THRESHING.

"For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither

is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten

out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised;

because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of

his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen."--ISAIAH 28:27, 28.

THE art of husbandry was taught to man by God. He would have starved

while he was discovering it, and so the Lord, when he sent him out of

the Garden of Eden, gave him a measure of elementary instruction in

agriculture, even as the prophet puts it--"His God doth instruct him to

discretion, and doth teach him." God has taught man to plough, to break

the clods, to sow the different kinds of grain, and to thresh out the

different sorts of seeds.

The Eastern husbandman could not thresh by machinery as we do; but still

he was ingenious and discreet in that operation. Sometimes a heavy

instrument was dragged over the corn to tear out the grain. This is what

is intended in the first clause by the "threshing instrument," as also

in that passage, "I have made thee a sharp threshing instrument having

teeth." When the corn-drag was not used, they often turned the heavy

solid wheel of a country cart over the straw. This is alluded to in the

next sentence: "Neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin."

They had also flails not very unlike our own, and then for still

smaller seeds, such as dill and cummin, they used a simple staff, or a

slender switch. "The fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin

with a rod."

This is not the time or place to give a dissertation upon threshing. We

find every information upon that subject in proper books; but the

meaning of the illustration is this--that as God has taught husbandmen

to distinguish between different kinds of grain in the threshing, so

does he in his infinite wisdom deal discreetly with different sorts of

men. He does not try us all alike, seeing we are differently

constituted. He does not pass us all through the same agony of

conviction: we are not all to the same extent threshed with terrors. He

does not give us all to endure the same family or bodily affliction; one

escapes with only being beaten with a rod, while another feels, as it

were, the feet of horses in his heavy tribulations.

Our subject is just this. _Threshing_: all kinds of seeds need it, _all

sorts of men need it_. Secondly, _the threshing is done with

discretion_, and, thirdly, _the threshing will not last forever_; for so

the second verse of the text says: "Bread corn is bruised; because he

will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart,

nor bruise it with his horseman."

I. First, then, WE ALL NEED THRESHING. Some have a foolish conceit of

themselves that they have no sin; but they deceive themselves, and the

truth is not in them. The best of men are men at the best; and being

men, they are not perfect, but are still compassed about with infirmity.

What is the object of threshing the grain? Is it not to separate it from

the straw and the chaff?

_About the best of men there is still a measure of chaff._ All is not

grain that lies upon the threshing-floor. All is not grain even in those

golden sheaves which have been brought into our garner so joyfully. Even

the wheat is joined to the straw, which was necessary to it at one time.

About the kernel of the wheat the husk is wrapped, and this still clings

to it even when it lies upon the threshing-floor. About the holiest of

men there is something superfluous, something which must be removed. We

either sin by omission or by trespass. Either in spirit, or motive, or

lack of zeal, or want of discretion, we are faulty. If we escape one

error, we usually glide into its opposite. If before an action we are

right, we err in the doing of it, or, if not, we become proud after it

is over. If sin be shut out at the front door, it tries the back gate,

or climbs in at the window, or comes down the chimney. Those who cannot

perceive it in themselves are frequently blinded by its smoke. They are

so thoroughly in the water that they do not know that it rains. So far

as my own observation goes I have found out no man whom the old divines

would have called perfectly perfect; the absolutely all-round man is a

being whom I expect to see in heaven, but not in this poor fallen world.

We all need such cleansing and purging as the threshing-floor is

intended to work for us.

Now, _threshing is useful in loosening the connection between the good

corn and the husk_. Of course, if it would slip out easily from its

husk, the corn would only need to be shaken. There would be no necessity

for a staff or a rod, much less for the feet of horses, or the wheel of

a cart to separate it. But there's the rub: our soul not only lieth in

the dust, but "cleaveth" to it. There is a fearful intimacy between

fallen human nature and the evil which is in the world; and this compact

is not soon broken. In our hearts we hate every false way, and yet we

sorrowfully confess, "When I would do good, evil is present with me."

Sometimes when our spirit cries out most ardently after God, a holy will

is present with us, but how to perform that which is good we find not.

