave the poor and illiterate and say surely they will of themselves feel their need of Christ. Not so. They will sink from degradation to degradation, unless you uplift them with the Gospel. No tribe of man, no peculiar constitution of the human mind, may be neglected by us. But everywhere we must preach the word. In season and out of season. I have heard that Captain Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator, in whatever part of the earth he landed, took with him a little packet of English seeds, and scattered them in suitable places. He would leave the boat and wander up from the shore. He said nothing, but quietly scattered the seeds wherever he went, so that he belted the world with the flowers and herbs of his native land. Imitate him wherever you go, so spiritual seed in every place that your foot shall tread upon. Let us now think of what you cannot do. You cannot, after the seed has left your hand, cause it to put forth life. I am sure you cannot make it grow, for you do not know how it grows. The text saith, and the seed should spring and grow up. He knoweth not how. That which is beyond the range of our knowledge is certainly beyond the reach of our power. Can you make a seed germinate? You may place it under circumstances of damp and heat, which will cause it to swell and break forth with a shoot. But the germination itself is beyond you. How is it done? We know not. After the germ has been put forth, can you make it further grow, and develop its life into leaf and stem? No, that too is out of your power. And when the green grassy blade has been succeeded by the ear, can you ripen it? It will be ripened, but can you do it? You know you cannot. You have no finger in the actual process, though you may promote the conditions under which it is carried on. Life is a mystery. Growth is a mystery. Ripening is a mystery. And these three mysteries are as fountains sealed against all intrusion. How comes it that there is within the ripe seed the preparations for another sowing and another growth? What is this vital principle? This secret reproducing energy. Knowest thou anything about this? The philosopher may talk about chemical combinations, and he may proceed to quote analogies from this and that. But still the growth of the seed remains a secret. It springs up. He knoweth not how. Certainly this is true of the rise and progress of the life of God in the heart. It enters the soul, and roots itself we know not how. Naturally men hate the word, but it enters, and it changes their hearts, so that they come to love it. Yet we know not how. Their whole nature is renewed, so that instead of reproducing sin, it yields repentance, faith, and love. But we know not how. How the spirit of God deals with the mind of man? How he creates the new heart and the right spirit? How we are begotten again unto a lively hope? We cannot tell. The Holy Ghost enters into us. We hear not his voice. We see not his light. We feel not his touch. Yet he worketh and effectual work upon us, which we are not long in perceiving. We know that the work of the spirit is a new creation, a resurrection, a quickening from the dead. But all these words are only covers to our utter ignorance of the mode of his working, with which it is not in our power to meddle. We do not know how he performs his miracles of love, and not knowing how he works, we may be quite sure that we cannot take the work out of his hands. We cannot create. We cannot quicken. We cannot transform. We cannot regenerate. We cannot save. This work of God, having proceeded in the growth of the seed, what next? We can reap the ripe ears. After a season, God the Holy Spirit uses his servants again. As soon as the living seed has produced first of all the blade of thought, and afterwards the green ear of conviction, and then faith, which is as full corn in the ear. Then the Christian worker comes in for further service, for he can reap. When the fruit is brought forth immediately he puteth in the sickle. This is not the reaping of the last great day, for that does not come within the scope of the parable, which evidently relates to a human sower and reaper. The kind of reaping which the Savior here intends is that which he referred to when he said to his disciples, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. After he had been sowing the seed in the hearts of the Samaritans, and it had sprung up, so that they began to evince faith in him, the Lord Jesus cried, the fields are white to harvest. The apostle saith, one soweth and another reapeth. Our Lord said to the disciples, I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor. Is there not a promise? In due season we shall reap if we faint not. Christian workers begin their harvest work by watching for signs of faith in Christ. They are eager to see the blade and delighted to mark the ripening ear. They often hope that men are believers, but they long to be sure of it, and when they judge that at last the fruit of faith is put forth, they begin to encourage to congratulate and to comfort. They know that the young believer needs to be housed in the barn of Christian fellowship, that he may be saved from a thousand perils. No wise farmer leaves the fruit of the field long exposed to the hail which might beat it out, or to the mildew which might destroy it, or to the birds which might devour it. Evidently no believing man should be left outside of the garner of holy fellowship. He should be carried into the midst of the church with all the joy which attends the home-bringing of sheaves. The worker for Christ watches carefully, and when he discerns that his time is come, he begins at once to fetch in the converts that may be cared for by the brotherhood, separated from the world, screened from temptation, and laid up for the Lord. He is diligent to do it at once, because the text saith, immediately he puteth in the sickle. He does not wait for months in cold suspicion. He is not afraid that he shall encourage too soon when faith is really present. He comes with a word of promise, and the smile of brotherly love at once, and he says to the new believer, have you confessed your faith? Is not the time come for an open confession? Hath not Jesus bitten the believer to be baptized? If you love him, keep his commandments. He does not rest till he has introduced the convert to the communion of the faithful. For our work, beloved, is but half done when men are made disciples and baptized. We have then to encourage, to instruct, to strengthen, to console, and succor in all times of difficulty and danger. What saith the Saviour? Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. Observe then the sphere and limit of agency. We can introduce the truth to men, but that truth the Lord himself must bless. The living and growing of the word within the soul is of God alone. When the mystic work of growth is done, we are able to garner the saved ones in the church. For Christ to be formed in men, the hope of glory is not of our working. That remains with God. But when Jesus Christ is formed in them to discern the image of the Saviour and to say, come in, thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standeth thou without. This is our duty and delight. To create the divine life is God's. To cherish it is ours. To cause the hidden life to grow is the work of the Lord. To see the uprising and development of that life, and to harvest it is the work of the faithful. Even as it is written, when the fruit is brought forth immediately he puteth in the sickle because the harvest is come. This, then, is our first lesson. We see what we can do and what we cannot do. Our second head is like unto the first and consists of what we can know and what we cannot know. First, what we can know. We can know when we have sown the good seed of the word that it will grow, for God has promised that it shall do so. Not every grain in every place, for some will go to the bird and some to the worm and some to be scorched by the sun. But as a general rule, God's word shall not return unto him void. It shall prosper in the thing where too he hath sent it. This we can know and we can know that the seed when once it takes root will continue to grow, that it is not a dream or a picture that will disappear, but a thing of force and energy which will advance from a grassy blade to corn in the ear. And under God's blessing will develop to actual salvation and be as the full corn in the ear. God helping and blessing it, our work of teaching will not only lead men to thought and conviction, but to conversion and eternal life. We also can know, because we are told so, that the reason for this is mainly because there is life in the word. In the word of God itself, there is life. For it is written, the word of God is quick and powerful, that is living and powerful. It is the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth forever. It is the nature of living seeds to grow and the reason why the word of God grows in men's hearts is because it is the living word of the living God and where the word of a king is, there is power. We know this because the scriptures teach us so. Is it not written, of his own will begat he us by the word of truth? Moreover, the earth which is here the type of the man bringeth forth fruit of herself. We must mind what we are at in expounding this, for human hearts do not produce faith of themselves. They are as hard rock on which the seed perishes. But it means this, that as the earth under the blessing of the dew and the rain is by God's secret working upon it made to take up and embrace the seed. So the heart of man is made ready to receive and enfold the gospel of Jesus Christ within itself. Man's awakened heart wants exactly what the word of God supplies. Moved by a divine influence the soul embraces the truth and is embraced by it. And so the truth lives in the heart and is quickened by it. Man's love accepts the love of God. Man's faith wrought in him by the spirit of God believes the truth of God. Man's hope wrought in him by the Holy Ghost lays hold upon the things revealed and so the heavenly seed grows in the soil of the soul. The life comes not from you who preach the word but it is placed within the word which you preach by the Holy Spirit. The life is not in your hand but in the heart which is led to take hold upon the truth by the spirit of God. Salvation comes not from the personal authority of the preacher but through the personal conviction, personal faith and personal love of the hearer. So much as this we may know and is it not enough for all practical purposes? Still, there is a something which we cannot know, a secret into which we cannot pry. I repeat what I have said before. You cannot look into man's inward parts and see exactly how the truth takes hold upon the heart or the heart takes hold upon the truth. Many have watched their own feelings till they have become blind with despondency and others have watched the feelings of the young till they have done them rather harm than good by their rigorous supervision. In God's work there is more room for faith than for sight. The heavenly seed grows secretly. You must bury it out of sight or there will be no harvest. Even if you keep the seed above ground and it does sprout, you cannot discover how it grows. Even though you microscopically watched it swelling and bursting, you could not see the inward vital force which moves the seed. Thou knowest not the way of the spirit. His work is wrought in secret. Explain the new birth, says somebody. My answer is experience the new birth and you shall know what it is. There are secrets into which we cannot enter for the light is too bright for mortal eyes to endure. Oh man, thou canst not become omniscient for thou art a creature and not the creator. For thee there must ever be a region not only unknown but unknowable. So far shall