{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30768/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30768","id":"gutenberg_30768","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30768","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life"],"text":"Produced by Keith G. Richardson - from file kindly hosted\nat www.archive.org\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSOWING AND REAPING\n\n\nBY\n\n\nD. L. MOODY.\n\n\n_'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.'_\n\nGal. vi: 7.\n\n\nChicago: New York: Toronto\n\nFleming H. Revell Company\n\nPublishers of Evangelical Literature\n\n\n\n_Copyright 1896 by_\n\n_Fleming H. Revell Company._\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nChap.\n\n\nI. Sowing and Reaping\n\nII. Be Not Deceived: God Is Not Mocked\n\nIII. When a Man Sows, He Expects to Reap\n\nIV. A Man Reaps the Same Kind as He Sows\n\nV. A Man Reaps More than He Sows\n\nVI. Ignorance of the Seed Makes No Difference\n\nVII. Forgiveness and Retribution\n\nVIII. Warning\n\n\n\nSOWING AND REAPING\n\n\n\nSOWING AND REAPING.\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n\n\"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,\nthat shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of\nthe flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of\nthe Spirit reap life everlasting.\" Galatians vi: 7, 8.\n\nI think this passage contains truths that no infidel or sceptic will\ndare to deny. There are some passages in the Word of God that need\nno other proof than that which we can easily find in our daily\nexperience. This is one of them. If the Bible were to be blotted out\nof existence, the words I have quoted would be abundantly verified\nby what is constantly happening around us. We have only to take up\nthe daily papers to see them being fulfilled before our eyes.\n\nI remember giving out this text once when a man stood right up in\nthe audience and said:\n\n\"I don't believe it.\"\n\nI said, \"My friend, that doesn't change the fact. Truth is truth\nwhether you believe it or not, and a lie is a lie whether you\nbelieve it or not.\"\n\nHe didn't want to believe it. When the meeting broke up, an officer\nwas at the door to arrest him. He was tried and sent to the\npenitentiary for twelve months for stealing. I really believe that\nwhen he got into his cell, he believed that he had to reap what he\nsowed.\n\nWe might as well try to blot the sun out of the heavens as to blot\nthis truth out of the Word of God. It is heaven's eternal decree.\nThe law has been enforced for six thousand years. Did not God make\nAdam reap even before he left Eden? Had not Cain to reap outside of\nEden? A king on the throne, like David, or a priest behind the\naltar, like Eli; priest and prophet, preacher and hearer, every man\nmust reap what he sows. I believed it ten years ago, but I believe\nit a hundred times more to-day.\n\nMy text applies to the individual, whether he be saint or sinner or\nhypocrite who thinks he is a saint; it applies to the family; it\napplies to society; it applies to nations. I say the law that the\nresult of actions must be reaped is _as true for nations as for\nindividuals;_ indeed, some one has said that as nations have no\nfuture existence, the present world is the only place to punish them\nas nations. See how God has dealt with them. See if they have not\nreaped what they sowed. Take Amalek: \"Remember what Amalek did unto\nthee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met\nthee, by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were\nfeeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared\nnot God.\" What was to be the result of this attack? Was it to go\nunpunished? God ordained that Amalek should reap as they sowed, and\nthe nation was all but wiped out of existence under King Saul.\n\nWhat has become of the monarchies and empires of the world? What\nbrought ruin on Babylon? Her king and people would not obey God, and\nruin came upon them. What has become of Greece and all her power?\nShe once ruled the world. What has become of Rome and all her\ngreatness? When their cup of iniquity was full, it was dashed to the\nground. What has become of the Jews? They rejected salvation,\npersecuted God's messengers, and crucified their Redeemer; and we\nfind that eleven hundred thousand of them perished at one time. Look\nat the history of this country. With an open Bible, our forefathers\nplanted slavery; but judgment came at last. There was not a family\nNorth or South that had not to mourn over some one taken from them.\nTake the case of France. It is said that a century ago men were\nspending millions every year in France in the publication and\ndistribution of infidel literature. What has been the harvest? Has\nFrance not reaped? Mark the result: \"The Bible was suppressed. God\nwas denied. Hell broke loose. Half the children born in Paris were\nbastards. More than a million of persons were beheaded, shot,\ndrowned, outraged, and done to death between September, 1792, and\nDecember, 1795. Since that time France has had thirteen revolutions\nin eighty years; and in the republic there has been an overturn on\nan average once in nine months. One-third of the births in Paris are\nillegitimate; ten thousand new-born infants have been fished out at\nthe outlet of the city sewers in a single year; the native\npopulation of France is decreasing; the percentage of suicides is\ngreater in Paris than in any city in Christendom; and since the\nFrench Revolution there have been enough French men and women\nslaughtered in the streets of Paris in the various insurrections, to\naverage more than two thousand five hundred each year!\"\n\nThe principle was not new in Scripture or in history when Paul\nenunciated it in his letter to the Galatians. Paul clothes it in\nlanguage derived from the farm, but in other dress the Law of Sowing\nand Reaping may be seen in the Law of Cause and Effect, the Law of\nRetribution or Retaliation, the Law of Compensation. It is not to my\npurpose to enter now into a philosophical discussion of the law as\nit appears under any of these names. We see that it exists. It is\nbeyond reasonable dispute. Whatever else sceptics may carp at and\ncriticise in the Bible, they must acknowledge the truth of this. It\ndoes not depend upon revelation for its support; philosophers are\nagreed upon it as much as they are agreed upon any thing.\n\n\nThe Supremacy of Law.\n\nThe objection may be made, however, that while its application may\nbe admitted in the physical world, it is not so certain in the\nspiritual sphere. It is just here that modern research steps in. The\nlaws of the spiritual world have been largely identified as the same\nlaws that exist in the natural world. Indeed, it is claimed that the\nspiritual existed first, that the natural came after, and that when\nGod proceeded to frame the universe, He went upon lines already laid\ndown. In short, that God projected the higher laws downward, so that\nthe natural world became \"an incarnation, a visible representation,\na working model of the supernatural.\" \"In the spiritual world the\nsame wheels work--without the iron.\"\n\nOur whole life is thus bounded and governed by laws ordained and\nestablished by God, and that a man reaps what he sows is a law that\ncan be easily observed and verified, whether we regard sowing to the\nflesh or sowing to the Spirit. The evil harvest of sin and the good\nharvest of righteousness are as sure to follow the sowing as the\nharvest of wheat and barley. \"Life is not _casual_, but _causal_.\"\n\nWe shall see, as we proceed, that _the working of the law is evident\nin the earliest periods of Bible history_. Job's three friends\nreasoned that he must be a great sinner, because they took it for\ngranted that the calamities that overtook him must be the results of\nhis wickedness. \"Remember, I pray thee,\" said one of them, \"who ever\nperished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even\nas I have seen, they that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap\nthe same.\"\n\nIn the book of Proverbs we find it written: \"The wicked worketh a\ndeceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure\nreward.\" And again: \"He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity.\"\n\nIn Isaiah we find these words: \"Say ye to the righteous that it\nshall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their\ndoings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the\nreward of his hands shall be given him.\"\n\nHosea prophesied regarding Israel: \"They have sown the wind, and\nthey shall reap the whirlwind.\" \"Sow to yourselves in righteousness,\"\nhe advised them, \"reap in mercy.\"\n\n\nTeaching from Analogy.\n\nThe Bible is full of analogies drawn from nature. When Christ was on\nearth, it was His favorite mode of teaching to convey heavenly\ntruths in earthly dress. \"Truths came forth from His lips,\" wrote\none, \"not stated simply on authority, but based on the analogy of\nthe universe. His human mind, in perfect harmony with the Divine\nmind with which it was united, discerned the connection of things,\nand read the eternal will in the simplest laws of nature. For\ninstance, if it were a question whether God would give His Spirit to\nthem that asked, it was not replied to by a truth revealed on His\n_authority:_ the answer was derived from facts lying open to all\nmen's observation. 'Behold the fowls of the air'; 'behold the lilies\nof the field'--learn from them the answer to your question. A\nprinciple was there. God supplies the wants He has created. He feeds\nthe ravens--He clothes the lilies--He will feed with His Spirit the\ncraving spirits of His children.\"\n\nThis is the style of teaching that Paul adopts in the text. He takes\nthe simple process of sowing and reaping, a process familiar to all,\nand reads in it a deeply spiritual and moral meaning. It is as if he\nsaid that every man as he journeys through life is scattering seed\nat every step. The seed consists of his thoughts, his words, his\nactions. They pass from him, and by and by (it may be sooner or\nlater), they spring up and bear fruit, and the reaping time comes.\n\n\nLife a Seed-Time.\n\nThe analogy contains some solemn lessons. Life is to be regarded as\na seed-time. Every one has his field to sow, to cultivate, and\nfinally, to reap. By our habits, by our intercourse with friends and\ncompanions, by exposing ourselves to good or bad influences, we are\ncultivating the seed for the coming harvest. We cannot see the seed\nas it grows and develops, but time will reveal it.\n\nJust as the full-grown harvest is potentially contained in the seed,\nso the full results of sin or holiness are potentially contained in\nthe sinful or holy deed. \"When lust hath conceived, it bringeth\nforth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.\"\n\nJust as we cannot reap a good harvest unless we have sown good seed,\nso we cannot reap eternal life unless we have sown to the Spirit.\nWeeds are easy to grow. They grow without the planting. And sin\nsprings up naturally in the human heart. Ever since our first\nparents broke away from God, the human heart has of itself been\nthoroughly vile, and all its fruits have been evil. \"The heart of\nthe sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.\" Do you doubt it?\nIf you do, ask yourself what would become of a child if it was left\nto itself--no training, no guidance, no education. In spite of all\nthat is done for children, the evil too often gets the upper hand.\nThe good seed must be planted and cared for, often with toil and\ntrouble: but the harvest will be sure.\n\nDo we desire the love of our fellows in our seasons of trial? Then\nwe must love them when they need its cheering influence most. Do we\nlong for sympathy in our sorrow and pain? Then we shall have it if\nwe have also wept with those who weep. Are we hoping to reap eternal\nlife? Then we must not sow to the flesh, or we shall reap\ncorruption, but to the Spirit, then the promise is that we shall\nreap its immortal fruits.\n\nDr. Chalmers has drawn attention to _the difference between the act\nof sowing and the act of reaping_. \"Let it be observed,\" he says,\n\"that the act of indulging in the desires of the flesh is one thing\nand the act of providing for the indulgence of them is another. When\na man, on the impulse of sudden provocation, wreaks his resentful\nfeelings upon the neighbor who has offended him, he is not at that\ntime preparing for the indulgence of a carnal feeling, but actually\nindulging it. He is not at that time sowing, but reaping (such as it\nis) a harvest of gratification. This distinction may serve to assist\nour judgment in estimating the ungodliness of certain characters.\nThe rambling voluptuary who is carried along by every impulse, and\nall whose powers of mental discipline are so enfeebled that he has\nbecome the slave of every propensity, lives in the perpetual harvest\nof criminal gratification. A daughter whose sole delight is in her\nrapid transitions from one scene of expensive brilliancy to another,\nwho dissipates every care and fills every hour among the frivolities\nand fascinations of her volatile society,--she leads a life than\nwhich nothing can be imagined more opposite to a life of preparation\nfor the coming judgment or the coming eternity. Yet she _reaps_\nrather than _sows_. It lies with another to gather the money which\npurchaseth all things, and with her to taste the fruits of the\npurchase. _It is the father who sows_. It is he who sits in busy and\nbrooding anxiety over his speculations, wrinkled, perhaps, by care,\nand sobered by years into an utter distaste for the splendors and\ninsignificancies of fashionable life.\" The father sows, and he reaps\nin his daughter's life.\n\n\n\"Painting for Eternity.\"\n\nA famous painter was well known for the careful manner in which he\nwent about his work. When some one asked him why he took such pains,\nhe replied:\n\n\"Because I am painting for eternity.\"\n\nIt is a solemn thing to think that _the future will be the harvest\nof the present_--that my condition in my dying hour may depend upon\nmy actions to-day! Belief in a future life and in a coming judgment\nmagnifies the importance of the present. Eternal issues depend upon\nit. The opportunity for sowing will not last forever; it is slipping\nthrough our fingers moment by moment; and the future can only reveal\nthe harvest of the seed sown now.\n\nA sculptor once showed a visitor his studio. It was full of statues\nof gods. One was very curious. The face was concealed by being\ncovered with hair, and there were wings on each foot.\n\n\"What is his name?\" said the visitor.\n\n\"Opportunity,\" was the reply.\n\n\"Why is his face hidden?\"\n\n\"Because men seldom know him when he comes to them.\"\n\n\"Why has he wings on his feet?\"\n\n\"Because he is soon gone, and once gone can never be overtaken.\"\n\nIt becomes us, then, to make the most of the opportunities God has\ngiven us. It depends a good deal on ourselves what our future shall\nbe. We can sow for a good harvest, or we can do like the Sioux\nIndians, who once, when the United States Commissioner of Indian\nAffairs sent them a supply of grain for sowing, ate it up. Men are\nconstantly sacrificing their eternal future to the passing enjoyment\nof the present moment; they fail or neglect to recognize the\ndependence of the future upon the present.\n\n\nNothing Trifling.\n\nFrom this we may learn that there is no such thing as a trifle on\nearth. When we realize that every thought and word and act has an\neternal influence, and will come back to us in the same way as the\nseed returns in the harvest, we must perceive their responsibility,\nhowever trifling they may seem. We are apt to overlook the results\nthat hinge on small things. The law of gravitation was suggested by\nthe fall of an apple. It is said that some years ago a Harvard\nprofessor brought some gypsy-moths to this country in the hope that\nthey could with advantage be crossed with silkworms. The moths\naccidentally got away, and multiplied so enormously that the\nCommonwealth of Massachusetts has had to spend hundreds of thousands\nof dollars trying to exterminate them.\n\nWhen H. M. Stanley was pressing his way through the forests of\nDarkest Africa, the most formidable foes that he encountered, those\nthat caused most loss of life to his caravan and came the nearest to\nentirely defeating his expedition, were the little Wambutti dwarfs.\nSo annoying were they that very slow progress could be made through\ntheir dwelling places.