Part 1 (2/2)
This is the style of teaching that Paul adopts in the text. He takes the simple process of sowing and reaping, a process familiar to all, and reads in it a deeply spiritual and moral meaning. It is as if he said that every man as he journeys through life is scattering seed at every step. The seed consists of his thoughts, his words, his actions. They pa.s.s from him, and by and by (it may be sooner or later), they spring up and bear fruit, and the reaping time comes.
Life a Seed-Time.
The a.n.a.logy contains some solemn lessons. Life is to be regarded as a seed-time. Every one has his field to sow, to cultivate, and finally, to reap. By our habits, by our intercourse with friends and companions, by exposing ourselves to good or bad influences, we are cultivating the seed for the coming harvest. We cannot see the seed as it grows and develops, but time will reveal it.
Just as the full-grown harvest is potentially contained in the seed, so the full results of sin or holiness are potentially contained in the sinful or holy deed. ”When l.u.s.t hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Just as we cannot reap a good harvest unless we have sown good seed, so we cannot reap eternal life unless we have sown to the Spirit.
Weeds are easy to grow. They grow without the planting. And sin springs up naturally in the human heart. Ever since our first parents broke away from G.o.d, the human heart has of itself been thoroughly vile, and all its fruits have been evil. ”The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Do you doubt it?
If you do, ask yourself what would become of a child if it was left to itself--no training, no guidance, no education. In spite of all that is done for children, the evil too often gets the upper hand.
The good seed must be planted and cared for, often with toil and trouble: but the harvest will be sure.
Do we desire the love of our fellows in our seasons of trial? Then we must love them when they need its cheering influence most. Do we long for sympathy in our sorrow and pain? Then we shall have it if we have also wept with those who weep. Are we hoping to reap eternal life? Then we must not sow to the flesh, or we shall reap corruption, but to the Spirit, then the promise is that we shall reap its immortal fruits.
Dr. Chalmers has drawn attention to _the difference between the act of sowing and the act of reaping_. ”Let it be observed,” he says, ”that the act of indulging in the desires of the flesh is one thing and the act of providing for the indulgence of them is another. When a man, on the impulse of sudden provocation, wreaks his resentful feelings upon the neighbor who has offended him, he is not at that time preparing for the indulgence of a carnal feeling, but actually indulging it. He is not at that time sowing, but reaping (such as it is) a harvest of gratification. This distinction may serve to a.s.sist our judgment in estimating the unG.o.dliness of certain characters.
The rambling voluptuary who is carried along by every impulse, and all whose powers of mental discipline are so enfeebled that he has become the slave of every propensity, lives in the perpetual harvest of criminal gratification. A daughter whose sole delight is in her rapid transitions from one scene of expensive brilliancy to another, who dissipates every care and fills every hour among the frivolities and fascinations of her volatile society,--she leads a life than which nothing can be imagined more opposite to a life of preparation for the coming judgment or the coming eternity. Yet she _reaps_ rather than _sows_. It lies with another to gather the money which purchaseth all things, and with her to taste the fruits of the purchase. _It is the father who sows_. It is he who sits in busy and brooding anxiety over his speculations, wrinkled, perhaps, by care, and sobered by years into an utter distaste for the splendors and insignificancies of fas.h.i.+onable life.” The father sows, and he reaps in his daughter's life.
”Painting for Eternity.”
A famous painter was well known for the careful manner in which he went about his work. When some one asked him why he took such pains, he replied:
”Because I am painting for eternity.”
It is a solemn thing to think that _the future will be the harvest of the present_--that my condition in my dying hour may depend upon my actions to-day! Belief in a future life and in a coming judgment magnifies the importance of the present. Eternal issues depend upon it. The opportunity for sowing will not last forever; it is slipping through our fingers moment by moment; and the future can only reveal the harvest of the seed sown now.
A sculptor once showed a visitor his studio. It was full of statues of G.o.ds. One was very curious. The face was concealed by being covered with hair, and there were wings on each foot.
”What is his name?” said the visitor.
”Opportunity,” was the reply.
”Why is his face hidden?”
”Because men seldom know him when he comes to them.”
”Why has he wings on his feet?”
”Because he is soon gone, and once gone can never be overtaken.”
It becomes us, then, to make the most of the opportunities G.o.d has given us. It depends a good deal on ourselves what our future shall be. We can sow for a good harvest, or we can do like the Sioux Indians, who once, when the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs sent them a supply of grain for sowing, ate it up. Men are constantly sacrificing their eternal future to the pa.s.sing enjoyment of the present moment; they fail or neglect to recognize the dependence of the future upon the present.
Nothing Trifling.
From this we may learn that there is no such thing as a trifle on earth. When we realize that every thought and word and act has an eternal influence, and will come back to us in the same way as the seed returns in the harvest, we must perceive their responsibility, however trifling they may seem. We are apt to overlook the results that hinge on small things. The law of gravitation was suggested by the fall of an apple. It is said that some years ago a Harvard professor brought some gypsy-moths to this country in the hope that they could with advantage be crossed with silkworms. The moths accidentally got away, and multiplied so enormously that the Commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts has had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to exterminate them.
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