THE HARVEST TIME OF LIFE.
SUGGESTION:--The object used is a small sheaf of grain. For this might be subst.i.tuted fruitage of any kind--apples, peaches, pears, grapes, etc., and after reading the sermon, the parent could apply in the manner suited to the objects used.
MY DEAR LITTLE HARVESTERS: Last Sunday I talked to you of spring-time--the spring-time of the year, and the spring-time of life.
To-day I have brought a small sheaf of grain to tell us of the harvest-time. The spring-time is very pleasant, the air is fragrant, the birds are singing, and all nature seems to be rejoicing in its freshness and beauty. The world looks just as new and beautiful as it did thousands and thousands of years ago. Each spring it puts on youth anew.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Sheaf of Grain.]
But when the summer-time comes, when it gets along to the harvest time, along in July and August, then the weather is very warm. The color of the fields has then greatly changed, the blossoms have disappeared from the trees, and we find that everywhere the fruit is beginning to appear.
The harvest fields are ripe and are waiting for the husbandmen.
There is just about that same difference in life. Youth is the spring-time. It is full of hope, and full of bright prospects. But, as we grow older, and the cares and responsibilities of life multiply, then we begin to bear the toil and labor which comes with the later years.
Then we are like the farmer who enters into the harvest field where hard work has to be done under a very hot and scorching sun.
A man, called a naturalist, who has devoted a large amount of time to the study of plants, tells us that there are about one hundred thousand different kinds of plants. Each kind of plant bears its own seed, and when that particular seed is sown, it always bears its own kind of fruit. Wheat never yields barley, nor do oats ever yield buckwheat. When you plant potatoes, you expect to gather potatoes and not turnips. An apple tree has never grown from an acorn, or a peach tree from a chestnut. Each seed, always and everywhere, bears its own kind. It is on this account that the Bible says, "Be not deceived; G.o.d is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." (Gal. vi: 7.)
There are some grown persons, as well as children, who think that they can do very wrong things while they are young, and afterwards suffer no bad results. People sometimes say, "Oh, well! let us sow our wild oats while we are young." Now the Bible tells us that if we sow wild oats, we must reap wild oats. Four or five handfuls of wild oats will produce a whole bag full of wild oats when gathered in the harvest of after life.
Be a.s.sured, my dear friend, that "those who sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption," and "those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind." "Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "The Harvest Fields Are Ripe and Are Waiting for the Husbandmen."]
It may seem a long period between the spring and the harvest time of life; but be a.s.sured, my dear young friends, that the early years will speedily pa.s.s. Before you are aware of it, you will be men and women with all the responsibilities of life upon you, and then you will be sure to reap the reward of what you do now while you are boys and girls.
Lord Bacon said that "Nature owes us many a debt until we are old," but nature is always sure to pay its debts. The ancients had an adage that said, "Justice travels with a sore foot," but it usually overtakes a man.
A few Sundays ago I told you that as the result of planting a single grain of corn, a fruitage sufficient to plant the entire earth might be secured in only five years. It is told us by historians that, in olden times, the harvest in Egypt and Syria would return an hundred fold for one sowing, and in Babylonia oftentimes two hundred fold for one sowing.
Now, if a single grain of wheat were planted in soil as fertile as that of Egypt, at the end of eight years of sowing and reaping, if we had a field large enough, the product would be sufficient to feed all the families of the earth for more than a year and a half. But if we were to undertake to plant one grain of wheat in this way, after a few years we would fill all the fields which would be suited for a wheat harvest.
Down near the equator it would be too hot for the wheat to grow successfully. In the north it would be altogether too cold. On the mountain side the soil is not fertile, and oftentimes is very rocky. For these, and various other reasons, it would be impossible to cover any large portion of the earth with wheat, for not every portion would be suited to produce a harvest. Were it not for this fact, in the course of seven or eight years, the entire earth might be made to wave as one vast field of wheat.
But there is one truth which G.o.d has planted in this world. That truth is G.o.d"s love manifested in the gift of His Son Jesus Christ for the salvation of all mankind. This truth is suited to every age of the world, to every nation of the earth, to all cla.s.ses and all conditions of people, and to every human heart. During the past centuries men have been planting and replanting this seed of divine truth, sowing and resowing the earth with it, gathering and reaping the harvest and sowing again. And the days are coming when all the earth shall wave as one vast harvest field, waiting for the reapers of G.o.d, who shall gather this blessed fruitage into the garner of the skies.
It is your privilege and my privilege, both one and all, to have some part in this glorious work of sowing and resowing, and the Scriptures a.s.sure us that "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." (Psalms cxxvi: 6.)
AFTERWARD.
ANONYMOUS.
Now, the sowing and the reaping, Working hard and waiting long; Afterward, the golden reaping, Harvest home and grateful song.
Now, the pruning, sharp, unsparing, Scattered blossom, bleeding shoot; Afterward, the plenteous bearing Of the Master"s pleasant fruit.
Now, the plunge, the briny burden, Blind, faint gropings in the sea; Afterward, the pearly guerdon, That shall make the diver free.
Now, the long and toilsome duty, Stone by stone to carve and bring; Afterward, the perfect beauty Of the palace of the king.
Now, the tuning and the tension, Wailing minors, discord strong; Afterward, the grand ascension Of the Alleluia song.
Now, the spirit conflict-riven, Wounded heart, unequal strife; Afterward, the triumph given And the victor"s crown of life.
Now, the training strange and lowly, Unexplained and tedious now, Afterward, the service holy, And the Master"s "Enter thou!"
QUESTIONS.--Last Sunday our lesson was about the spring-time and sowing; what has it been about to-day? What are the only results which a farmer can reap at harvest? If he sowed wheat, what will he gather? About how many different kinds of plants are there in the world? Do peach trees grow from chestnuts? The Bible says, "Whatsoever a man soweth"--can you repeat the rest of that pa.s.sage?