\n\nThese little men had only little bows and little arrows that looked\nlike children's playthings, but upon these tiny arrows there was a\nsmall drop of poison which would kill an elephant or a man as\nquickly and as surely as a Winchester rifle. Their defense was by\nmeans of poison and traps. They would steal through the darkness of\nthe forest and, waiting in ambush, let fly their deadly arrows\nbefore they could be discovered. They dug ditches and carefully\ncovered them over with leaves. They fixed spikes in the ground and\ntipped them with the most deadly poison, and then covered them. Into\nthese ditches and on these spikes man and beast would fall or step\nto their death.\n\nA lady once writing to a young man in the navy who was almost a\nstranger, thought \"Shall I close this as anybody would, or shall I\nsay a word for my Master?\" and, lifting up her heart for a moment,\nshe wrote, telling him that his constant change of scene and place\nwas an apt illustration of the word, \"_Here we have no continuing\ncity_,\" and asked if he could say: \"I seek one to come.\" Tremblingly\nshe folded it and sent it off.\n\nBack came the answer. \"Thank you so much for those kind words! I am\nan orphan, and no one has spoken to me like that since my mother\ndied, long years ago.\" The arrow shot at venture hit home, and the\nyoung man shortly after rejoiced in the fulness of the blessing of\nthe gospel of peace.\n\nAn obscure man preached one Sunday to a few persons in a Methodist\nchapel in the South of England. A boy of fifteen years of age was in\nthe audience, driven into the chapel by a snowstorm. The man took as\nhis text the words, \"Look unto me and be ye saved,\" and as he\nstumbled along as best he could, the light of heaven flashed into\nthat boy's heart. He went out of the chapel saved, and soon became\nknown as C. H. Spurgeon, the boy-preacher.\n\nThe parsonage at Epworth, England, caught fire one night, and all\nthe inmates were rescued except one son. The boy came to a window,\nand was brought safely to the ground by two farm-hands, one standing\non the shoulder of the other. The boy was John Wesley. If you would\nrealize the responsibility of that incident, if you would measure\nthe consequences of that rescue, ask the millions of Methodists who\nlook back to John Wesley as the founder of their denomination.\n\n\n\nBE NOT DECEIVED; GOD IS NOT MOCKED.\n\n\n\"_Let no man deceive you_.\"--Eph. v: 6.\n\n\"_As one man mocketh another, do ye so mock Him?_\"--Job xiii: 9.\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n\nBe Not Deceived: God Is Not Mocked.\n\n\nWe have all lived long enough to know what it is to be deceived. We\nhave been deceived by our friends, by our enemies, our neighbors,\nour relatives. Ungodly companions have deceived us. At every turn of\nlife we have been imposed upon in one way or another.\n\nFalse teachers have crossed our path, and under pretence of doing us\ngood, have poisoned our mind with error. They have held out hopes to\nus that have proved false; apples of Sodom, fair without, but full\nof ashes within. They have told us that there is no God, no future\nlife, no judgment to come; or they have said that all men will be\nsaved, that there is ample time to repent, that we may be saved by\ndoing the best we can.\n\nSin has deceived us. Every sinner is under a delusion. Sin meets him\nsmilingly, and holds out to him pleasures and delights that are not\npure and lasting.\n\nDuring our meetings in Boston a young man came into the Tabernacle.\nHe looked around, and he thought to himself the people that came\nthere were great fools--those who had business, and comfortable\nhomes, and good clothes. He had nothing in the world--he was a\ntramp, and went in there to keep himself warm. But to think that\npeople who had homes would come and spend their time in listening to\nsuch stuff as I preached was more than he could understand.\n\nOne night after he had been coming there for two weeks, I happened\nto point right down where he was sitting, and I said, \"Young man, be\nnot deceived!\" God used that as an arrow. He began to think about\nhimself. His mind went back to the time when he had a good situation\nin Boston; when he was a young man getting a good salary; when he\nwas in good society, and had a great many friends.\n\nThen he looked at his present condition. His friends were all gone,\nhis clothes were gone, his money was gone; and there he was, an\noutcast in that city. He said to himself, \"I have been deceived,\"\nand that very hour God waked him. He wanted to get friends to pray\nfor him; but as he was not able to buy a piece of paper, or pay for\na postage stamp, he got an old piece of soiled paper, stood up in\nthe street, and wrote a request to be read in the Tabernacle, that\nif God would save a poor, lost man like him, he wanted to be saved.\nThat prayer was answered. As in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, his\nfriends gathered around him again, and the Lord restored him to\nposition and to society. His eyes were opened to see how he had been\ndeceived.\n\n\nSatan.\n\nHow many men all over the world are being deceived by the god of\nthis world! It has been asserted that during the late Franco-German\nwar, German drummers and trumpeters used to give the French beats\nand calls in order to deceive their enemies. The command to \"halt,\"\nor \"cease firing,\" was often given by the Germans, it has been said,\nand the French soldiers were thus placed in positions where they\ncould be shot down like cattle.\n\nSatan is the arch-enemy of our souls, and he has often blinded our\nreason and deceived our conscience by his falsehoods. He has often\ncome as an angel of light, concealing his hideousness under a\nborrowed cloak. He says to a young man: \"Sow your wild oats. Time\nenough to be religious when you grow old.\" The young man yields\nhimself to a life of extravagance and excess, under the false hope\nthat he will obtain solid satisfaction; and it is well if he awakens\nto the deception before his appetites become tyrants, dragging him\ndown into depths of want and woe. Satan promises great things to his\nvictims in the indulgence of their lusts, but they never realize the\npromises. The promised pleasure turns out to be pain, the promised\nheaven a hell.\n\nBeware lest Satan deceive you as he deceived Eve in the beginning.\n\"There is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of\nhis own, for he is a liar, and the father of it.\"\n\n\nOur Heart.\n\nBut we have been deceived by our own heart most of all. Who has not\nproved the truth of the Scripture: \"The heart is deceitful above all\nthings and desperately wicked; who can know it?\" How many times we\nhave said that we never would do a certain thing again, and then\nhave done it within twenty-four hours! A man may think he has\nfathomed its depths, but he finds there are further depths he has\nnot reached. What gross self-deception is due to it! \"He that\ntrusteth in his own heart is a fool,\" said Solomon. Luther once said\nhe feared his own heart more than the Pope and all the cardinals.\n\nMany a weeping wife has come to me about her husband, saying: \"He is\ngood at heart.\" The truth is--that is the worst spot in him. If the\nheart was good, all else would be right. Out of the heart are the\nissues of life. Christ said: \"From within, out of the heart of men,\nproceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,\ncovetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye,\nblasphemy, pride, foolishness.\" That is Christ's own statement\nregarding the unregenerate heart.\n\nSome years ago a remarkable picture was exhibited in London. As you\nlooked at it from a distance, you seemed to see a monk engaged in\nprayer, his hands clasped, his head bowed. As you came nearer,\nhowever, and examined the painting more closely, you saw that in\nreality he was squeezing a lemon into a punchbowl!\n\nWhat a picture that is of the human heart! Superficially examined,\nit is thought to be the seat of all that is good and noble and\npleasing in a man; whereas in reality, until regenerated by the Holy\nGhost, it is the seat of all corruption. \"This is the condemnation,\nthat light is come into the world, and men _loved darkness rather\nthan light_.\"\n\nA Jewish rabbi once asked his scholars what was the best thing a man\ncould have in order to keep him in the straight path. One said _a\ngood disposition;_ another, _a good companion;_ another said\n_wisdom_ was the best thing he could desire. At last a scholar\nreplied that he thought _a good heart_ was best of all.\n\n\"True,\" said the rabbi, \"you have comprehended all that the others\nhave said. For he that hath a good heart will be of a good\ndisposition, and a good companion, and a wise man. Let every one,\ntherefore, cultivate a sincerity and uprightness of heart at all\ntimes, and it will save him an abundance of sorrow.\" We need to make\nthe prayer of David--\"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a\nright spirit within me!\"\n\n\nGod Is Not Mocked.\n\nBear in mind, the God of the Bible has never deceived anyone, and\nnever can, and never will; that is the difference between the God of\nthe Bible and the god of this world. He beholds the ways of men; He\nlooks into their hearts; He knows their secret ways; they need not\ntell Him or try to conceal anything from Him.\n\nHowever successfully we may deceive or be deceived by ourselves or\nothers, we cannot deceive Him. Adam and Eve tried it in Eden when\nthey hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah amongst the trees\nof the garden. Saul tried it when he spared the best of the sheep\nand oxen of the Amalekites under the pretence of sacrificing them to\nGod. Ananias and Sapphira tried it when they kept back part of the\nprice of the land they sold. \"Why hath Satan filled thine heart to\nlie unto (deceive) the Holy Ghost? * * * Thou hast not lied unto\nmen, but unto God.\"\n\nMen try it every day. They have got it into their heads that God can\nbe mocked. Because they can deceive their pastor, and their\nemployer, and their friends, they think they can deceive God. They\nput on false appearances, they use empty words, they perform unreal\nservice, they make idle excuses, they indulge in all kinds of\nhypocrisy. But it is of no avail. God cannot be imposed upon. He\nsees the corruption inside the whited sepulchre.\n\n\nWarning to Christians.\n\nIt is worth noticing that this warning was given by Paul to\nChristian men--converts in the Galatian church. After all, a man is\nnot all the time deceived about the grosser sins. The drunkard\nrealizes in his sober moments what must be the end of a course of\nintemperance. Loss of self-respect and of the esteem of friends, the\nmarks he soon begins to bear in his body--unsteady hands and\ndiscolored features--these things are the quick harvest of\ndrunkenness, and may easily be detected as they ripen. The\nlicentious man, also, reaps the early fruit of his sin in diseases\nof the body, which are often effective warnings against continuing\nin such a dangerous path. But with \"respectable\" sins it is\ndifferent. A man may be sowing for years, and not even realize it\nhimself.\n\nYou remember that in the parable of the sower some seeds fell among\nthorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them. Our Master,\nexpounding this parable, said: \"He that received seed among the\nthorns is he that heareth the word: but _the care of this world and\nthe deceitfulness of riches_ choke the word, and he becometh\nunfruitful.\" Who would have expected this result of the world or of\nriches? But it has been said that Christ never spoke of riches\nexcept in words of warning. We are not apt to regard them in that\nlight to-day. Men are trampling each other down in the pursuit of\nwealth. \"Be not deceived.\" He who sets his heart upon money is\nsowing to the flesh, and shall of the flesh reap corruption.\n\"Adversity hath slain her thousands, but prosperity her tens of\nthousands.\"\n\n\"What is the value of this estate?\" said a gentleman to another, as\nthey passed a fine mansion surrounded by fair and fertile fields.\n\n\"I don't know what it is valued at; I know what it cost its late\npossessor.\"\n\n\"How much?\"\n\n\"His soul.\"\n\nAn English clergyman was called to the death-bed of a wealthy\nparishioner. Kneeling beside the dying man the pastor asked him to\ntake his hand as he prayed for his upholding in that solemn hour,\nbut he declined to give it. After the end had come, and they turned\ndown the coverlet, the rigid hands were found holding the safe-key\nin their death-grip. Heart and hand, to the last, clinging to his\npossessions, but he could not take them with him.\n\nA man may be proud, and his very sin reckoned a virtue. Hear what\nthe Word of God says: \"Haughtiness of eyes and a proud heart is\nsin\"; \"every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the\nLord.\"\n\nThese are the mistakes men make. They are leading respectable lives,\nand they think that all is well. They do not recognize the taint of\ncorruption upon many of the most cherished objects of their hearts.\nChristian professors, most of all, need to beware lest they are\nbeing deceived.\n\n\nNeglect.\n\nHow watchful men should be of their thoughts, their practices, their\nfeelings! The reason of deception is, for the most part, neglect.\nMen do not stop to examine themselves, to lay their hearts and minds\nbare as in the sight of God, and judge themselves by His most holy\nwill. A man need not shoot himself in order to commit suicide: he\nneed only neglect the proper means of sustenance, and he will soon\ndie. Where an enemy is strong and aggressive, an army is doomed to\nsure defeat and capture unless a sharp look-out is kept, every man\nwide awake at his post of duty.\n\nIt has been noticed that there are more accidents in Switzerland in\nfine seasons than in stormy ones. People are apt to undertake\nexpeditions that they would not take under less favorable\nconditions, and they are less careful in their conduct. And so it is\nthat moral and spiritual disaster usually overtakes men when they\nare off their guard, careless against temptation. They become proud\nand self-reliant in seasons of prosperity, whereas adversity drives\nthem to the living God for guidance and comfort.\n\nDr. Johnson once said that it is more from carelessness regarding\nthe truth than from intentional lying that there is so much\nfalsehood in the world.\n\nHence the necessity of continual watchfulness. The Persians had an\nannual festival when they slew all the serpents and venomous\ncreatures they could find; but they allowed them to swarm as fast\nand freely as ever until the festival came round once more. It was\npoor policy. Sins, like serpents, breed quickly, and need to be\nconstantly watched.\n\nAnd we ought to watch on every side. Many a man has fallen at the\nvery point where he thought he was safest. The meekness of Moses has\npassed into a proverb. Yet he lost the Promised Land, because he\nallowed the children of Israel to provoke him, and \"he spake\nunadvisedly with his lips.\" Peter was the most zealous and defiant\nof the disciples, bold and outspoken; yet he degenerated for a short\ntime into a lying, swearing, sneaking coward, afraid of a maid.\n\nThere is an old fable that a doe that had but one eye used to graze\nnear the sea; and in order to be safe, she kept her blind eye toward\nthe water, from which side she expected no danger, while with the\ngood eye she watched the country. Some men, perceiving this, took a\nboat and came upon her from the sea and shot her. With her dying\nbreath, she said:\n\n\"Oh! hard fate! that I should receive my death-wound from that side\nwhence I expected no harm, and be safe in the part where I looked\nfor most danger.\"\n\nLet danger and need drive you closer to God. He never slumbers or\nsleeps, and in His keeping you will be safe. Seize hold of Him in\nprayer. \"Watch and pray.\"\n\n\nChristianity Not Responsible.\n\nChristianity is not responsible for the deception that exists among\nits professing disciples. The illustration has been used before that\nyou might just as reasonably hold the Cunard company responsible for\nthe suicide of a passenger who jumps overboard one of their vessels\nat sea. Had the person remained on the vessel, he would have been\nsafe; and had the disciple remained true to his principles, he would\nnever have turned out a hypocrite. Was anybody ever more severe in\ndenouncing hypocrisy than Christ? Do you want to know the reason\nwhy, every now and then, the church is scandalized by the exposure\nof some leading church member or Sabbath school superintendent? It\nis not his Christianity, but his lack of it. Some secret sin has\nbeen eating at the heart of the tree, and in a critical moment it is\nblown down and its rottenness revealed.\n\n\nThe Deception Can Not Last Forever.