Editorial by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 5, 1914

Editorial

By C. M. S.

The Harvest Is the End

THE message God gave to Adam looked forward to a time when the end of human existence would come; when mortality would give place to immortality; when the record of sin would be written up and finished; when Satan and all his followers would be destroyed, never to be any more; when Christ's work in the earth would reach its full fruition; and when the earth, purged from every taint and stain of sin, would be again under the dominion of man. Every move which God inspired his faithful representatives to undertake had that ultimate consideration in view. The whole Book of God is an unfoldment of that purpose; and it is no accident that the last book in the Bible is a plain revelation of that long-purposed consummation.

Type in the old dispensation has met antitype in the new. The figures and shadows of Israel's sanctuary and the patriarchal services were wonderful object lessons of God's purpose and his plans that were to run through all time and carry the results of their workings into eternity.

Then came He in whom types met antitype, in whom shadows met substance, who translated even the law of God into living characters, and gave a living meaning to ceremonies that were stiff with age and cumbered with tradition. In his teachings we have frequent reference to the harvest, and there is no veiled meaning in his words. We hear him declaring to his immediate followers, and to us through them: "The harvest is the end of the world." His healing of disease was but a foretaste or a harbinger of the day when all the redeemed of earth, loosed from all their infirmities, healed of all their sicknesses, comforted for all their sorrows, would step into the kingdom of eternal joy, to go no more out forever. His raising of the dead to life was but a demonstration of what he will do for his faithful followers when he shall descend, and, "with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God" (1 Thess. 4:16), wake the sleeping saints from the sleep of death to the glorious sunrise of God's everlasting day.

He tells of the sowing, but he never forgets the harvest; for in that harvest "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." At one time we find him sitting in a boat on the sea, teaching a "very great multitude" the parable of the sower. His own interpretation of the parable is that "the sower soweth the word." Mark 4:14. It is a parable of the work that he himself was doing, and that he was to commission his followers to do after him. Again he says, "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth. . . . But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come." Verses 26-29.

All Christ's true followers have been sowers; they have been sowing the word of God. But no man sows without thinking of the harvest. Every sowing has its harvest. Wherever Christ's followers have gone with the gospel message, that parable has been working out. Souls have been gathered into the fold of Christ's visible body on earth; but that is not the reaping to which Christ refers; for he says, "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels." Matt. 13:39. So this parable of the sower looks through and works through to that consummation — the end of the world.

And the Saviour teaches the same thing without a parable. He says: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24:14. This is a declaration, in the plainest of language, of the same truth that runs through the parable of the sower. It comprehends all the work done from the days of Christ to our day, and from our day on to that day when Christ himself shall come to reward both saint and sinner. It looks down through the centuries of time to the end of time.

We have the same thought in the Revelation, in the inspired declaration concerning the work of the three messages. That other angel that was to fly through the midst of heaven with the "everlasting gospel" (Rev. 14:6) was to carry his message to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Two angels follow, each with its specific message to proclaim. The completeness with which that work was to be done shows beyond doubt that it is the fulfillment of the Saviour's words quoted from Matt. 24:14. When that work was done, the Saviour declared the end would come. So immediately following the proclamation of these three messages (Rev. 14:6-10) the heavens reveal that spectacle toward which men and angels have looked since the days of Adam's expulsion from Eden. It is the coming of the King. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. . . . And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Verses 14-16.

While the language is figurative, the event of which it speaks is a literal and a tremendous event. The sickle in the hand of the Son of God when he comes upon that cloud is, undoubtedly, the angels of God. They are under his control, carrying out his will. We read: "They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24:30, 31. This is in perfect harmony with that text already quoted which declares that "the reapers are the angels."

This world has seen nearly two thousand years of the sowing and planting of the gospel. If our Saviour's words mean anything at all, they mean that the sowing will one day cease and the day of harvest arrive, and that day is "the end of the world." Beyond that there is no sowing; that closes all gospel effort. What we have not done before that time, we can never do. Sorrow for neglected opportunities will accomplish nothing. Now is the day of sowing; but how many of us are sowing? How many of us know that we have actually won some soul or souls to Christ? Some do, but many do not. Can God say to us, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," if the records show no single soul saved through our instrumentality? It should be the chief question of our lives; for our eternal destiny depends upon what God is able to say of us in that day. None of us want our names among those of the unprofitable servants. But that matter no one can settle for us. Our own course determines it.

Have you decided yet to join the number who are determined to win at least one soul for Christ during the year 1914? Can we do less and still be counted faithful? Let every soul among us swing into the full stride of this message during this year, and have the satisfaction of knowing we have won some one for Christ and his truth. When each member has done his part, the year's close will mark a long step toward the completion of the work.

C. M. S.