The Prophet pictures the sowing, the abundant seed thrown broadcast, the
long waiting, and then, finally, a wretched harvest--a few prematurely
yellow ears and short stalks. I remember a friend telling me that when
he was a boy he went out reaping with his father in one of our years of
great drought; and after a day's work threshed out all that he had cut,
and carried it home with him in his handkerchief. That is what Haggai
saw realised in fact, because the sowing had been without God. It is
what we may see in others and feel in ourselves. It is the very law and
curse of godless toil with its unproductive harvest. The builders set
out to build a tower whose top shall reach to heaven, and they never get
higher than a story or two. There is nothing more tragic than the
contrast between what a man actually accomplishes in his life and what
he planned when he began it. Many and many of our lives are like the
half-built houses in Pompeii, where the stones are lying that had been
all squared and polished, and have never been lifted to their place in
the unfinished walls. Much of the seed never comes up at all; and what
we gather is always less than what we expected. The prize gleams before
us; when we get it, is it as good as it looked when it hung tempting at
the unreached goal? A fox-brush is scarcely sufficient payment for
riding over half a county. Ah! but you say, there is the enthusiasm and
stir of the pursuit. Well, yes; it is something if it is _training_ you
for something, and if you can say that faculties worth the cultivating
are developed in that way: and whether that is so depends on what you
think a man is made for, and on whether these are faculties which will
last and find their scope as long as you last. Consider what you are,
what you seek; and then say whether the most fruitful harvest from which
God and His love are left out is not little.
This fruitlessness of toil is inevitable unless it springs from a motive
which in itself is sufficient, pursues a purpose which will surely be
accomplished, and is done in hope of the world where 'our works do
follow us.' If we are allied to Christ, then whether our work be great
or small, apparently successful or frustrated, it will be all right.
Though we do not see our fruit, we know that He will bless the springing
thereof, and that no least deed done for Him but shall in the
harvest-day be found waving a nodding head of multiplied results. 'God
giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him'; and 'he that goeth forth
weeping shall doubtless return, bringing his sheaves with him.' 'Your
labour is not in vain to the Lord.'