\n\nIt is impossible for the deception to last forever. Lincoln had a\nsaying that you may be able to deceive all the people some of the\ntime, and some of the people all of the time, but you will not be\nable to deceive all the people all of the time. Death will uncover\nthe deception, if it has not been detected sooner; and the\nunfortunate victim will stand, undeceived, in the presence of a God\nwho cannot be mocked.\n\n\n\nWHEN A MAN SOWS, HE EXPECTS TO REAP.\n\n\n\"_Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the\nearth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and\nlatter rain_.\"--James v: 7.\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n\nWhen a Man Sows, He Expects to Reap.\n\n\nNotice these four things about sowing and reaping: A man expects to\nreap when he sows; he expects to reap the same kind of seed that he\nsows; he expects to reap more; and ignorance of the kind of seed\nmakes no difference.\n\nFirst: _When a man sows, he expects to reap_.\n\nIf a farmer went on sowing, spring after spring, and never reaping\nin the autumn, you would say he was a fit subject for the lunatic\nasylum. No; he is always looking forward to the time when he will\nreap the reward of his toil. He never expects that the seed he has\nsown will be lost.\n\nA young man serves a long apprenticeship to some trade or\nprofession; but he expects by and by to reap the fruit of all those\nyears of patient industry. Ask an engineer why he works so hard for\nfive, six, or seven years in the endeavor to learn his profession.\nHe replies that he is looking forward to the reaping time, when his\nfortune and reputation will be made. The lawyer studies long and\nhard; but he, too, anticipates the time when his clients will be\nnumerous, and he will be repaid for his toil. A great many medical\nstudents have a hard time trying to support themselves while they\nare at college. As soon as they get their diploma and become doctors\nthey expect that the reaping time is coming; that is what they have\nbeen working for.\n\nSome harvests ripen almost immediately, but as a rule we find it\ntrue in the natural world that _there is delay_ before the seed\ncomes to maturity. It is growing all the time, however; first the\nlittle green shoot breaking through the soil, then the blade, then\nthe ear, then the full corn in the ear. The farmer is not\ndisappointed because all his crops do not spring up in a night like\nmushrooms. He looks forward with patience, knowing that the reaping\ntime will come in due season.\n\nSo with the harvest of our actions. Few men, if any, would indulge\nin sin unless they expected pleasure out of it. A drunkard does not\ndrink for the mere sake of drinking, but in the hope of present\nenjoyment. A thief does not steal for the mere sake of stealing, but\nfor the sake of gain. And similarly with the good man. He does not\nmake sacrifices merely for the sake of sacrifice, but because\nthereby he hopes and expects to do good, and help others. All these\nthings are means to ends: there is always expectation of a harvest.\n\n\nThe Certainty of the Reaping.\n\nThe text bids us look forward to the certainty of the reaping:\n\"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.\"\n\nWe know what it is to have a failure of the crops, but in the\nspiritual world no such failure is possible. Wet soil may rot the\nseed, or frost may nip the early buds, or the weather may prove too\nwet or too dry to bring the crops to maturity, but none of these\nthings occur to prevent the harvest of one's actions. The Bible\ntells us that God will render to every man according to his deeds.\n\"To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and\nhonor and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are\ncontentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,\nindignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of\nman that doeth evil.\" How careful we should be of our actions in all\ndepartments of our being, physical, moral, intellectual! The deeds\nwe do, the words we speak, the thoughts we harbor, are all recorded,\nand shall meet their just reward, for God is no respecter of\npersons.\n\nAnd it must not be overlooked that _the harvest comes as a necessary\nconsequence of the sowing_. It has been said that God is not a sort\nof a moral despot, as He is so frequently regarded. He does not sit\non a throne, attaching penalties to particular actions as they come\nup for judgment. He has laid down certain laws, of which the law of\nsowing and reaping is one, and punishment is the natural outcome of\nsin. There is no escape. It must be borne; and though others may\nhave to reap _with_ you, no one can reap _for_ you.\n\nThe text teaches, further, that _the harvest is one or other of two\nkinds_. There are two, and only two, directions in which the law\nleads: Sowing to the flesh, and a harvest of corruption--sowing to\nthe Spirit, and a harvest of everlasting life.\n\n\nSowing to the Flesh.\n\n\"Sowing to the flesh\" does not mean simply taking due care of the\nbody. The body was made in the image of God, and the body of a\nbeliever is a temple of the Holy Ghost, and we may be sure that due\ncare for the image is well-pleasing to God. The expression refers\nrather to pandering to the lusts of the body, pampering it,\nproviding gratification for its unlawful desires at the expense of\nthe higher part of a man, indulging the animal propensities which in\ntheir excess are sinful. \"Sowing to the flesh\" is scattering the\nseeds of selfishness, which always must yield a harvest of\ncorruption.\n\n\"When we were in the flesh, the motions of sins did work in our\nmembers to bring forth fruit unto death.\" And what does Paul say are\nthe works of the flesh? \"Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,\nlasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,\nwrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,\nrevellings, and such like.\"\n\nI was at the Paris exhibition in 1867, and I noticed there a little\noil painting, only about a foot square, and the face was the most\nhideous I have ever seen. On the paper attached to the painting were\nthe words \"Sowing the tares,\" and the face looked more like a\ndemon's than a man's. As he sowed these tares, up came serpents and\nreptiles, and they were crawling up on his body, and all around were\nwoods with wolves and animals prowling in them. I have seen that\npicture many times since. Ah! the reaping time is coming. If you sow\nto the flesh you must reap the flesh. If you sow to the wind you\nmust reap the whirlwind.\n\nAnd yet it must not be thought that indulgence in the grosser vices\nis the only way of sowing to the flesh. Every desire, every action\nthat has not God for its end and object is seed sown to the flesh.\nIf a man is sowing for a harvest of money or ambition, he is sowing\nto the flesh, and will reap corruption, just as surely as the liar\nand adulterer. No matter how \"polite\" and \"refined\" and\n\"respectable\" the seed may be, no matter how closely it resembles\nthe good seed, its true nature will out, the blight of corruption\nwill be upon it.\n\nHow foolish are the strivings of men in view of this judgment! Many\na man will sacrifice time, health--even his character--for money.\nWhat does he gain? Corruption; something that is not eternal, that\nhas not the qualities of \"everlasting life.\" John said, \"The world\npasseth away, and the lust thereof.\" Peter said, \"All flesh is as\ngrass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass\nwithereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.\" None of these\nfleshly things have their roots in the eternal. You may even outlive\nthem in your own short life.\n\n\nNo Bridge Between.\n\nNow, men make this mistake--they sow to the flesh, and they think\nthey will reap the harvest of the spirit; and on the other hand,\nthey sow to the spirit and are disappointed when they do not reap a\ntemporal harvest.\n\nA teacher had been relating to his class the parable of the rich man\nand Lazarus, and he asked:\n\n\"Now, which would you rather be, boys, the rich man or Lazarus?\"\n\nOne boy answered, \"I would rather be the rich man while I live, and\nLazarus when I die.\"\n\nThat cannot be: it is flesh and corruption, or, Spirit and\neverlasting life. There is no bridge from one to the other.\n\n\"Seed which is sown for a spiritual harvest has no tendency whatever\nto procure temporal well-being. Christ declared, 'Blessed are the\npure in heart; for they shall see God; blessed are they that hunger\nand thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled' (with\nrighteousness); 'blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be\ncomforted.' You observe the beatific vision of the Almighty--fulness\nof righteousness--divine comfort. There is nothing earthly here, it\nis spiritual results for spiritual labor. It is not said that the\npure in heart shall be made rich; or that they who hunger and thirst\nafter righteousness shall be filled with bread, or that they who\nmourn shall rise in life, and obtain distinction. Each department\nhas its own appropriate harvest, reserved exclusively to its own\nmethod of sowing.\n\n\"Everything reaps its own harvest, every act has its own reward. And\nbefore you covet the enjoyment which another possesses, you must\nfirst calculate the cost at which it was procured.\n\n\"For instance, the religious tradesman complains that his honesty is\na hindrance to his success; that the tide of custom pours into the\ndoors of his less scrupulous neighbor in the same street, while he\nhimself waits for hours idle. My brother, do you think that God is\ngoing to reward honor, integrity, high-mindedness, with this world's\ncoin? Do you fancy that He will pay spiritual excellence with plenty\nof custom? Now consider the price that man has paid for his success.\nPerhaps mental degradation and inward dishonor. His advertisements\nare all deceptive, his treatment of his workmen tyrannical, his\ncheap prices made possible by inferior articles. Sow that man's\nseed, and you will reap that man's harvest. Cheat, lie, be\nunscrupulous in your assertions, and custom will come to you. But if\nthe price be too high, let him have his harvest, and you take yours\n--a clear conscience, a pure mind, rectitude within and without. Will\nyou part with that for his harvest?\"\n\n\nSowing to the Spirit.\n\n\"Sowing to the Spirit\" implies self-denial, resistance of evil,\nobedience to the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, living in the\nSpirit, guidance by the Spirit. We sow to the Spirit when we use our\nabilities and means to advance Spiritual things; when we support and\nencourage those who are extending the influence of the Spirit. We\nsow to the Spirit when we crucify the flesh and all its lusts, when\nwe yield ourselves to Him as we once yielded ourselves to the flesh.\nA Jewish rabbi once said: \"There are in every man two impulses, good\nand evil. He who offers God his evil impulses offers the best\nsacrifice.\"\n\nThe fruit of such sowing is \"love, joy, peace, longsuffering,\ngentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.\"\n\nIn this world the harvest is growth of character, deeper respect,\nincreasing usefulness to others; in the next world, acceptance with\nGod, everlasting life.\n\nAmong the last recorded words of Henry Lloyd Garrison in his public\nspeeches in England were these \"I began my advocacy of the anti\n-slavery cause in the Northern States of America, in the midst of\nbrickbats and rotten eggs; and I ended it on the soil of South\nCarolina almost literally buried beneath the wreaths of flowers\nwhich were heaped upon me by her liberated bondmen.\"\n\nA young man was employed by a large commission firm in New York City\nduring the late civil war, to negotiate with a certain party for a\nlot of damaged beans. The beans were purchased, delivered, and\nspread out upon the upper floor of the building occupied by the\nfirm.\n\nMen were employed to turn them over and over, and to sprinkle them\nwith a solution of soda, so as to improve their appearance and\nrender them more salable. A large lot of the first quality of beans\nwas then purchased; some of the good beans were first put into\nbarrels, then the barrels were nearly filled with the poor ones;\nafter this the good ones were again put on the top and the barrels\nheaded up for sale.\n\nThe employer marked the barrels, \"Beans--A 1.\" The clerk seeing\nthis, said: \"Do you think, sir, that it is right to mark those beans\nA 1?\"\n\nThe employer retorted sharply: \"Are you head of the firm?\"\n\nThe clerk said no more. The barreling and heading went on. When all\nwas ready, the beans (many hundreds of barrels) were put on the\nmarket for sale. Specimens of the best quality were shown in the\noffice to buyers.\n\nAt length a shrewd purchaser came in (no man is so sharp in business\nbut he will often meet his equal), examined the samples in the\noffice, inquired the price, and then wished to see the stock in\nbulk. The clerk was ordered to go with the buyer to the upper loft\nand show him the stock. An open barrel was shown apparently of the\nsame quality of the sample. The buyer then said to the clerk:\n\n\"Young man, the samples of beans shown me are of the first quality,\nand it is impossible to purchase beans anywhere in the market for\nthe price at which you offer them; there is something wrong here.\nTell me, are these beans the same quality throughout the entire\nbarrel as they appear on the top?\"\n\nThe clerk now found himself in a strange position. He thought,\n\"Shall I lie for my employer, as he undoubtedly means I shall; or\nshall I tell the truth, come what will?\" He decided for the truth,\nand said:\n\n\"No, sir, they are not.\"\n\n\"Then,\" said the customer. \"I do not want them\"; and he left.\n\nThe clerk enterers the office. The employer said to him: \"Did you\nsell that man those beans?\"\n\nHe said, \"No, sir.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"Well, sir, the man asked me if those beans were of the same quality\nthrough the entire barrel as they appeared on the top. I told him\nthey were not. He then said: 'I do not want them,' and left.\"\n\n\"Go to the cashier,\" said the employer, \"and get your wages; we want\nyou no longer.\"\n\nHe received his pay and left the office, rejoicing that he had not\nlied for the purposes of abetting a sordid avariciousness, and\nbenefiting an unprincipled employer.\n\nThree weeks after this the firm sent after the young clerk,\nentreated him to come back again into their employ, and offered him\nthree hundred dollars salary more per year than they had ever before\ngiven him.\n\nAnd thus was his honesty and truthfulness rewarded. The firm knew\nand felt that the man was right, although apparently they had lost\nlargely by his honesty. They wished to have him again in their\nemploy, because they knew that they could trust him, and never\nsuffer through fraud and deception. They knew that their financial\ninterests would be safe in his custody. They respected and honored\nthat young man.\n\n\nThe Lesson of Patience.\n\nLet us learn the lesson of patience. \"Behold the husbandman waiteth\nfor the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it,\nuntil he receive the early and latter rain.\" Delay does not mean\ndenial. Too often one generation sows and another has to reap. God\nis a jealous God, \"visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the\nchildren unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate\nHim.\"\n\nIn the early years of Israel's existence as a separate people, God\ncommanded them to give the land of Canaan rest every seventh year.\n\n\"Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits\nthereof: but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still;\nthat the poor of thy people may eat, and what they leave the beasts\nof the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy\nvineyard, and with thy olive yard.\" From the anointing of Saul to be\nking this law was not observed. After four hundred and ninety years\nGod gave the nation into captivity for seventy years. During this\nperiod the land had rest; seventy sabbath years to compensate for\nthe sabbath years of which it had been deprived. Those Israelites\nsowed the bitter seed of disobedience, and their descendants had to\nreap the harvest in exile and captivity.\n\nA leading surgeon performed a critical operation before his class\none day. The operation was successful, as far as his part was\nconcerned. But he turned to the class and said: \"Six years ago a\nwise way of living might have prevented this disease. Two years ago\na safe and simple operation might have cured it. We have done our\nbest to-day as the case now stands, but Nature will have her word to\nsay. She does not always repeal her capital sentences.