Tearful Sowing and Joyful Reaping
A sermon
(No. 867)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, APRIL 25, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"He that goes forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."- Psalm
126:6.
THE whole of our life we are sowing. In activity, in suffering, in
thought, in word we are always scattering imperishable seed. Some sow
amidst laughter and merriment–they sow unto the lusts of the flesh and
shall of the flesh reap corruption. Theirs is easy work and suitable to
their inclinations. All around them siren songs cheer them in the
fields of transgression as they go forth with the seed of hemlock to
scatter it broadcast in the furrows. Alas, for them, they shall reap
under other skies–they shall gather sheaves of flame in the harvest of
fire–in the day of vengeance of our God. They have sown the wind and
they shall reap the whirlwind and who shall help them in that hour of
terror?
A chosen company are sowing unto the spirit and in their case, albeit
that they are blessed among men and shall reap amid eternal songs, they
sow in sadness, for sowing unto the spirit involves a self-denial, a
struggling against the flesh, a running counter to the fallen instincts
of our depraved nature–a wrestling and a life of agony involving
plentiful showers of tears. To sow unto the spirit, in the field of
obedience or patient endurance, is such a work as only the Holy Spirit
can enable us to accomplish. And even then the oppositions from outward
circumstances, from the powers of Hell and from the depravity of our
nature is oftentimes so severe that we are compelled with bitter tears
and strong cries to lift up our heart unto God out of the depths of
anguish.
They who sow unto the spirit, as a rule, have to sow in tears, but
their reaping will so compensate them that even in the prospect of it
they may dry their eyes, reckoning that these light afflictions which
are but for a moment, are not worthy to be compared with the Glory
which shall be revealed in them. Our momentary weeping, while we let
fall the precious seed, is scarcely to be thought of in comparison with
the mighty sheaves of the exceeding Glory in the land where tears are
Divinely and finally wiped from every eye.
The principle that the mournful sowing of the saints will end in a
joyful reaping stands good in regard to the whole spiritual life, but
it is equally applicable to individual incidents in that life. For
instance, many prayers are offered under circumstances of great
depression of spirit, with mighty vehemence and desire, but perhaps
under strong temptations to unbelief. Over such prayers, cataracts of
tears are poured forth, and, Brethren, you may count it a blessed sign
when you can sigh and cry in your supplications, for your tears are
like the prevalent wrestling of Jacob when he won the name of Israel.
Your agony of spirit, like the plea of Moses, shall hold the Lord and
bind His hand.
There is a conquering power in the heart's tears in prayer. You shall
have what you desire when you desire it unto weeping. Take the anguish
of your spirit to be the premonition of the fulfillment of the promise.
You shall come again out of your closet crying, like Luther, "I have
conquered." You shall see sheaves of blessing, since you have sown your
prayer amid a shower of tears.
Some Believers also sow in sadness through daily sufferings. It is
appointed unto some to be the daughters of affliction, the sons of
pain. Happy is it when those who are thus called to suffer continue to
sow while they suffer. It is not always so easy to be practically
useful when one has at the same time to maintain patience and
resignation. We are apt to think that one form of service at a time is
enough and perhaps it may be so, but if we can add another, our
blessedness will be doubled! To shed tears and yet to sow! To be racked
with pain and to turn the couch into a pulpit! To make the sick bed a
tribune from which to tell of the love of Christ–oh, this is blessed
living! To work for Christ Jesus under such terrible disadvantages
shall surely win a double recompense–and if the preacher fails from
the pulpit–yet shall not the sick saint be successful from his bed?
And if the orator shall not prevail in the strength of his manhood, yet
shall the pining consumptive, when he warns his friend to escape from
the wrath to come, assuredly win success–his weakness shall be his
strength and his sickness shall put force into his speech. I doubt not
that the text may be so read as to imply that the heart-sorrow of men
engaged in the Lord's service shall help to secure for them from the
hand of Divine mercy a double reward. Those who can sow while yet they
weep, shall, beyond all question, come again rejoicing, bringing their
sheaves with them.
