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Chosen no: SM-184 , from: 1911 Year. |
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God Preparing For The Harvest
[Given
in Glasgow, October 29, 1911]
"Of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto
you, for yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so cometh as a
thief in the night; for when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they
shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that Day should
overtake you as a thief; ye are children of the light."—1Th 5:1-5.
The common tendency of the human
mind is expressed by St. Peter, who prophesies of the present time that the
worldly will be saying, "Where is the promise of His presence!...All
things continue as they were from the foundation of the world." Ignorance
of God’s Plan is to be expected of the world, but the true people of God have
the promise of His special instruction so that they need not be in darkness
respecting the Divine Program.
Our world for six thousand years has been the battle field between the forces
of light and darkness, truth and error, righteousness and sin; the Prince of
Darkness, otherwise styled the "Prince of this world," has led his
forces in person, and has controlled the masses and is still controlling them.
The Prince of Light is represented in a feeble way by ambassadors who are
specially cautioned by Him that they must not use carnal weapons nor carnal
methods, but must in meekness correct those who oppose them. They must be
subject to "the powers that be" to the extent that their consciences
will permit, and so far as possible live peaceably with all men.—Ro 12:18.
This experience of subjection to the powers of evil has been a hard lesson,
difficult to learn; a trial of faith as well as of endurance, the value of
which has been difficult sometimes to appreciate. But these must walk by faith
and not by sight if they would please the Captain of
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their salvation. For centuries the prayer has gone up to God from their hearts,
"How long, O Lord!" Reason assures them that it cannot be the Divine
purpose to forever permit the victory of sin and death.—Re 6:10.
PLOWING, SOWING, REAPING
God represents Himself as a great Husbandman.
Each Age is a "season" and bears its own crop. Each Age has its own
time for the plowing of the field, the sowing of the good seed, and the harvest
work. As Bible students we have already noted the work accomplished in the Age
which ended with the Flood, the different work accomplished during the
Patriarchal Age, and the still different work accomplished during the Jewish
Age, which lasted from the death of Jacob, and particularly from the giving of
the Law, down to the death of Jesus.
Our Lord’s ministry of three and a half years was a harvest time to the Jewish
people in the close of their Age in favor or "day of visitation." He
said to His disciples, "I send you forth to reap that whereon ye bestowed
no labor; other men labored and ye are entered into their labors." (#Joh
4:38.) The plowing and sowing connected with the Jewish Dispensation was in the
far past. The Egyptian bondage served to do a plowing work as also Israel’s escape from that bondage and the forty
years of wandering in the wilderness before they reached Canaan.
The giving of the Law and the establishment of them as a people, the lessons of
their sacrifices, and the exhortation of their Prophets, all constituted a
seed-sowing, harrowing and cultivating experience.
In the end of their Age Jesus gathered the ripe fruitage of that
experience—those sanctified thereby and developed in character and obedience to
God.
The crop gathered by our Lord and the Apostles in the Jewish harvest numbered
thousands. These were gathered out of Judaism and from under the Law Covenant
into Christianity—gathered under a covenant applying
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only to the "Church which is the Body of Christ."
This covenant, under which they became associated with Messiah, reads,
"Gather together My saints [holy ones] unto Me," saith the Lord,
"those who have made a Covenant with Me by sacrifice." (Ps 50:5.) All
coming thus into relationship to Jehovah as members of the Body of Messiah came
by way of the cross—through a recognition of their own imperfection, and of
Jesus and His sacrifice as the satisfaction for their sins, a covering for
their blemishes, by which alone their sacrifices were rendered "holy and
acceptable to God."—Ro 12:1.
SOWING FOLLOWS REAPING
The reaping work of the Jewish Age merged into the sowing work of the Gospel
Age as the invitation to become joint-sacrificers with Jesus was extended to
those having hearing ears amongst nations aside from the Jews. For eighteen
centuries this sowing work, with "harrowing" experiences and various
cultivations, has been in progress. Now in turn we have arrived at the harvest
of this Gospel Age—the reaping time, the time of gathering into the
garner—beyond the veil—by the power of the First Resurrection.
"None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand"
(Da 12:10), is the Lord’s declaration.