\" Next day the\npatient died, reaping the fruit of his excesses.\n\nPaul says: \"Let us not be weary in well-doing; in due season we\nshall reap if we faint not.\"\n\nIn a recent chat with an interviewer, Mr. Edison quite unconsciously\npreached a most powerful sermon on perseverance and patience.\n\nHe described his repeated efforts to make the phonograph reproduce\nthe aspirated sound, and added: \"From eighteen to twenty hours a day\nfor the last seven months I have worked on this single word\n'specia.' I said into the phonograph, 'specia, specia, specia,' but\nthe instrument responded, 'pecia, pecia, pecia.' It was enough to\ndrive one mad! But I held firm, and I have succeeded.\"\n\nAn insurance case was brought to Daniel Webster when he was a young\nlawyer in Portsmouth. Only a small amount was involved, and a\ntwenty-dollar fee was all that was promised. He saw that to do his\nclient full justice, a journey to Boston would be desirable, in\norder to consult the law library. He would be out of pocket by the\nexpedition, and for the time he would receive no adequate\ncompensation. But he determined to do his best, cost what it might.\nHe accordingly went to Boston and looked up the authorities, and\ngained the case.\n\nYears after, Webster, who had meanwhile become famous, was passing\nthrough New York. An important insurance case was to be tried that\nday, and one of the counsel had suddenly been taken ill. Money was\nno object, and Webster was begged to name his terms and conduct the\ncase.\n\n\"I told them,\" said Mr. Webster, \"that it was preposterous to expect\nme to prepare a legal argument at a few hours notice. They insisted,\nhowever, that I should look at the papers; and this I finally\nconsented to do. It was my old twenty-dollar case over again; and as\nI never forget anything, I had all the authorities at my fingers'\nends. The court knew that I had no time to prepare, and were\nastonished at the range of my acquirements. So you see, I was\nhandsomely repaid both in fame and money for that journey to Boston;\nand the moral is that good work is rewarded in the end.\"\n\nTwo men were digging in California for gold. They worked a good deal\nand got nothing. At last one of them threw down his tools and said:\n\n\"I will leave here before we starve\"; and he left.\n\nThe next day his comrade's patience was rewarded by finding a nugget\nthat supported him until he made a fortune.\n\n\"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,\ntherefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do\nevil. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be\nprolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that\nfear God, which fear before Him; but it shall not be well with the\nwicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow;\nbecause he feareth not before God.\"\n\nThe idea that because a person does a thing in the dark it will\nnever be brought to light, is fatal--God says it _shall_ be brought\nto light. It is folly for a man who has covered his sins to think\nthere shall be no resurrection of them and no final adjudication.\nLook at the sons of Jacob. They sold Joseph and deceived their\nfather. Twenty long years rolled away, and away down to Egypt their\nsin followed them; for they said: \"We are guilty of the blood of our\nbrother.\" The reaping time had come at last, for those ten boys who\nsold their brother.\n\nI was once preaching in Chicago, and a woman who was nearly out of\nher mind came to me. You know there are some people who mock at\nreligions meetings, and say that religion drives people mad. It is\n_sin_ that drives people mad. It is the want of Christ that sinks\npeople into despair. This was the woman's story: She had a family of\nchildren. One of her neighbors had died, and her husband had brought\nhome a little child. She said, \"I don't want the child,\" but her\nhusband said, \"You must take it and look after it.\" She said she had\nenough to do with her own, and she told her husband to take that\nchild away. But he would not. She confessed that she tried to starve\nthe child; but it lingered on. One night it cried all night; I\nsuppose it wanted food. At last she took the clothes and threw them\nover the child, and smothered it. No one saw her; no one knew\nanything about it. The child was buried. Years had passed away; and\nshe said, \"I hear the voice of that child day and night. It has\ndriven me nearly mad.\" No one saw the act; but God had seen it, and\nthis retribution followed it. History is full of these things. You\nneed not go to the Bible to find it out.\n\n\n\nA MAN EXPECTS TO REAP THE SAME KIND AS HE SOWS.\n\n\n\"_Herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit . .\n. after his kind_.\"--Gen. i: 12.\n\n\"_Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?_\"--Matt. vii:\n16.\n\n\"_For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through\nthe Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live_.\"\n--Romans viii: 13.\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n\nA Man Expects to Reap the Same Kind as He Sows.\n\n\nIf I should tell you that I sowed ten acres of wheat last year and\nthat watermelons came up, or that I sowed cucumbers and gathered\nturnips, you wouldn't believe it. It is a fixed law that you reap\nthe same kind of seed you sow. Plant wheat and you reap wheat, plant\nan acorn and there comes up an oak, plant a little elm and in time\nyou have a big elm.\n\nOne day, the master of Lukman, an Eastern fabulist, said to him, \"Go\ninto such a field, and sow barley.\" Lukman sowed oats instead. At\nthe time of harvest his master went to the place, and, seeing the\ngreen oats springing up, asked him:\n\n\"Did I not tell you to sow barley here? Why, then, have you sown\noats?\"\n\nHe answered, \"I sowed oats in the hope that barley would grow up.\"\n\nHis master said, \"What foolish idea is this? Have you ever heard of\nthe like?\"\n\nLukman replied, \"You yourself are constantly sowing in the field of\nthe world the seeds of evil, and yet expect to reap in the\nresurrection day the fruits of virtue. Therefore I thought, also, I\nmight get barley by sowing oats.\"\n\nThe master was abashed at the reply and set Lukman free.\n\nLike produces like in vegetation, and like produces like in labor.\nIf a man has learnt the trade of a carpenter, he does not expect to\nexcel as a watchmaker. If he has toiled hard to acquire a knowledge\nof the law, he does not expect to practice medicine for a\nlivelihood. Men expect to reap in the same line as they have\nlearned.\n\nThis law is just as true in God's kingdom as in man's kingdom; just\nas true in the spiritual world as in the natural world. If I sow\ntares, I am going to reap tares; if I sow a lie, I am going to reap\nlies; if I sow adultery. I am going to reap adulterers; if I sow\nwhisky, I am going to reap drunkards. You cannot blot this law out,\nit is in force. No other truth in the Bible is more solemn.\n\nSuppose that a neighbor, whom I don't want to see, comes to my house\nand I tell my son to tell him, if he asks for me, that I am out of\ntown. He goes to the door and lies to my neighbor; it will not be\nsix months before that boy will lie to me; I will reap that lie.\n\nA man said to me some time ago, \"Why is it that we can not get\nhonest clerks now?\"\n\nI replied, \"I don't know, but perhaps I can imagine a reason. When\nmerchants teach clerks to say that goods are all wool when they are\nhalf cotton, and to adulterate groceries and say they are pure, when\nthey grind up white marble and put it into pulverized sugar, and the\nclerk knows it, you will not have honest clerks.\"\n\nAs long as merchants teach their clerks to lie and to misrepresent,\nto put a French or an English tag on domestic goods and sell them\nfor imported goods, so long they will have dishonest clerks.\nDishonest merchants make dishonest clerks. I am not talking fiction,\nI am talking truth. It is not poetry, but solemn prose that a man\nmust reap the same kind of seed that he sows.\n\nThis is a tremendous argument against selling liquor. Leaving out\nthe temperance and religious aspects of the question, no man on\nearth can afford to sell strong drink. If I sell liquor to your son\nand make a drunkard of him, some man will sell liquor to my son and\nmake a drunkard of him. Every man who sells liquor has a drunken son\nor a drunken brother or some drunken relative. Where are the sons of\nliquor dealers? To whom are their daughters married? Look around and\nsee if you can find a man who has been in that business twenty years\nwho has not a skeleton in his own family.\n\nI threw that challenge down once, and a man said to me the next day,\n\"I wasn't at your meeting last night, but I understand you made the\nastounding statement that no man had been in the liquor business\ntwenty years who hadn't the curse in his own family.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I said, \"I did.\"\n\n\"It isn't true,\" he said, \"and I want you to take it back. My father\nwas a rumseller, and I am a rumseller, and the curse has never come\ninto my father's family or into mine.\"\n\nI said, \"What! two generations selling that infernal stuff, and the\ncurse has never come into the family! I will investigate it, and if\nI find I am wrong I will make the retraction just as publicly as I\ndid the statement.\"\n\nThere were two prominent citizens of the town in the room, on whose\nfaces I noticed a peculiar expression as the man was talking. After\nhe left, one of them said:\n\n\"Do you know, Mr. Moody, that man's own brother was a drunkard and\ncommitted suicide a few weeks ago and left a widow with seven\nchildren; they are under his roof now! He was a terrible drunkard\nhimself until the shock of his brother's suicide cured him.\"\n\nI don't know how you can account for it unless he thought his\nbrother wasn't a relative. Perhaps he was a sort of a Cainite,\nsaying, \"Am I my brother's keeper?\"\n\nWhen I was a pastor of a church in Chicago we were trying to get\nhold of the working-men. They used to say:\n\n\"Come down to the factory at dinner-time and we will give you a\nchance to speak.\"\n\nI would ask them, \"Why won't you come to the church?\"\n\n\"Oh,\" they would say, \"you have it all your own way there, and we\ncan't answer back; but come to the factory and we will put a few\nquestions to you.\"\n\nSo I went down, and they made it pretty hot for me sometimes. One of\nthe favorite characters that they brought up was Jacob. Many a time\nI have had men say, \"You think Jacob was a saint, don't you? He was\na big rascal.\" Many have said they thought Jacob wasn't as good as\nEsau. Notice this fact. You read in the Bible, \"I will punish Jacob\naccording to his doings.\" This law of retribution runs through his\nLife; although he was a friend of God, a kinsman of Abraham, and was\nthird in the line of the covenant, yet God made Jacob reap the same\nkind of seed he sowed. Some one has said that \"Jacob's misfortunes\nwere uniformly calculated to bring back to his recollection the\npicture as well as the punishment of his faults.\"\n\nWhen Isaac in his old age wanted some venison, and sent Esau out to\nget it, Jacob slipped out and took a kid from his father's flock,\nand Rebekah, his mother, cooked it; he brought it to his old blind\nfather and said he was Esau. The old man recognized his voice, but\nhe had very cunningly put the skin of the kid on his hands and neck;\nso that the old man felt him and said;\n\n\"The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.\"\n\nBy this lie he got his brother's birthright blessing, but he paid\nten thousand times more for it than it was worth. \"Who steals my\npurse steals trash.\" A man who steals my pocketbook is the chief\nsufferer, not I. When Jacob had grown to be an old man, he lived in\ncontinual suspicion that his sons were deceiving him. The sin of\ndeceiving his own father bore fruit.\n\nJacob was the great loser in this transaction. When Esau returned he\nhad to flee for his life. Then God met him at Bethel. \"And behold,\nthe Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy\nfather, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee\nwill I give it, and to thy seed: and thy seed shall be as the dust\nof the earth: and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the\neast and to the north and to the south, and in thee and in thy seed\nshall all the families of the earth be blessed.\n\n\"And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places\nwhither thou goest, and will bring thee again unto this land, for I\nwill not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to\nthee of.\"\n\nMen will read that far in the life of Jacob and say, \"I don't want\nanything more to do with a God who will deal in grace with a man who\nhad done so mean a thing.\" My friend, hold on. Follow him to\nPadanaram. He was there twenty years, and during that time his wages\nwere changed ten times. He worked seven years for the lovely Rachel,\nand then had another woman put upon him. Jacob had by deception\nobtained the blessing of the first-born son, but Laban sarcastically\nreminded him, \"It must not be so done in my country to give the\nyounger before the first-born.\" He found that Laban could drive as\nsharp a bargain as he. Wherever you find a sharp, shrewd man, you\nwill always find that he draws just such men around him, and that he\nwho cheats will himself be cheated. \"Birds of a feather flock\ntogether\"; blasphemers get together, and sharp, shrewd men get\ntogether. Jacob found in Laban just such a man as himself. It was\n\"diamond cut diamond.\"\n\nLook a little further. Jacob had twelve sons, but he loved Joseph\nand Benjamin more than the others because they were the sons of his\nbeloved Rachel. He was partial to Joseph, and had a coat made of\nmany colors for him. Partiality will raise the old Adam in any\nfamily.\n\nOne morning Joseph, in the innocence of his heart, tells a dream in\nwhich his father and all his brothers had bowed down to him. Then\nhis brothers began to plan to get him out of the way, and when his\nfather sent him to find them when they were tending the flocks, they\nsaid:\n\n\"Now we have him; let us slay him and cast him into a pit, and say\nthat some beast has devoured him.\"\n\nLater they sold him, and took his coat of many colors and dipped it\nin the blood of a kid, and, taking it to their father, said: \"This\nhave we found; know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.\" And he\nknew it and said, \"It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured\nhim.\"\n\nNow notice: Jacob deceived his father with the skin of a kid, and\nhis sons deceived him with the blood of a kid. Jacob lied to his\nfather, and his sons lied to him. The lie came home. Every lie is\nbound to come back to you. You cannot dig a grave so deep but that\nit will have a resurrection. Tramp, tramp, your sins will all come\nback.\n\n\"Be sure your sin will find you out.\" You may think you are very\nshrewd and far-sighted, and can plan and cover up, but it is the\ndecree of high heaven that no sin shall be covered; God will uncover\nit. You cannot deceive the Almighty. Jacob found that out. He had to\nreap what he sowed.\n\nAgain, look at David. A man said to me some years ago:\n\n\"Don't you think David fell as low as Saul?\"\n\nYes, he fell lower, because God had lifted him higher. The\ndifference is that when Saul fell there was no sign of repentance,\nbut when David fell, a wail went up from his broken heart; there was\ntrue repentance. No man in all the Scripture record rose so high and\nfell so low as David. God took him from the sheepfold and placed him\non the throne. He gave him riches and lands in abundance. He was on\na pinnacle of glory, and was loved and honored among men. But one\nday, you remember, David was walking upon the roof of the king's\nhouse, and he saw Bathsheba, and lusted after her, and committed the\nawful sin of adultery; and then, to cover up that sin, he made\nBathsheba's husband drunk, and had him murdered. The decree came: \"I\nwill raise up evil in thy family and the sword shall never leave thy\nhouse.\" Amnon, David's son, commits adultery with David's own\ndaughter. Absalom makes a feast for Amnon and has him murdered. Not\nlong after he comes with an army to drive David, his father, from\nthe throne, and publicly commits adultery with David's concubines on\nthe roof of the king's house; if God had not been overruling, he\nwould have killed his father.