Our Lord Jesus Christ was sitting on Jacob's Well, waiting for the
return of the disciples, who had gone to the nearest village to buy
food.
It was mid-day, and the Syrian sun had been beating down on the wearied
Lord of all the earth.
At the bottom of the steps, travellers tell us, leading down to
"Jacob's Well," there is a small excavation or shelter between some
overhanging stones, and here the dear Lord may have found a little
shade while He waited.
A woman had come down these steps to draw water, and the Lord had
spoken of the Living Water which He would give her if she asked
Him; and then, after they had been talking a little while, she had
left Jesus sitting there, and had hurried into the town to tell her
neighbours that she had found the Messiah—the Christ.
While she was gone, the disciples returned and quickly offered food to
their Lord.
But His reply astonished them. He said: "I have food to eat that you
do not know of. My food is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to
finish His work!"
While they had been away, wearied and hungry as He was, He had brought
a sinful soul to realize her sin, and to find in Him her Saviour!
And then He said to them: "Are there not four months before the
harvest? But lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are
white already to harvest.
"He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit to life eternal:
that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."
You may say: "What does He mean by sowing?" In the winter you see the
fields, over which the plough has been pulled by the patient horses,
and the patient farmer. Then comes the man with a basket of seed, and
he puts the grains carefully into the furrows, and covers them over,
and goes on his way. Have you seen that?
He is the sower.
Then comes the dew and the rain, the air and the sunshine, and the
little seed grows and grows till, by and by, behold it is Harvest! And
the golden grain is gathered into the safe garner!
This is the work God has given each one of us to do. To sow the Seed of
the Word—to tell of the Love of Jesus!
Each one of us? Do you shrink, and say that you cannot—you so young and
ignorant? Or you, perhaps, are too old and feeble to go into the world
and spread His Word?
There are many ways of doing it. You can all pray, young or old, for
the Seed to be blessed!
The children can work for the missionaries, and can save some of their
pennies to put into the Missionary Box.
The old can spare some pennies, too—many or few, according to what they
have—and can pray much, and encourage much, by showing ever a sure
confidence that God will send the harvest by and by.
A few years ago, a sweet story was told me of this Seed-sowing. It was
about a little Japanese boy; and he lived in Hakodate, and I have a
photograph of him, taken when he was about eighteen.
When the Missionaries first heard of him he was a miserable little
crippled invalid, for he had no legs, lying in the corner of a hut,
neglected, dirty, hopeless. Nobody loved him, and he hated everybody.
He spent his time in throwing stones at all who came near him, and
saying wicked words, which were shocking to hear.
After a while these Missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Nettleship, heard of
this poor boy, and went to see him. They told him of Jesus our Saviour,
and how He loved him, and had given His life for him.
By and by this living Seed sank into the heart of the poor child, and
a change came over him. He ceased to throw stones, he ceased to swear;
and when the dear Missionaries offered to take care of him, he gladly
went to them, and was with them for years. They called him Samuel, and
he learnt to read and write, then helped them afterwards in their work.
He learnt to play the concertina, and used to lead the hymns in the
Sunday School; and he was full of joy and brightness.
The kind Missionaries made a loose Japanese robe for him, in which he
could move about, and which covered up his poor maimed body. He learned
to move about, swinging himself on his hands and arms, so that he could
cross a room quite quickly; and they told me that his face was full of
Heaven's sunshine.
I used to send him a book every year till his death; and he painted
several beautiful Japanese pictures for me, which I keep as great
treasures.
On one of these, he outlined these words in Japanese: "When the Chief
Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not
away."
Just before his loving friends had to leave Hakodate for a time, dear
Samuel was taken "Home!" after a short but painless illness, so that he
never missed the loving care he had had!
It seems to me that this simple story helps us to understand what
"sowing" and "reaping" mean.
The "Sowing" was done in that dark and dirty hovel in Japan.
The full of joy of the "Reaping" will come by and by in Heaven; but a
foretaste of it was surely in the hearts of those dear Missionaries who
carried that Living Seed to that poor neglected child, and who saw him
grow up into an earnest, devoted Christian!