The Work at Home and Abroad
St. Helena, California,
August 7, 1902
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?
behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for
they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages,
and gathered fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he
that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One
soweth, and another reapeth.”
John 4:35-37
.
After sowing the seed, the husbandman is compelled to wait for
months for it to germinate and develop into grain ready to be harvested.
But in sowing it he is encouraged by the expectation of fruit in the
future. His labor is lightened with the hope of good returns in the time
of reaping.
Not so with the seeds of truth sown by Christ in the mind of the
Samaritan woman during His conversation with her at the well. The
harvest of His seed sowing was not remote, but immediate. Scarcely
were His words spoken, before the seed thus sown sprang up and
produced fruit, awakening her understanding, and enabling her to
know that she had been conversing with the Lord Jesus Christ. She
let the rays of divine light shine into her heart. Forgetting her water
pitcher, she hastened away to communicate the good news to her
Samaritan brethren. “Come,” she said, “see a man, which told me all
the things that ever I did.”
Verse 29
. And they came out at once to see
Him. It was then that He likened the souls of these Samaritans to a
field of grain. “Lift up your eyes,” He said to His disciples, and look
on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”
“So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they besought
Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two days.”
[31]
And what busy days these were! What is the record of the result?
“And many more believed because of His own word; and said unto the
woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard
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