Seeding the earthly fields to get seed for the heavenly fields.
See the farmer. The ground is provided for him and prepared for him. He cannot alter his surroundings and conditions. His chief aim is good seeding, and for the sake of the seed he wants he is anxious to secure good flowers. His harvest is largely, and ideally it is altogether, a gathering of seed for next year's sowing. We are familiar with the idea that the present life is our sowing time, and the next life our harvest time. But this view is less familiar. The present life is the growing and the preparing of the seeds which are to be sown in the fields of the next life. Every plant has this for its object, to seed the fields next year.
I. OUR EARTH LIFE IS THE HARVEST FIELD IN WHICH WE BOTH SOW AND REAP. The field is prepared for us. We cannot choose or make our own particular place and work. Our age, family, nation, circumstances, abilities, and disabilities are all arranged for us. What we have to do is to sow our own particular field, and exactly what we sow we shall reap, a fulness of the same thing. Youth is the time of sowing; early manhood is the time of growing. The full maturity of life is our reaping time. The man in middle life has attained the character which is the seed-result of the spring sowing and the summer growing. He will not be very different as long as he lives.
II. THE HARVEST OF THIS LIFE PROVIDES THE SEED CORN FOR THE NEXT LIFE. Remember, every plant is working for next year. The flower or the fruit of this year is not its end; the seed is its end. And cultured, finished, high-toned, spiritual character is the seed which we are to have ready for the next harvest field. The eternal ages may prove to be successions of harvest fields, in which, like the plants, we shall be ever sowing and maturing for the next age's seeding; ever trying to secure better, worthier, character seeds.
III. THERE IS MUCH TO BE DONE WITH THE SEED CORN, WHEN IT IS MATURE, BEFORE IT IS ALTOGETHER FIT FOR THE NEXT YEAR'S SOWING. It seems as if a piece of life were left out, and we ended it with manhood. But there is a space between full manhood and decay. That piece of life should be the weathering, winnowing, cleansing of the seed corn character, ready for the eternal fields. Weathering, or exposing to the sun and wind of prosperity. Winnowing, or getting rid of the useless by adversity. Cleansing, or getting free from the mischievous by culture. Fully ripe and well prepared, God bears us off to seed his eternal fields.—R.T.