Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
To sow beside all waters is to keep giving and scattering the seeds of truth continually wherever the cause of God and the needs of humanity call for aid. Those who sow in this way are pronounced blessed, and faithful giving does not tend to poverty, for as seed multiplies by being cast away so blessings increase by being imparted. The sowing is to be wide and impartial, in every place and among every class without judging beforehand who will receive it or which effort will prosper. It belongs to every believer and calls for patient, enduring labor through hardship and slow results, trusting God to water the seed and bring the increase. Printed truth, personal visits, practical kindness and daily witness are chief means of this work, but only God through His Spirit gives spiritual life, and the harvest reaches to eternal life.
Meaning of the Image
To sow beside all waters is to give continually wherever the cause of God or the needs of humanity call for aid. Such generous and wide sowing is blessed, and it does not tend to poverty, for as the sower multiplies seed by casting it away so the faithful increase blessings by imparting them. God supplies enough to keep giving and to continue and enables every good work. Imparting life's blessings also awakens gratitude in those who receive, preparing their hearts to receive spiritual truth and producing a harvest of eternal life.
Sowing is spreading the word of God and the seeds of truth widely and faithfully wherever people can receive it and wherever there is opportunity. It reaches neighbors and those without access to meetings so they may be brought from darkness to light, and extends to people in every place and circumstance and among every group, including cities, towns, villages and small settlements without restricting where the message is shared. It is done even when it is not known which effort will prosper, trusting God with the results and for the increase. One worker may sow the seed and another gather it.
Sending forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass pictures farmers sowing beside every waterway and using their animals to cultivate the ground. In the same way every believer is to take part in this work wherever there is opportunity, using God-given powers in it. Each is responsible for gathering the harvest that labor produces.
Sowing includes using entrusted means, abilities, talents, time and influence in God's service through continual gifts and offerings and generous service wherever opportunities arise. God supplies the faithful steward with enough to abound in every good work, and the seed given for sowing enables the worker to cooperate with the Giver and produce fruits of righteousness. It means diligently using what God provides to spread the truth wherever it can reach people, supporting churches as centers of light, meeting the urgent needs of God's work, and bringing souls to salvation. It calls for doing the duty at hand while there is time, working diligently and cheerfully, accepting sacrifice without reluctance and making any needed sacrifice cheerfully, with such generous labor linked to a bountiful and generous harvest. Used in every place, God-given abilities employed in this wide sowing strengthen and ennoble spiritual powers.
Blessing on the Sowers
Those who sow in this way are pronounced blessed, for faithful, diligent, cheerful sowing is joined to reaping bountifully and to a generous harvest. To sow beside all waters is to use the means entrusted by God, to do the duty at hand while time remains, and to make any required sacrifice cheerfully and without reluctance. It is to spread abroad the good received and to serve wherever opportunity is given, carrying out the work of proclaiming truth widely and persistently, including personal Bible teaching, sharing literature, and supporting churches as centers of light.
Such giving does not tend to poverty, for as the sower multiplies seed by casting it away so the faithful increase blessings by imparting them. To sow beside all waters is to give continually wherever the cause of God or the needs of humanity call for aid, through gifts and offerings shared from what God has given. God supplies the faithful steward with enough to continue and to abound in every good work, and the seed given for sowing enables cooperation with the Giver in producing fruits of righteousness. Giving the blessings of life also awakens gratitude in those helped, preparing their hearts to receive spiritual truth unto a harvest of eternal life.
Blessing attends venturesome, faithful sowing without undue fear of risk, delay, or loss. Appropriate tracts and papers are to be given freely to all willing to receive them, without charge, wherever people can be reached, even where a living preacher cannot go. Labor and means are to be invested in circulating precious light and present truth through publications wherever opportunities arise, and such opportunities are not to be neglected through fear. This free, forward sowing can yield abundant returns.
Blessing rests on a missionary church in which every working agency is set in operation under wise and helpful supervision by organized plans. It belongs to lay members as well as ministers persevering in soul-winning service. It belongs especially to families well grounded in the fundamental features of faith who move to needy communities to bring many a knowledge of the saving truths of the third angel's message.