There are many other instances which I might thus detain you with, but
I prefer at once to proceed to the main business of this morning and
that is to consider this text in its relation to every Christian
worker. Let us first describe his service–"He that goes forth and
weeps, bearing precious seed." Let us, secondly, contemplate his
reward–"He shall come again with rejoicing, bearing his sheaves with
him." Let us in the third place, notice the certainty which, like a
golden link, binds these two things together–the weeping service and
the rejoicing success.
I. First, then, dear Friends, behold THE CHOSEN WORKER FOR GOD, the man
who shall reap an abundant harvest. It is said of him that he goes
forth. Every word here is instructive. What is intended by going forth?
Does it mean, first, that he goes forth from God? Observe that our text
speaks of his coming again–but where is he to return at the last with
his sheaves but to his God? Then, as he returns to the place from which
he went forth, surely he goes forth from God! And I understand by this
that the chosen servant of God has received consciously a Divine
commission from Heaven.
If he has never in the temple seen the glory of God, high and lifted
up. If he has never seen an angel fly with the golden tongs to bear a
live coal from off the altar to touch his lips. If he has never heard
the voice saying, "Whom shall we send? And who will go for us?" yet his
heart has said, "Here am I, send me." He has felt within his soul a
yearning to be useful, a panting which could no more be quenched,
unless he can win souls, than the panting of the deer could be stopped
unless it could bath itself in the water brooks. I will not believe
that any man can be useful in the Church of God unless he feels a
Divine vocation. Especially is it a sin beyond all others for a man to
take up the ministry as a mere profession and to follow it as though he
might have followed something else.
I remember the saying of an old divine who was asked by a young man
whether he should enter the ministry. He replied, "Not if you can help
it." No man has any right to be a preacher unless he is one who cannot
help it. He must be one who feels that he is driven into it, and that
woe is unto him unless he preach the Gospel! In the same way is it in
the other departments of Christian service. You Christian people all
have a duty, you all have responsibilities–but your duties and
responsibilities, somehow or other, never move you until they take the
active form of a vocation. I would to God that every Christian in this
Church felt that he had a call as from the Christ of God exalted on His
Throne to go out and tell others of the way of salvation!
I wish that the men and women who have here banded themselves together
in a sacred confraternity felt every one of them commissioned of God,
each one according to his ability, to pluck brands from the burning, to
rescue souls from going down into the Pit. It is in going forth from
God with His call upon you that you have the prospect of coming back
successful–no way else! This going forth from God seems to me to imply
that the worker had been with God in prayer. We must go fresh from the
Mercy Seat to the field of service if we would gather plenteously. Our
truest strength lies in prayer.
I am persuaded, Brethren, that we are losing much of blessing which
might come upon the Church through our negligence in private
supplications. I cannot pry into your prayer closets, but I believe
that in the conscience of many of you there will be an affirmative
voice to the charge I lay against some of you–you have restrained
prayer before God. Your restraining of prayer, if you seek to serve
God, is binding your own hands and cutting the sinews of your strength!
As you could not expect to be vigorous if you denied yourselves food,
so neither can you hope to be strong if you deny yourselves prayer. Get
close to God, for strength flows out of Him. Keep at a distance from
Him and you lose all power and become weak as water.
"He that goes forth," must mean, then, that he has stood before the
Mercy Seat. That he has told out the story of his needs where the blood
is sprinkled and then has gone forth in the power which prayer alone
can bring from Heaven to scatter his precious seed among men. Does not
this going forth from God imply, also, that the man has been in
communion with God? He wears a shining face who has looked into the
face of God and in the power of that brightness he shall make the
desert bloom and the wilderness rejoice! He has looked up to the God of
miracles and held fellowship
with Him! The Lord lends much of Himself to the man who is much with
Him. He endows with marvelous power the man who has learned to live
close to Him and to walk in the light of His Countenance.
To "go forth," however, may be looked at from another angle. Does it
not refer to whether the man is to go as well as to the place from
which he comes? "He that goes forth," that is, away from the world,
outside the camp. If you would be serviceable, you must come right out
from the common track and in holy decision step out of the ranks for
Christ. Of all the men who lived on the face of the earth, the most
remarkable and the most singular in His age was the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was no man who was so manly, no man so unlike a mere monk or
separatist as Christ. He eat and drank just as other men did and yet
there was a something about His Character which distinguished Him
altogether from the whole mass of humanity.