\n\nDavid sowed adultery and reaped it in his own family. He sowed\nmurder and reaped it in his own family. I believe that what brought\nthe bitter wail from that father's heart when he said, \"Oh, my son\nAbsalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee,\" was\nthe fact that these were the wages of his own sin. From the time he\nfell into that sin with Uriah's wife until he went down to his\ngrave, it was one billow after another rolling over him.\n\nIf God did not spare David, do you think He will spare us if we fall\ninto sin and do not confess and turn from our sins? If ever a man\nhad an opportunity to cover his sins, David had. No judge or jury\ndared to pronounce judgment against him. The thing was done in the\ndark, but his sin found him out. Nathan was sent across his path,\nand, young man, Nathan will appear to you some day. Some messenger\nwill smite you in the way if you do not repent and turn from your\nsins. My friend, why not call on God now as David did when he came\nto himself? make the same prayer--how thankful we should be that we\nhave the prayer! why not make it on your knees now?\n\n\nDavid's Prayer for Forgiveness.\n\n\"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness:\naccording unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my\ntransgressions.\n\nWash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.\nFor I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me.\n\nAgainst thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy\nsight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be\nclear when thou judgest.\n\nBehold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive\nme.\n\nBehold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden\npart thou shalt make me to know wisdom.\n\nPurge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be\nwhiter than snow.\n\nMake me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast\nbroken may rejoice.\n\nHide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.\n\nCreate in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within\nme.\n\nCast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit\nfrom me.\n\nRestore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy\nfree Spirit.\n\nThen will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be\nconverted unto thee.\n\nDeliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation;\nand my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.\n\nO Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.\n\nFor thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; thou\ndelightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken\nspirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not\ndespise.\"\n\n\nExamples From History.\n\nBut you say you don't believe in the Bible. Then look at history,\nand see if this law is not true. Maxentine built a false bridge to\ndrown Constantine, but was drowned himself. Bajazet was carried\nabout by Tamerlane in an iron cage which he intended for Tamerlane.\nMaximinus put out the eyes of thousands of Christians; soon after a\nfearful disease of the eyes broke out among his people, of which he\nhimself died in great agony. Valens caused about eighty Christians\nto be sent to sea in a ship and burnt alive: he was defeated by the\nGoths and fled to a cottage, where he was burnt alive.\n\nAlexander VI. was poisoned by wine he had prepared for another.\nHenry III. of France was stabbed in the same chamber where he had\nhelped to contrive the cruel massacre of French Protestants. Marie\nAntoinette, riding to Notre Dame Cathedral for her bridal, bade the\nsoldiers command all beggars, cripples, and ragged people to leave\nthe line of the procession. She could not endure the sight of these\nmiserable ones. Soon after, bound in the executioner's cart, she was\nriding toward the place of execution amidst crowds who gazed on her\nwith hearts as cold as ice and hard as granite. When Foulon was\nasked how the starving populace was to live, he said: \"Let them eat\ngrass.\" Afterward, the mob, maddened with rage, caught him in the\nstreets of Paris, hung him, stuck his head upon a pike and filled\nhis mouth with grass.\n\n\n\nA MAN REAPS MORE THAN HE SOWS.\n\n\n\"_But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a\nhundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold_.\"--Matt. xiii: 8.\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n\nA Man Reaps More Than He Sows.\n\n\nIf I sow a bushel, I expect to reap ten or twenty bushels. I can sow\nin one day what will take ten men to reap. The Spaniards have this\nproverb: \"Sow a thought and reap an act. Sow an act, and reap a\nhabit. Sow a habit, and reap a character. Sow a character and reap a\ndestiny.\" _And it takes a longer time to reap than to sow_. I have\nheard of a certain kind of bean that reproduces itself a thousand\nfold. One thistle-down which blew from the deck of a vessel is said\nto have covered with thistles the entire surface of a South Sea\nisland. The oak springs from an acorn, the mighty Mississippi from a\nlittle spring.\n\nOne glass of whisky may lead to a drunkard's death. One lie may ruin\na man's career. One error in youth may follow a man all through\nlife. Some one has said that many a Christian spends half his time\ntrying to keep down the sprouts of seed sown in his young days.\nUnless it is held in check, the desire to \"have a drink\" will become\na consuming thirst; the desire to \"play a game of cards\" an\nirresistible gambler's passion.\n\nAbraham gave up his only son at God's bidding, and as the fruit of\nthat act of obedience God gave him seed as numerous as the stars of\nthe heaven and as the sands upon the seashore.\n\nJacob told one lie, and his ten sons came back with his lie\nmultiplied tenfold. For twenty years Jacob mourned for Joseph,\nsupposing that he was dead. I have no doubt that night after night\nhe wept for Joseph, and in his dreams saw the boy torn to pieces,\nand heard his cries for help. It took him a long time to reap the\nharvest.\n\nIsrael murmured against God because of the report of the land of\nCanaan brought back by the spies. Had they not to reap a multiplied\nharvest? Listen: \"After the number of the days in which ye searched\nthe land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your\niniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of\npromise.\"\n\nWhen I made the remark in a meeting once that a man had to reap more\nthan he sowed, a man in front of me dropped his head and sobbed\naloud. After the meeting, a friend stepped up to him and said:\n\n\"What is your trouble?\"\n\nPointing to me he said, \"Every word that man has been saying is\ntrue. Four years ago I was the confidential clerk of a firm in this\ncity. I have reason to believe that if I had continued as I began, I\nshould have been in the firm now. But one night in a saloon under\nthe influence of drink I committed a crime, and I was sent to the\npenitentiary, where I repented in sackcloth and ashes. To-day I came\nback for the first time, and went to the old house, and they ordered\nme out. I went to other business-houses I was acquainted with, and\nreceived the same treatment. I met men on the street whom I once\nknew, who had held inferior places to me, and I lifted my hat, but\nno one returned the bow.\"\n\nThe man wrung his hands in agony and said, \"It is all true, it takes\na longer time to reap than to sow.\"\n\nDo you not believe it? Ask your neighbor who has drank up his\ncharacter and reputation and home, and has brought a blight on his\nfamily. It takes a long time to build up a character, but you can\nblast it in a single hour.\n\nA man died in the Columbus penitentiary some years ago who had spent\nover thirty years in his cell. He was one of the millionaires of\nOhio. Fifty years ago when they were trying to get a trunk road from\nChicago to New York, they wanted to lay the line through his farm\nnear Cleveland. He did not want his farm divided by the railroad, so\nthe case went into court, where commissioners were appointed to pay\nthe damages and to allow the road to be built. One dark night after\nthe tracks were laid, a train was thrown off the track, and several\nwere killed. This man was suspected, was tried and found guilty, and\nwas sent to the penitentiary for life. The farm was soon cut up into\ncity lots, and the man became a millionaire, but he got no benefit\nfrom it. Before he died, the chaplain told me that he became a child\nof God. It may not have taken him more than an hour to lay the\nobstruction on the railroad, but he was over thirty years reaping\nthe result of that one act!\n\nIn the history of France we read that a certain king wanted some new\ninstrument to torture his prisoners with. One of his favorites\nsuggested that he should build a cage, not long enough to lie down\nin, and not high enough to stand up in. The king accepted the\nsuggestion; but the first one put into the cage was the very man who\nsuggested it, and he was kept in it for fourteen years. It did not\ntake him more than a few minutes, perhaps, to suggest that cruel\ndevice; but he was fourteen long years reaping the fruit of what he\nhad sown.\n\nIf a man could do his reaping alone, it would not be so hard; but it\nis terrible when he has to make that godly father, and that mother\nwho loves him, or that wife and family, reap along with him. Does\nnot the drunkard make his wife and children reap a bitter harvest?\nDoes not the gambler make his relatives reap? Does not the harlot\nmake her parents reap agony and shame? What a bitter enemy is sin!\nMay God help each one of us to turn from it at once!\n\nWhenever I hear a young man talking in a flippant way about sowing\nhis wild oats, I don't laugh. I feel more like crying, because I\nknow he is going to make his gray-haired mother reap in tears; he is\ngoing to make his wife reap in shame; he is going to make his old\nfather and his innocent children reap with him. Only ten or fifteen\nor twenty years will pass before he will have to reap his wild oats;\nno man has ever sowed them without having to reap them. Sow the wind\nand you reap the whirlwind.\n\nWe cannot control our influence. If I plant thistles in my field,\nthe wind will take the thistle-down when it is ready, and blow it\naway beyond the fence; and my neighbors will have to reap with me.\nSo my example may be copied by my children or my neighbors, and my\nactions reproduced indefinitely through them, whether for good or\nevil. How many have gone to ruin because of the sins of such men as\nJacob and David and Lot!\n\n\nNothing But Leaves.\n\n   Nothing but leaves! The Spirit grieves\n        O'er years of wasted life!\n   O'er sins indulged while conscience slept,\n   O'er vows and promises unkept,\n        And reap from years of strife--\n   Nothing but leaves! Nothing but leaves!\n\n   Nothing but leaves! No gathered sheaves\n        Of life's fair ripening grain;\n   We sow our seeds; lo! tares and weeds--\n   Words, _idle_ words, for earnest deeds--\n        Then reap, with toil and pain,\n   Nothing but leaves! Nothing but leaves!\n\n   Nothing but leaves! Sad memory weaves\n        No veil to hide the past;\n   And as we trace our weary way,\n   And count each lost and misspent day,\n        We sadly find at last--\n   Nothing but leaves! Nothing but leaves!\n\n   Ah, who shall thus the Master meet,\n        And bring but withered leaves?\n   Ah, who shall, at the Saviour's feet,\n   Before the awful judgment-seat,\n        Lay down, for golden sheaves,\n   Nothing but leaves! Nothing but leaves?\n\n   --L. E. Ackerman.\n\n\n\nIGNORANCE OF THE SEED MAKES NO DIFFERENCE.\n\n\n\"_Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that\nare in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they\nthat have done good; unto the resurrection of life; and they that\nhave done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation_.\"--John v: 28,\n29.\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n\nIgnorance of the Seed Makes no Difference.\n\n\nNow, notice again: Ignorance of the kind of seed makes no\ndifference. If I think I am sowing good seed and it happens to be\nbad, I shall have a bad harvest; therefore, it becomes me to see\nwhat kind of seed I am sowing.\n\nSuppose I meet a man who is sowing seed, and say: \"Hello, stranger,\nwhat are you sowing?\"\n\n\"Seed.\"\n\n\"What kind of seed?\"\n\n\"I don't know.\"\n\n\"Don't you know whether it is good or bad?\"\n\n\"No, I can't tell; but it is seed, that is all I want to know, and I\nam sowing it.\"\n\nYou would say that he was a first-class lunatic, wouldn't you? But\nhe wouldn't be half so mad as the man who goes on sowing for time\nand eternity, and never asks himself what he is sowing or what the\nharvest will be.\n\nFather, what seed are you sowing in your family? Are you setting\nyour children a good or a bad example? Do you spend your time at the\nsaloon or the club, until you have become almost a stranger to them?\nor are you training them for God and righteousness?\n\nThe story is told that a man once said he would not talk to his son\nabout religion; the boy should make his own choice when he grew up,\nunprejudiced by him. The boy broke his arm, and when the doctor was\nsetting it, he cursed and swore the whole time.\n\n\"Ah,\" said the doctor, \"you were afraid to prejudice the boy in the\nright way, but the devil had no such prejudice. He has led your son\nthe other way.\" The idea that a father is to let his children run\nwild! Nature alone never brings forth anything but weeds.\n\nOne of Coleridge's friends once objected to prejudicing the minds of\nthe young by selecting the things they should be taught. The\nphilosopher-poet invited him to take a look at his garden, and took\nhim to where a luxuriant growth of ugly and infragrant weeds spread\nthemselves over beds and walks alike.\n\n\"You don't call that a garden!\" said his friend.\n\n\"What!\" said Coleridge, \"would you have me prejudice the ground in\nfavor of roses and lilies?\"\n\nHave you never noticed the same thing about the mind and the heart?\nLet a child be idle, and Satan will soon lead him into mischief. He\nmust be looked after. Those things that will help to develop\ncharacter must be selected for him, and hurtful things must be kept\nout, just as industriously as the farmer cultivates the useful\nproducts of the soil, but wages continual war on weeds and all\nunwholesome growths.\n\nA murderer was to suffer the penalty of his crime. Speaking of his\nreckless career, he said:\n\n\"How could it be otherwise, when I had such bad training? I was\ntaught these things from my youth. When only four years old my\nmother poured whisky down my throat to see how I would act.\"\n\nOn the morning of his execution, the wretched mother bade good-bye\nto the son whom her influence had helped to that shameful end.\n\nA father started for his office early one morning, after a light\nfall of snow. Turning, he saw his two year-old boy endeavoring to\nput his tiny feet in his own great footprints. The little fellow\nshouted: \"Go on, I'se comin', papa, I'se comin' right in ure\ntracks.\"\n\nHe caught the boy in his arms and carried him to his mother, and\nstarted again for his office.\n\nHis habit had been to stop on the way at a saloon for a glass of\nliquor. As he stood upon the threshold that morning he seemed to\nhear a sweet voice say: \"Go on, I'se comin', papa, I'se comin' right\nin ure tracks.\"\n\nHe stopped, he hesitated, he looked the future squarely in the face.\n\n\"I cannot afford to make any tracks I would be ashamed or sorry to\nhave my boy walk in,\" he said decidedly, and turned away.\n\nFather, mother, neighbor, are your tracks true? Are they straight?\nCan you turn to any walking behind you and say: \"Follow me as I\nfollow Christ?\" Are you leading the little ones safe to the Great\nShepherd?\n\n_The best time to sow the good seed_ is before Satan has scattered\nthe tares. God has given numerous warnings and instructions to do\nit. \"Seek ye _first_ the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.\"\n\"Train up a child in the way he should go.\" \"Provoke not your\nchildren to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition\nof the Lord.\" If a farmer neglects to plant in the spring-time, he\ncan never recover the lost opportunity: no more can you, if you\nneglect yours. Youth is a seed-time, and if it is allowed to pass\nwithout good seed being sowed, weeds will spring up and choke the\nsoil. It will take bitter toil to uproot them.\n\nAn old divine said that when a good farmer sees a weed in his field\nhe has it pulled up. If it is taken early enough, the blank is soon\nfilled in, and the crop waves over the whole field. But if allowed\nto run too late, the bald patch remains. It would have been better\nif the weed had never been allowed to get root.