Humble, self-sacrificing workers who carry the seeds of truth into spiritually barren places are blessed as they sow through good works and Christian character and through patient opening of Scripture to families, bringing many hearts to faith and a rich harvest. Time, means, talents, and influence are to be used faithfully in doing good and helping save souls rather than wasted in selfish pleasure, for the results endure through eternity. Faithful, persevering missionary work scatters truth widely by gathering papers, tracts, pamphlets, and books and sending them on missionary errands to enlighten homes in all parts of the world, not knowing which shall prosper, this or that. Those who sow in this way will reap what they sowed in the world to come, where the reward outweighs the self-denial and sacrifice it required. Even when results are never seen in this life, each sower will then see and know how much was accomplished for the salvation of souls when the redeemed host is gathered around the great white throne and crowns of glory are given to those who came through great tribulation having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Wide and Impartial Sowing
Beside all waters means in every place where people can be reached, and the seeds of truth are to be sown widely among people in every circumstance without restricting where they are shared. The work belongs in cities, towns, villages and small settlements, along highways and byways, in nearby workplaces and homes, and in places beyond established churches, as a worldwide message to be given to all cities and villages without localizing it. It is to be carried forward wherever opportunities arise, to every nation and people, with living faith and full consecration using mind and body for God's glory so that His work advances rapidly. Even when hearers do not receive it and results are not immediately visible, labor is to continue without discouragement, for limited numbers of followers do not make faithful work a failure.
No class is to be left unreached, for the blessing rests on sowing the seed of truth among all kinds of people. The poor are to be preached to, and the truth in its most attractive light is to be presented with wise, determined, God-fearing effort to those with ability and talent and to the higher classes. Labor is to extend to people of different churches including Catholics and Roman Catholics who are not beyond reach, to be done without creating needless prejudice, since human workers sow but God alone gives the increase. In the South the work is to reach both white and colored people, and people of talent will be brought into the truth to become workers proclaiming the last message of mercy. It includes people in Texas with little access to Bible teaching, travelers and settlers, those in fallen churches, those alienated from religion by inconsistent lives of Christians approached judiciously and cautiously yet with zeal, and those in temperance associations where truth is shared through agreement on common subjects and through gracious influence even without publicly emphasizing prominent features of faith.
Sowing is to be done without knowing beforehand which effort, this or that, will prosper, and without judging in advance who will accept it. It includes unpromising and hard fields, places where results are slow or unseen, and literature left where human judgment might withhold it, trusting that some seed will bear fruit and that God can direct those who will accept the truth to carry its light to others. Tracts are to be distributed everywhere because no one can know who will readily receive them, and withholding them on human judgment may turn away one who would welcome them. People may plant and water, but God gives the increase, and He connects Himself with every consecrated effort, putting His seal upon it and laying up treasure in heaven even when the work looks feeble and its lasting good reaching to eternity is never understood.
The word is to be spread widely and faithfully wherever people can receive it, rather than restricted to convenient times or places. Blessing attends going from place to place to win sinners to Christ, establishing churches as centers of light and then carrying the work to other fields once members are taught to serve. Resources and influence are to be spread beyond Battle Creek into many places instead of concentrating buildings and means in one center, so neglected fields are served, other fields can win souls, and houses of worship can be provided. Publications that spread God's light are to be distributed widely and promptly like leaves of autumn without exclusive boundaries or dependence on a separate society, and where no opening appears, opportunities are to be made.
Faithful Enduring Labor
Sowing beside all waters means keeping at the work of saving souls everywhere opportunity opens, without waiting to see each step clearly, and continuing with faith, patience, tears and patient hope through uncertainty, hardship, discouragement, disappointed hopes and slow or unseen results, trusting the Lord to water the seed and bring the increase. Trials borne in such labor make faith firmer and courage new, and duty remains even when obstacles make progress seem slow. The promised blessing rests on spreading the good news of salvation through Christ widely and persistently, with every effort promoting personal piety and practical godliness.