thy knowledge go but no farther and thou mayest thank God it is so. For thus he leaves room for faith and gives cause for prayer. Cry mightily unto the great worker to do what thou canst not attempt to perform. That so, when thou seest men saved, thou mayest give the Lord all the glory evermore. Thirdly, our text tells us what we may expect if we work for God and what we may not expect. According to this parable, we may expect to see fruit. The husbandman's cast his seed into the ground, the seed springs and grows and he naturally expects a harvest. I wish I could say a word to stir up the expectation of Christian workers, for I fear that many work without faith. If you had a garden or a field and you sow seed in it, you would be very greatly surprised and grieved if it did not come up at all. But many Christian people seem quite content to work on without expectation of result. This is a pitiful kind of working, pulling up empty buckets by the year together. Surely I must either see some result for my labor and be glad, or else, failing to see it, I must be ready to break my heart if I be a true servant of the great master. We ought to have expected results. If we had expected more, we should have seen more. But a lack of expectation has been a great cause of failure in God's workers. But we may not expect to see all the seed which we sow spring up the moment we sow it. Sometimes, glory be to God, we have but to deliver the word and straight way men are converted. The reaper overtakes the sower in such instances, but it is not always so. Some sowers have been diligent for years upon their plots of ground, and yet apparently all has been in vain. At last the harvest has come. A harvest which speaking after the manner of men had never been reaped if they had not persevered to the end. This world, as I believe, is to be converted to Christ. But not today, nor tomorrow. Per adventure not for many an age, but the sowing of the centuries is not being lost. It is working on toward the grand ultimatum. A crop of mushrooms may soon be produced, but a forest of oaks will not reward the planter till generations of his children have moldered in the dust. It is ours to sow and to hope for quick reaping. But still we ought to remember that the husband men waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. And so must we. We are to expect results, but not to be dispirited if we have to wait for them. We are also to expect to see the good seed grow, but not always after our fashion. Like children we are apt to be impatient. Your little boy sowed mustard and crush yesterday in his garden. This afternoon Johnny will be turning over the ground to see if the seed is growing. There is no probability that his mustard and crest will come to anything, for he will not let it alone long enough for it to grow. So is it with hasty workers. They must see the result of the gospel directly or else they distrust the blessed word. Certain preachers are in such a hurry that they will allow no time for thought, no space for counting the cost, no opportunity for men to consider their ways and turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart. All other seeds take time to grow, but the seed of the word must grow before the speaker's eyes like magic or he thinks nothing has been done. Such good brethren are so eager to produce blade and ear there and then that they roast their seed in the fire of fanaticism and it perishes. They make men think that they are converted and thus effectually hinder them from coming to a saving knowledge of the truth. Some men are prevented from being saved by being told that they are saved already and by being puffed up with a notion of perfection when they are not even broken in heart. Perhaps if such people had been taught to look for something deeper, they might not have been satisfied with receiving seed on stony ground, but now they exhibit a rapid development and an equally rapid decline and fall. Let us believingly expect to see the seed grow, but let us look to see it advance after the manner of the preacher. Firstly, secondly, thirdly, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. We may expect also to see the seed ripen. Our works will, by God's grace, lead up to real faith in those He hath wrought upon by His word and spirit, but we must not expect to see it perfect at first. How many mistakes have been made here? Here is a young person under impression and some good sound brother talks with a trembling beginner and ask profound questions. He shakes his experienced head and knits his furrowed brows. He goes into the cornfield to see how the crops are prospering and though it is early in the year, he laments that he cannot see an ear of corn. Indeed, he perceives nothing but mere grass. I cannot see a trace of corn, says he. No, brother, of course you cannot. For you will not be satisfied with the blade as an evidence of life, but must insist upon seeing everything at full growth at once. If you had looked for the blade, you would have found it and it would have encouraged you. For my own part, I am glad even to perceive a faint desire, a feeble longing, a degree of uneasiness or a measure of weariness of sin or a craving after mercy. Will it not be wise for you also to allow things to begin at the beginning and to be satisfied with their being small at the first? See the blade of desire and then watch for more. Soon you shall see a little more than desire, for there shall be conviction and resolve and after that a feeble faith, small as a mustard seed, but bound to grow. Do not despise the day of small things. Do not examine the newborn babe to see whether he is sound and doctrine after your idea of soundness. Ten to one he is a long way off sound and you will only worry the dear heart by introducing difficult questions. Speak to him about his being a sinner and Christ a savior and you will in this way water him so that his grace in the ear will become the full corn in the ear. It may be that there is not much that looks like wheat about him yet, but by and by you shall say wheat, ah, that is it, if I know wheat. This man is a true ear of corn and gladly will I place him among my master's sheaves. If you cut down the blades, where will the ears come from? Expect grace in your converts but do not look to see glory in them just yet. Under the last head we shall consider what sleep workers may take and what they may not take. For it is said of this sowing man that he sleeps and rises night and day and the seed springs and grows up he knoweth not how. They say a farmer's trade is a good one because it is going on while he is a bed and asleep and surely ours is a good trade too. When we serve our master by sowing good seed for it is growing even while we are asleep. But how may a good workman for Christ lawfully go to sleep? I answer first, he may sleep the sleep of restfulness, born of confidence. You are afraid the kingdom of Christ will not come, are you? Who asked you to tremble for the ark of the Lord? Afraid for the infinite Jehovah that his purposes will fail? Shame on you. Your anxiety dishonors your God. Shall omnipotence be defeated? You had better sleep than wake to play the part of Uzzah. Rest patiently. God's purpose will be accomplished. His kingdom will come. His chosen will be saved and Christ shall see of the travail of his soul. Take the sweet sleep which God gives to his beloved, the sleep of perfect confidence such as Jesus slept in the hinder part of the ship when it was tossed with tempest. The cause of God never was in jeopardy and never will be. The seed sown is insured by omnipotence and must produce its harvest. Inpatience, possess your soul and wait till the harvest comes for the pleasure of the Lord must prosper in the hands of Jesus. Also take that sleep of joyful expectancy which leads to a happy waking. Get up in the morning and feel that the Lord is ruling all things for the attainment of his own purposes and the highest benefit of all who put their trust in him. Look for a blessing by day and close your eyes at night calmly expecting to meet with better things tomorrow. If you do not sleep you will not wake up in the morning refreshed and ready for more work. If it were possible for you to sit up all night and eat the bread of carefulness you would be unfit to attend to the service which your master appoints for the morning. Therefore take your rest and be at peace and work with calm dignity for the matter is safe in the Lord's hands. Is it not written? So he giveth his beloved sleep. Take your rest because you have consciously resigned your work into God's hands. After you have spoken the word resort to God in prayer and commit the matter into God's hand and then do not fret about it. It cannot be in better keeping. Leave it with him who worketh all in all. But do not sleep the sleep of unwatchfulness. The farmer sows his seed but he does not therefore forget it. He has to mend his fences, to drive away birds, to remove weeds or to prevent floods. He does not watch the growth of the seed but he has plenty else to do. He sleeps but it is only in due time and measure and is not to be confounded with the sluggards slumbers. He never sleeps the sleep of indifference or even of inaction. For each season has its demand upon him. He has sown one field but he has another to sow. He has sown but he has also to reap and if reaping is done he has to thresh and to winnow. A farmer s work is never done for in one part or the other of the farm he is needed. His sleep is but a pause that gives him strength to continue his occupation. The parable teaches us to do all that lies within our province but not to intrude into the domain of God. In teaching to the era we are to labor diligently but with regard to the secret working of truth upon man's mind we are to pray and rest looking to the Lord for the inward power. End of Chapter 11 What the farm laborers can do and what they cannot do. Chapter 12 of Talks to Farmers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lauren Randall. Talks to Farmers by Charles H. Spurgeon. The Sheep Before the Shearers As a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 7 Our Lord Jesus so took our place that we are in this chapter compared to sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray and he is compared to a sheep also as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. It is wonderful how complete was the interchange of positions between Christ and his people so that he became what they were in order that they might become what he is. We can well understand how we should be the sheep and he the shepherd, but to liken the son of the highest to a sheep would have been unpardonable presumption had not his own spirit employed the condescending figure. Though the emblem is very gracious its use in this place is by no means singular for our Lord had been before Isaiah's day typified by the Lamb of the Passover. Since then he has been proclaimed as the Lamb of God which takeeth away the sin of the world and indeed even in his glory he is the Lamb in the midst of the throne. In opening up this divine emblem I would invite you to consider first our Saviour's patience set forth under the figure of a sheep dumb before her shearers. Our Lord was brought to the shearers that he might be shorn of his comfort and of his honor, shorn even of his good name and shorn at last of his life itself. But when under the shearers he was as silent as a sheep how patient he was before Pilate and Herod and Caiaphas and on the cross you have no record of his uttering any exclamation of impatience at the pain and shame which he received at the hands of these wicked men. You hear not one bitter word. Pilate cries, answerest thou nothing? Behold how many things they witnessed against thee and Herod is woefully disappointed for he expected to see some miracle