God gives-we gather: harvest thanksgiving.
I. GOD'S GIFT IN THE HARVEST. God gives:
1. The soil.
2. The seed.
3. The forces which make the seed extract the virtues of the soil.
4. The sunshine, the rain, and the wind, which minister to the growth of the blade, and which ripen the grain.
5. The intelligence which enables us to cultivate the ground, to acquire the art of agriculture (Isaiah 28:26).
II. OUR HUMAN SHARE IN IT. We "gather." There are places where the gathering is all that man has to do; e.g. the bread fruit in the tropics. But usually "gathering" includes more than that—it includes the preparation of the soil, sowing, weeding, watering, etc. To the production of the harvest there goes not a little human thought, skill, labour. Where, then, is—
III. GOD'S GOODNESS IN IT?
1. Our share is very much the smaller.
2. God's gifts are bestowed on us with such ceaseless constancy, never failing through all the ages of human existence, and in spite of the ingratitude, the atheism, or even the idolatry, of the husbandmen.
3. God's requirement of our labour is an instance of Divine goodness, to be added to, not subtracted from, his other loving kindnesses (see supra).