God wants workers of nerve, hope, faith and endurance who venture anything and everything, push ahead in the dark as well as in the light, hold up bravely, and work to the point to advance the truth. This labor is to continue even when many oppose it or try to extinguish its light, in hard fields where hearts are hard and forms, customs, tradition and opposing teachers stand directly in the way of mercy and truth reaching the people. It means not choosing the easiest places but working wherever possible, in opposition, in discouragement, in hope and fear and much trembling, even in valleys watered with the blood of martyrs, laboring earnestly and unselfishly as Jesus did amid equally hard hearts and discouragement, believing the seed will spring up to God's glory and light will shine into moral darkness. Courage with living faith is to carry the gospel even beyond one's own country into the unbelieving world, where the harvest is ready.
Those placed in difficult, neglected fields may act unwisely under pressure and make mistakes, yet later see souls converted and practical good done, for mistakes alone do not prove unfitness for the work. Faithful labor is not measured by how many respond at once, for lack of immediate results should not discourage continued sowing in cities and villages. Christ sowed the seeds of truth widely among people of every class and in every setting so receivers might gain spiritual and physical soundness, yet He had many hearers and few followers, and Noah preached 120 years before only eight were saved.
The faithful watchman bears the precious seed of God's word widely with weeping and earnest, insistent prayer, and when self dies, love for Jesus awakens strong desire for the salvation of perishing souls and for their good. This is work that can heavily tax mind and heart, so workers need strength and freshness to serve effectively, drawing fresh supplies from Scripture and not exhausting themselves until their efforts lose freshness and life. True sowing is done in humility in the Lord's way close at hand rather than by settling in large watering places, hiring large facilities to raise up a large company at once, flourishing self as remarkable to do a big work while neglecting nearby need and seeing no fruit. It is the humble ways and means of reaching people — entering families, sitting with them, having them read the text, interesting them, praying with them, and in meekness and sympathy instructing the few in perplexity and darkness — which counts for far more than much sermonizing.
Everyone Called to Sow
The blessed sowing belongs to every believer, not to ordained ministers or pulpit preaching alone. All who draw from Christ's salvation are called to spread the word of God widely and to help others take part in that work, with those laboring for Christ to be encouraged rather than discouraged. Each one can speak of the reasons for faith and use God-given abilities, talents, time, means and influence faithfully in service rather than wasting them in selfish pleasure, so that the Master may receive His own with increase. Members are to be taught to labor together and then to carry the work to other fields, using their powers in ways that strengthen and ennoble them, and steady persevering labor with God's grace both helps convict and convert others and strengthens the worker's own faith, zeal and love, with results that endure through eternity.
Young men and women are to prepare for missionary service and scatter the seeds of truth wherever they can be shared. They are to make use of every opportunity to labor wherever they can, carrying the message widely through missionary labor. In this they are to persevere through discouragement and hardship with zeal, resolution and faith.
Parents, teachers and ministers are to share the word of life faithfully with all kinds of people, including those who seem difficult or unpromising, through patient, persevering and loving effort. This is personal labor for souls that visits by the fireside, teaches the Bible's sacred doctrines in the family, takes interest in hearers, becomes acquainted with individual members of families, puts forth personal effort, and prays for and with them. It kindly, tenderly and lovingly leads youth to Christ, drives the minister to his knees in prayer and to his Bible, compels him to make God his trust and to walk by faith, praying that God will water the seed sown.
Canvassers who sell books that teach the truth sow beside all waters wherever they go, taking every opportunity to spread truth wherever people can be reached and need instruction. Their work is God's work, in which every talent is to be used for His glory to bring people to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. The opportunity is to be used without delay, giving needed instruction promptly and clearly.
