The Former and the Latter Rain
A sermon
(No. 880)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, JULY 11, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and
the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of
the harvest."- Jeremiah 5:24.
SUCH are the climate and soil of Palestine, that all agricultural
operations are most manifestly dependent upon the periodical rainfall.
Hence the people speak of the weather and the crops with a more
immediate reference to God than is usual with us. It is said that the
common expressions of the peasantry are such as quite strike travelers
with their apparently devout recognition of the Almighty agency.
Certainly we may account for a very large number of what may be called
the agricultural promises of the Old Testament from the fact that
little of the food of the people was gained by manufacture or commerce.
The whole population depended upon the field and the field upon the
rain.
Palestine is the very opposite of Egypt, which is so well irrigated by
its river. And it is equally different from our own land, in which
seasons of comparative drought may yet prove to be years of plenty. In
Palestine, the agriculturalist must have the rain. He must receive the
first rain soon after the corn is put into the ground, otherwise it
will rot or be blown away with the dust as his fields become turned
into a kind of impalpable powder by the summer's sun. He must have the
latter rain just before the time of harvest, otherwise the ears lacking
the moisture that should fill them out, will become thin and lean,
barely worth the ingathering–in fact, they will yield no flour for the
food of man. The farmer depends entirely upon the early and the latter
rain, and if these do not fall pretty plenteously in their season, a
time of famine will ensue.
Although our climate does not so immediately remind us of our
dependence upon God, yet it would be well if we remembered from where
all our blessings come and look up to the hand from which our daily
bread is distributed. In these herbless miles of pavement and these
dreary wildernesses of brick, we scarcely perceive the lapse of the
seasons. In vain for us the violet of spring sheds its perfume, or the
last rose of summer blushes with beauty–seed time and harvest come and
go all unobserved–yet are citizens and merchants as much dependent
upon the fruit of the field as the young lads who reap and mow.
Therefore let us lift up our eyes to the Lord who gives rain and in so
doing drops bread from Heaven! When He gives seasons favorable for the
harvest, let us thank Him for it. And if at any time He restrains the
blessings of the elements and loads the air with blight and mildew, let
us fear and tremble before Him and humble ourselves before His
chastening hand–
"The harvest-song we would repeat,
You give us the finest wheat.
The joys of harvest we ha ve known,
The praise, O Lord, is all Your own." Gratitude for Providential
mercies is not, however, the subject of this morning's discourse. I
intend to use the text rather in a spiritual sense.
As it is in the outward world, so is it in the inward. As it is in the
physical, so is it in the spiritual–man is a microcosm, a little
world–and all weather and seasons find their image in him. The earth
is dependent upon the rain shower from Heaven–so are the souls of men.
And so are their holy works dependent upon the Grace shower which comes
from the great Father of light, the Giver of every good and perfect
gift. A famine would surely follow in the East if the rain were
withheld–so would spiritual disasters of the worse kind be sure to
ensue if the Grace of God were restrained. We shall consider this great
Truth of God in its bearing upon two important matters–first, as it
respects the work of God which we carry on outside us. And, secondly,
as it respects the work of God as it is carried on within us.
I. First, then, THE WORK OF GOD AS IT IS CARRIED ON OUTSIDE US. It is
necessary, whenever any holy enterprise is commenced, that it should be
early watered by the helpful Spirit of God. Nothing begins well unless
it begins in God. It cannot take root, it cannot spring up in
hopefulness unless the Holy Spirit shall descend upon it. It will
wither like the grass upon the housetops if the celestial dew of the
morning falls not early upon it. The like Grace is equally necessary
after years of growth. There is urgent need of the latter rain, the
shower of revival, in which the old work shall be freshened and the
first verdure shall be restored. Without this latter rain, the period
of harvest which is the end aimed at will be disappointing.
My Brothers and Sisters, members of this Church, it will make my
discourse more practical if I apply it to the Church of which we are
members. You who are members of other Churches can readily, in a like
case, apply the Truth to your spiritual homes. Years ago we were
diminished and brought low. Dark was the hour and pale were the faces.
