Sowing and Reaping

Both Luther and Calvin confine these words to the support of the ministers of the Word, and certainly therein they have weighty meaning.

Churches that starve ministers will be starved themselves.

But we prefer to take the words as expressing a general principle.

I. GOD IS NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH.

1. Either by the notion that there will be no rewards and punishments.

2. Or by the idea that a bare profession will suffice to save us.

3. Or by the fancy that we shall escape in the crowd.

4. Or by the superstitious supposition that certain rites will set all straight at last, whatever our lives may be.

5. Or by a reliance upon an orthodox creed, a supposed conversion, a presumptuous faith, and a little almsgiving.

II. THE LAWS OF HIS GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE SET ASIDE.

1. It is so in nature. Law is inexorable. Gravitation crushes the man who opposes it.

2. It is so in providence. Evil results surely follow social wrong.

3. Conscience tells us it must be so. Sin must be punished.

4. The Word of God is very clear upon this point.

5. To alter laws would disarrange the universe, and remove the foundation of the hopes of the righteous.

III. EVIL SOWING WILL BRING EVIL REAPING.

1. This is seen in the present result of certain sins.

   • Sins of lust bring disease into the bodily frame.
   • Sins of idolatry have led men to cruel and degrading practices.
   • Sins of temper have caused murders, wars, strifes, and misery.
   • Sins of appetite, especially drunkenness, cause want, misery, delirium, etc.

2. This is seen in the mind becoming more and more corrupt, and less able to see the evil of sin, or to resist temptation.

3. This is seen when the man becomes evidently obnoxious to God and man, so as to need restraint, and invite punishment.

4. This is seen when the sinner becomes himself disappointed in the result of his conduct. His malice eats his heart; his greed devours his soul; his infidelity destroys his comfort; his raging passions agitate his spirit.

5. This is seen when the impenitent is confirmed in evil, and eternally punished with remorse. Hell will be the harvest of a man’s own sin. Conscience is the worm which gnaws him.

IV. GOOD SOWING WILL BRING GOOD REAPING.

The rule holds good both ways.

Let us, therefore, inquire as to this good sowing:

1. In what power is it to be done?

2. In what manner and spirit shall we set about it?

3. What are its seeds?

   • Towards God, we sow in the Spirit, faith, and obedience.
   • Towards men, love, truth, justice, kindness, forbearance.
   • Towards self, control of appetite, purity, etc.

4. What is the reaping of the Spirit?

   • Life everlasting dwelling within us and abiding there forever.

Let us sow good seed always.

Let us sow it plentifully, that we may reap in proportion.

Let us begin to sow it at once.

Seeds

They that would mock God mock themselves much more.—John Trapp.

It is not an open question at all whether I shall sow or not today; the only question to be decided is: Shall I sow good seed or bad? Every man always is sowing for his own harvest in eternity either tares or wheat. According as a man sows, so shall he also reap; he who sows the wind of vanity shall reap the whirlwind of wrath. Suppose a man should collect a quantity of small gravel and dye it carefully, so that it should resemble wheat, and sow it in his fields in spring, expecting that he would reap a crop of wheat like his neighbor’s in harvest. The man is mad; he is a fool to think that by his silly trick he can evade the laws of nature, and mock nature’s God. Yet equally foolish is the conduct, and far heavier the punishment, of the man who sows wickedness now, and expects to reap safety at last. Sin is not only profitless and disastrous; it is eminently a deceitful work. Men do not of set purpose cast themselves away: sin cheats a sinner out of his soul.

But sowing righteousness is never, and nowhere, lost labor. Every act done by God’s grace, and at his bidding, is living and fruitful. It may appear to go out of sight, like seed beneath the furrow; but it will rise again. Sow on, Christians! Sight will not follow the seed far; but when sight fails, sow in faith, and you will reap in joy soon.—William Arnot.

“Whatever a man sows that shall he also reap,” etc.—No blight, nor mildew, nor scorching sun, nor rain deluge, can turn that harvest into failure.

Cast forth your act, your word, into the ever-living, ever-working universe: it is a seed-grain that cannot die: unnoticed today, it will be found flourishing as a Banyan grove (perhaps, alas! as a Hemlock forest) after a thousand years.—Thomas Carlyle.

So it is with all temptations and lusts. They are ever scattering seeds—as weeds do. What a power there is in seeds! How long-lived they are!—as we see in the mummies of Egypt, where they may have lain for thousands of years in darkness, but now come forth to grow. What contrivances they have to continue and to propagate themselves. They have wings, and they fly for miles. They may float over wide oceans, and rest themselves in foreign countries. They have hooks and attach themselves to objects. Often they are taken up by birds, which transport them to distant places. As it is with the seeds of weeds, so it is with every evil propensity and habit. It propagates itself and spreads over the whole soul, and goes down from generation to generation.

Dr. James McCosh.

Does any think he shall lose by his charity? No worldling, when he sows his seed, thinks he shall lose his seed; he hopes for increase at harvest. Dare you trust the ground, and not God? Sure, God is a better paymaster than the earth; grace does give a larger recompense than nature. Below, you may receive forty grains for one; but in Heaven (by the promise of Christ) a hundred-fold: a measure heaped and shaken, and thrust together, and yet running over. “Blessed is he who considers the poor”; there is the seeding: “The Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble” (Psalm 41:1); there is the harvest. Is that all? No; Matthew 25:35: “You fed me when I was hungry, and gave me drink when thirsty”—comforted me in misery; there is the sowing. Venite, beati. “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you”; there is the harvest.—Thomas Adams.