The Joy of Harvest

The Joy of Harvest "They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest."—Isaiah 9:3.

Harvest crowns the year with God's goodness. When the harvest is abundant there is universal joy. Everybody rejoices. The owner of the land is glad, because he sees the recompense of reward; the labourers are glad, for they see the fruit of their toil; even those to whom not a single ear may belong nevertheless sympathise in the common joy, because a rich harvest is a boon to all the nation. It is a joyous sight to see the last loaded wain come creaking down the village road, to note the youngsters who shout so loudly, yet know so little what they are shouting about, to mark the peasant on the top of the wain as he waves his hat and gives vent to some gleeful exclamation, and to see them taking it all into the stack or barn. There is joy throughout the village, there is joy throughout the land, when the harvest time is come. A better joy than this, however, greets the more auspicious season when a sinner finds his Saviour, when the prayers that he has sown like handfuls of seed come up, and the good yellow ears of confidence in his Saviour are brought to maturity. They that divide the spoil shout loudly, their joyous clamour reaches the heavens, but the joy of those who have found the Saviour is greater than all this; they can say, "Thou art more glorious than all the mountains of prey." Burst, ye barns! overflow, ye wine vats! but ye cannot give such joy to your possessors as Christ, really grasped and laid hold upon, can give to a soul that feels its need of him. The joy of harvest is far exceeded in the joy of simple faith.

We, as a church, like Christian churches in all ages, have had times of ingathering, when we have rejoiced before God, as with the joy of harvest And there cometh a brighter day than has ever dawned upon this poor misty earth, the day of the coming of the Son of Man, when the Sun of Righteousness shall rise, when he shall thrust in his golden sickle and shall reap the harvest of this world, and then they shall rejoice before him with a greater joy than ten thousand harvest years have ever known.

Let us talk, then, of our own joy at the present time as the joy of harvest. The joy of receiving as members of the church these converts from the world is the joy of realisation, and therefore is like the joy of harvest. Faith realises what she sought and expected. It is an act of faith, in some sort, when the husbandman casts his good seed into the earth to die. He loses sight of it for a long time: it must rot and decay under the clods. It is not quickened except it die. But he believes, he anticipates it will be ultimately to his gain to sustain a loss of those golden handfuls. When he sees the harvest, his faith is honoured and proved to be sound sense. Thus, too, his cherished hopes are fulfilled. When he first saw the green blade appearing above the soil, he had hope of golden ears; when the whole field grew green, and looked like his own pastures, then he thought full sure that harvest time would come; and each day, as he has walked across his field, or round about it, as he has seen first the blade and then the ear, he has hoped to see the full corn in the ear; and now his hopes are all fulfilled in the harvest before him; his labour is all repaid. Many a time have his workmen plodded to and fro over that ground; it was toilsome drudgery—to plough, to harrow, to sow; there was much weeding, the hoe had to be in frequent use, but now he grudges no labour that has been spent; he has a good return for all his outgoing in the incoming of his harvests. Harvest is the realisation of faith, of hope, and of labour. So with the conversion of souls: we sow the word in faith. How often have I preached the gospel here, and I have felt there was no power whatever in it, of itself, to convert souls, and no power whatever in souls to meet with that word and make it converting to them; but yet I felt and knew that God would honour his good truth, and make it quickening to those whom he had ordained unto eternal life. And you, sitting in these pews and offering your silent prayers, you have hoped it would be so, you have anticipated it; your faith has been exercised with my faith, expecting that God's word would not return unto him void. And I know many of you, anxious men and women, have looked out for results; you have had a quick ear to catch a hopeful word from your own children; you have had a quick eye to notice the eye filled with tears of any that sat in the same pew with you, and your hope sometimes rose very high and sometimes sank very low; but now that you have seen many of them brought in and added to the Church, you seem to cease to hope, and you bless God that his word has been honoured, that souls have been saved and hope has been fulfilled, for these are brought to Christ. I cannot tell how many of you have laboured for those particular persons who are to be added to us. I know some of you have, but I venture to say this, that you that have prayed most shall rejoice most; you that have spoken most to souls, who have laboured most to bring them to Christ, you shall have the sweetest part in the present joy of harvest. As for you loiterers, that do nothing but look on—as for you who are ready at meal-time to come in and dip your bread into our vinegar, but have nothing to do in the matter, who have not toiled with us side by side—you will have little joy. You will perhaps stand by and be suspicious at the results. Like the elder brother, you will be angry and not come in while we have music and dancing over the brother who was lost and is now found, who was dead and is alive; but you that have believed most, you that have hoped most, you that have worked most, you shall keep the feast and rejoice before God with the joy of harvest. Glory be unto God! he has not failed us, his word has not returned unto him void; he has heard the cry of his children, he has given to us to sow in tears and to reap in joy. It is the joy of realisation.

