The Lesser Parables of Our Lord, and Lessons of Grace in the Language of Nature (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1884. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE HARVEST FIELD AND THE HARVEST LABOURERS. "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."--. Matt. be. 37. 38. PART FIRST. THE HARVEST FIELD. EVERAL distinct aspects of Christ's kingdom are represented in the gospel under the figure of grain, in its growing, ripening, and ingathering. One view is set forth in the parable of the sower, another in the parable of the tares, and another in the separation of the chaff from the wheat; but the conception here is essentially different from all these. The harvest in this similitude springs not from the seed of the word, but from the root of human nature. The field is the world, and mankind the crop that covers all its breadth. The portions that are safely gathered represent the redeemed of the Lord; and the portions that drop over-ripe and rot on the ground represent those who perish in their sins. This field is--1. Precious, in the very fact that it is a harvest-field. Men, created at first in God's image, and capable yet, when redeemed, of living in his presence for ever, are the fruit which this world bears--the fruit for the sake of which (763) 3 this world was made. If you ask a farmer what has been the produce of a certain field, he will not in reply enumerate roots, stalks, husks, and grain; he will answer, in one word, wheat; the other portions of the plant are valuable, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the grain which they bear. Thus the various vegetable and animal products of the earth are the stalks that support humanity; and humanity is the true fruit, for the sake of which our Father, the husbandman, cultivates his field. The conclusion of philosophy, reached through an examination...