THE HARVEST by R. S. Owen

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 2, 1879

THE HARVEST.

By R. S. Owen

BY R. S. OWEN.

“Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.” Jer. 51:33.

The harvest time is the season for gathering the fruits of the summer. The farmer sows his seed, and patiently watches the grain as it springs up, clothing the fields with verdure. He expects a rich harvest to repay him for his labor. Harvest comes at last, when the grain is separated from the straw, the chaff, and the tares, and is stored away in the garner. This illustrates God’s work for the salvation of men. Christ plainly teaches this in Matt. 13:38. “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil: the harvest is the end of the world.”

For nearly six thousand years this great field has been growing up to wheat and tares. The weeds have grown rank and tall, and many times have nearly choked out the good seed; but as was said of Babylon just before its destruction, so may it be said of the world to-day: “Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.” Soon will appear upon the white cloud the one to whom it will be said, “Thrust in thy sharp sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

Let us notice some of the harvests of the past history of the world, that we may better understand the nature of the great harvest for which the world is now fast ripening off. Farmers do not harvest crops until they are ripe; so we shall find that God ever waits until mankind have ripened for destruction or salvation; then comes the harvest. The flood affords an example of this. “The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.” For one hundred and twenty years God’s Spirit strove with men after he had determined to destroy them on account of their sins. Noah faithfully warned them; but their wickedness increased until the earth was filled with violence. When they were fully ripe, the harvest came. They had scoffed at the servant of God, had grieved his spirit, and now from the anguish of their hearts they cry out amid the raging waters, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Turn from this to the case of Sodom. The inhabitants of that city had become very wicked when Lot went to dwell there. Gen. 13:13. God spared them twenty years longer; but they had been ripening for destruction. Abraham pleads before the Lord for the city. “Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?” He was assured that the city should be spared if fifty righteous persons could be found therein. He then pleads that “forty-five,” “forty,” “thirty,” “twenty,” and even “ten,” might be enough to preserve the city. And God said, “I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.” But the city was ripe for destruction. The number could not be found, and the city was doomed. Their harvest came, the summer ended, and the great mass were not saved.

Infidels sometimes accuse God of cruelty in sending his people to destroy the Amorites, and those who occupied the land that was promised to Israel. If we examine the record, we shall find that God was very merciful to them. He kept his people back from that land four hundred years because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. Gen. 15:13-16. Truly the long-suffering of God was manifested toward them. He would not bring destruction upon them until they were fully ripened for it.

The destruction that was threatened upon Babylon did not come until the king had filled the cup of his iniquity by drinking wine from the sacred vessels, defying the God of Heaven and praising the gods of gold. Then the writing was seen upon the wall, telling him, “Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” The Jewish nation were once the chosen people of God, and they enjoyed special favors from him. But they filled the cup of their iniquity by crucifying Christ, who came to save them. Since then they have been wanderers in the earth, a hissing and a by-word among all nations.

To-day the world is fast ripening for its harvest. Increase of crime is one of the marked features of our times. Preparations for war is another omen. The prophet Joel, just before describing the harvest, says, “Prepare war; . . . beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears.” Never was there a time in all the history of the world when such preparations for war were being made as in our own days. Even now, while the winds of war are being held in check, preparation goes on with unabating energy. The nations are arming with the most effective implements of destruction. Prominent among the late inventions of the age are seen terrible death-dealing engines; and extensive gun works are now in operation in various parts of the country. The nations of earth are preparing for war. These signs, with scores of others, speak plainly to the inhabitants of the world, “Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest will come.” Infidelity is making rapid strides toward ripening the world for destruction. Its devotees are drawing vast crowds into its meshes. Infidel books and papers are being everywhere scattered, to draw men away from God and the Bible. Last-day scoffers, many even within the pale of the churches, are saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” They are thus preparing the world to reject him.

But there is yet a bright side to this subject. Satan does not get all the harvest. God ever has a portion, and his are the first-fruits. Though the number may be small when compared to Satan’s hosts, yet one golden grain safe in the garner of God will be worth more than all the tares. Noah and his family rode safely above the dark waters of the flood, securely protected by God, for they were his portion of the harvest. Lot, a just man, was saved from Sodom. A noble band of apostles were rescued from the Jewish nation when it was rejected. So in the end some will be “redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.”

The gospel was to be preached to all nations before the harvest. From Asia, its birthplace, it has pressed its way over the continent of Europe, penetrated even dark places in Africa, crossed the ocean, and from New England has scattered its light across the American continent. Its race is nearly run, and soon its work will be finished. The last work to ripen the world for the harvest is the third angel’s message, which was to go forth just before the reaper appeared with sickle in hand to reap the harvest of the earth. Rev. 14. The world is now hearing that closing message. God is raising up a people who are blowing the trumpet with no uncertain sound. With the burden of this message resting upon them, they are proclaiming it with a loud voice, and a people are ripening for God’s harvest. This people will not compose the great masses, not the large clusters into which the world is bound up. God’s people will be gathered one here and one there, like “the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done,” or “as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches.” Isa. 17:6; 24:13.

The lonely child of God, away from the society of God’s people, neglected or despised by the society of the world, may be assured that it is his privilege to have a home and friends by-and-by. When the Master comes to make up his jewels, not one will be overlooked.

But at that day what becomes of the great mass, the clusters who reject God and his work? Let God’s word answer. “Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” Rev. 14:18, 19. Oh! solemn hour to those who have rejected the offers of mercy. God has made ample provision for their salvation, and they alone are responsible for the fate they meet. In bitter anguish they cry, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” O sinner, flee to Christ while mercy lingers. Backslider from God, return, I entreat you, before it is too late. Laborer in the vineyard of God, “What will the harvest be?” Are we doing all we can to save perishing souls?

After the harvest will come the harvest supper: but what a contrast here? On the one hand the fowls of Heaven are called to a great supper, to feed upon the flesh of kings and mighty men, and of all men, both great and small; while God’s people are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Rev. 19:9, 17. Says Christ, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”