Change the note a moment, and observe that it is the joy of congratulation. I think I may congratulate you, my brethren and sisters. There is a time for rebuke, and there is a time for expressing our mutual comfort in one another. Let us congratulate one another that the Spirit of God is with us as a people, and with us in no mean measure. Oh, what would other churches give to have such an increase as we have had year by year! God has been pleased to add to us, year by year, pretty nearly after the rate of four hundred members in a year, till it has swollen our numbers beyond our most sanguine hopes. Oh, how greatly has he multiplied the people and increased our joy! Surely the Spirit of God is with us! Every month we have testimony that the word has been made useful. I do not think there has been a sermon preached here which God has not blessed. Ought we to restrain the expression of our gratitude through any fear of trespassing on humility, when we can say from positive facts that there have been those who have come to us and professed, either that they have found the Saviour, or were led to tremble under a sense of sin through the word every time it has been preached? Surely the Spirit of God is manifestly with us; shall we not recognise his presence? Must we not now adoringly bless him, that, though we are not worthy that he should come under our roof, he does deign to abide with us and make the place of his feet glorious.

Let us congratulate one another that our prayers, notwithstanding all the faults that mar them, and the infirmities that cleave to them, are being heard. They are penetrating heaven, they are entering the pearly gate, they are going up before the throne of the Most High. Through Jesus' blood, which they use as their great prevailing weapon, they are moving the arm which moves the world; blessings are coming down upon our sons and daughters, and upon our kinsfolk and acquaintance, in answer to our wrestling, believing prayer. Let us congratulate one another. If we were depressed, if we were like a wilderness, we would condole with one another. Let us now felicitate one another, interchange our cheerful smiles and our thankful greetings; let us take the right hand of fellowship over again, and, looking back upon the past, vow for the future, in God's name, that, if he will but strengthen us, nothing shall daunt our courage, nothing restrain our zeal. What he has done shall make us aspire to more; what has been accomplished by us as a people shall be but a stepping-stone to more daring attempts, to more zealous adventures, to more arduous labours for the promotion of his kingdom and the extension of his sway. Let us, then, have the joy of congratulation. As the farmer congratulates the men, and as the men congratulate the master, as the one says, "Blessed be ye in the name of the Lord," and the others reply, "We wish you a blessing in God's name," so now let us give mutual blessings, let us congratulate each other for God's mercy. And is it not particularly a joy of gratitude? I envy not the man who can see the church increased and yet not feel a sacred home-felt joy. I know some little narrow souls, so compressed within their own selfishness, that to feed their souls and cherish their feelings seems to them the sole aim and end of gospel ministry. Whether souls are lost or saved other than their own, they reck not. It has been the lot of some of us to be cast among a narrow-minded class of people at times, who say, with a supine satisfaction, "There are very few that shall be saved;" and the fewer the number in their fellowship, the more confident they grow of their own election. The appearance of a candidate for baptism or church-membership is the signal for all of them to put on their spectacles, and look him through and through to see if he be not a hypocrite. I do not know that their churches are so particularly pure, but I do know that it is particularly difficult to get into them. I do not know that they are worth getting into, but I do know that they ought to be worth it, considering the time it takes before one can possibly be received into their enclosure. You must be summered and wintered, and tried this way and that, before you can be received; and when you are received, the members are sure to rub their hands together, and say, "Well, it's a serious thing to receive members;" and they are about as glad as I suppose a poor man would be who had nineteen children, when there is another coming to eat of the scanty loaf. They seem to think that the addition of so many new members would make the whole of the old members so much the poorer. For my part—and I think I can speak for all here—we feel greatly rejoiced, and the more there are brought into the Christian family the more joyful we shall be. "We will bless our God—without ceasing will we bless his name, that he does add to us, for this is his work. Jesus sees of the fruit of his passion, the Spirit sees the result of his operation, the Divine Father sees his own children returning to his own board, and herein we do rejoice—yea, and we will rejoice with the joy of gratitude.

