+I. Our present life is a moral trial for another to come.+--On till
death is our seed-sowing; after death is the sure and universal
harvest. On till death is our moral trial; after death is the life of
judicial retribution, alike for the just and the unjust.
+II. Human life has one or the other of two great characters, and
will issue in one or the other of two great results.+--1. They sow to
the flesh who live under the influence of their natural inclinations
and desires, pleasing only themselves and despising or neglecting the
holy will of God. They live to the Spirit the whole current of whose
being has been supernaturally reversed under the grace of the Gospel.
2. The sowers to the Spirit live. And this true and proper life of
man, in its maturity and full perfection, is the great and glorious
reward which, by Divine appointment, shall eventually crown the
labours of the sowers to the Spirit. The sowers to the flesh sow seed
which brings forth death. Even now their life is death in rudiment,
and in the end, they must reap it in its full and external
development. Degraded existence, miserable existence, everlastingly
degraded and miserable existence.
+III. We are liable to delusions with respect to these great
verities.+--All history and experience teem with illustrations of the
spiritual spells and juggleries which men, prompted by the invisible
potentate of evil, practise upon themselves, that so they may reduce
to their convictions the sinfulness of sin, and may tone the booming
of the great bell of Scripture menace down to the gentle whisper of
an amiable reprimand.--_J. D. Geden._
_On the Difference between sowing to the Flesh and to the Spirit._
+I. The man who soweth to his flesh.+--It is to spend our lives in
doing these works of the flesh--to lay out our time, our thoughts,
and our care in gratifying the vain, sensual, and selfish
inclinations which the evil state of the heart naturally and
continually puts forth. Broken health, loathsome diseases, ruined
fortunes, disappointed wishes, soured tempers, infamy, and shame are
among those things which usually come from walking after the flesh.
+II. The man who soweth to the Spirit.+--It is to live under the
guidance of God's Holy Spirit, and in every part of our conduct to
bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. He enjoys even at present the
fruit of his labour: inward peace and joy, and a hope full of
immortality.--_Edward Cooper._
_The Principle of the Spiritual Harvest._
+I. The principle is this, "God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap."+--There are two kinds of good
possible to men--one enjoyed by our animal being, the other felt and
appreciated by our spirits. Reap _what_ you have sown. If you sow the
wind, do not complain if your harvest is the whirlwind. If you sow to
the Spirit, be content with a spiritual reward, invisible, within,
more life and higher life.
+II. The two branches of the application of this
principle.+--1. Sowing to the flesh includes those who live in open
riot. 2. Those who live in respectable worldliness. 3. Sowing to the
Spirit, the harvest is life eternal. 4. The reward is not arbitrary
but natural. The thing reaped is the very thing sown, multiplied a
hundredfold. You have sown a seed of life, you reap life
everlasting.--_F. W. Robertson._
Ver. 7. _Sowing and Reaping in their bearing on the Formation of
Individual Character._--There are three plots in which every man is
perpetually engaged in sowing and reaping--in the plot of his
thoughts, in the plot of his words, and in the plot of his deeds. And
there is a storehouse into which the harvests from these three plots
are being secretly but unmistakably garnered--the storehouse of
individual character. The moral condition of the man to-day is the
inevitable result of his thoughts, words, and deeds; his selfhood is
rich or poor according to his sowing and reaping in these respective
fields.
+I. Whatever a man sows in thought that will he also reap in the
formation, tone, and tendency of his intellectual and moral
nature.+--1. _Vain thoughts._ If we indolently sport with vain and
foolish thoughts, they will inevitably produce a crop of the same
kind. The mind will be garnished with flimsy and unprofitable
fancies, inflated with a too conscious self-importance, and the
outcome is heard in "the loud laugh that proclaims the vacant mind,"
and seen in the pompous swagger of the intellectual fop (Prov.
xiii. 16; Ps. xciv. 11).
2. _Proud thoughts._--The man dominated by pride is the most pitiable
of objects. His pride of birth will not bear investigation into three
generations, his pride of social status is snubbed in a way that
leaves a wound that never heals, his pride of wealth smitten down by
an unexpected turn of the ever-revolving wheel of fortune, and his
pride of life withered by the passing breath of the great Destroyer.
