xxviii. 24, 25. _Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow?
&c._[1]
Means adapted to the end must be used if any end is to be
accomplished. The physician knows this. So does the general. So does
the manufacturer. So does the farmer. He is not always ploughing. Nor
always sowing. Nor always threshing. Nor does he treat every kind of
produce in the same way. And God employs various methods in dealing
with men. He aims to turn them from evil, and He adapts His methods.
The teaching of the text may be applied to the Divine dealing with
men generally.
+I. God intended to open a way of salvation.+ Man needs salvation
because he is a sinner. Can conceive a state of things in which he
would not need it, as of one who needs no physician. If he had
continued holy and obedient. But that is not his case. He is a
sinner, characterised by impurity, and exposed to perdition.--Now
God, in His pitying love, would save us. How shall He proceed? Shall
He, by His arbitrary will, sweep away the facts? Such a procedure
would be entirely inconsistent with the existence of moral government
and the rectitude of the Divine character. 1. One part of the case to
be dealt with was the condemned state of man under the Divine law.
Forgiveness could not righteously be given without some satisfaction.
Man could not make it. God in Christ, in His whole personality and
work, has made the satisfaction. The method adopted is exactly
adapted to the nature of the case. 2. But the other part of the case
was also to be dealt with. Sinfulness is deep-seated in man's nature.
He loves it. Until he is changed, he is not even inclined to sue for
mercy, still less to escape from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent
to turn us from our iniquities. How does He do this? (1.) _By moral
motive._ The law was inadequate. He introduces a new motive. Not only
the mercy, but the fact that it has been procured at such a cost,
that the love was equal to such a sacrifice. It appeals directly to
the heart, as well as to the judgment, for a condemnation of sin.
(2.) _By spiritual influence._ The influence of the Holy Spirit
strives with those to whom the gospel is preached, with a view to the
overcoming their indifference, reluctance, and sin.--The method is
adapted, in both its sides, to the end in view. It only requires the
sinner's consent. Hence--
+II. God intended the way of salvation to be made known to men.+ If
consent to it and faith in it is requisite to participation of its
blessings, it must be understood--1. The information might have been
imparted in a separate revelation by the Holy Spirit to every man.
Would supersede all evidence, and all exercise of human faculty.
Would not be adapted to man as a reasonable being. 2. Angelic
ministry might have been employed. Open to similar objection. Would
have made miracle the rule instead of the exception. It would have
changed the order of nature. 3. The method adopted is the simple
arrangement that those who are acquainted with it, believe it,
consent to it, make the Gospel known. A method exactly adopted to the
nature of the case. According to the constitution of human nature,
the Gospel thus approaches it for the purpose of gaining the
understanding, the heart, and the will. Bear in mind the power of
sympathy between human beings. He who has received a truth desires to
impart it. He who has experienced the salvation pities those who need
it as he did. He who speaks from his own experience speaks with
tenderness, and earnestness, and influence. The sick heed the
recommendation of a physician by those whom he has cured. On this
principle of adaptation the Lord Jesus instituted the living ministry
of apostles, evangelists, pastors, parents, all Christians. He
inspired some to put on permanent record the truth as He revealed it,
as a standard of appeal. They are to study it. They are to use the
same principle of adaptation. There is youth, age, different measure
of instruction, different classes, spheres, circumstances.
+III. God intended to train those whom He saved.+ Believers are
already saved, because pardoned and sanctified. But they require
training into riper holiness, greater usefulness, greater fitness for
the future heaven. Therefore the Saviour instituted such means as are
adapted to secure these ends. Church fellowship, public worship,
pastoral teaching, Christian habits of watchfulness, thoughtfulness,
prayer. All these are adapted to the training of the spiritual plant.
Are you in sympathy with God's end? In yourselves? In the world? Then
adapt yourselves to its realisation.--_J. Rawlinson._
In these verses there are three kinds of seed mentioned; fitches,
cummin, and corn. The fitches and cummin were small seeds like the
caraway or chickpea. When these smaller herbs had to be threshed,
this was done by hand; but when the corn had to be threshed, that was
thrown on the floor, and men would fasten horses or oxen to a cart
with iron-dented wheels; that cart would be drawn round the
threshing-floor, and so the work would be accomplished. And so the
idea expressed is different kinds of threshing for different products.
+I. We must all go through some kind of threshing process.+ The fact
that you are devoting your life to honourable and noble purposes will
not win you any escape. Wilberforce, the Christian Emancipator, was
in his day derisively called "Doctor Cantwell." Thomas Babington
Macaulay, the advocate of all that was good long before he became the
most conspicuous historian of his day, was caricatured in one of the
_Quarterly Reviews_ as "Bubble-tongued Macaulay." Norman McLeod, the
great friend of the Scotch poor, was industriously maligned in all
quarters. As the small wits of London took after John Wesley, the
father of Methodism. If such men could not escape the maligning of
the world, neither can you expect to get rid of the sharp, keen
stroke of the tribulum. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution. +II. It is not compliment to us if we escape
great trial.+ There are men who suppose they are the Lord's
favourites, simply because their barns are full, and their bank
account is flush, and there are no funerals in the house. It may be
because they are fitches and cummin, while down at the end of the
lane, the poor widow may be the Lord's corn. You are little pounded,
because you are little worth, and she bruised and ground, because she
is the best part of the harvest. By carefulness of the threshing, you
may always conclude the value of the grain. (H. E. I., 186-196,
3692-3695). +III. God proportions our trials to what we can bear.+
The rod for the cummin, the staff for the fitches, the iron wheel for
the corn. (H. E. I., 179-188, 3674-3695). +IV. God continues trials
until we let go.+ As soon as the farmer sees that the straw has let
go the grain, he stops the threshing. We hold on to this world with
its pleasures, riches, and emoluments, as though for ever. God comes
along with some threshing trouble, and beats us loose. Oh, let go!
Depend upon it that God will keep upon you the staff, or the rod, or
the iron wheel until you _do_ let go. +V. Christian sorrow is going
to have a sure terminus.+ "Bread corn is bruised, because _He will
not be ever threshing it._" So much of us as is wheat will be
separated from so much of us as is chaff, and there will be no more
need of pounding. "He will not ever be threshing it." Blessed be God
for that! (Rev. xxi. 4).--_T. De Witt Talmage, D.D._