Flesh and blood have tendencies and weaknesses which, if not sinful in

themselves, yet tend in that direction. Appetites need but slight

excitement to germinate into lusts. It is not easy for us to forget our

own kindred and our father's house even when the king doth most greatly

desire our beauty. Our alien nature remembers Egypt and the flesh-pots

while yet the manna is in our mouths. We were all born in the house of

evil, and some of us were nursed upon the lap of iniquity, so that our

first companionships were among the heirs of wrath. That which was bred

in the bone is hard to get out of the flesh. Threshing is used to loosen

our hold of earthly things and break us away from evil. This needs a

divine hand, and nothing but the grace of God can make the threshing

effectual. Something is done by threshing when the soul ceases to be

bound up with its sin, and sin is no longer pleasurable or satisfactory.

Still, as the work of threshing is never done till the corn is separated

altogether from the husk, so chastening and discipline have never

accomplished their design till God's people give up every form of evil,

and abhor all iniquity. When we shake right out of the straw, and have

nothing further to do with sin, then the flail will lie quiet. It has

taken a good deal of threshing to bring some of us anywhere near that

mark, and I am afraid many more heavy blows will be struck before we

shall reach the total separation. From a certain sort of sins we are

very easily separated by the grace of God early in our spiritual life;

but when those are gone, another layer of evils comes into sight, and

the work has to be repeated. The complete removal of our connection with

sin is a work demanding the divine skill and power of the Holy Ghost,

and by him only will it be accomplished.

Threshing becomes needful for the sake of our usefulness; for the wheat

must come out of the husk to be of service. We can only honor God and

bless men by being holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.

O corn of the Lord's threshing-floor, thou must be beaten and bruised,

or perish as a worthless heap! Eminent usefulness usually necessitates

eminent affliction.

Unless thus severed from sin, we cannot be gathered into the garner.

God's pure wheat must not be defiled by an admixture of chaff. There

shall in nowise enter into heaven anything that defileth, therefore

every sort of imperfection must come away from us by some means or other

ere we can enter into the state of eternal blessedness and perfection.

Yea, even here we cannot have true fellowship with the Father unless we

are daily delivered from sin.

Peradventure some of us to-day are lying up on the threshing-floor,

suffering from the blows of chastisement. What then? Why, let us rejoice

therein; for _this testifies to our value in the sight of God_. If the

wheat were to cry out and say, "The great drag has gone over me,

therefore the husbandman has no care for me," we should instantly

reply--The husbandman does not pass the corn-drag over the darnel or the

nettles; it is only over the precious wheat that he turns the wheel of

his cart, or the feet of his oxen. Because he esteems the wheat,

therefore he deals sternly with it and spares it not. Judge not, O

believer, that God hates you because he afflicts you; but interpret

truly and see that he honors you by every stroke which he lays upon you.

Thus saith the Lord, "You only have I known of all the nations of the

earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Because a

full atonement has been made by the Lord Jesus for all his people's

sins, therefore he will not punish us as a judge; but because we are his

dear children, therefore he will chastise us as a father. In love he

corrects his own children that he may perfect them in his own image, and

make them partakers of his holiness. Is it not written, "I will bring

them under the rod of the covenant"? Has he not said, "I have refined

thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of

affliction"? Therefore do not judge according to the sight of the eyes

or the feeling of the flesh, but judge according to faith, and

understand that, as threshing is a testimony to the value of the wheat,

so affliction is a token of God's delight in his people.

Remember, however, that as threshing is a sign of the impurity of the

wheat, so is _affliction an indication of the present imperfection of

the Christian_. If you were no more connected with evil, you would be no

more corrected with sorrow. The sound of a flail is never heard in

heaven, for it is not the threshing-floor of the imperfect but the

garner of the completely sanctified. The threshing instrument is

therefore a humbling token, and so long as we feel it we should humble

ourselves under the hand of God, for it is clear that we are not yet

free from the straw and the chaff of fallen nature.