I have been trying to think over the various causes for joy we may have concerning those who are just now added to us, but I do not think I can sum them up. The joy of sympathy, however, cannot be wanting. In many cases you may not know the persons admitted, and yet you may enter into the fellowship of their circumstances. A parent's joy may kindle some fellow-feeling. There are fathers here, and mothers, who feel the tears rising in their eyes because a dear boy or a dear girl has been before the church, and borne witness of faith in Jesus, and is now to be publicly received with the right hand of fellowship into communion with that church of which his parents have long been members. Estimate the prayers uttered or unexpressed, the sighs that have gone up to heaven, the many fears, the motherly pangs, the fatherly cares, and now share the joy of the parents, while they say to you, "Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." Here, too, are wives who see their husbands saved, and there is much joy occasioned thereby. There will be a happy household now. Here are sisters and brothers that have watched over brothers and sisters with the most sedulous attention and importunate prayer, and at last they see them relent the obduracy they once indulged, and confess the Saviour whom once they despised. But, oh, pardon me when I do entreat you to sympathise and to share my joy, for it is a joy that overflows just now, and would fain call kinsfolk and friends to rejoice with me. What a mercy to save a soul from death, and to hide a multitude of sins! How precious is that promise, that they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. As I sight that constellation my heart beats with emotion. Not indeed that I ask you to share my joy alone, but to share now the joy of earnest teachers in this church. Need I mention names? You know the persons without my breathing their names. The men, the women, that love the souls of sinners, and have been blessed in our midst in bringing them to Jesus, are entitled to your greetings. Rejoice with them; they have found their Master's sheep, and they are rejoicing with the joy of harvest; I pray you aid their joy and share their joy. Sunday-school teachers, God blesses you: out of your school there come additions. You that conduct our catechumen classes, God blesses you: we have additions from your midst. Young men that preach in the street, ye missionaries that toil in your little rooms, and serve God by speaking a word of exhortation, ye have all been honoured; this month there has been some fruit from every department of service; therefore let us join in sympathy with the labourers whom God has honoured in thanking God for their success in souls saved. And may I not ask you to rejoice because there is One who loves souls better than I do, better than you do, who rejoices more than any of us? It is the Man that bought them with the wounds in his hands and his feet. He looks down upon those who have come up to him from the wilderness, and are looking to him alone for salvation. Their eyes that were red with weeping flash with hallowed joy. His eyes that were full of pity beam with satisfaction, and unfeigned delight sits upon the Saviour's brow. I cannot see him with these dim mortal eyes, but I know that he is here by an inward consciousness. Each soul that has trusted him has been another jewel to his crown, another flush of pleasure in return for his pangs of grief. Come, let us rejoice with him. Jesu, companion of our sorrow, Captain of our Salvation, when thou art glad we are exceedingly refreshed. Nor is this all, for in yonder skies there are those that wait upon our Master, who once waited on him on earth, and are now glad to hymn his praise before his throne. Oh, could you hear their songs, they are just now louder and sweeter than is their wont. "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah!" ever rolleth up to the throne of God and the Lamb; but now it is deeper, and its volume is more mighty, and its note more sweet, as they sing over the ingathering of souls into God's church. "I say unto you, that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." How much more when by scores, and even by hundreds, repenting sinners find the Saviour!

Think what might have been the lot of those who profess now to have been saved. Ye had need of a prophet to tell you. Some of them might have been—where they once were—upon the ale-house bench, with the drunkard; aye, and where some of them were who have been washed and cleansed—with the harlot in her midnight sin. There are young ones to be added to this church, who have never gone into open sin, but if they had not been called by grace, little do we know what might have been the career of vice before them. Temptation might have led to sin, sin might have ripened into habit, habit might have gathered force, until they became ringleaders in mischief; but they are washed, but they are cleansed. O Satan, what a harvest hast thou lost! What soldiers have been taken from thy ranks! how much mischief might they have done, which now they shall scrupulously avoid, for grace has turned them in another road, and filled their mouths with another song.

Think, too, of what they now shall be through divine grace. I cannot depict to you each case. I know there are some here whom we look upon with hope that they shall be teachers of others. We have, especially, holy mothers bringing up their children in God's fear, and holy fathers seeking the conversion of their little ones. Their seed, as a generation which the Lord hath blessed, shall become in after years, some of them, pillars of the church, honoured and honourable; they shall serve their Master in this life, they shall bear testimony to his faithfulness in death; they shall sing his praise for ever.