Can boys or young men, girls or young women, sow "wild oats" and reap blessing later on? If we sow "wild oats" what must we reap? If you sow an act, what do you reap? If you sow a habit, what do you reap? If you sow a character, what do you reap?
How did the old adage say that justice travels?
Could all portions of the globe be converted into a wheat field? Why not? Is the truth concerning G.o.d"s love and salvation suited to all ages, all nations, and all people?
[Ill.u.s.tration]
WHEAT AND CHAFF.
THE COMING SEPARATION.
SUGGESTION:--If the children can secure a few handfuls of some kind of grain and chaff, the idea of separation can be beautifully ill.u.s.trated by pouring the grain and chaff from one hand to the other, and at the same time gently blowing the chaff, separating it from the grain. By turning it in this manner once or twice and blowing gently, the chaff may be entirely separated from the grain. If a larger quant.i.ty were used, it could be poured from one basket or pan to another while blowing the chaff from the grain with a palm leaf or some other fan. This would ill.u.s.trate how the grain and chaff were separated at that period of the world in which Christ lived.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: I want to read you a very beautiful little psalm, or hymn, or poem, written by David. It was originally written in metre or verse, but poetry when translated becomes prose. This first Psalm of David reads as follows:--
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the unG.o.dly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night; and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
"The unG.o.dly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away; therefore the unG.o.dly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the unG.o.dly shall perish."
We find in this Psalm how the righteous are set forth, and how the unG.o.dly are compared to chaff. John the Baptist said of Jesus, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Threshing Grain with Flails.]
Now, when you have been in the country, you have observed the wheat growing in the field. If you had been careful to examine it, you would have found that while the wheat is growing the grain is enclosed in a thin covering called chaff, just the same as Indian corn or sweet corn is enclosed by the husks which grow about it. So it is with us; while we are in this world, there are many things which are essential to our growth and well-being. They minister to our physical needs and supply our temporal wants. Although we cannot wholly dispense with these things while we are in this world, yet they are not the sole objects of our living. The wheat does not exist for the chaff, or the husk in which it is enclosed, but the husks or chaff exist for the wheat.
After a time, when the harvest comes, the farmer enters the field and cuts down the wheat, and it is then taken to the barn or threshing floor. Years ago, when I was a boy, farmers used to spend a large portion of the winter in threshing grain. They would spread it out upon the floor of the barn and beat it with a heavy stick, which was tied so as to swing easily at the end of a long handle. This was called a flail.
Machines for threshing grain were not then common, as they are to-day.
When the farmer threshes his grain, he does not do it to destroy the wheat, but simply to separate it from the chaff.
The Bible tells us that we must enter into the kingdom of G.o.d through much "tribulation." And do you know that the word "tribulation" comes from a Latin word, _tribulum_, which means a flail? So the teaching of this pa.s.sage of Scripture is, that G.o.d places you and me under the flail, and smites again and again, in order that the n.o.blest, best and most Christ-like in us may be separated by trials and tribulations from that which is worthless; and which needs to be cast off in order that just as the farmer gathers the wheat into his garner or granary here on earth, so G.o.d may gather us eventually into His garner above.
Boys and girls oftentimes have tribulations in this world, just the same as older people do. Disappointments come to them, and because of ambitions which are not lawful or right, purposes which are not in harmony with G.o.d"s word and with G.o.d"s will; because of needed discipline, or for some good reason G.o.d is tribulating them by sorrows, disappointments and trials, and making them better by means of the experiences through which they are called upon to pa.s.s.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Winnowing or Separating Wheat and Chaff.]
If you have been with the farmer in his barn after he is through with the threshing, you have seen him take the fanning-mill, and perhaps you have turned the crank for him, while he has slowly shoveled the grain into the mill and the chaff was being blown away by the wind set in motion by the revolution of the large fanning wheel. In the olden times they did not have fanning-mills, but when the farmer desired to separate the chaff from the wheat, he did it with a fan. He poured the grain from one basket or box, or some other receptacle, into another while the wind was blowing, or else used a fan to create a draught of wind to blow the chaff, and thus separate it from the wheat. It is this ancient custom to which John the Baptist refers. He says, concerning Christ, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew iii: 12.)
So G.o.d designs to separate from your character, and from mine, that which is worldly and temporal, and worthless so far as eternity is concerned. Take money as an ill.u.s.tration. Now money is essential, and it is well that we should be willing to work hard for it, and that we should be economical in its use, and seek to save our money so that we may use it for good purposes, and that it may be helpful to us in old age. Money serves a very excellent purpose while we are upon earth, but G.o.d does not mean that we should make it the chief aim of our life.
Therefore, to divert our minds from money in one way or another, financial reverses and failures sometimes come, and thus G.o.d seeks to separate the man from the money. We all came into this world empty-handed, and we must go out of it empty-handed. Even though we were worth many millions of dollars we could take no money with us. You might place it in the coffin and bury it with a dead body, but it would not and could not go into eternity with the man"s undying spirit.
Now, after the farmer has separated the chaff from the wheat, he gathers the wheat into his garner, or into his granary; and so, after G.o.d has separated from our nature and character all that is of no use, which is simply earthy, He will gather our souls into heaven, His garner above.
While we live upon the earth we should use the things of this world but not abuse them; remembering that finally we must go and leave everything behind us, and that we can take nothing with us into eternity except the characters which we formed here. Wealth and reputation, and all worldly things will have to be left behind us; but character, that which you and I really are, shall never pa.s.s away, but shall enter into an eternal state of being on high. All these earthly things are the mere chaff, while character is our real selves.