On the other hand, the instrument is _a prophecy of our future

perfection_. We are undergoing from the hand of God a discipline which

will not fail: we shall by his prudence and wisdom be clean delivered

from the husk of sin. We are feeling the blows of the staff, but we are

being effectually separated from the evil which has so long surrounded

us, and for certain we shall one day be pure and perfect. Every tendency

to sin shall be beaten off. "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a

child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." If, we

being evil, yet succeed with our children by our poor, imperfect

chastening, how much more shall the Father of spirits cause us to live

unto himself by his holy discipline? If the corn could know the

necessary uses of the flail, it would invite the thresher to his work;

and since we know whereunto tribulation tendeth, let us glory in it, and

yield ourselves with cheerfulness to its processes. We need threshing,

the threshing proves our value in God's sight, and while it marks our

imperfection, it secures our ultimate cleansing.

II. Secondly, I would remark that GOD'S THRESHING IS DONE WITH GREAT

DISCRETION; "for the fitches are not threshed with a threshing

instrument." The poor little fitches, a kind of small seed used for

flavoring cakes, were not crushed out with a heavy drag, for by such

rough usage they would have been broken up and spoiled. "Neither is a

cart wheel turned about upon the cummin;" this little seed, perhaps the

carraway, would have been ground by so great a weight; it would have

been preposterous to treat it in that rough manner. The fitches were

soon removed from the stalks by being "beaten out with a staff," and the

cummin needed nothing but a touch of a rod. For tender seeds the farmer

uses gentle means, and for the hardier grains he reserves the sterner

processes. Let us think of this, as it conveys a valuable spiritual

lesson.

Reflect, my brother, that your threshing and mine _are in God's hands_.

Our chastening is not left to servants, much less to enemies; "we are

chastened of the Lord!" The Great Husbandman himself personally bids the

laborers do this and that, for they know not the time or the way except

as divine wisdom shall direct; they would turn the wheel upon the

cummin, or attempt to thresh wheat with a staff. I have seen God's

servants trying both these follies; they have crushed the weak and

tender, and they have dealt with partiality and softness with those who

needed to be sternly rebuked. How roughly some ministers, some elders,

some good men and women will go to work with timid, tender souls; yet we

need not fear that they will destroy the true-hearted, for, however much

they may vex them the Lord will not leave his chosen in their hands, but

will overrule their mistaken severity, and preserve his own from being

destroyed thereby. How glad I am of this; for there are many nowadays

who would grind the tender ones to powder if they could!

As the Lord has not left us in the power of man, so also he has not left

us in the power of the devil. Satan may sift us as wheat, but he shall

not thresh us as fitches. He may blow away the chaff from us even with

his foul breath, but he shall not have the management of the Lord's

corn: "the Lord preserveth the righteous." Not a stroke in providence

is left to chance; the Lord ordains it, and arranges the time, the

force, and the place of it. The divine decree leaves nothing uncertain;

the jurisdiction of supreme love occupies itself with the smallest

events of our daily lives. Whether we bear the teeth of the corn-drag or

men do ride over our heads, or we endure the gentler touches of the

divine hand, everything is by appointment, and the appointment is fixed

by infallible wisdom. Let this be a mine of comfort to the afflicted.

Next, remark that _the instruments used for our threshing are chosen

also by the Great Husbandman_. The Eastern farmer, according to the

text, has several instruments, and so has our God. No form of threshing

is pleasant to the seed which bears it; indeed, each one seems to the

sufferer to be peculiarly objectionable. We say, "I think I could bear

anything but this sad trouble." We cry, "It was not an enemy, then I

could have borne it," and so on. Perhaps the tender cummin foolishly

fancies that the horse-hoofs would be a less terrible ordeal than the

rod, and the fitches might even prefer the wheel to the staff; but

happily the matter is left to the choice of One who judges unerringly.