The numbers who gathered for sacred worship in connection with this
Church might almost be counted upon the fingers. Our Zion was all but
utterly forsaken.
Yet there was a living band of men whose hearts the Lord had touched,
who ceased not to pray day and night that He would be pleased to
remember us. To these entreaties Heaven sent a gracious answer and now
for these 16 years God has been pleased to look in mercy upon us as a
Church and congregation and in continued prosperity we have rejoiced
day by day. Many of you are the fruits, this day, of the blessing which
came to us in the first years of the early rain. How soon the
congregation was multiplied! Place after place was found to be too
small for us–still the blessing of God was with us and multitudes
thronged to hear the Word of God!
Blessed be His name, we had not only hearers, but we had converts! We
heard on every side the cry of repenting sinners and multitudes said,
"What must we do to be saved?" Our Church grew exceedingly, so that we
realized the blessing of the Apostolic times–"The Lord added to the
Church daily such as should be saved." We were as wet as Gideon's
fleece with the dew of Heaven! And what prayers we then put up! Have we
not been present, some of us, in Prayer Meetings when we were all moved
by the breath of God's Spirit, as the growing wheat is moved by the
wind? How often were our souls within us bowed to the very dust in
admiring wonder to see how the Lord worked!
As we saw the crowds, we stood still and cried in amazement, "Who are
these that fly as a cloud and as the doves to their windows?" Then,
being baptized of the Holy Spirit, we walked together in holy unity of
love, in earnestness of endeavor, in the generosity which spared no
expense for Christ. We shared in the love which thought no evil, in the
zeal which dared all things, in the courage that defied opposition! Our
Graces flourished and our communion was sweet and unbroken. And now, as
pastor of this Church, having seen what God has done for us, I can
gratefully add, "the Lord has not withdrawn His hand, lo, these
well-near 16 years, from our midst."
Conversions have never become less numerous. There has been, so far as
I can judge, little or no flagging in the earnestness of your
endeavors, and though more might have been done, and should have been
done, yet still for what has been done let God have all the praise! But
my fear is–a fear which haunts me often, a fear which springs, I
trust, out of zeal for God's Glory–lest having had the early rain we
should become contented to forego the latter rain. But ah, this must
not be! Any Church that dreams that it is established by the lapse of
years and can stand alone because of its acquired strength. Any Church
that imagines that prayer need not be so humble and vehement. Any
Church that conceives that its ministry has in it a natural power which
guarantees its efficiency. Any Church that dreams that its membership
has become so influential that it can support its own work. The hour of
peril is come and the day of its downfall is near at hand of any Church
that relies in any respect upon an arm offlesh!
Let not the Church say, "We have done enough." Let it not boast that it
has reached the Ultima Thule of industry and liberality. The end of
progress is come when we have reached self-contentment! When we glory
in the multitude of goods laid up for many years, we are already naked
and poor and miserable! I, therefore, beseech my Brothers and Sisters
joined with me in Church fellowship here, earnestly to entreat that we
now may have the latter rain as we before received the early rain! May
renewed Grace be to us a token that the God who blessed us in the past
has not turned away from doing us good.
We have the unconverted in our midst. They sit by our side in these
pews–we need Divine Grace for these. A number of our hearers who were
unconverted 15 years ago are still with us but yet not of us! Alas, in
that space of time a large number have passed into eternity unsaved.
The crowds still gather to listen to the Word and we need, still, the
blessing upon the preacher in delivering, and the people in hearing the
Truth of God. We cannot do without it! O members of this Church, let no
man take our crown! The crown of this Church has been the souls
converted unto God by the Holy Spirit in this place! Let us struggle to
retain this crown! Let us incessantly pray that instead of losing this
glory we may increase in it to the Glory of God!