But he reaps what he sowed. He sowed the dragon's teeth of proud and
boastful thoughts, and the monster grew up and devoured him (Prov.
xvi. 18).
3. _Thoughts of sinful pleasure._--If we allow the mind to dream of
pleasures that are forbidden, the bloom of innocence is rubbed off
never to be again replaced, the conscience is outraged till its voice
is muffled and but feebly heard, one vile thought indulged breeds
another that is viler still, and the moral atmosphere of the soul is
poisoned. What he sows he reaps.
4. _Good thoughts._--The mind that aims at the loftiest style of
thought, declining to tolerate the presence of a debasing sentiment,
that keeps in check the wild and savage brood of evil thoughts ever
seeking to overrun and defile the mind, that cultivates a chaste
imagination and cherishes the exalted and unselfish charity that
"thinketh no evil"--reaps the result in an accession of intellectual
vigour, in the creation of a nobler standard by which to judge of men
and things, in the unbounded raptures of a refined and fertile
imagination, and in the increase of power for doing the highest kind
of work for God and humanity.
+II. Whatsoever a man sows in words that shall he also
reap.+--1. _Bitter and rancorous words._ If a man studies how much of
spiteful venom he can pack into a single sentence, how he can most
skilfully whet and sharpen the edge of his words so as to make the
deepest wound and raise the most violent storm of irritation and
ill-feeling, unalterable as the course of nature the harvest is sure
to come. "Our unkind words come home to roost." The man offensive
with his tongue is the devil's bellows with which he blows up the
sparks of contention and strife, and showers of the fiery embers are
sure to fall back upon himself to scathe and destroy.
2. _False words._--If we deliberately and maliciously concoct a lie,
and utter the same with whispered humbleness and hypocritical
commiseration, as sure as there is justice in the heavens, the lie
will come back with terrific recompense upon the head of the
originator.
3. _Kind and loving words._--If we speak in the kindest spirit of
others, especially in their absence, if we stand up for a friend
unjustly maligned and defend him with dignity and faithfulness, if we
study to avoid words which cannot but grieve and irritate, then as we
have sown so shall we reap--reap the tranquil satisfaction of
conscious inoffensiveness, and, best of all, the Divine approval.
"Heaven in sunshine will requite the kind."
+III. Whatsoever a man sows in deeds that shall he also
reap.+--1. _Cruel deeds._ If we take a savage delight in torturing
beast or bird or insect, if we plot how we can inflict the most
exquisite pain on our fellow-man, if we make sport of the anguish and
distress of others which we make no effort to relieve, we shall
inevitably reap the harvest--reap it in the embruting and degradation
of our finer sensibilities, reap it in the tempest of rebellion and
retaliation which those we outraged will launch upon us.
2. _Selfish deeds._--If we live for our own selfish gratification,
indifferent to the rights and woes of others; if we surrender
ourselves to a covetous spirit, living poor that we may die rich--as
we sow we reap. The thing we lived to enjoy ceases to gratify, and
our noblest sentiments are buried amid the rubbish of our own
sordidness.
3. _Generous and noble deeds._--If we aim at the elevation of
ourselves and others, if we seek to act on the highest level of
righteousness and truth, if we are diligent, unwearied, and
persistent in well-doing, then in due season we shall reap the
harvest--reap it in a heightened and expansive nobility of character,
in an intensified influence and enlarged capacity for doing good, and
in the eternal enrichment of the Divine plaudit, "Well done."
_Be not Deceived._--This phrase occurs several times as preface to
warning, seeming to indicate thus that the subject of the warning is
one about which we are specially liable to deception, and upon
examination we find that observation justifies the presumption. We
are thus guarded against any deception as to the following important
practical truths:--
+I. The contaminating influence of evil associations+ (1 Cor.
xv. 33).
+II. The personal responsibility of each for his own sin+ (Jas.
i. 16).
+III. Entrance into heaven conditioned on character+ (1 Cor.
vi. 9).
+IV. Human destiny, once settled, irreversible+ (Gal.
vi. 7).--_British and Foreign Evangelical Review._