He had gone forth, evidently, outside the camp–holy, harmless,
undefiled and separate from sinners. If you want to win golden sheaves
for Christ, you must come out, my dear Brother, as your Lord did.
Depend upon it, the world's religion is not that which breeds useful
men! Nor, though I may be rebuked for saying it, is the ordinary
character of our Churches equal to the production of successful
servants of Christ. Common religion has become, nowadays, so cold and
dead and sleepy a thing, that unless you can come out of it and get
above it, you cannot expect to be one of those who shall come again
rejoicing in abundant sheaves.
Aspire to be something more than the mass of Church members! Lift up
your cry to God and beseech Him to fire you with a nobler ambition than
that which possesses the common Christian–that you may be found
faithful unto God at the last and may win many crowns for your Lord and
Master, Christ. He that goes forth taking up Christ's Cross, leaving
the multitude and separating himself for service–he shall win the
great service! Going forth may represent, also, entire giving up of
yourself to that particular field of labor to which God has called you.
As when the day dawns, as the laborer goes forth to plow in the field,
so the consecrated man hastens to his department of service.
He is not running here and there wasting time, but, like a man who
knows his vocation, he goes straight to it and abides in it until the
evening of his life. I am inclined to think that there is a version of
these words which may be very useful to enterprising Believers. "He
that goes forth"–that is, gets beyond the range of ordinary Christian
labor–he shall find a double harvest. The most successful servants of
God have been those who have not built upon other men's foundations,
but have ventured to break up new soil.
There comes very little reward to me from preaching to the many who
regularly attend this Tabernacle, because the most of you have heard
the Gospel so long that if there were any probabilities of its
converting you, in all likelihood you would have been converted long
ago. The probabilities seem to be that the soil upon which the seed
will germinate is already plowed and only rock remains–that the elect
of God have been gathered out of my congregation and that we may not
expect, in our ministry, to see great results in the future among our
older hearers. But whenever we have broken up fresh ground–when we
have gone someplace not usually occupied for worship, when we have got
at a new piece of unbroken prairie–what wonderful results have always
followed!
Why, I fear there were more conversions in the Surrey Music Hall than
there ever have been here. In Exeter Hall, God converted more in
proportion by our ministry than He has done of late in this house–not
because the ministry has changed, nor the blessing upon it–but because
continuing to plow upon the same old soil, again and again, we can
hardly expect to reap much of a harvest! Hearts have become seared!
Consciences have become callous! By going forth to get fresh ears to
hear and fresh hearts to know the joyful sound, we may hope to see
golden sheaves.
I say, then, to you Christian workers, reach out after those who have
been thought to be beyond the range of hope! Seek to convert those who
have been neglected! Let it be the effort of Christian people to go
after those that nobody else is going after–the best fruit will be
gleaned from boughs up to now untouched. And let our missionary
operations be continually breaking forth, on the right hand and on the
left, as opportunity may be given. If the Burmans rejected the Gospel,
the Karens received it. Sometimes, when a superior race, so called, has
rejected the Truth of God, those who have been downtrodden pariahs of
the land have been made ready by God to accept the Gospel.
There is more hope, I think, of conversion work to be done in Italy and
in Spain than in any other parts of the world. Where the ministry of
Christ has been all but silenced, the Truth will come like an angel's
hymn and there it is that we may expect to hear glad hearts welcoming
the Good News. "He that goes forth"–not he that sits at home, throwing
random handfuls out of his window and expecting the corn to spring up
on his doorstep–but he who obeys the Word,
"Go you into all the world," and leaps over the hedges which shut in
the narrow sphere of nominal Christendom and labors to have fresh
lands, fresh provinces, fresh wildernesses broken up for Christ! He is
the man most likely to win the
reward.
