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SERMON XXVIII.

HARVEST LESSONS.

PROVERBS X. 5.

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

you

IN my last sermon I set before you, how the Bible is wont to speak of spiritual truths in images and figures taken from country life: and I advised to bear this in mind, so that, whether you ploughed or sowed, whether you saw the sun rise or set, you might turn whatever you do, and whatever you see, into food and matter for pious thought. Try, (such was my advice to you,) to find a spiritual meaning in all your daily work. It should be much easier for you to do so, than for people born and bred in towns: because the Bible says comparatively little about town matters, while it speaks often and largely about country matters.

Look out then for the images and pictures which the Bible takes from country objects: store them up in your minds: and when at any time you meet with one of those objects, say within yourselves, "This should remind me of such a spiritual truth." For instance, sheepshearing should remind you of the innocent and patient Jesus, the Lamb of God; how, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, " he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." In the same way the hardness of the ground in a dry season, and the parched and withered state of all the herbage, should remind you of our great need of divine grace which is such, that, unless God sends the rain of his Spirit on our hearts, they too will be dry and hard, and as barren as the barest com

mon.

If you would thus accustom yourselves, with the help of Scripture, to seek for God and Christ in everything you do and see,-if you would get the habit of looking on earthly things as so many finger-posts and steps to guide and raise you to the knowledge and thought of spiritual things,— it is wonderful what improvement you would find. The more you tried to do this, and the more you prayed to God to enable you to do it, the more delightful the practice would become to you. You

would feel yourselves brought evermore nearer to God in mind and thought. You would perceive new meanings in things. You would learn to see God everywhere. All your daily business would be hallowed to you; because God, or his Son, or his Spirit, his goodness to you, and your duty to him, would be traceable in everything you do. In a word, you would have God always before you; and thus your eyes would be opened to discern the wondrous things of his law.

But example, they say, is better than precept: so I mean to give you an example of the way in which your daily business may be made to minister to the good of your souls. You have lately been busy about your harvest; and it is of harvest that I am going to speak to you. Now every attentive reader of the New Testament, as soon as he hears the word harvest, will be reminded of the harvest which our Saviour speaks of in the parable of the tares. You may remember that, when the disciples asked him to shew them the meaning of that parable, he said: "The harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels; and they shall gather out them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire." (Matt. xiii.

39-42.) Now if, when you have gone out to your daily task of reaping the corn which God has given us, you had kept these words of our Saviour's well in mind;-if, every day that you left your homes to reap, or to overlook your reapers, you had said within yourselves, "This present harvest is certainly of great importance to my worldly interests; but it is nothing in comparison of the harvest which is to come that is the harvest to look forward to: that is the harvest to prepare for God grant me his grace that during this present harvest I may behave as his child and servant, that I may not fall into condemnation at that dreadful harvest, when angels are to be the reapers, and sinners are to be treated like so many hurtful weeds, which are fit for nothing but to be burnt:" I put it to each of you, my brethren, whether it would not have been profitable to your souls, if you had accustomed yourselves through the present harvest never to begin your morning's work without some such seasonable thoughts. Would not much improper talk have been stopt by it, which has gone on not only among the men; but I fear I must add, among the women also? Would not your joy, as you brought the sheaves home, have been purer and gentler, and fuller of thankfulness to the Lord who giveth the increase? In a word, would not this have

been a holier harvest to every

one of

you, if the thought of that last harvest which our Saviour speaks of, had been continually before your minds.

But though this harvest at the end of the world, with the burning of the tares and chaff, and the gathering of the good sheaves into God's barn, which we are told shall then take place,-though these are doubtless the first spiritual truths which a reader of his Bible will think of when he is going to harvest-work, yet these are not the only spiritual lessons to be drawn from the time of harvest. There are other very good and useful practical lessons to be drawn from that time besides. Some of these practical lessons I shall now point out to you, in speaking on the words which I have chosen for my text: "He that gathereth in summer is a wise son but he that sleepeth in harvest causeth shame."

Taking these words in their literal and worldly sense, and applying them simply to the corn-harvest, their meaning and truth are plain enough. Everybody will understand, that a father, who is old and past work, must be pleased to have a son on his farm so careful and active, as to watch his opportunities, and put forth all his strength just at the right time for housing the crop in the best condition. Such a son would be a pleasure to any father. On the other hand, a son who was the