The record-union., 1891-04-19

reap just what he sows. He turns
toward the light, and his reward is that
he receives more light; towards purity,
and there comes deeper love for it: love
and joy, more love and joyfulness.
" Blessed are the pure in heart, and why?
Oh, God, wilt thou give to them houses
and lands and great possessions? No,
better than that, for what have these ma
terial things to do with the history of
souR No, but their vision shall be en-
larged so that they shall see more of God
and know more of heaven!
But a man can never reap this unless
he sows it. HE that soweth to the flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he
that soweth to the spirit, shall of the
spirit reap life everlasting" ''Whatso-
ever man soweth that same shall he
also reapr' Then again the harvest
reaped is many fold greater than the seed
which is planted. a single thistle-down
was blown from vessel upon one of the
South Sea islands. That was the seed I
How about the harvest? That single
thistle-down in course of time covered
with full-grown thiStles the whole island
And so with ourSelveS-we SOW the
wind but we reap the whirlwind. If
everyone, when they are about to commit
sin, could only pause and say: ''It will
not end here, it is thistle-down which
III the far-oh years is TO cover my whole
moral nature" do you suppose he would
need to think twice before turning and
t1eeing as from a poisonous miasma?
1t is the first seed that counts. When
we begin in certain direction, there
comes fascination about it making us
eager to do it again and again until we
form a habit-and habits become fixtures.
Take any of the overt sins, drinking,
lying, Sabbath breaking or licentious-
ness. L think it would be great deal
easier TO find man who had never COM
mitted these sins willfully at all, than the
man who had only committed them once
we can easily understand how Peter de-
MED his Lord, not once, but after he had
begun. twice and thrice! For gradually
these sins multiply and multiply until at
last, unless we turn in time, as Peter did
they become like the Shiny tangle of the
seaweed in which the swimmer once
caught, must drown, for there is no help
to reach him, and his ENHANCEMENT be-
comes greater than his powers of resist
ance.
Then, on the other hand, this is Just as
true when we choose the good and do it,!
Those women who sat in a doorway of a
street in the village town of Bedford, lit
tie knew that in that halt-drunken profit
gate who lounged near by them, there
was John Bunyan overhearing their pi-
GUS conversation. But there was. They
knew not that they We're turning into the
way Of new life the man who should
write the Pilgrims Progress: that book
which next to the Bible has been the
most read of any book ever published!
How small the seed-how great the har-
vest! 4 soldier in the Crimea singing a gos-
pei hymn alone in the silent starlight, did
not know that he was putting a new hope
into the heart of a fellow soldier on his
way to commit suicide; but he did it!
And that which is true in its influence
upon the lives of others, is true again in
its influence upon ourselves.
There IS not drunkard-there is not a
sensualist who in his old age, when he is
able to look back and realize the penalty
he has to pay, will tell you that his sinful
pleasure was worth more to him than the
price he paid for it. There are men in
this city, who if you would only approach
them in sober moments would preach to
you thousand times more impressiveIy
that can the pulpit, the sad truth that the
harvest is so much greater than the seed
which is sown-that God cannot be
mocked-and when we come to look be-
yOnd into the eXistencewhich is to follow
this fieeting preparation.
How overwhelming is the thought that
men and women are deliberately putting
out of their own hands the power of de-
termining their own fate and futurel For
according to the laws of nature, and our
moral constitution, the harvest is a final
ity. 1t is possible; we see it every day,
for men to put off the sowing of good
seed until the seeding-time is over, and
| they can only reap or realize their own
barrenneSS.
How many men there are, for example,
| who would gladly go back to their youth
and SOW there the seeds of cultured
| manhood. They did not realize their OPP
portunity then, and they sowed instead