I know not how to speak to you for the very reason that I need to speak
infinitely better than I can. For it seems to me that if God should
leave us, our own sadness and our own shame will be the least part of
the evil. Those who have watched our growth and been encouraged in
similar efforts will be discouraged and the kingdom of the Master will
in that measure decline. Others of His servants will hang their harps
upon the willows and return to that dull, dead, cold monotony, long so
common to our churches. My Brethren, you began the battle well! You
rushed to the encounter and swept all before you! Servants of the
living God! The day is hot and long, the struggle still continues! The
enemy still holds the ground–can you keep your line, can you stand in
your phalanx, can you endure to the end and march on with still greater
ardor to the fray until the field is won and the shout goes up that the
King eternal, immortal, has won the victory? Thus in connection with
any one Church.
The same is true in connection with any sphere of labor in which any
individual among us may happen to be engaged. I will trust that every
Believer here has found something to do for his Lord and Master. In
commencing any Christian work, novelty greatly assists enthusiasm and
it is very natural that under first impulses the beginner should
achieve an easy success. The difficulty of the Christian is very seldom
the commencement of the work. The true labor lies in the perseverance
which alone can win the victory. I address some Christians here who
have now been for years occupied with a service which the Holy Spirit
laid upon them. I would remind them of the early rain of their youthful
labors, the moisture of which still lingers on their memories, although
it has been succeeded by long years of drought.
Brothers, be encouraged! A latter rain is yet possible. Seek it! That
you need it so much is a cause for sorrow, but if you really feel your
need of it, be glad that the Lord works in you such sacred desires. If
you did not feel a need for more Divine Grace it would be a reason for
alarm. But to be conscious that all that God did by you in the past has
not qualified you to do anything without Him now–to feel that you lean
entirely upon His strength now, as much as ever– is to be in a
condition in which it shall be right and proper for God to bless you
abundantly.
Wait upon Him, then, for the latter rain. Ask that if He has given you
a little of blessing in past years, He would return and give you 10
times as much now, even now, so that, at the last, if you have sown in
tears, you may come again rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you!
Alas, the danger of every Christian worker is that of falling into
routine and self-sufficiency. We are most apt to do what we have been
accustomed to do and to do it half asleep. One of the hardest tasks in
all the world is to keep the Christian awake on the enchanted ground.
The tendencies of this present time and of all times, is to put us to
sleep! The life, the power of our public services and private devotion
speedily evaporates. We pray as in a dream and praise and preach like
sleepwalkers!
May God be pleased to stir us up, to awaken and quicken us by sending
us the latter rain to refresh His weary heritage. Thus much upon the
first point.
II. Let us turn to the second, which will more concern each one of us
and come closer home to our hearts. Spirit of
God, help us in dispensing Your Truth! We shall apply the text to OUR
SPIRITUAL LIFE WITHIN US. Here note,
first, that usually the spiritual life, as soon as it is commenced,
experiences a former rain, or a delightful visitation of Divine Grace.
Suffer me to speak to your memories for a little while. You remember
when you were converted to God. Some of us remember the day and the
hour and the very spot, to a yard! Others cannot remember, but they
need not, therefore, be discouraged, for if they are alive unto God, it
is a small matter about when they were born. They may rest assured, if
their faith is resting upon Christ, alone, it is well with them whether
their conversion was gradual or sudden.
But I say, many of you remember when you were converted, or
thereabouts. Now, was not the period after you had believed in Jesus
the happiest that you ever spent? Yes, though there have been times of
joy since then, yet in some respects must not that period bear the
palm? So blessed was our first conversion, to some of us, that those
first days are as green and fragrant in our memories as if they were
but yesterday! They are as fresh and fair as if they had but just
budded in the garden of time. Other days, like withered flowers, are no
longer sweet and lovely to gaze upon, but these are as well-bedewed
with the freshness of the morning as though they were of the present
rather than the past.
What bliss it was to feel that we were saved! Our hearts danced at the
very thought of full salvation. The only fear was that it was too good
to be true! Our faith was exceedingly strong–Christ upon the Cross was
always in our view. We had no experience, then, to set in the place of
Christ–no sanctification to mix up with His righteousness in our
justification. Our belief in Jesus was very simple and childlike, and
consequently was very comforting and we were very, very happy. Oh, how
blessed prayer was, then! Then we did really talk with God! Then we did
not need to whip ourselves up to our closets to pray–we only wished we
could stay upon our knees all day long and talk our hearts out to God!