What dost thou know about it, poor sufferer? How canst thou judge of

what is good for thee? "Ah!" cries a mother, "I would not mind poverty;

but to lose my darling child is too terrible!" Another laments, "I could

have parted with all my wealth, but to be slandered cuts me to the

quick." There is no pleasing us in the matter of chastisement. When I

was at school, with my uncle for master, it often happened that he would

send me out to find a cane for him. It was not a very pleasant task, and

I noticed that I never once succeeded in selecting a stick which was

liked by the boy who had to feel it. Either it was too thin, or too

stout; and in consequence I was threatened by the sufferers with condign

punishment if I did not do better next time. I learned from that

experience never to expect God's children to like the particular rod

with which they are chastened. You smile at my simile, but you may smile

at yourself when you find yourself crying, "Any trouble but this, Lord.

Any affliction but this." How idle it is to expect a pleasant trial; for

it would then be no trial at all. Almost every really useful medicine is

unpleasant: almost all effectual surgery is painful! no trial for the

present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, yet it is the right trial,

and none the less right because it is bitter.

Notice, too, that God not only selects the instruments, _but he chooses

the place_. Farmers in the East have large threshing-floors upon which

they throw the sheaves of corn or barley, and upon these they turn

horses and drags; but near the house door I have often noticed in Italy

a much smaller circle of hardened clay or cement, and here I have seen

the peasants beating out their garden seeds in a more careful manner

than would naturally be used toward the greater heaps upon the larger

area. Some saints are not afflicted in the common affairs of life, but

they have peculiar sorrow in their innermost spirits; they are beaten on

the smaller and more private threshing-floor; but the process is none

the less effectual. How foolish are we when we rebel against our Lord's

appointment, and speak as if we had a right to choose our own

afflictions! "Should it be according to thy mind?" Should a child select

the rod? Should the grain appoint its own thresher? Are not these

things to be left to a higher wisdom? Some complain of the time of their

trial; it is hard to be crippled in youth, or to be poor in age, or to

be widowed when your children are young. Yet in all this there is

wisdom. A part of the skill of the physician may lie, not only in

writing a prescription, but in arranging the hours at which the medicine

shall be taken. One draught may be most useful in the morning, and

another may be more beneficial in the evening; and so the Lord knows

when it is best for us to drink of the cup which he has prepared for us.

I know a dear child of God who is enduring a severe trial in his old

age, and I would fain screen him from it because of his feebleness, but

our heavenly Father knows best, and there we must leave it. The

instrument of the threshing, the place, the measure, the time, the end,

are all appointed by infallible love.

It is interesting to notice in the text the limit of this threshing. The

husbandman is zealous to beat out the seed, but he is careful not to

break it in pieces by too severe a process. His wheel is not to grind,

but to thresh; the horses' feet are not to break, but to separate. He

intends to get the cummin out of its husk, but he will not turn a heavy

drag upon it utterly to smash it up and destroy it. In the same way the

Lord has a measure in all his chastening. Courage, tried friend, you

shall be afflicted as you need, but not as you deserve; tribulation

shall come as you are able to bear it. As is the strength such shall the

affliction be; the wheat may feel the wheel, but the fitches shall bear

nothing heavier than a staff. No saint shall be tempted beyond the

proper measure, and the limit is fixed by a tenderness which never deals

a needless stroke.

It is very easy to talk like this in cool blood, and quite another thing

to remember it when the flail is hammering you; yet have I personally

realized this truth upon the bed of pain, and in the furnace of mental

distress. I thank God at every remembrance of my afflictions; I did not

doubt his wisdom then, nor have I had any reason to question it since.

Our Great Husbandman understands how to divide us from the husk, and he

goes about his work in a way for which he deserves to be adored for

ever.

It is a pleasant thought that God's limit is one beyond which trials

never go--

"If trials six be fix'd for men

They shall not suffer seven.

If God appoint afflictions ten

They ne'er can be eleven."

The old law ordained forty stripes save one, and in all our scourgings

there always comes in that "save one." When the Lord multiplies our

sorrows up to a hundred, it is because ninety-and-nine failed to effect

his purpose; but all the powers of earth and hell cannot give us one

blow above the settled number. We shall never endure a superfluity of

threshing. The Lord never sports with the feelings of his saints. "He

does not afflict willingly," and so we may be sure he never gives an

unnecessary blow.