The next word is, "and weeps." What does this mean? I take it,
Brethren, that, as in the first words, "he that goes forth," we see the
man's mode of service, so here we note a little of the man, himself. He
goes forth and weeps. The man likely to be successful is a man of like
passions with ourselves, not an angel, but a man, for he weeps. But
then he is very much a man. He is a man of strong passions, weeping
because he has a sensitive heart. The man who sleeps, the man who can
be content to do nothing and is satisfied with no result is not the man
to win sheaves. God chooses, usually, not men of great brains and a
vast mind, but men of true-hearted, deep natures–with souls that can
desire and pant and long and heave and throb!
It is a great thing that makes a genuine man weep. Tears do not lie
quite so fleet with most of us. But the man who cannot weep cannot
preach, at least, if he never feels tears within, even if they do not
show themselves without, he can scarcely be the man to handle such
themes as those which God has committed to His people's charge. If you
would be useful, dear Brothers and Sisters, you must cultivate the
sacred passions. You must think much upon the Divine realities until
they move and stir your souls. Men are dying and perishing! Hell is
filling! Christ is dishonored! Souls are not converted to Christ! The
Holy Spirit is grieved! The kingdom does not come to God, but Satan
rules and reigns–all this ought to be well considered by us and our
heart ought to be stirred until, like the Prophet, we say, "O that my
head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears."
The useful worker for Christ is a man of tenderness, not a stoic–not
one who does not care whether souls are saved or not. He is not one so
wrapped up in the thought of Divine Sovereignty as to be absolutely
petrified, but one who feels as if he died in the death of sinners and
perished in their ruin–as though he could only be made happy in their
happiness, or find a paradise in their being caught up to Heaven. The
weeping, then, shows you what kind of man it is whom the Lord of the
Harvest largely employs.
He is a man in earnest, a man of tenderness, a man in love with souls,
a man wrapped up in his calling, a man carried away with compassion, a
man who feels for sinners–in a word, a Christ-like man. Not a stone,
but a man who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, a man of
heart, a man ready to weep because sinners will not weep. "Why does he
weep?" asks someone–"He is on an honorable work and he is to have a
glorious reward." My Brethren, he weeps as he goes forth because he
feels his own insufficiency. He often sighs within himself, "Who is
sufficient for these things?" He did not know what a weak creature he
was until he came into contact with other men's hearts. He fancied it
was easy work to serve God, but now he is somewhat of Joshua's mind,
"You cannot serve the Lord."
Every effort that he makes betrays to him his own lack of natural
strength. Well may he weep! He never teaches in the Sunday school
class–he never prays at the sick bed but what he feels ashamed when he
has done his work that he did not do it better. He never takes a little
child on his knee to talk to it of Jesus, but he wishes that he could
have spoken more tenderly of the sweet gentleness of the Lover of
little children. He is never satisfied with himself, for he forms a
right estimate of himself and he weeps to think that he is so poor an
instrument for so good a Master.
Moreover, he weeps because of the hardness of men's hearts. He thought,
at first, he should only have to tell these great Truths of God and men
would leap for joy. Have you ever seen fancy pictures at the head of
our missionary magazines–of respectable gentlemen dressed in black
suits, landing out of boats manned by devout sailors, carrying Bibles
in their hands–and these well-to-do evangelists are surrounded by
Turks and Chinese, black people, and copper-colored people, who are
running down to the seashore and taking these precious Bibles in their
hands and looking as if they had found a priceless treasure?
All, it is all in the picture, it is nowhere else–the thing does not
occur! Natives of barbarous isles and heathen kingdoms do not receive
the Gospel in that way. Heralds of the Cross have to do a deal of rough
work and toil! The Gospel, which ought to be welcomed, is rejected! And
as there was no room for Christ in the inn when He became Incarnate, so
there is no room for the Gospel in the hearts of mankind. Yes, and this
makes us weep, since where there should be so much readiness to accept,
there is so much obstinacy and rebellion.