wrought by him. All that our Lord does say is in submissive tones like the bleeding of a sheep. Though infinitely more full of meaning he uttered sentences like these for this purpose was I born and came into the world that I might bear witness to the truth and father forgive them for they know not what they do. Otherwise he is all patience and silence. Remember first that our Lord was dumb and opened not his mouth against his adversaries and did not accuse one of them of cruelty or injustice. They slandered him but he replied not. False witnesses arose but he answered them not. One would have thought he must have spoken when they spat in his face. Might he not have said, friend, why doest thou this? For which of all my works dost thou insult me? But the time for such expostulations was over. When they smote him on the face with the palms of their hands it would not have been wonderful if he had said, wherefore do you smite me so? But no, he is as though he heard not their revilings. He brings no accusation to his father. He needed only to have lifted his eye to heaven and legions of angels would have chased away the ribald soldiery. One flash of a seraph's wing and hair it had been eaten by worms and Pilate had died the death he well deserved as an unjust judge. The hill of the cross might have become a volcano's mouth to swallow up the whole multitude who stood there jesting and jeering at him. But no, there was no display of power or rather there was so great a display of power over himself that he restrained omnipotence itself with the strength which never can be measured. Again, as he did not utter a word against his adversaries so he did not say a word against any one of us. You remember how Zipporah said to Moses, surely a bloody husband art thou to me as she saw her child bleeding and surely Jesus might have said to his church, thou art a costly spouse to me to bring me all this shame and bloodshedding. But he giveth liberally, he openedeth the very fountain of his heart and he upbraideth not. He had reckoned on the uttermost expenditure and therefore he endured the cross despising the shame. This was compassion like a God that when the Savior knew the price of pardon was his blood, his pity nare withdrew. No doubt he looked across the ages for that eye of his was not dim even when bloodshot on the tree. He must have foreseen your indifference and mine, our coldness of heart and base unfaithfulness. And he might have left on record some such words as these. I am suffering for those who are utterly unworthy of my regard. Their love will be a miserable return for mine. Though I give my whole heart for them, how lukewarm is their love to me. I am sick of them, I am weary of them and it is woe to me that I should be laying down my heart's blood for such a worthless race as these my people are. But there is not a hint of such a feeling. No, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And he did not utter a syllable that looked like murmuring at his suffering on their behalf or regretting that he had commenced the work. And again, as there was not a word against his adversaries nor a word against you nor me, so there was not a word against his father nor a syllable of repining at the severity of the chastisement laid upon him for our sakes. You and I have murmured when under a comparatively light grief, thinking ourselves hardly done by, we have dared to cry out against God. My face is fouled with weeping and on my eyelids is the shadow of death. Not for any injustice in mine hands. Also my prayer is pure, but not so the Savior. In his mouth were no complaints. It is quite impossible for us to conceive how the Father pressed and bruised him. Yet there was no repining. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Is an exclamation of astonished grief, but it is not the voice of complaint. It shows manhood in weakness, but not manhood in revolt. Many are the lamentations of Jeremiah, but few are the lamentations of Jesus. Jesus wept and Jesus sweat great drops of blood, but he never murmured nor felt rebellion in his heart. Behold, your Lord and Savior lying in passive resignation beneath the shearers, as they take away everything that is dear to him, and yet he openeth not his mouth. I see in this our Lord's complete submission. He gives himself up. There is no reserve about it. The sacrifice did not need binding with cords to the horns of the altar. How different from your case and mine. He stood there willing to suffer, to be spit upon, to be shamefully entreated and to die. For in him there was a complete surrender. He was wholly given to do the Father's will and to work out our redemption. There was complete self-conquest too. In him no faculty arose to plead for liberty and asked to be exempted from the general strain. No limb of the body, no portion of the mind, no faculty of the spirit started, but all submitted to the divine will. The whole Christ gave up his whole being unto God that he might perfectly offer himself without spot for our redemption. There was not only self-conquest, but complete absorption in his work. The sheep lying there thinks no more of the pastors. It yields itself up to the shearer. The zeal of God's house did eat up our Lord in Pilate's hall as well as everywhere else. For there he witnessed a good confession. No thought had he but for the clearing of the divine honor and the salvation of God's elect. Brethren, I wish we could arrive at this to submit our whole spirit to God, to learn self-conquest, and the delivering up of conquered self entirely to God. The wonderful serenity and submissiveness of our Lord are still better set forth by our text. If it be indeed true that sheep in the east are even more docile than with us, those who have seen the noise and roughness of many of our washings and shearings will hardly believe the testimony of that ancient writer Philo Judeus when he affirms that the sheep came voluntarily to be shorn. He says, woolly rams laden with thick fleeces, put themselves into the shepherd's hands to have their wool shorn, being thus accustomed to pay their yearly tribute to man, their king by nature. The sheep stands in a silent, inclining posture, unconstrained under the hand of the shearer. These things may appear strange to those who do not know the docility of the sheep, but they are true. Marvelous indeed was this submissiveness in our Lord's case. Let us admire and imitate. Thus I have feebly set forth the patience of our beloved master. Now I want you to follow me in the second place to view our own case under the same metaphor as that which is used in reference to our Lord. Did I not begin by saying that because we were sheep, he deigns to compare himself to a sheep? Let us look from another point of view. Our Lord was a sheep under the shearers, and as he is, so are we also in this world. Though we shall never be offered up like lambs in the temple by way of expiation, yet the saints for ages were the flock of slaughter. As it is written, for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Jesus sends us forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, and we are to regard ourselves as living sacrifices, ready to be offered up. I dwell, however, more particularly upon the second symbol. We are brought as sheep under the shearers' hands. Just as a sheep is taken by the shearer and its wool is all cut off, so doth the Lord take his people and shear them, taking away all their earthly comforts and leaving them bare. I wish when it came to our turn to undergo this shearing operation, it could be said of us as of our Lord, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. I fear that we open our mouths a great deal and make no end of complaining without any apparent cause, or with the very slenderest reason, but now to the figure. First, remember that a sheep rewards its owner for all his care and trouble by being shorn. There is nothing else that I know of that a sheep can do. It yields food when it is killed, but while it is alive, the one payment that the sheep can make to the shepherd is to yield its fleece in due season. Some of God's people can give to Christ a tribute of gratitude by active service, and they should do so gladly every day of their lives, but many others cannot do much in active service, and about the only reward they can give to their Lord is to render up their fleece by suffering when he calls upon them to suffer, submissively yielding to be shorn of their personal comfort when the time comes for patient endurance. Here comes the shearer. He takes the sheep and begins to cut, cut, cut, cut, taking away the wool wholesale. Affliction is often used as the big shears. The husband or perhaps the wife is removed. Little children are taken away. Property is shorn off and health is gone. Sometimes the shears cut off the man's good name. Slander follows, comforts vanish. Well, this is your shearing time, and it may be that you are not able to glorify God to any very large extent, except by undergoing this process. If this be the fact, do you not think that we, like good sheep of Christ, should surrender ourselves cheerfully? Feeling, I lay myself down with this intent that thou shouldest take from me anything and everything, and do what thou wilt with me, for I am not mine own. I am bought with a price. Notice that the sheep is itself benefited by the operation of shearing. Before they begin to shear the sheep, the wool is long and old, and every bush and briar tears off a bit of the wool until the sheep looks ragged and forlorn. If the wool were left when the heat of summer came, the sheep would not be able to bear itself. It would be so overloaded with clothing that it would be as uncomfortable as we are when we have kept on our borrowed wool, our flannels and broadcloths too late. So, brethren, when the Lord shears us, we do not like the operation any more than the sheep do, but first it is for his glory, and secondly it is for our benefit, and therefore we are bound most willingly to submit. There are many things which we should have liked to have kept, which, if we had kept them, would not have proved blessings but curses. A stale blessing is a curse. The man, though, it came from heaven, was only good so long as God's command made it a blessing. But when they kept it over its due time, it bred worms and stank, and then it was no blessing. Many persons would keep their mercies till they turned to corruption, but God will not have it so. Up to a certain point for you to be wealthy was a blessing. It would not have been a blessing any longer, and so the Lord took your riches away. Up to that point your child was a boon, but it would have been no longer so, and therefore it fell sick and died. You may not be able to see it, but it is so that God, when he withdraws a blessing from his people, takes it away because it would not be a blessing any longer. Before sheep are shorn, they are always washed. Were you ever present at the scene when they drive them down to the brook? Men are placed in rows leading to the shepherd who stands in the water. The sheep are driven down and the men seize them, throw them into the pool, keeping their faces above water, and swirl them round and round and round to wash the wool before they clip it off. You see them come out on the other side, frightened to death, poor things, wondering whatever is coming. I want to suggest to you, brethren, that whenever a trial threatens to overtake you, you should entreat the Lord to sanctify it to you. If the good shepherd is going to clip your wool, ask him to wash it before he takes it off. Ask to be cleansed in spirit, soul, and body. That is a very good custom Christian people have of asking a blessing on their meals before they eat bread. Do you not think it is even more necessary to ask a blessing on our troubles before we get into them? Here is