The wisdom of the husbandman in limiting his threshing is far exceeded

in the wisdom of God by which he sets a limit to our griefs. Some escape

with little trouble, and perhaps it is because they are frail and

sensitive. The little garden seeds must not be beaten too heavily lest

they be injured; those saints who bear about with them a delicate body

must not be roughly handled, nor shall they be. Possibly they have a

feeble mind also, and that which others would laugh at would be death to

them; they shall be kept as the apple of the eye.

If you are free from tribulation never ask for it; that would be a great

folly. I did meet with a brother a little while ago who said that he was

much perplexed because he had no trouble. I said, "Do not worry about

_that_; but be happy while you may." Only a queer child would beg to be

flogged. Certain sweet and shining saints are of such a gentle spirit

that the Lord does not expose them to the same treatment as he metes out

to others; they do not need it, and they could not bear it; why should

they wish for it?

Others, again, are very heavily pressed; but what of that if they are a

superior grain, a seed of larger usefulness, intended for higher

purposes? Let not such regret that they have to endure a heavier

threshing since their use is greater. It is the bread corn that must go

under the feet of the horseman and must feel the wheel of the cart; and

so the most useful have to pass through the sternest processes. There is

not one among us but what would say, "I could wish that I were Martin

Luther, or that I could play as noble a part as he did." Yes; but in

addition to the outward perils of his life, the inward experiences of

that remarkable man were such as none of us would wish to feel. He was

frequently tormented with Satanic temptations, and driven to the verge

of despair. At one hour he rode the whirlwind and the storm, master of

all the world, and then after days of fighting with the pope and the

devil he would go home to his bed and lie there broken-down and

trembling. You see God's heroes only in the pulpit, or in other public

places, you know not what they are before God in secret. You do not know

their inner life; else you might discover that the bread corn is

bruised, and that those who are most useful in comforting others have to

endure frequent sorrow themselves. Envy no man; for you do not know how

he may have to be threshed to make him right and keep him so.

Brethren, we see that our God uses discretion in the chastisement of his

people; let us use a loving prudence when we have to deal with others in

that way. Be gentle as well as firm with your children; and if you have

to rebuke your brother do it very tenderly. Do not drive your horses

over the tender seed. Recollect that the cummin is beaten out with a

staff and not crushed out with a wheel. Take a very light rod. Perhaps

it would be as well if you had no rod at all, but left that work to

wiser hands. Go you and sow and leave your elders to thresh.

Next let us firmly believe in God's discretion, and be sure that he is

doing the right thing by us. Let us not be anxious to be screened from

affliction. When we ask that the cup may pass from us let it be with a

"nevertheless not as I will." Best of all, let us freely part with our

chaff. The likeliest way to escape the flail is to separate from the

husk as quickly as possible. "Come ye out from among them." Separate

yourselves from sin and sinners, from the world and worldliness, and the

process of threshing will all the sooner be completed. God make us wise

in this matter!

III. A word or two is all we can afford upon the third head, which is

that THE THRESHING WILL NOT LAST FOREVER.

The threshing will not last all our days even here: "Bread corn is

bruised, but he will not always be threshing it." Oh, no. "For a small

moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee."

"He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever."

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Rejoice, ye daughters of sorrow! Be comforted, ye sons of grief! Have

hope in God, for you shall yet praise him who is the health of your

countenance. The rain does not always fall, nor will the clouds always

return. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Threshing is not an

operation which the corn requires all the year round; for the most part

the flail is idle. Bless the Lord, O my soul! The Lord will yet bring

home his banished ones.

Above all, tribulation will not last forever, for we shall soon be gone

to another and better world. We shall soon be carried to the land where

there are neither threshing-floors nor corn-drags. I sometimes think I

hear the herald calling me. His trumpet sounds: "Up and away! Boot and

saddle! Up and away! Leave the camp and the battle, and return in

triumph." The night is far spent with you, but the morning cometh. The

daylight breaks above yon hills. The day is coming--the day that shall

go no more down forever. Come, eat your bread with joy, and march onward

with a merry heart; for the land which floweth with milk and honey is

but a little way before you. Until the day break and the shadows flee

away, abide the Great Husbandman's will, and may the Lord glorify

himself in you. Amen.