SOWING AND REAPING by Hattie M. Rose

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 24, 1878

SOWING AND REAPING.

By Hattie M. Rose

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Ps. 126: 5, 6.

As I read this text not long ago, the thought came into my mind, How disproportioned is the sowing to the reaping; a few baskets of seed are sown, and many wagons groan beneath the rich sheaves of the harvest. This may be a type of the disproportion between life’s sorrowful sowing and Heaven’s joyful reaping-time; yet while sorrows are comparatively light, they may seem to be very heavy. We call the seed basket light compared with the harvest burden; yet it may have been a wearisome load to the man who carried it.

The glory of our Bible is, that while it tells truths relating to eternity which should take away much of the bitterness of time’s sorrows, it owns tenderly and fully how bitter these sorrows are. It calls them not joyous, but grievous; it contains prayer for the oppressed, the overwhelmed; it tells of One who is afflicted in all our afflictions. Surely the Bible meets every want of our hearts. He whose Spirit dictated it knows us. We need not fear to trust him; for he promises that those who love him and keep his commandments shall receive eternal life.

MRS. HATTIE M. ROSE.