Baptists -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
The joy of harvest generally shows itself by the farmer giving a feast
to his friends and neighbors; and, usually, those who find Christ
express their joy by telling their friends and their neighbors how great
things the Lord hath done for them. The grace of God is communicative. A
man cannot be saved, and always hold his tongue about it; as well look
for dumb choirs in heaven as for a silent church on earth. If a man has
been thirsty, and has come to the living stream, his first impulse will
be to cry, "Ho! every one that thirsteth!" Do you feel the joy of
harvest, the joy that makes you wish that others should share with you?
If so, do not repress the impulse to proclaim your happiness. Speak of
Christ to brothers and sisters, to friends and kinsfolk; and, if the
language be stammering, the message in itself is so important that the
words in which you couch it will be a secondary consideration. Tell it,
tell it out far and wide--that there is a Saviour, that you have found
him, and that his blood can wash away transgression. Tell it every
where; and so the joy of harvest shall spread o'er land and sea, and God
shall be glorified.
We have another joy which is like the joy of harvest. We frequently have
it, too. It is _the joy of answered prayer_. I hope you know what it is
to pray in faith. Some prayer is not worth the words used in presenting
it, because there is no faith mixed with it. "With all thy sacrifices
thou shalt offer salt," and the salt of faith is needful if we would
have our sacrifices accepted. Those who are familiar with the mercy-seat
know that prayer is a reality, and that the doctrine of divine answers
to prayer is no fiction. Sometimes God will delay to answer for wise
reasons; then his children must cry, and cry, and cry again. They are in
the condition of the husbandman who must wait for the precious fruits of
the earth; and when at last the answer to prayer comes, they are then in
the husbandman's position when he receives the harvest. Remember
Hannah's wail and Hannah's word. In the bitterness of her soul she cried
to God, and when her child was given to her she called it "Samuel,"
meaning, "Asked of God;" for, said she, "For this child I prayed." He
was a dear child to her, because he was a child of prayer. Any mercy
that comes to you in answer to prayer will be your Samuel mercy, your
darling mercy. You will say of it, "For this mercy I prayed," and it
will bring the joy of harvest to your spirit. If the Lord desires to
surprise his children he has only to answer their prayers; for the most
of them would be astonished if an answer came to their petitions. I know
how they speak about answers to prayer. They say, "How remarkable! How
wonderful!" as if it were anything remarkable that God should be true,
and that the Most High should keep his promise. Oh for more faith to
rest upon his word! and we should have more of these harvest joys.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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