Evening star., 1912-11-09

by night will bear to our uuickened
senses enough of human need to make
the next day time of toll and service
that will tax our every moment. The
shrill cry of the sick and wakeful child.
whose tired mother needs comfort !;
the uncertain step of the drunkard. who
needs so much to know of One who is
able to save him from the bondage of
his sin: the noisy progress of the am
bulance, passing on its way to bear some
sufferer to the house of pain-all of these
are but reminders of the truth that the
field for our reaping lies close at hand
In the Scriptures given us today Jesus
sets forth two truths concerning THE
Insathered Harvest st''-truths that should
not only open eyes to present Oppor-
tunty. but also give the key 10 the Sc
cret of preparation for the present task
j. THE VISION OF UNGARNERED FIELDS.
1t is to a word full of disciples prone
to think of the harvests of life as far
in the future that the Master speaks.
Say not We. there are yet four months
and then cometh the harvest?' behold |
say unto you lift up your eyes and look
on the fields: for they are white already
unto the harvest, He would not have
us confuse fields of grain groves Of
fig and olive. which depend upon seasons
for their deveiopement. with the larger
field of human need, whose seasons are
the suns and whose time of opportunity
IS now, No. He would have us catch
the vision OF our home fields. wide. in
to put forth the ready sickle, garnering
souls for Him and heaven.
II. THE CHRIST GIVEN FORMULA oE SIC
CESSFUL REAPING.
As the Master stands before the throng
which, Like sheep without shepherd
surges back and forth around Him and
His disciples. He is moved with COM
passion bat with divine insight, not
only into the worlds need. but also into
the disciples lack or readiness for the
task. He turns to them and cries THE
harvest truly is plenteous. but the labor
ers are few, pray We therefore the Lord
of the harvest. that He win send forth
aborers into His harvestr
1t is not enough that fields be ripe and
waiting; it is not sufficient that we have
recognized the need of teilers there: it is
not vision alone that makes for success in
any field of endeaNor: along with vision
there must go equipment for the work.
and the greatest factor in any spiritual
prepa ration is always prayer. Hence Je-
sus gives prayer as the first step toward
successful effort.
But the Master goes farther than a
mere command to pray. He recognizes,
and would ave every disciple recognize
the fact that the harvest is Gods harvest
and not ours hence our prayer must be
that He will send forth laborers into
His harvest" This. then, is the Christ
given formula: Pray that He will send
But if anything at all is Indicated in
this wonderful analysis, it Is thiS-that
God will most likely send as reapers those
who seem most anxious and prayerful
about the harvest, and also that those
who most clearly have the vision of un-
gafnered fields are also the most likely
to be anxious and prayerful about those
fields.
There is a strange romantic charm
about the call to foreign mission fields.
'Greenland's icy mountain and India $
coral strand lure with their bracing rigor
or spicy breeze, but 20 those who long to
see His Kingdom come there is no field
like that which spreads before our very
feet. white to the harvest And he VII
do well TO follow Him who never left His
little native land but wrought the world S
redemption and leavened the world S
thought through humble mnis.rations
close to home.