your dear child likely to die. Will you not, dear parents, meet together and ask God to bless the death of that child if it is to happen? The harvest fails. Would it not be well to say, Lord, sanctify this poverty, this loss, this year's bad harvest, cause it to be a means of grace to us? Why not ask a blessing on the cup of bitterness as well as upon the cup of thanksgiving? Ask to be washed before you are shorn. And if the shearing must come, let it be your chief concern to yield clean wool. After the washing, when the sheep has been dried, it actually loses what was its comfort. The sheep is thrown down and the shearers get to work. The poor creature is losing its comfortable fleece. You also will have to part with your comforts. Will you recollect this? The next time you receive a fresh blessing, call it a loan. Poor sheep, there is no wool on your back but what will have to come off. Child of God, there is no earthly comfort in your possession, but what will either leave you or you will leave it. Nothing is our own except our God. Why, says one, not our sin. Sin was our own, but Jesus has taken it upon himself and it is gone. There is nothing our own but our God. For all his gifts are held on lease, terminable at his sovereign will. We foolishly consider that our mercies belong to us and when the Lord takes them away, we half grumble. A loan, they say, should go laughing home and so should we rejoice when the Lord takes back that which he had lent us. All our possessions are but brief favors borrowed for the hour. As the sheep yields up its wool and so loses its comfort, so must we yield up all our earthly properties or if they remain with us till we die, we shall part with them then. We shall not take so much as one of them across the stream of death. The shearers take care not to hurt the sheep. They clip as close as they can but they do not cut the skin. If possible, they will not draw blood even in the smallest degree. When they do make a gash it is because the sheep does not lie still but a careful shearer has bloodless shears. Of this Thompson sings in his seasons and the passage is so good an illustration of the whole subject that I will adorn my discourse with it. How meek, how patient the mild creature lies what softness in its melancholy face what dumb complaining innocence appears. Fear not ye gentle tribes, tis not the knife of horrid slaughter that is o'er you waved, note is the tender swain's well-guided shears who having now to pay his annual care, borrowed your fleece to you a cumbers load will send you bounding to your hills again. It is the kicking and the struggling that make the shearing work at all hard. But if we are dumb before the shearers no harm can come. The Lord may clip wonderfully close. I have known him clip some so close that they did not seem to have a bit of wool left for they were stripped entirely even as Job when he cried. Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. Still like Job they have added the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Notice that the shearers always shear at a suitable time. It would be a very wicked, cruel and unwise thing to begin sheep shearing in winter time. There is a proverb which talks about God tempering the wind to the shorn lamb. It may be so, but it is a very cruel practice to shear lambs while winds need tempering. Sheep are shorn when it is warm, genial weather. When they can afford to lose their fleeces and are all the better for being relieved of them. As the summer comes on, sheep shearing time comes. Have you ever noticed that whenever the Lord afflicts us he selects the best possible time? There is a prayer that he puts into his disciples' mouths. Pray that your flight be not in the winter. The spirit of that prayer may be seen in the seasonableness of our sorrows. He will not send us our worst troubles at our worst times. If your soul is depressed, the Lord does not send you a very heavy burden. He reserves such a load for times when you have joy in the Lord to be your strength. It has come to be a kind of feeling with us that when we have much delight, a trial is near. But when sorrow thickens, deliverance is approaching. The Lord does not send us two burdens at a time or if he does, he sends double strength. His shearing time is chosen with tender discretion. There is another thing to remember. It is with us as with the sheep. There is new wool coming. Whenever the Lord takes away our earthly comforts with one hand, one, two, three. Here he stores with the other hand, six, a score a hundred. We are crying and whining about the little loss and yet it is necessary in order that we may be able to receive the great gain. Yes, it will be so. We shall have cause for rejoicing. Joy cometh in the morning. If we have lost one position, there is another for us. If we have been driven out of one place, a better refuge is prepared. Providence opens a second door when it shuts the first. If the Lord takes away the manna as he did from his people Israel, it is because they have the old corn of the land of Canaan to live upon. If the water of the rock did not follow the tribes any longer, it was because they drank of the Jordan and of the Brooks. O sheep of the Lord's fold, there is new wool coming. Therefore do not fret at the shearing. I have given these thoughts in brief that we may come to the last word. Let us in the third place endeavor to imitate the example of our blessed Lord when our turn comes to be shorn. Let us be dumb before the shearers, submissive, quiescent, even as he was. I have been giving in everything I have said a reason for so doing. I have shown that our shearing by affliction glorifies God, rewards the shepherd, and benefits ourselves. I have shown that the Lord measures and tempers our affliction and sends the trial at the right time. I have shown you in many ways that it will be wise to submit ourselves as the sheep does to the shearer, and that the more completely we do so, the better. We struggle far too much, and we are apt to make excuses for so doing. Sometimes we say, oh, this is so painful. I cannot be patient. I could have borne anything else but this. When a father is going to correct his child, does he select something pleasant? No, the painfulness of the punishment is the essence of it. And even so the bitterness of our sorrow is the soul of our chastening. By the blueness of the wound, the heart will be made better. Do not repine because your trial seems strange and sharp. That would, in fact, be saying, if I have it all my own way, I will. But if everything does not please me, I will rebel. And that is not a fit spirit for a child of God. Sometimes we complain because of our great weakness. Lord, were I stronger, I would not mind this heavy loss, but I am frail as a sea or leaf driven of the tempest. But who is to be the judge of the suitability of your trial, you or God? Since the Lord judges this trial to be suitable to your weakness, you may be sure that it is so. Lie still, lie still, alas, you say, my grief comes from the most cruel quarter. This trouble did not arise directly from God. It came through my cousin or my brother who ought to have treated me with gratitude. It was not an enemy, then I could have borne it. My brother, let me assure you that in reality, trial comes not from an enemy after all. God is at the bottom of all your tribulation. Look through the second causes to the great first cause. It is a great mistake when we fret over the human instrument which smites us and forget the hand which uses the rod. If I strike a dog, he bites my stick, poor creature. He knows no better. But if he could think a little, he would bite me or else take the blow submissively. Now you must not begin biting the stick. After all, it is your heavenly father that uses the staff. Though it be of ebony or of blackthorn, it is in his hand. It is well to have done with picking and choosing our trials and to leave the whole matter in the hand of infinite wisdom. A sweet singer has put this matter very prettily. Let me quote the lines. But when my Lord did ask me on what side I were content, the grief whereby I must be purified to me was sent. As each imagined anguish did appear, each withering bliss. Before my soul I cried, Oh, spare me here. Oh, no, not this. Like one that having need of deep within, the surgeon's knife could hardly bear that it should graze the skin, though for his life. Nay then, but he who best doth understand, both what we need and what can bear did take my case in hand, nor crying heed. This is the pith of my sermon. Oh, believer, yield thyself. Lie passive in the hands of God. Yield thee and struggle not. There is no use in struggling for our great shearer if he means to shear, we'll do it. Did I not say just now that the sheep, by struggling might be cut by the shears? So you and I, if we struggle against God, we'll get two strokes instead of one. And after all, there is not half so much trouble in a trouble as there is in kicking against the trouble. The Eastern Ploughman has a goat and pricks the ox to make it move more actively. He does not hurt it much by his gentle prodding. But suppose the ox flings out its leg. The moment it touches him, he drives the goat into himself and bleeds. So it is with us, we shall find it hard to kick against the pricks. We shall endure much more pain by rebelling than would have come if we had yielded to the divine will. What good comes of fretting? We cannot make one hair white or black. You that are troubled rest with us, for you cannot make shower or shine, foul or fair with all your groaning. Did you ever bring a penny into the till by fretting or put a loaf on the table by complaint? Murmuring is wasted breath and fretting is wasted time. To lie passive in the hand of God brings a blessing to the soul. I would myself be more quiet, calm and self-possessed. I long to cry habitually, Lord, do what thou wilt. When thou wilt, as thou wilt with me, thy servant, appoint me honor or dishonor, wealth or poverty, sickness or health, exhilaration or depression, and I will take all right gladly from thy hand. A man is not far from the gates of heaven when he is fully submissive to the Lord's will. You that have been shorn have, I hope, received comfort through the ever-blessed spirit of God. May God bless you. Oh, that the sinner too would humble himself under the mighty hand of God. Submit yourselves unto God. Let every thought be brought into captivity to him, and the Lord send his blessing for Christ's sake. Amen. End of Chapter 12, The Sheep Before the Shearers. Chapter 13 of Talks to Farmers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lauren Randall. Talks to Farmers by Charles H. Spurgeon. In the Hayfield. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. Psalm, Chapter 104, Verse 14. At the appointed season all the world is busy within gathering the grass crop, and you can scarcely ride a mile in the country without senting the delicious fragrance of the new-mown hay, and hearing the sharpening of the mower's scythe. There is a gospel in the hayfield, and that gospel we intend to bring out as we may be enabled by the Holy Spirit. Our text conducts us at once to the spot, and we shall therefore need no preface. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. Three things we shall notice. First, that grass is in itself instructive. Secondly, that grass is far more so when God is seen in it. And thirdly, that by the growth of grass for the cattle, the ways of grace may be illustrated. First then, he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. Here we have something which is in itself instructive. Scarcely any emblem, with the exception of water and light, is more frequently used by inspiration than the grass of the field. In the first place, the grass may be instructively looked upon as the symbol of our mortality. All flesh is grass. The whole history of man may be seen in the meadow. He springs up green and tender, subject to the frosts of infancy, which imperil his young life. He grows, he comes to maturity. He puts on beauty, even as the grass is adorned with flowers. But after a while, his strength departs and his beauty is wrinkled. Even as the grass withers, and is followed by a fresh generation, which withers in its turn. Like ourselves, the grass ripens, but to decay. The sons of men come to maturity in due time, and then decline and wither as the green herb. Some of the grass is not left to come to ripeness at all, but the mower's scythe removes it, even as swift-footed death overtakes the careless children of Adam. In the morning it flourishes and grows up. In the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field. So he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. And the place thereof shall know it no more. This is very humbling, and we need frequently to be reminded of it, or we dream of immortality beneath the stars. We ought never to tread upon the grass without remembering that whereas the green sod covers our graves, it also reminds us of them, and preaches by every blade a sermon to us concerning our mortality, of which the text is, all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. In the second place, grass is frequently used in scripture as an emblem of the wicked. David tells us from his own experience that the righteous man is apt to grow envious of the wicked when he sees the prosperity of the ungodly. We have seen them spreading themselves like green bay trees, and apparently fixed and rooted in their places. And when we have smarted under our own troubles and felt that all the day long we were scourged and chastened every morning, we have been apt to say, how can this be consistent with the righteous government of God? We are reminded by the psalmist that in a short time we shall pass by the place of the wicked, and lo, he shall not be. We shall diligently consider his place, and lo, it shall not be, for he is soon cut down as the grass, and withereth as the green herb. The grass withereth, the flower thereof, fadeeth away, and even so shall pass away forever the glory of those who build upon the estate of time and dig for lasting comfort in the minds of the earth. As the eastern husbandman gathers up the green herb, and despite its former beauty casts it into the furnace, such must be your lot, o' vanglorious sinners. Thus will the judge command his angels, bind them in bundles to burn. Where now your merriment? Where now your confidence? Where now your pride and your pomp? Where now your boastings and your loud-mouthed blasphemies? They are silent forever. For, as thorns crackle under a pot, but are speedily consumed, and leave nothing except a handful of ashes, so shall it be with the wicked as to this life. The fire of God's wrath shall devour them. It is more pleasing to recollect that the grass is used in scripture as a picture of the elect of God. The wicked are comparable to the dragons of the wilderness, but God's own people shall spring up in their place, for it is written, In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. The elect are compared to grass because of their number, as they shall be in the latter days, and because of the rapidity of their growth. You remember the passage? There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains. The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. Oh, that the long expected day might soon come, when God's people shall no longer be like a lone tuft of grass, but when they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. Grass and willows are two of the fastest growing things we know of. So shall a nation be born in a day, so shall crowds be converted at once, for when the Spirit of God shall be mightily at work in the midst of the church, men shall fly unto Christ as doves fly to their dovecots, so that the astonished church shall exclaim, These, where had they been? Oh, that we might live to see the age of gold, the time which prophets have foretold, when the company of God's people shall be innumerable as the blades of grass in the meadows, and grace and truth shall flourish. How like the grass are God's people for this reason, that they are absolutely dependent upon the influences of heaven. Our fields are parched ifernal showers and gentle dews are withheld, and what are our souls without the gracious visitations of the Spirit? Sometimes, through severe trials, our wounded hearts are like the mown grass, and then we have the promise, he shall come down like rain upon the mown grass as showers that water the earth. Our sharp troubles have taken away our beauty, and lo, the Lord visits us, and we revive again. Thank God for that old saying, which is a gracious doctrine, as well as a true proverb, each blade of grass has its own drop of dew. God is pleased to give his own peculiar mercies to each one of his own servants. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Once again, grass is comparable to the food where, with the Lord supplies the necessities of his chosen ones, take the twenty-third psalm, and you have the metaphor worked out in the sweetest form of pastoral song. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters, just as the sheep has nourishment according to its nature, and this nourishment is abundantly found for it by its shepherd, so that it not only feeds, but then lies down in the midst of the fodder, satiated with plenty, and perfectly content and at ease. Even so are the people of God, when Jesus Christ leads them into the pastures of the covenant, and opens up to them the precious truths upon which their souls shall be fed. Beloved, have we not proved that promise true? In this mountain shall the Lord of host make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the leaves well refined? My soul has sometimes fed upon Christ till I have felt as if I could receive no more, and then I have laid me down in the bounty of my God to take my rest, satisfied with favor, and full of the goodness of the Lord. Thus you see the grass itself is not without instruction for those who will incline their ear. In the second place, God is seen in the growing of the grass. He is seen first as a worker. He causeth the grass to grow. He is seen secondly as a caretaker. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. First, as a worker, God is to be seen in every blade of grass, if we have but eyes to discern Him. A blind world, this which always talks about natural laws, in the effects of natural causes, but forgets that laws cannot operate of themselves, and that natural causes, so-called, are not causes at all, unless the first cause shall set them in motion. The old Romans used to say, God thundered, God reigned. We say it thunders, it rains. What it? All these expressions are subterfuges to escape from the thought of God. We commonly say, how wonderful are the works of nature. What is nature? Do you know what nature is? I remember a lecturer in the street, an infidel, speaking about nature, and he was asked by a Christian man standing by, whether he would tell him what nature was. He never gave a reply. The production of grass is not the result of natural law, apart from the actual work of God. Mere law would be inoperative unless the great master himself sent a thrill of power through the matter, which is regulated by the law, unless, like the steam engine, which puts force into all the spinning gennies and wheels of a cotton mill, God himself were the mode of power to make every wheel revolve. I find rest on the grass as on a royal couch, now that I know that my God is there at work for His creatures. Having asked you to see God as a worker, I want you to make use of this. Therefore I bid you to see God in common things. He makes the grass to grow. Grass is a common thing, you see it everywhere, yet God is in it. Dissect it and pull it to pieces. The attributes of God are illustrated in every single flower of the field and in every green leaf. In like manner, see God in your common matters, your daily afflictions, your common joys, your everyday mercies. Do not say, I must see a miracle before I see God. In truth everything teams with marvel. See God in the bread of your table and the water of your cup. It will be the happiest way of living if you can say in each providential circumstance, my Father has done all this. See God also in little things. The little things of life are the greatest troubles. A man will hear that his house is burned down more quietly than he will see an ill-cooked joint of meat upon his table when he reckoned upon its being done to a turn. It is the little stone in the shoe which makes the pilgrim limp. To see God in little things, to believe that there is as much the presence of God in a limb falling from the elm as in the avalanche which crushes a village, to believe that the guidance of every drop of spray when the wave breaks on the rock is as much under the hand of God as the steerage of the mightiest planet in its course. To see God in the little as well as in the great, all this is true wisdom. Think too of God working among solitary things. For grass does not merely grow where men take care of it, but up there on the side of the lone alp where no traveler has ever passed, where only the eye of the wild bird has beheld their lonely verger. Moss and grass display their beauty. For God's works are fair to other eyes than those of mortals. In you solitary child of God, dwelling unknown and obscure in a remote hamlet, you are not forgotten by the love of heaven. He maketh the grass to grow all alone, and shall he not make you flourish despite your loneliness? He can bring forth your graces and educate you for the skies in solitude and neglect. The grass, you know, is a thing we tread upon. Nobody thinks of its being crushed by the foot, and yet God makes it grow. Perhaps you are oppressed and downtrodden, but let not this depress your spirit. For God executeth righteousness for all those that are oppressed. He maketh the grass to grow, and he can make your heart to flourish under all the oppressions and afflictions of life, so that you shall still be happy and holy, though all the world marches over you, still living in the immortal life which God himself bestows upon you, though hell itself sets its heels upon you. Poor and needy one, unknown, unobserved, oppressed and downtrodden, God makes the grass to grow, and he will take care of you. But I say we should see in the text God also as a great caretaker. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. Doth God take care for oxen, or sayeth he it altogether for our sakes? Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, shows that God has a care for the beasts of the field, but it shows much more than that, namely that he would have those who work for him feed as they work. God cares for the beasts, and makes grass to grow for them. Then my soul, though sometimes thou hast said with David, so foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee, yet God cares for thee. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry, there you have an instance of his care for birds, and here we have his care for beasts. And though you, my hearer, may seem to yourself to be as black and defiled as a raven, and as far from anything spiritually good as the beasts. Yet take comfort from this text. He gives grass to the cattle, and he will give grace to you, though you think yourself to be as a beast before him. Observe, he cares for these beasts who are helpless as to caring for themselves. The cattle could not plant the grass, nor cause it to grow, though they can do nothing in the matter. Yet he does it all for them. He causeth the grass to grow. You who are as helpless as cattle to help yourselves, who can only stand and moan out your misery, but know not what to do. God can prevent you in his loving kindness, and favor you in his tenderness. Let the bleeding of your prayer go up to heaven. Let the meanings of your desires go up to him, and help shall come to you, though you cannot help yourselves. Beasts are dumb, speechless things, yet God makes the grass grow for them. Will he hear those that cannot speak? And will he not hear those who can? Since our God views with kind consideration the cattle in the field, he will surely have compassion upon his own sons and daughters when they desire to seek his face. There is this also to be said. God not only cares for cattle, but the food which he provides for them is fit food. He causeth grass to grow for the cattle, just the sort of food which ruminants require, even thus the Lord God provides fit sustenance for his people. Depend upon him by faith, and wait upon him in prayer, and you shall have food convenient for you. You shall find in God's mercy just that which your nature demands, suitable supplies for peculiar wants. This convenient food the Lord takes care to reserve for the cattle, for no one eats the cattle's food but the cattle. There is grass for them, and nobody else cares for it, and thus it is kept for them. Even so, God has a special food for his own people. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Though the grass be free to all who choose to eat it, yet no creature careeth for it except the cattle for whom it is prepared. And though the grace of God be free to all men, yet no man careeth for it except the elect of God, for whom he prepared it, and whom he prepares to receive it. There is as much reserve of the grass for the cattle as if there were walls around it, and so, though the grace of God be free, and there be no bounds set about it, yet it is as much reserved as if it were restricted. God is seen in the grass as the worker and the caretaker. Then let us see his hand in providence at all times. Let us see it, not only when we have abundance, but even when we have scant supplies, for the grass is preparing for the cattle even in the depth of winter. And you, ye sons of sorrow, in your trials and troubles are still cared for by God. He will accomplish his own divinely gracious purposes in you. Only be still and see the salvation of God. Every winter's night has a direct connection with the joyous days of mowing and reaping, and each time of grief is linked to future joy. Our third head is most interesting. God's working in the grass for the cattle gives us illustrations concerning grace. I will soliloquize and say to myself as I read the text, he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. In this I perceive a satisfying provision for that form of creature. I am also a creature, but I am a nobler creature than the cattle. I cannot imagine for a moment that God will provide all that the cattle need and not provide for me. But naturally I feel uneasy. I cannot find in this world what I want. If I were to win all its riches, I should still be discontented. And when I have all that heart could wish of time's treasures, yet still my heart fills as if it were empty. There must be somewhere or other something that will satisfy me as a man with an immortal soul. God altogether satisfies the ox. He must therefore have something or other that would altogether satisfy me if I could get it. There is the grass, the cattle get it. And when they have eaten their share, they lie down and seem perfectly contented. Now all I have ever found on earth has never satisfied me so that I could lie down and be satisfied. There must then be something somewhere that would content me if I could get at it. Is not this good reasoning? I ask both the Christian and the unbeliever to go with me so far. But then let us proceed another step. The cattle do get what they want. Not only is the grass provided, but they get it. Why should not I obtain what I want? I find my soul hungering and thirsting after something more than I can see with my eyes or hear with my ears. There must be something to satisfy my soul. Why should I not find it? The cattle pasture upon that which satisfies them. Why should not I obtain satisfaction too? Then I began to pray. Oh Lord, satisfy my mouth with good things and renew my youth. While I am praying, I also meditate and think. God has provided for cattle that which is consonant to their nature. They are nothing but flesh and flesh is grass. There is therefore grass for their flesh. I also am flesh, but I am something else beside. I am spirit and to satisfy me, I need spiritual meat. Where is it? When I turn to God's word, I find there that though the grass withereth, the word of the Lord endureth forever. And the word which Jesus speaks unto us is spirit and life. Oh then, I say, here is spiritual food for my spiritual nature. I will rejoice therein. Oh, may God help me to know what that spiritual meat is and enable me to lay hold upon it. For I perceive that though God provides the grass for the cattle, the cattle must eat it themselves. They are not fed if they refuse to eat. I must imitate the cattle and receive that which God provides for me. What do I find provided in Scripture? I am told that the Lord Jesus came into this world to suffer and bleed and die instead of me. And that if I trust in him, I shall be saved. And being saved, the thoughts of his love will give solace and joy to me and be my strength. What have I to do but to feed on these truths? I do not find the cattle bringing any preparation to the pastor except hunger, but they enter it and partake of their portion. Even so must I by an act of faith live upon Jesus. Lord, give me grace to feed upon Christ. Make me hungry and thirsty after him. Give me the faith by which I may be a receiver of him that so I may be satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord. My text, though it looked small, grows as we meditate upon it. I want to introduce you to a few more illustrations of divine grace. Preventing grace may here be seen in a symbol. Grass grew before cattle were made. We find in the first chapter of Genesis that God provided the grass before he created the cattle. And what a mercy that covenant supplies for God's people were prepared before they were born. God had given his son Jesus Christ to be the savior of his chosen before Adam fell long before sin came into the world, the everlasting mercy of God foresaw the ruin of sin and provided a refuge for every elect soul. What a thought it is for me that before I hunger, God has prepared the manna. Before I thirst, God has caused the rock and the wilderness to send forth crystal streams to satisfy the thirst of my soul. See what sovereign grace can do? Before the cattle come to the pasture, the grass has grown for them. And before I feel my need of divine mercy that mercy is provided for me. Then I perceive an illustration of free grace. For when the ox comes into the field, he brings no money with him. So I, a poor, needy sinner, having nothing, come and receive Christ without money and without price. The Lord maketh the grass to grow for the cattle, and so doth he provide grace for my needy soul. Though I have now no money, no virtue, no excellence of my own. And why is it, my friends, why is it that God gives the cattle the grass? The reason is because they belong to him. Here is a text to prove it. The silver and the gold are mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills. God provides grass for his own cattle and grace is provided for God's people. Of every herd of cattle in the world, God could say they are mine. Long before the grazer puts his brand on the bullock, God has set his creating mark upon it. So before the stamp of Adam's fall was set upon our brow, the stamp of electing love was set there. In thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. God also feeds cattle because he has entered into a covenant with them to do so. What, a covenant with a cattle, says somebody? I, truly so, for when God spake to his servant Noah in that day when all the cattle came out of the ark, we find him saying, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl of the cattle and of every beast of the earth with you. Thus a covenant was made with a cattle and that covenant was that seed time and harvest should not fail. Therefore the earth brings forth for them and for them the Lord causeth the grass to grow. Does Jehovah keep his covenant with cattle and will he not keep his covenant with his own beloved? Ah, it is because his chosen people are his covenanted ones in the person of the Lord Jesus that he provides for them all things that they shall need in time and in eternity and satisfies them out of the fullness of his everlasting love. Once again, God feeds the cattle and then the cattle praise him. We find David saying in the 148th Psalm, praise the Lord ye beasts and all cattle. The Lord feeds his people to the end that their glory may sing praise unto him and not be silent. While other creatures give glory to God, let the redeemed of the Lord especially say so whom he has redeemed out of the hand of the enemy. Nor even yet is our text exhausted. Turning one moment from the cattle, I want you to notice the grass. It is said of the grass, he causeth the grass to grow. Here is a doctrinal lesson, for if grass does not grow without God's causing it to grow, how could grace arise in the human heart apart from divine operations? Surely grace is a much more wonderful product of divine wisdom than the grass can be. And if grass does not grow without a divine cause, depend upon it grace does not dwell in us without a divine implantation. If I have so much as one blade of grace growing within me, I must trace it all to God's divine will and render to him all the glory. Again, if God thinks it worth his while to make grass and take care of it, much more will he think it to his honor to cause his grace to grow in our hearts. If the great invisible spirit whose thoughts are high and lofty condescends to look after that humble thing which grows by the hedge, surely he will condescend to watch over his own nature, which he calls the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth forever. Mungo Park in the deserts of Africa was much comforted when he took up a little piece of moss and saw the wisdom and power of God in that lonely piece of verdant loveliness. So when you see the fields ripe and ready for the mower, your hearts should leap for joy to see how God has produced the grass, caring for it all through the rigorous cold of winter and the chill months of spring. Until at last he sent the genial rain and sunshine and brought the fields to their best condition. And so, my soul, though thou mayest endure many a frost of sorrow and a long winter of trial, yet the Lord will cause thee to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen. End of chapter 13 in the Hayfield. Chapter 14 of Talks to Farmers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lauren Randall. Talks to Farmers by Charles H. Spurgeon. The Joy of Harvest. They joy before thee according to the Joy in Harvest, Isaiah chapter nine, verse three. The other day I kept the feast with a company who shouted, Harvest, home. I was glad to see the rich and poor rejoicing together. And when the cheerful meal was ended, I was glad to turn one of the tables into a pulpit and in the large barn to preach the gospel of the ever blessed God to an earnest audience. My heart was merry in harmony with the occasion. And I shall now keep in the same key and talk to you a little upon the joy of Harvest. Londoners forget that it is Harvest time. Living in this great desert of dingy bricks, we hardly know what a wheat ear is like, except as we see it dry and white in the window of a corn dealer's shop. Yet let us all remember that there is