The Christian worker weeps because, when he does see some signs of
success, he is often disappointed. Blossoms come not to be fruit, or
fruit half-ripe drops from the tree. He has to weep before God,
oftentimes, because he is afraid that
these failures may be the result of his own lack of tact or need of
Divine Grace. I marvel not that the minister weeps, or that any worker
for Christ bedews the seed with his tears–the wonder is he does not
lament far more than he does! Perhaps we should all weep more if we
were more Christ-like, more what we should be. And perhaps our working
would have about it more Divine results if it came more out of our very
soul, if we played less at soul-saving and worked more at it. If we
cast soul and strength and every energy of our being into the work,
perhaps God would reward us at a far greater rate.
The next point is he "bearsprecious seed." Here, indeed, is a special
point of all success. There is no soul-winning by untruthful preaching.
We must preach the Truth of God as it is in Jesus. Workers for God must
tell out the Gospel and keep to the Gospel. You must continually dwell
upon the real Truth as it is in God's Word, for nothing but this will
win souls. Now in order to this, my fellow workers for Christ, we must
know God's Truth. We must know it by an inward experience of its power
as well as in theory. We must know it as precious Truth. It must be
precious seed to us for which we should be prepared to die if it were
necessary. We must understand it as being precious because it comes
from God. Precious because it tells to man the best of news. Precious
because sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. Precious because Christ
values it and all holy men esteem it beyond all price.
We must, therefore, not deliver it with flippancy, not talk of solemn
themes with levity, not tell out the Gospel as though we were retelling
a mere tale from the Arabian Nights, a romance meant for amusement, or
to beguile a passing hour. O Brethren, we who sow for God must sow
solemnly and in right good earnest, because the seed is precious seed,
more precious than we can ever estimate! Work for God, dear Brethren,
as those who know that the Truth is a seed. Do not speak of it and
forget it. Do not tell the Gospel as though it were a stone and would
lie in the ground and never spring up. Tell out the Truth as it is in
Jesus with the firm conviction that there is life in it and something
will come of it.
Be on the alert to see that and you will be the man who will have
results. Our estimate of the preciousness of the seed will have much to
do with the result of the seed. If I do not esteem thoroughly and
heartily the Gospel which I teach, if I do not teach it with all my
heart, I cannot expect to see the sheaves. But if, valuing the Gospel,
I tell it out to my fellow men as being priceless beyond all cost and
tell it out, therefore, with due vivacity and with an earnestness that
brings me to tears, I am the man who shall come again rejoicing,
bringing my sheaves with me.
I do not know whether I have brought out what I meant, but we have, I
think, in our text a full description of the successful worker.
II. You have in the text, THE WORKER'S SUCCESS. It is said of him, "He
shall come again." What does that mean but that he shall come again to
his God? And this the worker should do after he has labored. You sought
a blessing–go and tell your God of what you have done and if you have
seen a blessing come, give Him thanks. Those men always come back to
God with their sheaves who went from God with their seed. Some workers
can see souls converted and take the honor to themselves, but never
that man who sowed in tears–he has learned his own weakness in the
school of bitterness. And now, when he sees results, he comes back
again. He comes back to God, for he feels that it is a great wonder
that even a single soul should be convicted or converted under such
poor words as his.
Oh, I know some of you have had your sheaves. Dear Brother, beyond a
doubt, if you had those sheaves as the result of a holy vehemence in
prayer, you will be sure to come back with a holy ardor of thanksgiving
and lay those sheaves in their honor and their praise at the foot of
God who gave them to you. "He shall doubtless come again." Does not
that mean in the longest and largest sense, he shall come again to
Heaven? He did, as it were, go forth from Heaven. His body had not been
there, but his soul had. He had communed with God. Heaven was his
portion and his heritage, but it was expedient for him to tarry a
little while here for the sake of others, and so, in a certain sense he
leaves the Heaven of his rest to go into the field of sorrow among the
sons of men. But he shall come again.
Ah, blessed be God, we are not banished by our service. We are kept
outside the pearl gate for a little while–thanks be to God for the
honor of being permitted thus to be absent from our joys for
awhile–but we are not shut out, we are not banished, we shall
doubtless come again! Here is your comfort! You go, perhaps, into the
mission field. You journey to the remotest parts of the earth to serve
God, but you shall come again. There is a straight road to Heaven from
the most remote field of service and in this you may rejoice.