Our text declares that "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness" respecting
this time. This implies either that the brethren are very few or that a
considerable number of them have not yet become sufficiently awake to a
discernment of the times and seasons in which we are living.
Many of the brethren and many of the world and many of the "wicked"
do realize that we are living in strange times and under peculiar conditions.
These try to persuade themselves, however, that what we see today is merely a
recurrence of what has repeated itself time and again during the past
centuries. Thus they lull themselves, saying, "Peace and safety!"—1Th
5:3.
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This attitude is what the Scriptures foretold, "When they shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." It is only "ye,
brethren," who are privileged to have the clearer light respecting present
and future conditions. We know that we are in the Harvest time of this Age—the
reckoning time—the testing time—the time when the "wheat" is to be
gathered into the Heavenly "garner" the time when the field is to be
cleared of all "tares" in a fiery trouble—the time when the plowshare
of trouble will be run through the world of mankind to prepare the whole world
for the New Dispensation just about to begin.
THE PLOWMAN OVERTAKES THE REAPER
Illustrating the Divine methods and the rapid following of events in the Divine
Program, the Lord through the Prophet tells us that "the plowman will
overtake the reaper." (Am 9:13.) So accurately timed is every feature of
the Divine Plan that part fits to part and work to work closely. The Harvest of
the present time is the gathering of the fruitage of this Gospel Age—the
gathering of "the Church of the First-borns, whose names are written in
Heaven"—those who have made a covenant with Jehovah by sacrifice.
The Head of the saintly Messiah, developed and glorified eighteen centuries
ago, is Jesus. The members of the Body of this Messiah have been gathered from
every nation, first from the Jews and then from all nations.
God’s call and selection of saintly sacrificers in this Gospel Age ignore all
sectarian, all denominational, all national lines—"The Lord knoweth them
that are His."
The winds of violence, "the powers of the air," which will shortly be
loosed, and which will produce the terrific "storm," are being held
back until the sealing of God’s servants in their foreheads shall have been
accomplished.
This sealing in the forehead implies an intellectual appreciation of Heavenly
things, and is intimately associated with the Harvest work—the sealed are the
ripe wheat
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shall have been accomplished the winds of strife and trouble will be let loose
according to the Master’s declaration, and the result will be a "Time of
Trouble such as never was since there was a nation"—no, nor ever shall be
the like again. The awful lessons which will then be learned by humanity will
be sufficient for all time. The strife, the hatred, the malignity, the anarchy
of that day of trouble are depicted in various places in the Word of God.—Re
7:1; Mt 24:21; Ps 46:8-10.
The trouble time impending is indeed declared to be a time of Divine wrath, and
we must not lose sight of that feature of it. Divine Justice has indignation
against inequity and selfishness in general, for selfishness is but another
name for sin. All sin is selfish, and all selfishness is sin. The captains of
industry, the captains of education, and captains of wealth have today greater
opportunities and therefore greater responsibilities than the kings of the
earth for their dealings with their fellowmen.
Similarly, there are leaders of the people, presidents and secretaries of
unions, etc., who are also captains, and who also have great responsibility.
All perceive that the world of humanity is rapidly nearing a crisis. The almost
miraculous opening of the eyes of understanding which God has recently granted
has brought to the world mechanical inventions and chemical processes which are
making the world rich with amazing rapidity.
Although these blessings are in considerable measure reaching the masses of
mankind and uplifting all to a higher plane of comfort, nevertheless general
education has opened the eyes of human understanding correspondingly.
"The common people" are looking with amazement at the luxury of the
rich as the barbarians of old looked upon the much lesser splendors of Rome. They are covetous,
they are hungry for what they term their "share" of the bounties
being dispensed by Providence
with so lavish a hand.
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Even if the vast increase of wealth through machinery, chemistry, etc., were to
be evenly distributed we doubt if it would satisfy these new-born minds.
TWO POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
There seem to be two possible solutions: (1) To convert all of the wealthy into
saints, whose pleasure it would be to administer the flood of wealth now
rolling in upon them for the general blessing of mankind, along the most
benevolent lines imaginable; or (2) To convert into saints the masses of
mankind and so imbue them with Heavenly hopes and prospects that they would not
particularly care for earthly good things nor crave them, but rather rejoice to
be "the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the Heavenly
Kingdom."—Jas 2:5.