such a season as Harvest. When by God's goodness the fruits of the earth are gathered in, what is the joy of Harvest, which is here taken as the simile of the joy of the saints before God? I am afraid that to the mere selfish order of spirits, the joy of Harvest is simply that of personal gratification at the increase of wealth. Sometimes the farmer only rejoices because he sees the reward of his toils and is so much the richer man. I hope that with many there mingles the second cause of joy, namely gratitude to God that an abundant Harvest will give bread to the poor and remove complaining from our streets. There is a lawful joy in Harvest, no doubt, to the man who is enriched by it. For any man who works hard has a right to rejoice when at last he gains his desire. It would be well if men would always recollect that their last and greatest Harvest will be to them according to their labor. He that soweth to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption and only the man that soweth to the spirit will of the spirit reap life everlasting. Many a young man commences life by sowing what he calls his wild oats, which he had better never have sown. For they will bring him a terrible Harvest. He expects that from these wild oats he will gather a Harvest of true pleasure. But it cannot be the truest pleasures of life spring from the good seed of righteousness and not from the hemlock of sin. As a man who sows thistles in his furrows must not expect to reap the golden wheat sheaf, so he who follows the ways of vice must not expect happiness. On the contrary, if he sows the wind, he will reap the whirlwind. When a sinner fills the pangs of conscience, he may well say, this is what I sowed. When he shall at last receive the punishment of his evil deeds, he will blame no one but himself. He sowed tares, and he must reap tares. On the other hand, the Christian man, though his salvation is not of works, but of grace, will have a gracious reward given to him by his master. Sowing in tears, he shall reap in joy. Putting out his talents to interest, he shall enter into his master's joy and hear him say, well done good and faithful servant. The joy of harvest, in part, consists of the reward of labor. May such be our joy in serving the Lord. The joy of harvest has another element in it, namely that of gratitude to God for favors bestowed. We are singularly dependent on God, far more so than most of us imagine. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they went forth every morning and gathered the manna. Our manna does not come to us every morning, but it comes once a year. It is as much a heavenly supply as if it lay like a horsfrost round about the camp. If we went out into the field and gathered food, which dropped from the clouds, we should think it a great miracle. And is it not as great a marvel that our bread should come up from the earth as that it should come down from the sky? The same God who bade the heavens drop with angels food bids the dull earth in its due season, yield corn for mankind. Therefore, whenever we find that harvest comes, let us be grateful to God and let us not suffer the season to pass over without psalms of thanksgiving. I believe I shall be correct if I say that there is never in the world as a rule more than 16 months supply of food. That is to say, when the harvest is gathered in, there may be 16 months supply, but at the time of harvest, there is not usually enough wheat in the whole world to last the population more than four or five months so that if the harvest did not come, we should be on the verge of famine. We live still from hand to mouth. Let us pause and bless God and let the joy of harvest be the joy of gratitude. To the Christian, it should be great joy by means of the harvest to receive an assurance of God's faithfulness. The Lord has promised that seed time and harvest, summer and winter shall never cease. And when you see the loaded wane carrying in the crop, you may say to yourself, God is true to his promise. Despite the dreary winter and the damp spring, autumn has come with its golden grain. Depend upon it, that as the Lord keeps this promise, he will keep all the rest. All his promises are yea and a men in Christ Jesus. If he keeps his covenant to the earth, much more will he keep his covenant with his own people, whom he hath loved with an everlasting love. Go, Christian, to the mercy seat with a promise on your lip and plead it. Be assured it is not a dead letter. Let not unbelief cause you to stammer when you mention the promise before the throne, but say it boldly. Fulfill this word unto thy servant on which thou hast caused me to hope. Shame upon us that we so little believe our God. The world is full of proofs of his goodness. Every rising sun, every falling shower, every revolving season certifies his faithfulness. Wherefore do we doubt him? If we never doubt him till we have cause for it, we shall never know distrust again. Encouraged by the return of harvest, let us resolve in the strength of the Spirit of God that we will not waver, but will believe in the divine word and rejoice in it. Once more to the Christian in the joy of harvest there will always be the joy of expectation as there is a harvest to the husbandman for which he waiteth patiently. So there is a harvest for all faithful waiters who are looking for the coming and the appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The mature Christian, like the ripe ear of corn, hangs down his head with holy humility. When he was but green in the things of God, he stood erect and was somewhat boastful. But now that he has become full of the blessing of the Lord, he is humbled thereby and bows himself down. He is waiting for the sickle and he dreads it not. For no common reaper shall come to gather Christ's people. He himself shall reap the harvest of the world. The Lord leaves the destroying angel to reap the vintage and to cast it into the wine-vat to be trodden with vengeance. But as for the grain which he himself has sown, he will gather it himself with his own golden sickle. We are looking for this. We are growing among the tares and sometimes we are half afraid lest the tear should be stronger than ourselves and choke the wheat. But we shall be separated by and by. And when the corn is well-winnowed and stored in the garner, we shall be there. It is this expectation which even now makes our hearts throb with joy. We have gone to the grave with precious sheaves that belong to our master. And when we were there, we thought we could almost say, Lord, if they sleep, they shall do well. Let us die with them. Our joy of harvest is the hope of being at rest with all the saints and forever with the Lord. A view of these shadowy harvests upon earth should make us exceedingly glad because they are the image and foreshadowing of the eternal harvest above. So much about the joy of harvest, but I hasten onward. What joys are those which to the believer are as the joy of harvest? It is a common notion that Christians are an unhappy people. It is true that we are tried, but it is false that we are miserable. With all their trials, believers have such a compensation in the love of Christ that they are still a blessed generation. And it may be said of them, happy art thou, O Israel. One of the first seasons in which we knew a joy equal to the joy of harvest, a season which has continued with us ever since it commenced, was when we found the Savior and so obtained salvation. You recollect for yourselves, brethren and sisters, the time of the plowing of your souls. My heart was fallow and covered with weeds, but on a certain day, the great husbandman came and began to plow my soul. 10 black horses were his team and it was a sharp plowshare that he used and the plowers made deep furrows. The 10 commandments were those black horses and the justice of God, like a plowshare tore my spirit. I was condemned, undone, destroyed, lost, helpless, hopeless. I thought hell was before me. Then there came a cross plowing for when I went to hear the gospel, it did not comfort me. It made me wish I had a part in it, but I feared that such a boon was out of the question. The choicest promises of God frowned at me and his threatenings thundered at me. I prayed, but found no answer of peace. It was long with me thus. After the plowing came the sowing. God who plowed the heart made it conscious that it needed the gospel and the gospel seed was joyfully received. Do you recollect that auspicious day when it last you began to have some little hope? It was very little, like a green blade that peeps up from the soil. You scarce knew whether it was grass or corn, whether it was presumption or true faith. It was a little hope, but it grew very pleasantly. Alas, a frost of doubt came. Snow of fear fell. Cold winds of despondency blew on you. And you said, there can be no hope for me. But what a glorious day was that when it last the wheat which God had sown ripened. And you could say, I have looked unto him and have been lightened. I have laid my sins on Jesus where God laid them of old and they are taken away. And I am saved. I remember well that day and so no doubt do many of you. Oh, sirs, no husbandman ever shouted for joy as our heart shouted when a precious Christ was ours. And we could grasp him with full assurance of salvation in him. Many days have passed since then, but the joy of it is still fresh with us. And blessed be God, it is not the joy of the first day only that we look back upon. It is the joy of every day since then, more or less for our joy no man taketh from us. Still, we are walking in Christ even as we received him. Even now, all our hope on him has stayed. All our help from him we bring and our joy and peace continue with us because they are based upon an immovable foundation. We rejoice in the Lord, yay, and we will rejoice. The joy of harvest generally shows itself by the farmer giving a feast to his friends and neighbors. And usually those who find Christ express their joy by telling their friends and their neighbors how great things the Lord have done for them. The grace of God is communicative. A man cannot be saved and always hold his tongue about it. As well, look for dumb choirs in heaven as for a silent church on earth. If a man has been thirsty and has come to the living stream, his first impulse will be to cry, Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Do you feel the joy of harvest? The joy that makes you wish that others should share with you? If so, do not repress the impulse to proclaim your happiness. Speak of Christ to brothers and sisters, to friends and kinsfolk. And if the language be stammering, the message in itself is so important that the words in which you couch it will be a secondary consideration. Tell it, tell it out far and wide that there is a savior, that you have found him, and that his blood can wash away transgression. Tell it everywhere, and so the joy of harvest shall spread over land and sea, and God shall be glorified. We have another joy which is like the joy of harvest. We frequently have it too. It is the joy of answered prayer. I hope you know what it is to pray in faith. Some prayer is not worth the words used in presenting it, because there is no faith mixed with it. With all thy sacrifices thou shalt offer salt, and the salt of faith is needful if we would have our sacrifices accepted. Those who are familiar with the mercy seat know that prayer is a reality, and that the doctrine of divine answers to prayer is no fiction. Sometimes God will delay to answer for wise reasons. Then his children must cry, and cry, and cry again. They are in the condition of the husbandman who must wait for the precious fruits of the earth. And when at last the answer to prayer comes, they are then in the husbandman's position when he receives the harvest. Remember Hannah's wail and