We little cared, then, whether the place of worship was hot or cold.
Whether we were seated or standing. We cared only for the Gospel! We
would have gone over hedge and ditch to hear a sermon! It did not
matter what was the style of the preacher–if he were eloquent, we did
not hear him for his eloquence–we loved the Gospel too well to care
about oratory! If a plain-speaking man told us of our Master and His
love, we liked it all the better for his plainness of speech so long as
we could but see our Master! To hear anyone talk of a precious Christ,
and of pardon bought with blood, and of full and free salvation was
Heaven to us!
If, in those days we had to suffer anything for Jesus, we only
regretted we could not suffer more. We did not run out of the way of
reproaches in those days, but were almost prepared to court them for
His dear name's sake–
"What peaceful hours we then enjoyed, How sweet their memory still."
That was the early rain. The seed had just been sown and the Master, to
make it take deeper root and spring up faster into the green blade,
gave us the sacred shower of His loving Presence. There was much tender
wisdom in this gentleness, for the new-born soul is very weak at first.
Looking back to those days, we can clearly see what helpless infants we
were. In knowledge we were very babes to whom many things could not be
revealed because we could not have borne them. We fancied that our
souls' battle was over, that we were out of gunshot of the devil and
doubt–whereas the fight was just commencing–a fight never to cease
until death and Heaven reveal the victory!
The Lord was pleased to restrain the enemy from tormenting us because
we could not, then, have fought it out with him. The great and good
Lord tempered the wind to the shorn lamb. He covered the little bird
with His feathers. He carried the baby in His arms. He watered the
tender plants and set a hedge about them in love. The Great Farmer knew
how much our tender and week roots required the dew of Heaven and
therefore He liberally provided it. Moreover, many of us, before our
conversion, passed through fire and through water–conviction of sin
frowned on us by the year together. We laid in Doubting Castle and were
beaten with the crab tree club of despair, fearing lest we were
reprobates and past hope.
It was tenderly wise on our Lord's part that when we came out at last
and rejoiced in a crucified Savior, we should enjoy a time of
repose–for our bones were broken, our moisture was turned into the
drought of summer and we were ready to die. It was kindness on God's
part when our terrors had aggravated our weakness and depression of
spirits, that He should give us a time of great delight, when the love
of our espousals would make us forget our fears. Besides, our Master at
that time gave us the early rain, as it were, to give our young plant a
start in commencing our heavenly growth–a growth to which we might
look back in later years. How often have we been refreshed, since then,
in our times of sorrow, by remembering the months past when the candle
of the Lord shone round about our head!
Those early, happy days! Could it have all been a delusion? Was it all
a mistake? What? When our sinful companions were all given up? When our
darling lusts were all torn away? When the right eye was plucked out
and the right arm cut off? Could it all have been a sham? When the head
was leaned upon the Savior's bosom and the promise was so sweet– was
it all excitement? No, our memory says it was not so–it was real, it
was true! And He that gave us thus the foretaste, certainly has not
changed–
"His love in times past forbids us to think, He'll leave us at last in
trouble to sink." I do not give much for the faith which lives on past
experiences, for the precious faith of God's elect feeds on fresh manna
day by day. But, at the same time, there are dark and dreary moments
when past experience serves us well.
Beloved Christian, if you are now this day in the dark, pluck a torch
from the altars of yesterday with which to kindle the lights of today!
The faithful Promiser was with you, then. You had His love to cheer
you, then–go to Him yet once more and you shall receive the latter
rain of renewed Grace from Him who gives Grace upon Grace! Before I
leave this point, let me say one word of encouragement to any who are
seeking my Lord and Master. I trust some of you
are doing so. You have long been hearers of the Word of God, but you
are not converted yet, and perhaps you are sad because, after much
seeking, you have not been found by Him.
