II. In reference to the comparison with which it is illustrated —
This Apostle seems particularly to affect easy and familiar illustrations. The whole epistle abounds with them. He compares certain hearers of the word to persons beholding themselves in a glass, and then forgetting what manner of persons they were. Those who have a dead and unproductive faith he compares to persons who speak kind words to an indigent brother or sister without relieving their ne- cessities. Those who govern not their tongue he reproves, by contrasting their conduct with horses that obey the bit ; with ships that are turned by a helm ; with beasts, birds, and even fishes of the sea, all of which have "'been tamed by men : and by warning them, that as no fountain can send forth sweet water and bitter, and no tree bear both olives
and
■^ Eph, i. 19, 20. "• Rev. ii. 3. • Rom. ii. 7.
and figs, so they can be no true Christians, whilst such unworthy and inconsistent speeches issue from their mouths. Here in our text he brings to our view the husbandman, whose continued labours and pa- tient expectations form a fit model for the Christian. Him we are called to resemble,
1. In a steady prosecution of the appointed means —
[Many are the discouragements wiiich the husbandman meets with in the cultivation of his ground. Sometimes the weather is untoward : sometimes blights, or insects, or mildew, injure his crops : sometimes drought almost destroys all his hopes : but still he goes on from year to year, ploughing his ground, clearing it from weeds, manuring it, casting in his seed, and harrowing it ; and this he does, not knowing for certain that a single grain which he casts into the furrows shall rise again. But he expects nothing without the use of means ; and therefore he does his part ; and that too as re- gularly and diligently as if every thing depended on himself. He well knows that God alone can give rain, or cause the sun to shine, or give power to the seed which he has sown to spring up : but still he labours, that he may not fail through any neglect of his own.
Now in this he is a pattern for all Christians. They have their work to do. True, they cannot insure success : but they know that it is in the use, and not in the neglect, of the appointed means, that God will bless them : and therefore they are labouring as assiduously as as if every thing depended on themselves. Behold them in secret : they read the Scrip- tures with diligence : they pray over them with earnestness : they set themselves to mortify their evil propensities, and to fulfil their duties both to God and man. Observe them at all times, and you will see, that they are in earnest for heaven. When you go into the fields, and see the husbandman plough- ing, manuring, sowing, harrowing, weeding his ground, you will never hesitate a moment to say, that he has the harvest in view. So, see the Christian from day to day, and you will without fail remark, that he has heaven in view, and that he is prepai-ing for a future harvest.]
2. In a patient expectation of the desired end —
[Many months intervene between the seed-time and the
harvest : but the husbandman waits with patience. It is some
time before the seed springs up from under the clods : but he
^waits for it, and for "die former rain," which alone can call
forth its vegetative powers. Its growth is afterwards impeded
by