Still, with all this joy of harvest, there is one mortifying reflection. I would not say much of it to damp your joy. It is this. Out of those added to the church there are always some who are not saved. Let us judge carefully and watch earnestly. Some come like Judas, with a lie in their right hand, and put on Christ by profession, who are not followers of Christ in spirit and in truth. Search yourselves, brethren and sisters, and if ye be not Christ's, do not dishonour his name by venturing to be called by it. And there is another grievous thought. While so many are ingathered, many there be who are left out.

Oh, some of you have been with us in our best days, and I am afraid I shall have to ring that text again in your ears, as I have done aforetime: "The harvest is past, and the summer is ended, but ye are not saved, ye are not saved." Your sister is saved, but you are not saved; your wife is saved, but you are not. Two of you sleep in one bed, one has been taken and the other left. Two of you grind at one mill in your daily work, one has been taken and the other left. You are not saved, you are not saved! and when the time comes for you to die, this will be a bitter word to ring in your ears with more doleful sound than death-knell ever knew—"Not saved! not saved!" Amidst the joy of harvest, let us not forget to pray for those who are still wandering in the paths of sin, or pandering to the vanities of the world.

Another harvest is coming, when Christ shall gather together his people. There will be first of all the ingathering of the righteous. Do not make a mistake about the day of judgment, as though the righteous and the wicked were to be judged together, for remember that first of all there will come the day when the righteous shall be gathered. If you read the Book of Revelation, you will find that the harvest precedes the vintage. The righteous are gathered as the harvest of the earth, and afterwards the vintage of the world is gathered—that is, the wicked. The harvest is gathered into the garner, the vintage into the wine-press, and then the grapes are trodden under foot till the blood thereof floweth out, even up to the horses' bridles. Well, there is to come a harvest of the righteous, and what joy there will be when you witness the number, the countless number that swells the ranks of the blessed. O ye angels, ye had need to be twice ten thousand times ten thousand, when, at the ingathering of sheaves that no man can number, ye welcome the multitudes of the redeemed! What shoutings when millions upon millions mount to the upper skies! It was great joy when all Israel passed through the Red Sea, but how much greater joy when ten thousand times ten thousand, even myriads upon myriads, shall enter into their eternal rest! There will be joy in the persons saved; each one will have a separate song, or make a distinct note in the one song. What joy over Magdalene and the dying thief! What joy over Manasseh and Saul of Tarsus! Each separate case shall stand out clear and bright, as though it were better than another, and yet each one shall claim that his is the choicest exhibition of divine love and faithfulness. What joy when altogether the jewels shall be put into the casket! Think of what they shall be gathered from! From poverty, from sickness, from beds of dust and silent clay they shall be gathered; from slander and rebuke, from persecution and from suffering, from the lion's jaws, and from the flames they shall be gathered, ten thousand times ten thousand of them, from sin and suffering, to sin and to suffer no more. Where will they be gathered to? Gathered to their Saviour, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. Remember that they all will be gathered, not one will be absent; and every one will be gathered in a perfect state, not one unripe for heaven, not one green ear, not one child unfit for his heritage, but all ready and prepared through the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit. Oh, that mine eyes could see the day! The pearly gates stand wide open, and first comes the Saviour up the eternal hills, leading the van fresh from the battle-fields of Armageddon, where, for the last time, he has fought and triumphed over all his foes. And here come the noble army of martyrs, waving the palm, and then the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the great assembly of the ministers and preachers of the Word, and the multitude and hosts of those who through great tribulation, have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Hark, how hell gnashes her teeth! how the infernal lake is stirred to envious burning, while they see these brands plucked from the fire as they ascend to heaven! Listen to the symphonious harpings of the myriads of spirits, as from the battlements of heaven they look on with wonder, and gaze upon the new inhabitants of Jerusalem, who are coming to people it and make it glorious, more glorious than it was before! Hark, how they begin the song, "Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts;" and hark how the multitude outside the walls echo the strain, "Unto him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his blood, unto him shall be glory for ever and ever;" and yet again, "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." May you and I be partakers of the joy of harvest, and not be yonder, with those among whom there is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, because they would not trust the Lamb; because they would not come to him that they might have life, but chose their own delusion, and followed out their own corruptions, till they met with the due desert of their deeds. God bless you, dear friends, every one of you, and make you partakers of the present joy and the everlasting felicity of the saints, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.