\n\nYoung man, are you letting some secret sin get the mastery over you,\nbinding you hand and foot? It is growing. Every sin grows. When I\nwas speaking to five thousand children in Glasgow some years ago, I\ntook a spool of thread and said to one of the largest boys:\n\n\"Do you believe I can bind you with that thread?\"\n\nHe laughed at the idea. I wound the thread around him a few times,\nand he broke it with a single jerk. Then I wound the thread around\nand around, and by and by I said:\n\n\"Now get free if you can.\"\n\nHe couldn't move hand or foot. If you are slave to some vile habit,\nyou must either slay that habit or it will slay you.\n\nMy friend, _what kind of seed are you sowing?_ Let your mind sweep\nover your record for the past year. Have you been living a double\nlife? Have you been making a profession without possessing what you\nprofess? If there is anything you detest it is hypocrisy. Do you\ntell me God doesn't detest it also? If it is a right eye that\noffends, make up your mind that you will pluck it out; or if it is a\nright hand or a right foot, cut it off. Whatever the sin is, make up\nyour mind that you will gain the victory over it without further\ndelay.\n\nWhat kind of seed are you sowing, my friend, good seed or bad seed?\nThere will be a harvest, and you are bound to reap, whether you want\nto or not. Tell me, how do you spend your spare time? Telling vile\nstories, polluting the minds of others, while your own mind is also\npolluted? Do you read any literature that makes your thoughts\nimpure? How do you spend the Sabbath? Boating, fishing, hunting, or\non excursions? Do you think ministers are old fogies--that the Bible\nbelongs to the dark ages? Tell me bow you treat your parents, and I\nwill tell you how your children will treat you. A man was making\npreparations to send his old father to the poorhouse, when his\nlittle child came up and said:\n\n\"Papa, when you are old shall I have to take you to the poorhouse?\"\n\nDo you never write home to your parents? They clothed you and\neducated you, and now do you spend your nights in gambling? You say\nto your godless companions that your father crammed religion down\nyour throat when you were a boy. I have a great contempt for a man\nwho says that of his father or mother. They may have made a mistake;\nbut it was of the head, not of the heart. If a telegram was sent to\nthem that you were down with smallpox, they would take the first\ntrain to come to you. They would willingly take the disease into\ntheir own bodies and die for you. If you scoff and sneer at your\nfather and mother you will have a hard harvest; you will reap in\nagony. It is only a question of time. There is a saying--\n\n   \"The mills of God grind slowly,\n   But they grind exceeding small.\"\n\nThe Lord Jesus said, \"With what measure ye mete, it shall be\nmeasured to you again.\"\n\nA man told me when I was last in London that England had the\nadvantage of America in one respect. I asked how. He said:\n\n\"We have more respect for our laws in England than you do in\nAmerica. You don't hang half your murderers, but all our murderers\nare hanged if they can be proved guilty.\"\n\nI said: \"Neither country hangs its worst murderers. If my son wants\nto murder me, I would rather have him kill me outright than to take\nfive years to do it. A young man who goes home late night after\nnight, and when his mother remonstrates, curses her gray hairs, and\nkills her by inches, is the worst sort of a murderer.\"\n\nThat is being done all over the country. You may not be guilty of a\nsin as black and as foul as this, but I tell you, every sin grows,\nand if you have sin in your heart you cannot tell where it will land\nyou. Nothing separates a son from his mother or a man from his wife\nlike sin. The grace of God binds men together, but sin tears them\napart and separates them.\n\nCome, my friend, what kind of seed are you sowing? What will the\nharvest be? Will it be a black harvest, or are you going to have a\njoyful harvest? If you think that, when you have sown tares, wheat\nwill come up, you are greatly mistaken. If you think you can give a\nloose rein to your passions and lusts, and yet have eternal life,\nyou are being deceived. For God says, \"He that soweth to his flesh\nshall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit\nshall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.\"\n\n\nChoose Carefully.\n\nI beg of you to _choose carefully your path_. The farmer is careful\nin the choice of seed. He does not want bad seed or inferior seed,\nbecause he knows that such will give a poor crop. He looks for the\nbest seed he can buy. If you choose to sow to the flesh, you will\nhave a corrupted harvest. If you commit a sinful deed, it may land\nyou into a dishonored grave.\n\nChoice is a solemn thing. You can make this moment a turning-point\nin your life. Once during the conquest of Peru, Pizzaro's followers\nthreatened to desert him. They gathered on the shore to embark for\nhome. Drawing his sword, he traced a line with it in the sand from\neast to west. Then turning toward the south he said:\n\n\"Friends and comrades, on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the\ndrenching storm, and death; on this side, ease and pleasure. There\nlies Peru with all its riches; here Panama and its poverty. Choose\neach man as becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go south.\"\n\nSo saying, he stepped across the line, and one after another his\ncomrades followed him, and the destiny of South America was decided.\n\nNapoleon was once offered a position as officer in the Turkish\nartillery. He declined it; but had he chosen to accept it, the\nhistory of Europe would have been different.\n\nOn your choice in spiritual things depends your eternity. On the one\nside there is Christ; on the other, the world. Between them you must\nchoose. Do not wish to grow both wheat and tares. Oh, choose Christ!\nLet there be no half-heartedness. Give Him your whole heart. He died\nto redeem you from the curse of sin, and He lives to save you from\nthe power of sin.\n\n\"No man can serve two masters.\" You can not belong to two kingdoms\nat once. Lord Brougham grew to be so fond of Cannes that he sought\nto be naturalized as a Frenchman, but found it was impossible to be\nboth a peer of England and a citizen of a French town; he must\nrenounce the one to become the other.\n\nNow this is where _the will_ comes in It is easy to follow other\npeople's lead, to swim with the tide; but it requires character,\nmoral back-bone, to stand against the current of popular opinion and\npractice. During the late war a deserter came into the Federal lines\nbefore Pittsburg. He was asked:\n\n\"What did you go into secession for?\"\n\nHis answer was: \"Because they all did.\"\n\nThat reason will account for many a man's action. He will act\naccording to the saying: \"While you are in Rome, do as the Romans\ndo,\" neglecting to investigate and determine whether or not the\nRomans do right. If they do wrong, a man should stand against a\nwhole nation, if need be, like another Daniel.\n\nAlmighty God set two sides before the children of Israel, and I set\nthem now before you. Remember, as you choose, that your eternity is\nin the balance.\n\n\"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and\nevil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to\nwalk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, and His statutes,\nand His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord\nthy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess\nit.\n\nBut if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt\nbe drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them: I denounce\nunto you this day that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not\nprolong your days upon the land whither thou passest over Jordan to\ngo to possess it.\n\nI call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have\nset before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore\nCHOOSE LIFE that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest\nlove the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that\nthou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life and the length of\nthy days.\"\n\n\n\nFORGIVENESS AND RETRIBUTION.\n\n\n\"_Thou renderest to every man according to his work_.\"--Psalms lxii:\n12.\n\n\"_For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that\nevery one may receive the things done in his body, according to that\nhe hath done, whether it be good or bad_.\"--II Cor. v: 10.\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n\nForgiveness and Retribution.\n\n\nI can imagine some one saying, \"I attend church, and have heard that\nif we confess our sin, God will forgive us; now I hear that I must\nreap the same kind of seed that I have sown. How can I harmonize the\ndoctrine of forgiveness with the doctrine of retribution? 'All we\nlike sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own\nway; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.' And yet\nyou say that I must reap what I have sown.\"\n\nSuppose I send my hired man to sow wheat. When it grows up, there\nare thistles mixed with the wheat. There wasn't a thistle a year\nago. I say to my man:\n\n\"Do you know anything about the thistles in the field?\"\n\nHe says: \"Yes, I do; you sent me to sow that wheat, and I was angry\nand mixed some thistles with the wheat. But you promised me that if\nI ever did wrong and confessed it, you would forgive me; now I hold\nyou to that promise, and expect you to forgive me.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I say, \"you are quite right; I forgive you for sowing the\nthistles; but I will tell you what you must do--you must reap the\nthistles along with the wheat when harvest time comes.\"\n\nMany a Christian man is reaping thistles with his wheat. Twenty\nyears ago you sowed thistles with the wheat and are reaping them\nnow. Perhaps it was an obscene story, the memory of which keeps\ncoming back to distress you, even at the most solemn moments.\nPerhaps some hasty word or deed that you have never been able to\nrecall.\n\nI heard John B. Gough say that he would rather cut off his hand than\nhave committed a certain sin. He didn't say what it was, but I have\nalways supposed it was the way he treated his mother. He was a\nwretched, drunken sot in the gutter when his mother died; the poor\nwoman couldn't stand it, and died of a broken heart. God had\nforgiven him, but he never forgave himself. A great many have done\nthings that they will never forgive themselves for to their dying\nday. \"At this moment,\" said one, \"from many a harlot's dishonored\ngrave there arises a mute appeal for righteous retribution. From\nmany a drunkard's miserable home, from heartbroken wife, from\nstarving children, there rings up a terrible appeal into the ears of\nGod.\"\n\nI believe that God forgives sin fully and freely for Christ's sake;\nbut He allows certain penalties to remain. If a man has wasted years\nin riotous living, he can never hope to live them over again. If he\nhas violated his conscience, the scars will remain through life. If\nhe has soiled his reputation, the effect of it can never be washed\naway. If he shatters his body through indulgence and vice, he must\nsuffer until death. As Talmage says, \"The grace of God gives a new\nheart, but not a new body.\"\n\n\"John,\" said a father to his son, \"I wish you would get me the\nhammer.\"\n\n\"Yes, sir.\"\n\n\"Now a nail and a piece of pine board.\"\n\n\"Here they are, sir.\"\n\n\"Will you drive the nail into the board?\"\n\nIt was done.\n\n\"Please pull it out again.\"\n\n\"That's easy, sir.\"\n\n\"Now, John,\" and the father's voice dropped to a lower key, \"pull\nout the nail hole.\"\n\nEvery wrong act leaves a scar. Even if the board be a living tree\nthe scar remains.\n\nFor our worst sins there is plenteous redemption. My sin may become\nwhite as snow, and pass away altogether, in so far as it has power\nto disturb or sadden my relation to God. Yet our least sins leave in\nour lives, in our characters, in our memories, in our consciences,\nsometimes in our weakness, often in our worldly position, in our\nreputation, in our success, in our health, in a thousand ways leave\ntheir traces and consequences. God will not put out His little\nfinger to remove these, but lets them stop.\n\nLet no man fancy that the Gospel which proclaims forgiveness can be\nvulgarized into a mere proclamation of impunity. Not so. It was to\n_Christian men_ that Paul said, 'Be not deceived, God is not mocked:\nwhatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' God loves us too\nwell not to punish His children when they sin, and He loves us too\nwell to annihilate (were it possible) the _secondary_ consequences\nof our transgressions. The two sides of the truth must be\nrecognized--that the deeper and (as we call them) the _primary_\npenalties of our evil, which are separation from God and the painful\nconsciousness of guilt, are swept away; and also that other results\nare allowed to remain, which, being allowed, may be blessed and\nsalutary for the transgressors.\n\nMacLaren says, \"If you waste your youth, no repentance will send the\nshadow back upon the dial, or recover the ground lost by idleness,\nor restore the constitution shattered by dissipation, or give back\nthe resources wasted upon vice, or bring back the fleeting\nopportunities. The wounds can all be healed, for the Good Physician,\nblessed be His name! has lancets and bandages, and balm and anodynes\nfor the deadliest; but scars remain even when the gash is closed.\"\n\nGod forgave Moses and Aaron for their sins, but both suffered the\npenalty. Neither one was permitted to enter the promised land. Jacob\nbecame a \"prince of God\" at the ford of Jabbok, but to the end of\nhis days he carried in his body the mark of the struggle. Paul's\nthorn in the flesh was not removed, even after most earnest and\nrepeated prayer. It lost its sting, however, and became a means of\ngrace.\n\nPerhaps that is one reason why God does not remove these penalties\nof sin. He may intend them to be used as tokens of His chastening.\n\"Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.\" And if the temporal\nconsequences were completely removed we would be liable to fall back\nagain into sin. The penalty is a continual reminder of our weakness,\nand of the need of caution and dependence upon God.\n\nOne night in Chicago at the close of a meeting in the Y. M. C. A.\nrooms, a young man sprang to his feet and said: \"Mr. Moody, would\nyou let me speak a few words?\"\n\nI said, \"Certainly.\"\n\nThen for about five minutes he pleaded with those men to break from\nsin. He said:\n\n\"If you have anyone who takes any interest in your spiritual\nwelfare, treat them kindly, for they are the best friends you have.\nI was an only child, and my mother and father took great interest in\nme. Every morning at the family altar father used to pray for me,\nand every night he would commend me to God. I was wild and reckless\nand didn't like the restraint of home. When my father died my mother\ntook up the family worship. Many a time she came to me and said, Oh,\nmy boy, if you would stay to family worship I should be the happiest\nmother on earth; but when I pray, you don't even stay in the house.\nSometimes I would go in at midnight from a night of dissipation and\nhear my mother praying for me. Sometimes in the small hours of\nmorning I heard her voice pleading for me. At last I felt that I\nmust either become a Christian or leave home, and one day I gathered\na few things together and stole away from home without letting my\nmother know.\n\n\"Some time after I heard indirectly that my mother was ill. Ah, I\nthought, it is my conduct that is making her ill! My first impulse\nwas to go home and cheer her last days; but the thought came that if\nI did I should have to become a Christian. My proud heart revolted\nand I said: 'No, I will not become a Christian.'\"\n\nMonths rolled by, and at last he heard again that his mother was\nworse. Then he thought:\n\n\"If my mother should not live I would never forgive myself.\"\n\nThat thought took him home. He reached the old village about dark,\nand started on foot for the home, which was about a mile and a half\ndistant. On the way he passed the graveyard, and thought he would go\nto his father's grave to see if there was a newly-made grave beside\nit. As he drew near the spot, his heart began to beat faster, and\nwhen he came near enough, the light of the moon shone on a newly\n-made grave. With a great deal of emotion he said:\n\n\"Young men, for the first time in my life this question came over\nme--who is going to pray for my lost soul now? Father is gone, and\nmother is gone, and they are the only two who ever cared for me. If\nI could have called my mother back that night and heard her breathe\nmy name in prayer, I would have given the world if it had been mine\nto give. I spent all that night by her grave, and God for Christ's\nsake heard my mother's prayers, and I became a child ot God. But I\nnever forgave myself for the way I treated my mother, and never\nwill.