Hannah's word? In the bitterness of her soul she cried to God, and when her child was given to her she called it Samuel, meaning asked of God. For, said she, for this child I prayed, he was a dear child to her because he was a child of prayer. Any mercy that comes to you in answer to prayer will be your Samuel mercy, your darling mercy. You will say of it, for this mercy I prayed, and it will bring the joy of harvest to your spirit. If the Lord desires to surprise his children, he has only to answer their prayers. For the most of them would be astonished if an answer came to their petitions. I know how they speak about answers to prayer. They say, how remarkable, how wonderful, as if it were anything remarkable that God should be true and that the most high should keep his promise. Oh, for more faith to rest upon his word and we should have more of these harvest joys. We have another joy of harvest in ourselves when we conquer a temptation. We know what it is to get under a cloud sometimes, sin within us rises with a darkening force or an external adversity clouds us and we miss the plain path we were accustomed to walk in. A child of God at such times will cry mightily for help for he is fearful of himself and fearful of his surroundings. Some of God's people have been by the week and month together exposed to the double temptation from without and from within and have cried to God in bitter anguish. It has been a very hard struggle. The sinful action has been painted in very fascinating colors and the siren voice of temptation has almost enchanted them. But when at last they have got through the valley of the shadow of death without having slipped with their feet when after all they have not been destroyed by a Pollyon but have come forth again into the daylight. They feel a joy unspeakable compared with which the joy of harvest is mere childish merriment. Those know deep joy who have felt bitter sorrow. As the man feels that he is the stronger for the conflict as he feels that he has gathered experience and stronger faith from having passed through the trial he lifts up his heart and rejoices not in himself but before his God with a joy of harvest. Brethren, beloved, you know what that means. Again, there is such a thing as the joy of harvest when we have been rendered useful. The master passion of every Christian is to be useful. There should be a burning zeal within us for the glory of God. When the man who desires to be useful has laid his plans and set about his work he begins to look out for the results. But perhaps it will be weeks or years before results will come. The worker is not to be blamed that there are no fruits as yet. But he is to be blamed if he is content to be without fruits. A preacher may preach without conversions and who shall blame him? But if he be happy, who shall excuse him? It is ours to break our own hearts if we cannot by God's grace break other men's hearts. If others will not weep for their sins it should be our constant habit to weep for them. When the heart becomes earnest, warm, zealous God usually gives a measure of success some 50 fold, some a hundred fold. When the success comes it is the joy of harvest indeed. I cannot help being egotistical enough to mention the joy I felt when first I heard that a soul had found peace through my youthful ministry. I had been preaching in a village some few Sabbaths with an increasing congregation but I had not heard of a conversion and I thought perhaps I am not called of God. He does not mean me to preach. For if he did he would give me spiritual children. One Sabbath my good deacon said, don't be discouraged. A poor woman was savingly impressed last Sabbath. How long do you suppose it was before I saw that woman? It was just as long as it took me to reach her cottage. I was eager to hear from her own lips whether it was a work of God's grace or not. I always looked upon her with interest, though only a poor laborer's wife till she was taken away to heaven after having lived a holy life. Many since then have I rejoiced over in the Lord but that first seal to my ministry was peculiarly dear to me. It gave me a sip of the joy of harvest. If somebody had left me a fortune it would not have caused me one hundredth part of the delight I had in discovering that a soul had been led to the Savior. I am sure Christian people who have not this joy have missed one of the choicest delights that a believer can know this side heaven. In fact, when I see souls saved I do not envy Gabriel his throne nor the angels their harps. It shall be our heaven to be out of heaven for a season if we can but bring others to know the Savior. And so add fresh jewels to the Redeemer's crown. I will mention another delight which is as the joy of harvest and that is fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not so much a matter for speech as for experience and delight. If we try to speak of what communion with Christ is we fail. Solomon the wisest of men when inspired to write of the fellowship of the church with her Lord was compelled to write in allegories and emblems. And though to the spiritual mind the book of Canticles is always delightful yet to the carnal mind it seems a mere love song. The natural man discerneth not the things that be of God for they are spiritual and can only be spiritually discerned but oh the bliss of knowing that Christ is yours and of entering into nearness of communion with him to thrust your hand into his side and your finger into the print of the nails. These be not everyday joys but when such near and dear communings come to us on our high days and holy days they make our souls like the chariots of Amenadeb or if you will they cause us to tread the world beneath our feet and all that earth calls good or great. Our condition matters nothing to us if Christ be with us. He is our God, our comfort and our all and we rejoice before him as with the joy of harvest. I have no time to enlarge further for I want to close with one other practical word. Many of us are anxiously desiring a harvest which would bring to us an intense delight. Of late diverse persons have communicated to me in many ways the strong emotion they feel of pity for the souls of men. Others of us have felt a mysterious impulse to pray more than we did and to be more anxious than ever we were that Christ would save poor perishing sinners. We shall not be satisfied until there is a thorough awakening in this land. We did not raise the feeling in our own minds and we do not desire to repress it. We do not believe it can be repressed but others will feel the same heavenly affection and will sigh and cry to God day and night until the blessing comes. This is the sowing, this is the plowing, this is the harrowing. May it go on to harvesting. I long to hear my brethren and sisters universally saying we are full of anguish. We are in agony till souls be saved. The cry of Rachel, give me children or I die is the cry of your minister this day and the longing of thousands more besides. As that desire grows in intensity a revival is approaching. We must have spiritual children born to Christ or our hearts will break for the longing that we have for their salvation. Oh, for more of these longings, yearnings, cravings, travailings. If we plead till the harvest of revival comes we shall partake in the joy of it. Who will have the most joy? Those who have been the most concerned about it? You who do not pray in private nor come out to prayer meetings will not have the joy when the blessing comes and the church is increased. You had no share in the sowing. Therefore you will have little share in the reaping. You who never speak to others about their souls who take no share in Sunday school or mission work but simply eat the fat and drink the sweet. You shall have none of the joy of harvest for you do not put your hands to the work of the Lord. And who would wish that idlers should be happy rather in our zeal and jealousy we feel inclined to say curse ye morose, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not up to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty. If you come to the help of the Lord by his own divine spirit you shall share the joy of harvest. Perhaps none will have more of that joy than those who shall have the privilege of seeing their own dear ones brought to God. Some of you have children who are a trial to you whenever you think of them. Let them be such a trial to you that they drive you to incessant prayer for them. And if the blessing comes why should it not drop on them? If a revival comes why should not your daughter yet be converted and that wild boy of yours be brought in or even your gray-headed father who has been skeptical and unbelieving? Why should not the grace of God come to him and oh what a joy of harvest you will have then what bliss will thrill through your spirit when you see those who are united to you in ties of blood, united to Christ your Lord. Pray much for them with earnest faith and you shall yet have the joy of harvest in your own house. A shout of harvest home in your own family. Possibly my hearer you have not much to do with such joy for you are yourself unsaved. Yet it is a grand thing for an unconverted person to be under a ministry that God blesses and with the people that pray for conversions. It is a happy thing for you young man to have a Christian mother. It is a great boon for you, oh unconverted woman that you have a godly sister. These make us hopeful for you. While your relations are prayerful we are hopeful for you. May the Lord Jesus be yours yet. But oh, if you remain unbelieving however rich a blessing comes to others it will leave you none the better for it. If ye be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land. But there are some who may cry in piteous accents. The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved. It has been remarked that those who pass through a season of revival and remain unconverted are more hardened and unimpressed than before. I believe it to be so and I therefore pray the divine spirit to come with such energy that none of you may escape his power. May you be led to pray. Pass me not, O mighty spirit. Thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit speak the word of power to me, even me. Have I long in sin been sleeping, long been sliding, grieving thee? Has the world my heart been keeping? Oh, forgive and rescue me, even me. Oh, for earnest, impertinent prayer from all believers throughout the world if our churches could be stirred up to incessant, vehement crying to God so as to give him no rest till he makes Zion a praise in the earth, we might expect to see God's kingdom come and the power of Satan fall. As many of you as love Christ, I charge you by his dear name to be much in prayer. As many of you as love the church of God and desire her prosperity, I beseech you, keep not back in this time of supplication. The Lord grant that you may be led to plead till the harvest joy is granted. Do you remember one Sabbath my saying? The Lord deal so with you as you deal with his work during this next month. I feel as if it will be so with many of you that the Lord will deal so with you as you shall deal with his church. If you scatter little, you shall have little. If you pray little, you shall have little favor. But if you have zeal and faith and plead much and work much for the Lord, good measure, pressed down and running over, shall the Lord return into your own bosoms. If you water others with drops, you shall receive drops in return. But if the spirit helps you to pour out rivers of living water from your own soul, then floods of heavenly grace shall flow into your spirit. God bring in the unconverted and lead them to a simple trust in Jesus. Then shall they also know the joy of harvest. We ask it for his name's sake. Amen. End of chapter 14, The Joy of Harvest.