Homilist Psalm 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. : — I. IN THE NATURE OF HIS OPERATION. The work of each is — 1. Necessary. The Creator does not do for the creature that which He has given the creature power to do for itself. The life of the world depends upon the work of the agriculturist. The work of the Christian reformer is equally necessary. If ignorance, error, and wrong are to be replaced by knowledge, truth, and right — if righteousness is to spring out of the earth — the Christian reformer must work. 2. Righteous. 3. Divine. 4. Productive of wonderful results. II. IN THE MODE OF HIS OPERATION. 1. Both have to disseminate a divine thing. The "seed" of the one is like the doctrine of the other; both are charged with life, and both are capable of indefinite expansion; both require suitable soil for their germination and development; both are perfect in themselves. 2. Both have to work in faith. 3. Both have to work under trial. The agriculturist sometimes "goeth forth weeping." This was often the ease with those oriental farmers who lived in neighbourhoods infested with those wandering herdsmen who neither so.wed nor reaped themselves, but obtained what they required by plundering the cultivators of the soil. Such farmers, therefore, often carried their seed from their houses with anxiety and fear, and very often they found it necessary to have armed men to protect them in their operation. The Christian reformer has trials in his work How much distress does he experience, not only from the opposition of the world, but from the apathy, narrowness, and inconsistency of its professors! III. IN THE ISSUES OF HIS WORK. 1. The manner of their return. They shall come with all the fruits of their labour. The pious parent, the Sabbath-school teacher, the missionary, the minister, — all shall return with the fruit of their labours. It shall be found then that none ever laboured in vain. 2. The certainty of their return. The traveller who goes abroad in search of undiscovered lands, like Franklin, may return no more; the merchant who goes to foreign markets in quest of gain may return no more; the hero who goes out to chastise a foreign foe, like Raglan, may return no more; but the true Christian reformer shall return. His harvest must come. Yes; when the battles of the world shall be over; when the markets of the world shall be closed; when the governments of the world shall be dissolved; when the Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world; when the purpose of mercy shall be fully realized; then, " doubtless," the men of every age and clime, who have wept, and toiled, and prayed for the spiritual cultivation of the world, shall return. (Homilist) Parallel Verses KJV: They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. |
    |