Let me assure you, when you have found the Lord, your waiting will be
richly recompensed. I would have lingered at His door for 80 years if
He would for a recompense give me but the one kiss of His lips. I would
gladly lie at His pool of mercy, yes, a whole natural life, if but at
the last my crimson sins might be washed away and my soul be made
whiter than snow. "Oh, but," you say, "if He comes not soon, I shall
die of despair before His coming!" But He will bring such cordials to
you, such wines on the lees well refined, that your despair shall take
wings and fly away! And instead of the black raven of doubt, you shall
receive the dove of consolation bringing the olive branch of peace in
her mouth!
Hope in God, for you shall yet praise Him for the help of His
Countenance. If you would have the early rain soon, do not wait any
longer. Obey the Gospel precept at once, for simple obedience will
bring the early rain at once. That precept is, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." Oh, the hundreds of times I have
proclaimed this to you and others have proclaimed it in your ears,
also, and yet you will not yield your hearts to it! You continue,
still, to say, "I feel," or, "I do not feel," "I am," or "I am not."
You have 50,000 excuses why you should not comply with the Master's
message. No comfort, however, can be yours, till, sink or swim, you
cast yourself on Christ! If you will but trust Christ to save you, you
shall be saved at this very hour!
Now shall the burden of your guilt fall from your shoulders and your
peace be like a river and you shall go on your way rejoicing that you
are saved! O why will you not obey this? May the Holy Spirit constrain
you! May you now do what I am sure, if God has chosen you, you will
have to do before long, namely, have done with yourself and close in
with Christ! Have done with feelings or need of feelings! Have done
with your works, bad or good! Have done with self and all that grows
out of self and come to that Cross where hangs a bleeding Savior, the
world's only hope! O that you could say, "My hope is there alone"! It
shall be well with you if you will now cast yourself upon Him. You
shall then have a happy season, such as only Believers know.
It is very usual in the life of Grace for the soul to receive in later
years, a second very remarkable visitation of the Holy Spirit, which
may be compared to the latter rain. As I told you, the latter rain was
sent to plump out the wheat and make it full and mature, ready for the
after-harvest ripening. So there is a time of special Grace granted to
saints, to prepare them for Heaven, to make them completely meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. To some, this is
given in the form of what has very commonly, and I think correctly,
been called a second conversion. "When you are converted, strengthen
your Brethren," was Christ's remark to Peter, who was even then a
converted man.
My Brothers and Sisters, there is a point in Grace as much above the
ordinary Christian, as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling.
Believe me, the life of Divine Grace is no dead level, it is not a low
country, a vast flat. There are mountains and there are valleys. There
are tribes of Christians who live in the valleys, like the poor Swiss
of the Valais, who live in the midst of the mist, where fever has its
lair and the frame is languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the
lowlands of unbelief are forever doubting, fearing, troubled about
their interest in Christ and tossed to and fro. But there are other
Believers, who, by God's Grace, have climbed the mountain of full
assurance and near communion. Their place is with the eagle in his
eyrie, high aloft.
They are like the strong mountaineer who has trod the virgin snow, who
has breathed the fresh, free air of the Alpine regions and therefore
his sinews are braced and limbs are vigorous. These are they who do
great exploits, being mighty men, men of renown. The saints who dwell
on high in the clear atmosphere of faith are rejoicing Christians, holy
and devout men, doing service for the Master all over the world and
everywhere conquerors through Him that loved them. And I desire–oh,
how earnestly I desire you to be such men and women! My craving is that
all of you, my Beloved, who have been watered by the former rain, may
also be refreshed by a more than ordinary latter rain which shall make
you more than ordinary Christians–bringing you beyond the blade period
and the ear period–into the full corn in the ear!
The great policy of Satan of late with the Church has been this–not so
much to attack her with open infidelity–for really all the infidelity
there is in England does not materially affect Churches worthy of the
name except to an almost infinitesimal extent. There is a deal more
made of skepticism in certain quarters than there is any need for.
Skeptics seldom get among our Christian people. At least I do not meet
with them in my enquiries, nor do I see them associating with
Christians of my association. The plan Satan seems to have adopted is
not that of attacking our doctrine, but that of
preventing, as far as he can, our raising in our midst a race of
eminent and advanced Christians. Pharaoh said, "Destroy the male
children." Satan seems to say, "Stop the male children from fulfilling
their growth."
