ls.
The giver of the seed expects that the sower, if he lives to see it
ripening, will reap it joyfully. It is like the joy of harvest to see
the Lord's work prospering under our own hand. The Master seems to chide
the inertness of his servants when he says, "the fields are white
already to harvest." If it were their meat, as it was his, to do the
Father's will, they would bound more quickly into the field, whenever
they saw it whitening.

Some lessons, partly encouraging, partly reproving, which lie in the
parable, but have hitherto been either omitted or only incidentally
touched in the course of exposition, may be now conveniently enumerated
in the close.

1. The work of sowing and the joy of reaping advance simultaneously on
the spiritual field. The labour of the husbandman in the natural sphere
is all and only sowing at one season, all and only reaping at another:
the seed of the word affords a different experience; in the kingdom of
God there is no period of the year when you must not sow, or may not
reap. These two processes are in experience very closely linked
together. They become alternately and reciprocally cause and effect: if
we were not permitted at an early period to reap a little, the work of
sowing would proceed languidly or altogether cease; on the other hand if
we cease to sow, we shall not long continue to reap. When the workmen
are introduced into this circle, it carries them continuously round.

2. In any given spot of the field there may be sowing in spring, and yet
no reaping in harvest. If there is no sowing, there will be no reaping;
but the converse does not hold good; you cannot say, wherever there has
been sowing, it will be followed by a reaping. The seed may be carried
away by wild birds, or wither on stony ground, or be choked by thorns.
"Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation."

3. The growth of the sown seed is secret; secret also is its failure. It
is quite true, there may be grace in the heart of a neighbour unseen,
unsuspected by me; but the heart of my neighbour may be graceless while
I am in its earlier stages ignorant of the fact. The gnawing of a worm
at the root of one plant is for a time as secret as the healthful growth
of another. "Lord, is it I?" I must not too lightly assume either in the
natural or the spiritual husbandry, that everything is prospering that
is out of sight.

4. Though the sower is helpless after he has cast the seed into the
ground, he sho