We confess that neither solution seems to be practicable.
We cannot believe that either can be accomplished; hence we must believe what
the Bible teaches, that an awful conflict is about to be precipitated between
these two classes, because neither one nor the other can be fully converted to
the Lord’s way. How glad we are that the Bible shows that the culmination of
the conflict will bring everlasting peace a just, loving, equitable and
satisfactory adjustment of earth’s affairs, under Messiah’s glorious Reign of a
thousand years!
THE DIVINE ARRANGEMENT
Someone may ask, Would not these same difficulties beset any new government
which Messiah or others might institute? Will not the element of selfishness
forever persist in the human heart, and will not this imply that to all
eternity there will be a strife of selfish interests?
We answer, No. The Divine Plan solves the problem perfectly. Jesus has
demonstrated His unselfishness as respects earthly things. His laying down of
His life not only proved His loyalty to righteousness and to the Father’s will,
but proved also His unselfishness—His
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love—"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his
life for his friends."—#Joh 15:13.
This friend of humanity is to be the great King of the world in the New
Dispensation, and His associates in the Kingdom, the Bride class, are to be
such only as have His spirit and disposition of obedience to the Father’s
will—self-sacrifice and love for fellowman—unselfish love. Under present
conditions these may not always be known, nor their true character and
unselfishness be discerned, because they have the treasure in "earthen
vessels," which do not always fully present their true benevolence of
heart.—2Co 4:7.
The Divine provision is that such of these as shall demonstrate their
unselfishness of heart and loyalty to the Lord shall be given new bodies in the
resurrection—"sown in weakness, they will be raised in power; sown in
dishonor, raised in glory; sown an animal body," with Adamic weaknesses and
fleshly imperfections, they will be raised spirit bodies—perfect, complete,
lacking nothing. —1Co 15:42-44.
These, in association with their Redeemer, will constitute the Kingdom class
which is to rule the world for a thousand years under the Headship of Jesus.
Surely, we can trust these, we can have confidence in them. The fact that God
has elected them, and that He is pleased to give over to them the rulership of
the world for a thousand years testifies beyond peradventure their worthiness
and capability.
That Government will not be a republic, but a monarchy, a theocracy, a Divine Kingdom.
Christ and His Bride will be the King and Queen of the New Dispensation,
supplanting Satan and the fallen angels, who for centuries have been in
control. The Kingdom
of God will be as
invisible as the kingdom of darkness has been. It will operate through human
agencies, as does the other.
But even its human agents have been provided. The Scriptures inform us that the
worthy ones of the Jewish
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Dispensation and before, will be the Princes in all the earth who will
represent Messiah’s Kingdom amongst men. Not only so, but they will be perfect
men, made so by participation in the "resurrection of life." How
grand the prospect!—Psa. 45:l6.
The Time of Trouble, although it will be awful, will be short, as typed in the
terrible trouble which came upon the Jewish nation following the harvest work
of their Age. Then will come the leveling process, which in the Divine order
will prove to be a blessing to everybody.
In other words, the socialists and anarchists are not so far from a correct
conception of what must ultimately prevail, but they are far astray respecting
the methods by which it will be obtained. Their attempt to grasp the rudder of
the world’s affairs shows an utter lack of appreciation of the mighty
influences with which they seek to contend. Their efforts will merely
precipitate upon themselves and upon others the terrible trouble which the
Scriptures foretell.
God’s people are distinctly warned
that they must keep hands off, must not interfere with the powers that be—their
reliance must be upon the Lord and not in the use of carnal weapons. St. James,
writing on this subject, declares the coming trouble and tells that it will be
specially severe upon the rich: "Go to now, ye rich men; weep and howl for
your miseries that shall come upon you." (Jas 5:1-7.) No doubt the
troubles will be equally upon the poor; but to them they will seem less severe
since they have been accustomed to less. To God’s people is the message,
"Be patient, brethren, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh";
"Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord." (Zep 3:8.) "Seek meekness,
seek righteousness, it may be that ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s
anger."—Zep 2:3.
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