(_Harvest Thanksgiving Sermon._)
ix. 3. _They joy before Thee according to the joy in
harvest, &c._
+I. The joy of the natural harvest.+ Harvest was peculiarly
interesting to the Jews.[1] Two things render "the joy of harvest"
peculiar and impressive: 1. It is the completion and reward of the
anxiety and labours of the year it closes. 2. It furnishes the supply
of our needs in the year to come.--We call upon you to rejoice before
the Lord to-day (P. D. 1710-1712), and to associate your thanksgiving
with the name of Christ (Heb. xiii. 15). Let all outward gifts remind
you of that unseen Mediator through whom they flow. Our gratitude
should be deep and fervent; it should bear some proportion to the
regret we should have felt if God had withheld the blessings in which
we now rejoice, and had blighted the promise of the year. Yet now,
when these temporal gifts abound, let us remember their inability to
satisfy the needs of the soul. The satisfaction for these needs is to
be found only in Christ. He who had more corn than his barns could
hold, now wants a drop of water to cool his tongue. +II. The joy of
the spiritual harvest.+ The vicissitudes of the religious life are
often compared to those of the seasons (Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6). The
Christian husbandman has his anxieties, arising from the badness of
the soil, the unfavourableness of the seasons, the delay of harvest,
the fear of final loss. Yet he has his reaping seasons of joy even in
this world--1. When a consciousness of sin which has long oppressed
the soul is exchanged for a sense of pardoning mercy, through the
application of the blood of sprinkling. 2. When, after a long period
of depression, hope revisits the mind (H. E. I. 313, 314, 1658, 1659,
3041). 3. When there come to us the answers to our prayers that were
long delayed (H. E. I. 3895, 3896). "Hope deferred maketh the heart
sick; _but when desire cometh, it is a tree of life._" 4. When the
spiritual triumphs of the gospel are made manifest; to parents in
their families; to ministers in their congregations; to missionaries
abroad. Just in proportion to the toil and prolonged anxiety is the
rapture of success. The harvest sometimes come to us after long
delay, after many anxieties, after many fears (Jas. v. 7, 8). God
sees fit to exercise His people with the discipline of suspense, but
this is for their good (Lam. iii. 26). +III. The joy of the eternal
harvest.+ When all Christ's people are gathered into His immediate
presence (Matt. xiii. 39); then will the declaration of our text be
fulfilled in the highest sense of which it is capable. The ransomed
will rejoice when they think, 1. _Of the grace that reigns in their
salvation._ By that grace they were transformed from being tares, the
end of which is burning, into wheat meet for the garner. 2. _Of the
great cost and care bestowed upon their culture,_ that they might be
ripened for the heavenly kingdom. 3. _How often they despaired of
their own safety._ 4. _Of their deliverance from the fearful fate of
the tares and chaff,_ whose end is to be burned.--_Samuel Thodey._