\"\n\n   Where is my wandering boy to-night--\n      The boy of my tenderest care,\n   The boy that was once my joy and light.\n      The child of my love and prayer?\n\n   Once he was pure as morning dew,\n      As he knelt at his mother's knee;\n   No face was so bright, no heart more true,\n      And none was so sweet as he.\n\n   O, could I see you now, my boy,\n      As fair as in olden time,\n   When prattle and smile made home a joy,\n      And life was a merry chime.\n\n   Go for my wandering boy to-night,\n      Go, search for him where you will;\n   But bring him to me with all his blight,\n      And tell him I love him still.\n\nMy dear friends, God may forgive you, but the consequences of your\nsin are going to be bitter even if you are forgiven.\n\nA few years ago I was preaching in Chicago on that text, \"Arise, go\nup to Bethel and dwell there.\" After the meeting a man asked to see\nme alone. I went into a private room. The perspiration stood in\nbeads on his forehead. I said:\n\n\"What is it?\"\n\nHe replied: \"I am a fugitive from justice. I am in exile, in\ndisguise. The government of my state has offered a reward for me. I\nhave been hidden here for months. They tell me there is no hell, but\nit seems as though I have been in hell for months.\"\n\nHe had been a business man, and having, as he thought, plenty of\nmoney, he forged some bonds, thinking that he could give his check\nany time and call them in, but he got beyond his depth and fell.\n\nHe said, \"I have been here for six months. I have a wife and three\nchildren, but I cannot write to them or hear from them.\" The poor\nman was in terrible mental agony.\n\nI said, \"Why don't you go back and give yourself up and face the\nlaw, and ask God to forgive you?\"\n\nHe said, \"I would take the first train to-morrow and give myself up,\nexcept for one thing. I have a wife and three children; how can I\nbring the disgrace upon them?\"\n\nI, too, have a wife and three children, and when he said that, the\nthing looked very different.\n\nAh! if we could do our own reaping, it would not be so bitter, but\nwhen we make our little children or the wife of our bosom, or our\nold gray-haired mother, or our old father reap with us, isn't the\nreaping pretty bitter? I don't fear any pestilence or any disease as\nmuch as I fear sin. If God will only keep sin out of thy family, I\nwill praise Him in time and in eternity. The worst enemy that ever\ncrossed a man's path is sin.\n\nIf a man comes to me for advice I always try to put myself in the\nplace of the one to whom I am talking, and then to give the best\nadvice I can. I said to this man,\n\n\"I don't know what to say, but it is safe to pray.\"\n\nAfter I had prayed, I urged him to pray; but he said:\n\n\"If I do, it means the penitentiary.\"\n\nI asked him to come the next day at twelve. He met me at the\nappointed hour, and said:\n\n\"It is all settled; if I ever meet the God of Bethel I must go\nthrough the prison to meet Him, and God helping me, I will give\nmyself up. I am going back, and I should like to have you keep quiet\nuntil I give myself over into the hands of the law; then you may\nhold me up as a warning. Little did I think when I started out in\nlife that I was coming to this! Little did I think when I married a\ngirl from one of the first families in the state that I should bring\nsuch disgrace on her.\"\n\nAt four o'clock that afternoon he went back to Missouri. He reached\nhome a little past midnight, and spent a week with his family. In a\nletter he said that he didn't dare let his children know he was\nthere, lest they should tell the neighbor's children. At night he\nwould creep out and look at his children, but he couldn't take them\nin his arms or kiss them. Oh, there is the result of sin! Would to\nGod we could every one of us just turn from sin to-day!\n\nOne day, when this man was in hiding, he heard his little boy say:\n\n\"Mamma, doesn't papa love us any more?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" his mother replied. \"Why do you ask?\" \"Why,\" the little\nfellow said, \"he has been gone so long and he never writes us any\nletters and never comes to see us.\"\n\nThe last night he came out from hiding and took a long look at those\ninnocent, sleeping children; then he took his wife and kissed her\nagain and again, and leaving that once happy home he gave himself up\nto the sheriff. The next morning he pleaded guilty, and was sent to\nthe penitentiary for nineteen years. I believe that God had forgiven\nhim, but he couldn't forgive himself, and he had to reap what he\nsowed. I pleaded with the governor for mercy, and the man was\npardoned.\n\nSome time ago I was telling this story, and some one doubted it, but\nthe governor who pardoned him happened to be in the meeting, and\nrose and said, \"I pardoned that man myself.\" The governor pardoned\nhim, and he lived a few years, but from the time he committed that\nsin he had to reap. Oh, reader, I plead with you, overcome your\nbesetting sin, whatever it is.\n\n\nFuture Punishment.\n\nI can imagine some one saying, \"I am glad Mr. Moody hasn't tried to\nscare us about the future state. I agree with him that we shall\nreceive all our reward and punishment in this life.\"\n\nIf you think I believe that, you are greatly mistaken. One sentence\nfrom the lips of the Son of God in regard to the future state has\nforever settled it in my mind. \"_If ye die in your sins, where I am,\nthere ye cannot go_.\" If a man has not given up his drunkenness, his\nprofanity, his licentiousness, his covetousness, heaven would be\nhell to him. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. What\nwould a man do in heaven who cannot bear to be in the society of the\npure and holy down here?\n\nIt is not true that all reward and punishment is reaped in this\nlife. Look how many crimes are committed, and the perpetrators are\nnever caught. It often happens that the worst criminal uses his\nexperience to escape detection, while a more innocent hand is\ncaptured. A man ruins a girl. Does he always reap punishment here?\nNo. He holds his head as high as ever in society, while the\nunfortunate victim of his lust, who, perhaps, was innocently\nbeguiled into sin by him, becomes an outcast. His punishment,\nhowever is, at the latest, only adjourned to another world.\n\n\nEternity!\n\n   Oh, the clanging bells of Time!\n      Night and day they never cease;\n   We are wearied with their chime,\n      For they do not bring us peace.\n   And we hush our breath to hear,\n      And we strain our eyes to see\n   If thy shores are drawing near--\n         Eternity! Eternity!\n\n   Oh, the clanging bells of Time!\n      How their changes rise and fall,\n   But in undertone sublime,\n      Sounding clearly through them all,\n   Is a voice that must be heard,\n      As our moments onward flee,\n   And it speaketh aye one word--\n         Eternity! Eternity!\n\n   Oh, the clanging bells of Time!\n      To their voices loud and low,\n   In a long, unresting line\n      We are marching to and fro;\n   And we yearn for sight or sound,\n      Of the life that is to be,\n   For thy breath doth wrap us round--\n         Eternity! Eternity!\n\n   Oh, the clanging bells of Time!\n      Soon their notes will all be dumb,\n   And in joy and peace sublime\n      We shall feel the silence come;\n   And our souls their thirst will slake,\n      And our eyes the King will see,\n   When thy glorious morn shall break--\n         Eternity! Eternity!\n\n   --Ellen M. H. Gates\n\n\n\nWARNING.\n\n\n\"_Take heed that no man deceive you_.\"--Matt. xxiv: 4.\n\n\"_Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every\nman, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every\nman perfect in Christ Jesus_.\"--Col. i: 27, 28.\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n\nWARNING.\n\n\nTo give a warning is a sign of love. Who warns like a mother, and\nwho loves like a mother? Your mother, perhaps, is gone, and your\nfather is gone. Let me take the place of those who have departed,\nand lift up a warning voice. With Paul I would say: \"I write not\nthese things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.\"\n\nA pilot guiding a steamer down the Cumberland saw a light,\napparently from a small craft, in the middle of the narrow channel.\nHis impulse was to disregard the signal and run down the boat. As he\ncame near, a voice shouted: \"Keep off, keep off.\"\n\nIn great anger he cursed what he supposed to be a boatman in his\nway. On arriving at his next landing he learned that a huge rock had\nfallen from the mountain into the bed of the stream, and that a\nsignal was placed there to warn the coming boats of the unknown\ndanger. Alas! many regard God's warnings in the same way, and are\nangry with any who tell them of the rocks in their course. They will\nunderstand better at the end.\n\nThe children of Israel had no truer friend than Moses. They never\nwent astray but he warned them; and trouble never came upon them\nexcept when his warnings were unheeded. Elijah was the best friend\nAhab had.\n\nI wish I could warn as Jesus Christ did. As he went up Mount Olivet,\nHis heart seemed to be greatly moved and He cried, \"Oh, Jerusalem,\nJerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which\nare sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children\ntogether, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and\nye would not!\" Did He not warn?\n\nIf a friend of mine were about to invest in a worthless silver-mine,\ndo you think I would be true to him if I did not caution him against\nit? And do I show less love for him because I warn him against\nactions that will bring a harvest of misery and despair?\n\n\"Whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning;\nif the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his\nown head; he heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning;\nhis blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall\ndeliver his soul.\"\n\nBe sure that the seed you are sowing is good seed. Sow to the flesh,\nand a good harvest will be impossible. Good seed and bad seed cannot\nboth succeed if allowed to grow together. One prospers at the\nexpense of the other; and the likelihood is that the bad will get\nthe upper hand. Weeds always seem to grow and spread more rapidly\nthan good seed.\n\nThe longer they live, the firmer hold the weeds are gaining. Delay\nis dangerous. In the year 1691, a proclamation was sent through the\nHighlands of Scotland, that every one who had been guilty of\nrebellion against the constituted government would be pardoned, if,\nbefore the last day of the year, he laid down his arms and promised\nto cease his rebellion. Many did so; but one chief named Maclan put\noff submission from week to week, always intending to submit before\nit was too late. But when, at last, he started to accept pardon, he\nwas hindered by a great storm and did not arrive until the time had\nexpired. The day of pardon had passed and the day of vengeance had\ncome; Maclan and his men were put to death.\n\nHence, it is wise to exterminate the weeds at once. And beware of\nremaining longer in sin. The deeper you sink, the more bitter will\nbe your restoration. Why continue to sear you conscience, and sow\nthe seeds of keener remorse? No matter how painful it may be, break\nwith sin at once. Severe operations are often necessary, for the\nskilful surgeon knows that the disease cannot be cured by surface\napplications. The farmer takes his hoe and his spade and his axe,\nand he cuts away the obnoxious growths, and burns the roots out of\nthe ground with fire.\n\nIf thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:\nfor it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,\nand not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy\nright hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is\nprofitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not\nthat thy whole body should be cast into hell.\n\nRemember that the tares and the wheat will be separated at the\njudgment day, if not before. Sowing to the flesh and sowing to the\nspirit inevitably lead in diverging paths. The axe will be laid at\nthe root of the trees, and every tree that bringeth not forth good\nfruit will be hewn down and cast into the fire. The threshing-floor\nwill be thoroughly purged, and the wheat will be gathered into the\ngarner, while the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.\n\nBeware of your habits. A recent writer has said: \"Could the young\nbut realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of\nhabits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the\nplastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and\nnever to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice\nleaves its never so little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in\nJefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by\nsaying, '_I won't count this time_.' Well, he may not count it, and\na kind heaven may not count it, but it is being counted none the\nless. Down among his nerve cells and fibres the molecules are\ncounting it, registering and storing it up, to be used against him\nwhen the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict\nscientific literalness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side\nas well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so many\nseparate drinks, so we become saints in the moral sphere, and\nauthorities and experts in the practical and scientific spheres, by\nso many separate acts and hours of work.\"\n\nBeware of temptations. \"Lead us not into temptation,\" our Lord\ntaught us to pray: and again he said, \"Watch and pray, lest ye enter\ninto temptation.\" We are weak and sinful by nature, and it is a good\ndeal better for us to pray for deliverance rather than for strength\nto resist when temptation has overtaken us. Prevention is better\nthan cure. Hidden under the soil may be seeds of passion and\nwickedness that only wait for a favorable opportunity to shoot up.\n\nYoung men pretend that it is necessary to see both sides of life.\nWhat foolishness! I am not called upon to put my hand in the fire to\nsee if it will burn.\n\nA steamboat was stranded on the Mississippi river, and the captain\ncould not get her off. Eventually a hard-looking fellow came on\nboard and said:\n\n\"Captain, I understand you want a pilot to take you out of this\ndifficulty?\"\n\nThe captain said, \"Are you a pilot?\"\n\n\"Well, they call me one.\"\n\n\"Do you know where the snags and sand-bars are?\"\n\n\"No sir,\"\n\n\"Well, how do you expect to take me out of here if you don't know\nwhere the snags and sand-bars are?\"\n\n\"I know where they ain't!\" was the reply.\n\nBegin to sow the good seed while the children are young, and thus\nprevent the weeds getting a start. Satan does not wait till they\ngrow up, and no more should we.\n\nThere are many fishing nets so constructed as to allow none but full\ngrown fish to be caught, the immature escaping. Satan has none such.\nHe catches the weakest and youngest.\n\n\"We must care for our boys or the devil will,\" said a young Sabbath\nSchool teacher.\n\n\"The devil will care for them anyway,\" answered the old\nsuperintendent: \"The devil will not neglect them even though we do.\"\n\nIt is a master-piece of the devil to make us believe that children\ncan not understand religion. Would Christ have made a child the\nstandard of faith if He had known that it was not capable of\nunderstanding His words? It is far easier for children to love and\ntrust than for grown-up persons, and so we should set Christ before\nthem as the supreme object of their choice.\n\nDo not neglect opportunities. Napoleon used to say: \"There is a\ncrisis in every battle--ten or fifteen minutes--on which the issue\nof the battle depends. To gain this is victory; to lose it is\ndefeat.\"\n\nBeware of sin. Its wages are Death, and (as has been said) the wages\nhave never been reduced. It deceives men as to the satisfaction to\nbe found in it, the excuses to be made for it, and the certainty of\nthe punishment that must follow. If it was not deceitful, it would\nnever be delightful. It comes in innocent guise, and saps the life\nblood, depriving one of the moral capacity to do good. Canon\nWilberforce walking in the Isle of Skye, saw a magnificent eagle\nsoaring upward. He halted and watched its flight. Soon he observed\nsomething was wrong. It began to fall, and presently lay dead at his\nfeet. Eager to know the reason of its death, he examined it and\nfound no trace of gunshot wound; but he saw in its talons a small\nweazel, which, in its flight, drawn near its body, had sucked the\nlife blood from the eagle's-breast. Such is the end of every one who\npersistently clings to sin.