We are well enough in our way after the common run of manhood. We
believe in Christ. We love Him and contribute something to His cause,
We preach and we pray. We are a respectable sort of people, but we do
not grow to maturity or attain "unto the first three." We have in this
age but few giants in Divine Grace who rise head and shoulders above
the common height–men to lead us on in deeds of heroism and efforts of
unstaggering faith. After all, the work of the Christian Church, though
it must be done by all, often owes its being done to single individuals
of remarkable Grace. In this degenerate time we are very much in need
of what Israel had in the days of the Judges–there were raised up
among them leaders who judged Israel and were the terror of her foes.
Oh, if the Church, today, had in her midst a race of heroes! If only
our missionary operations could be attended with the holy chivalry
which marked the Church in the early days! If only we could have back
Apostles and martyrs, or even such as Carey and Judson, what wonders
would be worked! We have fallen upon a race of dwarfs and are content,
to a great extent, to have it so. There was once in London a club of
small men whose qualification for membership lay in their not exceeding
five feet in height. These dwarfs held, or pretended to hold, the
opinion that they were nearer the perfection of manhood than others,
for they argued that primeval men had been far more gigantic than the
present race and consequently the way of progress was to grow less and
less, and that the human race, as it perfected itself, would become as
diminutive as themselves.
Such a club of Christians might be established in London and without
any difficulty might attain to an enormously numerous membership–for
the notion is common that our dwarfish Christianity is, after all, the
standard! And many even imagine that nobler Christians are enthusiasts,
fanatical and hot-blooded–while we are cool because we are wise and
indifferent–because we are intelligent. We must get rid of all this
nonsense! The fact is, the most of us are vastly inferior to the early
Christians, who, as I take it, were persecuted because they were
thoroughly Christians and we are not persecuted because we hardly are
Christians at all! They were so earnest in the propagation of the
Redeemer's kingdom, that they became the nuisance of the age in which
they lived.
They would not let errors alone. They had not conceived the opinion
that they were to hold the Truth of God and leave other people to hold
error without trying to intrude their opinions upon them. They preached
Christ Jesus right and left and delivered their testimony against every
sin. They denounced the idols and cried out against superstition until
the world, fearful of being turned upside down, demanded of them, "Is
that what you mean? Then we will burn you, lock you up in prison and
exterminate you." To which the Church replied, "We will accept the
challenge and will not depart from our resolve to conquer the world for
Christ." At last the fire in the Christian Church burned out the
persecution of an ungodly world.
But we are so gentle and quiet. We do not use strong language about
other people's opinions, but let men go to Hell out of charity to them!
We are not at all fanatical and for all we do to disturb him, the old
manslayer has a very comfortable time of it! We would not wish to save
any sinner who does not particularly wish to be saved! If persons
choose to attend our ministry, we shall be pleased to say a word to
them in a mild way, but we do not speak with tears streaming down our
cheeks, groaning and agonizing with God for them. Neither would we
thrust our opinions upon them, though we know they are being lost for
lack of the knowledge of Christ crucified! May God send the latter rain
to His Church–to me and to you–and may we begin to bestir ourselves
and seek after the highest form of earnestness for the kingdom of King
Jesus! May the days come in which we shall no longer have to complain
that we sow much and reap little, but may we receive a hundredfold
reward through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Very feebly, but still with the most earnest intentions, I have
endeavored to excite in you an ambition after a higher life and the
setting up of a higher standard. Seek to love your Master more. Pray to
be filled with His Spirit. Do not be mere trades people who are
Christian, but be Christians everywhere–not plated goods, but solid
metal. Be servants of Jesus Christ, whether you eat or drink, or
whatever you do. Serve Him with both your hands and all your heart. Get
your manhood strung to the utmost tension and throw its whole force
into your Redeemer's service. Live while you live! Drivel not away your
existence upon baser ends, but count the Glory of Christ to be the only
object worthy of your manhood's strength–the spread of the Truth of
God the only pursuit worthy of your mental powers–spend and be spent
in your Master's service.
