^ Of course the world is growing better ; the Lord reigns ; our old planet is wheeling siowly into full«r li^t I despair of
1 J. A. Hutton, The Few of Things, 184. ' R. a Trench, Pomis, 147.
462 WEARINESS IN WELL-DOING
nothing good. All will come in due time that is really needed. All we have to do is to work — and wait.^
^ I do not make much of " Progress of the Species," as handled in these times of ours ; nor do I think you would care to hear much about it. The talk on that subject is too often of the most extravagant, confused sort. Yet I may say, the fact itself seems certain enough ; nay we can trace-out the inevitable necessity of it in the nature of things.*
n.
An Encouraging Peomtse.
"We shall reap, if we faint not."
1. The certainty of reaping. — We feel that nothing less than such a declaration is necessary, in order to raise us above so much that sometimes makes true Christian well-doing morally impossible. But this declaration, grasped as a special word of God by the hand often so worn and weary, is also perfectly sufficient, in spite of all that threatens or oppresses us, to make us " stedfast, unmove- able, always abounding in the work of the Lord." The good, much or little, which in God's name and power we are permitted to accomplish here, what is it else than sowing ? and can that sowing ever be too much, when we can reckon on an abundant and joyful harvest ? Yes, reckon ; for the word of God, which lies before us, is faithful and worthy of all acceptation. The farmer sows with quiet industry, although his prospect of the joy of harvest is far from certain. When but a few days divide the grain from the sickle, the tempest or the hail-shower may suddenly annihilate his fairest hopes. But the labourer for the Kingdom of God not only hopes, but is assured through faith that his harvest is perfectly guaranteed through the power and faithfulness of the Lord.
There is a true but somewhat disheartening word, that one sows and another reaps. We sow and our successors reap. This is well, but it is not the whole. We shall reap ; we shall discover one day that all the good seed we have sown has sprung, and our one sorrow will be that we did not sow more diligently. As for
» J. G. Whittier, in Life, by S. T. Piokard, ii. S7». ■ Oarlyle, Herots and Hero- Worship.
GAL. VI. 9 463
the apparent frustration and delay, we shall look back in the world to come along the track of tears, and see the rainbow of God upon it, and perceive that by these disappointments and defeats He was interpreting to us all the while the wonder of the secret life.
*j| Some of us have learned what it means to continue in well- doing without weariness, but we have not learned along with that to look for the harvest. We think that lesson has been forced upon us. Our patient continuance in well-doing has gained us no praise, our service of love has been requited by indifference, or even persecution, by those on whom it has been lavished. " That is the harvest of well-doing," we say, with perhaps a touch of bitterness. " If we are to continue in it, it will not be in the hope of harvest, but solely for the sake of the well-doing itself." " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? " asked our Master. Nay, verily ! And neither shall we gather thorns of grapes. The fruit of patience is not disappointment ; the result of endurance in well-doing is not bitterness ; the harvest of love is not pain. Foolish and faithless that we are ! God and nature never brought forth such a harvest from such seed. The harvest of well-doing is the harvest of the realization of our highest hopes, a harvest of pure and never-failing joy, a harvest of all-satisfying love. In due season, for the seasons haste not nor lag for all our impatience, we shall reap that harvest if we faint not.^
^ A joiner takes two pieces of wood, and with infinite care glues them in position. But unless he follows up his perseverance with patience, his working with waiting, he will make a sorry cabinet. The husbandman tends his vine, pruning and purging it day after day as he alone knows how. But unless he " waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it," he will never cut one luscious bunch of grapes. A sculptor moulds his clay ; day and night he toils strenuously and hard. But before his dream is realized, days of waiting for that clay to harden must follow nights of working at that clay to shapen. A small group of politicians, amongst whom was "William Pitt, were busy in con- versation, when somehow or other the subject of their talk turned, and a discussion arose as to which was the quality most needed in a Prime Minister. " Eloquence," said one ; " Knowledge," sug- gested another ; " Toil," was the opinion of a third. " No," said Pitt, who had learned from experience, " it is patience." Carpenter, farmer, sculptor, minister : to join wood, to grow grapes, to mould a statue, to govern a country — if patience is a great essential with