But the text adds, "He shall come again with rejoicing." What will he
rejoice in? Take the whole text and wrap it up together and it seems to
me to say that he shall come again rejoicing even in his very tears. I
reckon that at the last, when
Christian service shall be done and Christian reward shall be rendered,
the toils endured in serving God–the disappointment and the racking of
heart will all make raw material for everlasting song. Oh, how we shall
bless God to think that we were counted worthy to do anything for
Christ!
Was I enlisted in the host that stood the shock of battle? Did the
Master suffer me to have a hand upon the standard that waved so proudly
aloft amidst the smoke of the battle? Did He suffer me to leap into the
ditch, or scale the rampart of the wall among the forlorn hope? Or did
He even suffer me to watch by the baggage while the battle was raging
afar off? Then am I thankful that He, in any way whatever, permitted me
to have a share in the glory of that triumphant conflict! And then,
Brethren, as old soldiers show their scars and as the warriors in many
conflicts delight to tell of hair-raising escapes in "the imminent
breach," and of dangers grim and ghastly, so shall we rejoice as we
return to God to tell of our going forth and of our weeping when we
carried the precious seed.
There is not a single drop of gall which will not turn to honey. There
is not, this day, one drop of sweat upon your aching brow but shall
crystallize into a pearl for your everlasting crown! Not one pang of
anguish or disappointment but shall be transmuted into celestial glory
to increase your joy, world without end! But the main rejoicing will be
doubtless in their success. O you Sunday school teachers, if you go
forth as the text has told you and as I have explained to you, you
shall not be without fruits! I have heard many discussions among my
Brothers and Sisters, about whether or not every earnest laborer may
expect to have fruit.
I have always inclined to the belief that such is the rule and though
there may be exceptions and perhaps some men may be rather a savor of
death unto death than of life unto life, yet it seems to me that if I
never won souls I would sigh till I did. I would break my heart over
them if I could not break their hearts! If they would not be saved and
were not saved, I would almost cry with Moses, "Blot out my name out of
the Book of Life." Though I can understand the possibility of an
earnest sower never reaping, I cannot understand the possibility of an
earnest sower being content not to reap! I cannot comprehend any one of
you Christian people trying to win souls and not having results and
being satisfied without results!
I can suppose that you may love the Lord and may have been trying your
best unsuccessfully for years, but then I am sure you feel unhappy
about it. I can not only suppose that to be the case, but I am thankful
that you are unhappy! I hope the unhappiness will increase with you
till at last, in the anguish of your spirit, you shall cry, like
Rachel, "Give me children or I die! Give me fruits or I cannot live!"
Then you will be the very person described in the text–you go forth
weeping, bearing seed that is precious to you–and you must have
results, you must come again rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you!
The last point is coming back rejoicing with sheaves. I do not suppose
the text means that the reaper is to bring home all his sheaves on his
own back, but, as an old expositor says, he comes with the wagons
behind him, with the wagons at his heels, bringing his sheaves with
him. Yes, they are his sheaves. "How so? All saved souls belong to
Christ. They are God's." Yes, but for all that they belong to the
worker. There is a kind of sacred property which exists and which God
acknowledges in the case of men and women who bring souls to Christ. I
am persuaded there is no love in this world more pure and crystal, more
celestial and enduring, than the love of a convert to the person
through whose agency he or she may have been brought to Christ.
All earthly love has a tinge of the flesh about it, but this is
spiritual–this is worthy of immortal spirits–this will therefore
endure. While the converts that are brought to Christ are all the
Lord's own, yet they belong, also, to those who brought them in–so God
puts it, "bringing his sheaves with him." And, ah, I like to think of
that! If God shall privilege me to bring souls to Him, I shall count
them all and say, "Here am I and the children which You have given me."
Oh, it is blessed to give all the glory to Christ! It is a great honor
to give all the honor to Him! But you must have the glory first, or you
cannot give it to Him! The sheaves must be yours, or evidently you
cannot carry them honestly and offer them to Him.