I must draw to a close by noticing that the text speaks of a third
thing. There is the former rain and the latter rain and then he says,
"He reserves for us the appointed weeks of harvest." Yes, if we shall
get this latter rain–and may we have it!–it will then be time to be
looking forward to our harvest. Consider well that the harvest begins
in the field, though it ends in the garner. Going to Heaven begins upon
earth, and as the text tell us of weeks, so may I add that going to
Glory is often a long work. I believe God takes months and years in
getting in His sheaves. We call it dying, do we not? But it is not
dying I am talking of now–that is but the work of an instant–I refer
to going Home, and that is a longer process.
When the sickle cuts away the wheat from the earth, the harvest is
begun. The grain is not garnered yet, but still that is separated from
earth and that is half the harvest. Even so in the process of getting a
soul to Heaven, it must be detached from the earth where it grew. The
sickle has cut many of our earth-bonds already for some of us and no
doubt the gash at the time has been very deep and sharp–but how could
we, as God's wheat, be carried into the garner without first of all
being separated from the earth? How could our immortal spirits enter
into the everlasting rest without first of all being dissociated from
everything in which we tried to find a rest below? It is a sign of
getting near to Heaven when we gradually bid adieu to those things that
we hoped at one time to dwell with forever–when the almost idolized
comforts are readily resigned–when absorbing aims and engrossing
objects are thrust back into the rear ranks and the things eternal fill
the foreground of our souls.
It is a glorious thing to become indifferent to the visible and only
earnest about the invisible. We are like a balloon while it is tied to
the earth–it cannot mount. Even so our ascent to Heaven is delayed by
a thousand detaining cords and bands and the process of setting us free
is cutting the ropes one by one. Some of you are conscious of getting
older and weaker–God is evidently loosening the ties of earth. You
have already more relatives in Heaven than on earth. If you count over
the names of dear companions on earth, they make but a slender list.
But count over the names of dear saints which have gone before and with
whom you have had fellowship, and then the roll is long. Be thankful
that you have so many ties upward and so few bonds to earth! Prepare to
mount to the majority! The wheat may well rejoice for the sharp cuts of
the sickle because it is the sign of going home to the garner.
After the wheat is cut it stands in shocks, shocks of corn fully ripe,
not growing out of the earth, but merely standing on it. The shock is
quite disconnected from the soil. How happy is the state of a Christian
when he is in the world but is not linked to it! His ripeness drops
here and there a grain into the soil, for he is still ready to do good,
but he has no longer any vital connection with anything below. He is
waiting to be in Heaven. Here comes the wagon. The corn is put into it
and with shouts it is carried home. Soon will our heavenly Father send
His chariot and we who have been ripened by the latter rain and
separated from earth by His Spirit's sickle, shall be borne in the
chariot of triumph amidst the shouts of the angels and the songs of
thrice blessed spirits, up to the eternal garner!
Oh, how it overcomes one to think that we shall be there forever! Here
we are like the wheat that is under the snow, or bitten by the frost,
or nibbled by the sheep–subject to blight and blast and mildew–but up
there we shall be as the wheat in the garner beyond the reach of
danger! We shall be our Lord and Master's everlasting portion, the dear
reward of all His sufferings and griefs which were His plowings and
sowings for us. Shall it always be so? Shall our heads always wear the
starry crown? Shall our hands always strike celestial harp strings? Oh,
yes! It must be so, for we have believed in Jesus and faith in Jesus
secures a portion among the blessed!
Pluck up courage, you faint-hearted ones! And gathering courage, gather
also strong desire! Pray for your own maturity and perfection. Seek
this day, in earnest, secret prayer the latter rain because you know it
shall have the best results. It shall not be wasted drops, but it shall
fall to be repaid by you in increasing faith, love and holiness and
heavenliness–that Christ's wheat, when gathered in, may be worthy of
the labor He has spent upon it. May God bless you, dear Brothers and
Sisters and lead you on from strength to strength.
And if any of you, my Hearers, are not Christians, may the Lord, the
Spirit, lead you to the Cross of Jesus Christ, and His shall be the
Glory.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Colossians 3