\n\nDo not be deceived by the attractiveness of this world. It will\ncheat you and destroy you. \"The Redoubtable\" was the name of a\nFrench ship that Lord Nelson spared twice from destruction; and it\nwas from the rigging of that very ship that the fatal ball that\nkilled him was fired. The devil administers many a sin in honey; but\nthere is poison mixed with it. The truest pleasures spring from the\ngood seed of righteousness--none else are profitable.\n\nBeware of ignorance and indifference. You cannot afford to neglect\nyour soul. There is too much at stake. I never knew an idle man to\nbe converted. Until he wakes up and realizes his lost and hopeless\ncondition, God Almighty will not reach down and take him by the\nhand. A ship was once in great danger at sea, and all but one man\nwere on their knees. They called to him to come and join them in\nprayer, but he replied:\n\n\"Not I; it's your business to look after the ship. I'm only a\npassenger.\"\n\nRemember that mere knowledge is not enough. Many a man knows the\ngospel precepts and promises by heart who is not touched by saving\ngrace. Knowledge is often useless or positively harmful, and what we\nwant is to know God's will and observe it. Even good resolutions are\nnot enough. No doubt they are helpful in their way, but the Bible\ndoes not lead us to believe that they can save a man. It does not\nsay: \"As many as _resolved to receive_ Him, to them gave He power to\nbecome the sons of God, even to them that _resolve to believe_ on\nHis name\"; it says: \"As many as _received_ Him * * * _believe_ on\nHis name.\"\n\nBe watchful! There is constant need to be on guard lest we fall into\nsin. \"Set a double guard upon that point to-night,\" was the command\nof a prudent officer when an attack was expected. At the best there\nwill be some tares among the wheat. We, all of us, carry around with\nus material that Satan can work on. Paul said:\n\n\"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good\nthing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which\nis good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the\nevil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it\nis no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a\nlaw, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I\ndelight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another\nlaw in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing\nme into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O\nwretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this\ndeath?\"\n\nBlessed be God, he could add: \"I thank God through Jesus Christ our\nLord.\"\n\nThe issue that God has placed before us is clear-cut: \"He that\nbelieveth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth\nnot the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on\nhim.\" There is no middle course--\"he that believeth\"--\"he that\nbelieveth not.\" He leaves us to choose, and the responsibility rests\nupon ourselves.\n\nIt may cost you many a sacrifice, and wrench many a heart-string to\nchoose aright, but I plead with you to take the decisive step now.\nThe salvation of your soul outweighs all other considerations. Will\nyou imperil your eternity for the sake of some present gain or\npleasure? Bow your head and say: \"Heavenly Father, I now choose to\ncome unto Thee as a poor, suppliant sinner. I believe on Thy Son,\nwhom Thou didst send to be my Savior; and trusting in the merits of\nHis blood, which was shed as a propitiation for my sins, I rest in\nthe assurance of sins forgiven.\"\n\nThere is hope for the vilest sinner. Wherever weeds grow, there is\nthe possibility of good seed growing. The greater your need, the\nmore welcome will you be to Jesus. The proud and the self-confident\nHe knoweth afar off, but the faintest whisper of the contrite sinner\ncommands His attention.\n\nOur Lord gave us a simple test to help us in our choice. He said,\n\"Every tree is known by its fruit. A good tree bringeth not forth\ncorrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.\"\nMany of us have not the time or ability to unravel intricate\narguments, or grasp profound doctrines. Certain phases of truth are\noften inaccessible to the ordinary mind. But the test Christ gave is\nshort and practical, and within the reach of any one of us.\n\n\"Have you ever heard the gospel?\" asked a missionary of a Chinaman,\nwhom he had not seen in his mission before.\n\n\"No,\" he replied, \"but I have seen it. I know a man who used to be\nthe terror of his neighborhood. He was a bad opium smoker and\ndangerous as a wild beast; but he became wholly changed. He is now\ngentle and good and has left off opium.\"\n\nApply this test to infidelity. What are its fruits? Crime follows in\nits track. Society becomes disorganized. Chastity, honesty and the\nother virtues are undermined. The whole life is blighted.\n\nThe following brief extract from a letter written in an english\nprison, is a tremendous arraignment of that system of belief which\ndoes not acknowledge God:\n\n\"I am one of thirteen infidels. Where are my friends? Four have been\nhanged. One became a Christian. Six have been sentenced to various\nterms of imprisonment, and one is now confined in a cell just over\nmy head, sentenced to imprisonment for life.\"\n\nWith all reverence we may apply this text to our Lord Himself. We\nhave His own authority for it. On one occasion when the jews\ncavilled at His actions, He said: \"The works which the Father hath\ngiven me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me,\nthat the Father hath sent me.\" On another occasion they gathered\nround Him and asked, \"How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If\nthou be the Christ, tell us plainly.\" Jesus answered: \"I told you,\nand ye believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they\nbear witness of me. * * * If I do not the works of my Father,\nbelieve me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the\nworks: that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I\nin Him.\" Well might the ruler Nicodemus say, \"Rabbi, we know that\nthou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles\nthat thou doest, except God be with him.\" And Peter: \"Ye men of\nIsrael, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God\namong you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in\nthe midst of you, as ye yourselves know.\"\n\nWhat are the fruits of extravagance, of pride, of covetousness? And\non the other hand, of prayer, of fearing God and doing His\ncommandments? What are the fruits of heathenism? Look at Africa and\nChina and India and the islands of the seas with their gods of wood\nand stone. What must be the intelligence and moral sense of people\nwho will worship such things?\n\nEven the best of non-Christian religions must always prove a\nfailure. It cannot be denied that many of the highest virtues are\nenjoined in the writings of heathen philosophers. How could it be\notherwise? Morality is universal as humanity, and it is only to be\nexpected that here and there some thinker should pierce beyond the\naverage and read deeper into the foundation-truths of ethics. This\nfact only proves, in my mind, the intimate connection between the\nhuman and the divine. Christianity never claimed to introduce a\nbrand-new system of morality.\n\nReferring to another matter, Christ said: \"Think not that I am come\nto destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but\nto fulfill.\" And so the fulness and perfection of His own system\ncould not fail to embrace many principles that had already appeared\nin heathen morality. But in the hands of our Savior they became\nbroader and brighter and fuller of power and meaning.\n\nWill these non-Christian religions bear the test? Stoicism was\nperhaps the noblest of the Greek philosophies, but it rapidly\ndeveloped into utter cynicism, and culminated in the asserted\nimpossibility of attaining to virtue. Epicureanism started out\nfairly well, but its founder was not dead before it earned for\nitself the opprobrious epithet that it was a doctrine worthy only of\nswine. Look at Buddhism, with its filthy ceremonies and cruel\ntortures. All these systems exhibit a conflict between theory and\npractice. They failed in their object, because they approached the\ndifficulty on the wrong side. They trimmed away at the branch, not\nrecognizing that the tree was rotten at heart.\n\nChristianity alone will stand the test of raising man out of the\npit. And how does it propose to do it? Not by minimizing the danger\nand need. It says: \"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart\nfaint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no\nsoundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.\" It\ndemands as _the first necessity_ a new birth, regeneration by the\nHoly Spirit. \"Ye must be born again.\" It does not place\nsanctification before justification, but having first imparted life\nfrom above, it throws around the redeemed sinner the love of Christ\nand the fellowship and guidance of the Holy Spirit.\n\nA converted Chinaman once said: \"I was down in a deep pit, half sunk\nin the mire, crying for some one to help me out. As I looked up I\nsaw a venerable, grayhaired man looking down at me.\n\n\"'My son,' he said, 'this is a dreadful place.'\n\n'Yes,' I answered, 'I fell into it; can't you help me out?'\n\n'My son,' was his reply, 'I am Confucius. If you had read my books\nand followed what they taught, you would never have been here.'\n\n'Yes, father,' I said, 'but can't you help me out?'\n\nAs I looked he was gone. Soon I saw another form approaching, and\nanother man bent over me, this time with closed eyes and folded\narms. He seemed to be looking to some far-off place.\n\n'My son,' Buddha said, 'just close your eyes and fold your arms, and\nforget all about yourself. Get into a state of rest. Don't think\nabout anything that can disturb. Get so still that nothing can move\nyou. Then, my child, you will be in such delicious rest as I am.'\n\n'Yes, father,' I answered, 'I will when I am above ground. Can't you\nhelp me out?' But Buddha, too, was gone.\n\nI was just beginning to sink into despair when I saw another figure\nabove me, different from the others. There were marks of suffering\non His face. I cried out to Him:\n\n'O, Father! can you help me?'\n\n'My child,' He said, 'what is the matter?'\n\nBefore I could answer Him, He was down in the mire by my side. He\nfolded His arms about me and lifted me up; then He fed me and rested\nme. When I was well He did not say: Now, don't do that again, but He\nsaid: 'We will walk on together now'; and we have been walking\ntogether until this day.\"\n\nThis was a poor Chinaman's way of telling of the compassionate love\nand help of the Lord Jesus.\n\nI was reading, some time ago, of a young man who had just come out\nof a saloon, and had mounted his horse. As a certain deacon passed\non his way to church, he followed and said,\n\n\"Deacon, can you tell me how far it is to hell?\"\n\nThe deacon's heart was pained to think that a young man like that\nshould talk so lightly; he passed on and said nothing. When he came\nround the corner to the church, he found that the horse had thrown\nthat young man, and he was dead. So you may be nearer the Judgment\nthan you think.\n\nWhen I was in Switzerland many years ago, I learned some solemn\nlessons about the suddenness with which death may overtake us. I saw\nseveral places where land-slides had occurred, completely destroying\nwhole villages; or where avalanches had swept down the mountain\nsides, leaving destruction in their wake. A terrible calamity\nhappened in the year 1806 to a village, called Goldau, situated in a\nfertile valley at the foot of the Rossberg mountain. The season had\nbeen unusually wet, and this had made the crops all the more\nabundant.\n\nEarly one morning a young peasant, passing the cottage of an old man\nwhom he knew, saw him sitting at the door in the full rays of the\nsun.\n\n\"Good morning, neighbor,\" said he; \"we are likely to have a fine\nday.\"\n\n\"Time we should have a fine day,\" growled the old man; \"it has been\nwet enough lately.\"\n\n\"Have you heard the report?\" said the other. \"Those who were up the\nearliest this morning declare they saw the top of old Rossberg\nmove.\"\n\n\"Indeed! like enough,\" said the old man. \"Mark my words, and I have\noften said it before; I shan't live to see it, but those who are now\nyoung will not live to be as old as I am before the top of yonder\nmountain lies at its foot.\"\n\n\"I hope it will not be in my day,\" said the young man; and he passed\non, little thinking how near the prediction was to a fulfilment, and\nthat the ripening fields of corn and the abundant clusters of\nluscious grapes would never be gathered; but so it was.\n\nThe springs of water in the mountain had been overcharged by the\nexcessive rains, and these, in forcing their way to the surface and\ntoward the valley below, had loosened the masses of rounded rock\nwhich had been cemented together by a kind of clay, of which\nmaterial the upper part of the mountain was formed. These huge\nmasses at length gave way and fell headlong into the valley, burying\nthe entire village and about eight hundred of its inhabitants\nbeneath their weight.\n\nBut what became of the old man? Alas! he did not escape. He believed\nthe mountain would fall, but he did not think the fall was so near.\nHe was sitting in his cottage, composedly smoking his pipe, when the\nyoung man came hastily back, and crying out:\n\n\"_The mountain is falling!_\"\n\nThe old man composedly rose from his seat, looked out at his door,\nand saying:\n\n\"I shall have time to fill my pipe again,\" went back into his house.\n\nThe young man was saved. The old man perished before he had left his\ncottage, it and its owner were crushed, and swept to the bottom of\nthe valley.\n\nI was in the north of England, in 1881, when a fearful storm swept\nover that part of the country. A friend of mine, who was a minister\nat Eyemouth, had a great many of the fishermen of the place in his\ncongregation. It had been very stormy weather, and the fishermen had\nbeen detained in the harbor for a week. One day, however, the sun\nshone out in a clear blue sky; it seemed as if the storm had passed\naway, and the boats started out for the fishing-ground. Forty-one\nboats left the harbor that day. Before they started, the harbor\n-master hoisted the storm signal, and warned them of the coming\ntempest. He begged of them not to go; but they disregarded his\nwarning, and away they went. They saw no sign of the coming storm.\nIn a few hours, however, it swept down on that coast, and very few\nof those fishermen returned. There were five or six men in each\nboat, and nearly all were lost in that dreadful gale. In the church\nof which my friend was pastor, I believe there were three male\nmembers left.\n\nThose men were ushered into eternity because they did not give heed\nto the warning. I lift up the storm-signal now, and warn you to\nescape from the coming judgment!\n\nThere was a man living near one of the great trunk roads a number of\nyears ago, who one night saw that a landside had obstructed the\ntrack. He saw by the clock that he hadn't time to reach the\ntelegraph office to stop the night express, so he caught up a\nlantern and started up the track, thinking he might be in time to\nstop the train. As he ran he fell and put out his light. He hadn't\nanother match, and he could hear the train coming in the distance.\nHe didn't know what to do. As a last resort he stood on the bank,\nand the moment the train come abreast of him he hurled the lantern\nwith all his might at the engineer. The engineer saw that something\nmust be wrong, took the warning, whistled down the brakes, and\nstopped the train within a few yards of the obstruction.\n\nI throw the broken lantern at your feet now! I beg you to take\nwarning, make a clear work of sin, cost what it may. Take warning!\nYou must either give up sin, or give up the hope of heaven. Put\nyourself in the way of being blessed. Make up your mind now that by\nthe grace of God you will obtain the mastery.\n\n\"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his\nthoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy\nupon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.\"","title":"Sowing and Reaping","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":24373}