Souls are saved through God's Word, yes, but Christ prays for those who
shall believe, "through their word," that is, through the preachers'
word. The Apostle gives much honor to workers, for in one place he
speaks of himself as though he were the mother of souls, "Little
children for whom I have travailed in birth." In another place he
speaks of himself as though he were a father of souls, as though both
relations were centered in the true laborer. Thus does God put high
honor upon Christian workers by making the souls, as it were,
completely theirs–the sheaves their sheaves.
They threw themselves into the work. They made the work their very
life. They wept. They cried and pleaded as they sowed.
And now God does not come in to take away all property in the sheaves,
but as they come back, the workers have an interest and a share in all
the results of the blessed Gospel and God makes those sheaves their
sheaves! He gives them honor in the sight of men and angels through
Jesus Christ His Son!
III. And now I have not time, as I ought to have, for the conclusion,
which is upon THE GOLDEN LINK OF "DOUBTLESS," therefore I must just
launch rapidly these concise hints. The true worker will be a reaper. I
am afraid I have put this in the shape as though I were speaking to
ministers, but I am not. I am trying to talk to every Christian here.
If you are a true worker, you doubtless will be a reaper. Why? First,
because the promise of God says so. "My Word shall not return to Me
void: it shall prosper in the thing where I sent it."
Secondly, God's honor in the Gospel requires it. If there is a failure
and you have preached the true Gospel rightly, it will be the Gospel
that will fail. But God's attributes are all wrapped up in the
Gospel–it is His wisdom and His power. And shall God's wisdom be
nonplussed and God's power be put back? Again, you must reap because
the analogy of Nature assures you of it. The poor peasant whose little
stock of corn is all but spent, takes a little wheat, which is very
precious to him, and with many tears he drops it into the soil in the
wintry months. And God gives him a harvest. In due time, in the mellow
autumn days, he gathers in the sheaves, which reward him for his
self-denial.
It shall be so with you. God mocks not the farmer. He appoints the
seedtime and He brings round the harvest. As He does not change the
ordinances of Nature, so will He not change the ordinances of Divine
Grace. Be satisfied with this. Moreover, Christ, the model of the
Christian life, assures you of this. He went forth weeping, sowing
drops of bloody sweat, sowing with pierced hands and feet that dropped
with blood. He went forth sowing living seeds of love and they are
springing up today already in the Glory and in the multitudes that are
gathered into it. And soon, in the coming and the superior splendor
that shall envelop it, the Christ who sowed in tears will reap in joy!
Even thus it must be with you. And if this is not enough to comfort
you, remember those who have gone before you in this service who have
proved this fact. Think of those you have known who have not been
unsuccessful–when, with hearts broken and bruised, they have spent
their life-power in their Lord's work. Remember Judson and the
thousands of Karens that this day sing of the Savior whom he first
taught to them. Think of Moffat, in his old age still in the kraals of
the Bechuanas, not without glorious seals to his ministry!
Think of our own missions in Jamaica, of the wonders and trophies of
Grace in the South Sea Islands, the multitudes that were turned to
Christ during revival seasons in our own land and in the United States,
and you have proof that those that know how to weep and sow and who go
forth from God to the sowing, shall, beyond a doubt, come again
rejoicing with their sheaves! Up, you laborers, sow in hope! Sow
broadcast and enlarge your spheres! Up, you desponding ones who are
wrapping your cloaks about you and seeking consolation in indolence
because you think your toil too desperate! Up, I beseech you, for the
harvest comes!
O miss not your share in the shouting and the rejoicing–but you will
so miss it if you miss your part in the weeping and in the sorrowing!
Would God I could put zeal into your hearts, but that I cannot. May the
Holy Spirit do it and as a band of Christian men, may we be resolved
that henceforth, while we live, and until we die, we will with
passionate longing–with all the forces of our manhood worked up and
strained to the utmost pitch–seek to tell the good news of Jesus
Crucified to the sons of men, knowing that our work of faith cannot be
in vain in the Lord!
O you who are not saved at all, I ask you not to work! I ask you not to
sow! But come to Christ Jesus! Look to His Cross! One look at Christ
will save you! Trust in Him and you shall live. The Lord bless these
words for His name's sake. Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalms126,127,129