SEED-TIME AND HARVEST by W. T. Bartlett

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 5, 1902

SEED-TIME AND HARVEST.

By W. T. Bartlett

The first coming of our Saviour can not be understood apart from His second, and in order to know what the Scriptures teach about the second coming, it is necessary to study not merely the prophecies that foretell it, but also all that relates to the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

For it is “this same Jesus” who shall come again. His first coming was the sowing of the seed. His second will be the gathering of the harvest. If we would learn what any harvest will be like, we must consider the seed, for whatsoever is sown is that which will be reaped.

At the Lord’s return there will be a mighty resurrection of the sleeping saints, and the church of Christ has always been deeply interested in this mystery; but what can we know of the resurrection, except as we find it in Him who said, “I am the resurrection”? We must know the power of the resurrection before we ever attain to it. Phil. 3:10, 11.

The voice of Christ is to call men from the dust of thousands of years; but only those to whom the voice has come before as a living, quickening call will hear it then, and rise from their graves. Others will be deaf to it, and remain in death another thousand years. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” Rev. 20:6.

The seed that was sown nineteen hundred years ago was a life of perfect truth, of undying hope in God. It was sown in a dry ground; but heaven supplied what earth could not, and men beheld a glory as of God’s only-begotten Child, the fairest plant that ever blossomed in this world. Truths that had seemed hard and lifeless took on new forms of beauty and blessing, as they appeared in the humble life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Some hated the purity of the life; but others were won by it, and as they sought its companionship day by day, and learned to love it, God’s angels planted in their own hearts the same seed. It grew in them as it grew in their Lord, winning still others. Thus the seed was sown.

Through the centuries the work has gone on, sometimes menaced by malignant persecution, sometimes endangered by crafty snares; now denounced, then counterfeited; but the apostolic succession runs on in a line of faithful souls that receive truth, deal truly with it, and hold it fast. All have come in close contact with Jesus, received His Spirit, and manifested it in their lives.

The harvest is close at hand. Those who, through good report and evil report, have kept their eyes fixed upon Jesus, and beholding have been changed, will not remove their gaze when He appears in person. Some will then seek to be hidden from His face; but His people have learned that in looking to Him there is salvation (Isa. 45:22), and when they see Him as He is, they find in that look everlasting salvation from all that is unlike Him. If we would become like Him in that hour, we must learn now to see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2.

What a glorious harvest it will be when the great multitude that no man can number is gathered home, and in every one is found the reproduction of the single seed that was sown so long ago in Nazareth. The first and second advents can not be separated; for they are parts of one life, and no man will ever know the glory of the kingdom who does not first tread with Christ the pathway of self-denial. In the fellowship of His sufferings is the only lively hope of a place on His throne; for if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him. Men do not know anything about the second coming of Christ, except as they learn it by the Word made flesh. W. T. BARTLETT.