Medical missionary and health workers sow by sharing God's Word with patients in medical institutions, without knowing which efforts will prosper. Sowing includes publicizing and extending medical missionary and educational work, especially through sanitariums and health teaching in cities. It is done through wholesome meals for students, through restaurant and food-store work with reading materials, health lectures, conversations, tracts and papers that may be given away when they cannot readily be sold, and through health-food work with meetings that teach people and can lead souls to conversion. In this gospel work one may plant and another water, but God gives the increase, and His Word brings healing like leaves from the tree of life.
God will raise up qualified men to sow everywhere the great light He has given on important truths, using every opening to the world. This includes publications and articles in secular papers to awaken souls, explain doctrines, meet the arguments of objectors, answer misrepresentation of Bible truth with clear statements, and equip new believers to defend themselves, so that in defending themselves they spread seeds of truth to others.
Methods and Harvest
Printed matter is a chief way to sow beside all waters, with books, papers, tracts, pamphlets and leaflets to be spread freely, promptly and widely like leaves of autumn wherever people can be reached. Appropriate tracts on present truth are to be given to all willing to receive them without charge, without holding back through fear of risk, venturing by faith even where the cost or outcome is uncertain. This literature carries spiritual truth where a preacher cannot go and calls attention to the closing events of history, and such venturesome, faithful distribution is blessed with abundant returns.
Bible readings and family visits are another form of this wide sowing, seeking everywhere for opportunities to lead people to investigate truth. With love and humility the truth is shared quietly and wisely from house to house, opening Scripture patiently so hearers are drawn to deeper knowledge. Young as well as older workers who do this with right motives carry out an important ministry that spreads truth, saves souls, and praises God for calling people from darkness into light. Patiently opening the Bible in homes, even in spiritually barren places, can bring many hearts to faith and reap a rich harvest.
Practical kindness also sows beside all waters, since serving poor, sick and bereaved neighbors with tender compassion, unselfish concern, love and sympathy opens hearts to receive divine truth. Sharing food together with reading matter can become seed sown with hope of spiritual fruit, and providing wholesome meals and health teaching creates openings to share truth through papers, tracts and lectures. Understanding people's needs, earning confidence by kindness, and speaking kindly can win even those prejudiced against present truth, so no opportunity for such loving service is to be wasted.
This sowing belongs to daily life, done while walking, working, traveling, trading or visiting by tactfully introducing matters of eternal interest in ordinary conversation. Ordinary scenes in nature and daily affairs become means of teaching about the kingdom, and careful cultivation of speech and voice makes words fit channels for truth while prayer prepares hearts to receive it. The spirit of Jesus and the light received are to be shared continually through restoring works that lead others toward salvation, and truths gathered and cultivated in the heart are to be given out widely so they multiply, imparting light and aiding growth in grace and Christian experience.
Such sowing calls for self-denial and consecrated use of entrusted means and abilities wherever opportunity arises, supporting gospel proclamation rather than spending on selfish gratification, luxury or pleasure. Resources are to meet the urgent needs of the work, including religious instruction in schools, the press, churches as centers of light, and reaching those in spiritual darkness, with duty done at hand and any needed sacrifice made cheerfully. Workers are to keep gathering more seed to share while developing God-given powers for service in humble reliance on the Holy Spirit and divine power, and generous labor of this kind is linked with a generous harvest under God's blessing.
Human workers plant and water, and one may sow while another gathers, but only God gives spiritual life and the increase through His Spirit and power. Each is to do his best in every place to share saving truth by life and work, trusting God with results and working humbly and trustfully beside Christ who remains with His followers. Heavenly agencies are set in motion for those who labor in Christ's way, with angels opening ways, preparing hearts, and cooperating with soul-winners who carry the message to every nation and people.
The harvest from this sowing includes gratitude awakened by generosity, which prepares hearts to receive spiritual truth and yields eternal life, with God supplying enough so that giving multiplies blessings instead of tending to poverty. It includes fruits of righteousness, healing like leaves of the tree of life through God's Word shared in medical missionary work, restoration toward salvation, and treasure laid up in heaven that reaches to eternity. Those who spread seeds of truth through good works and Christian character will reap what they sowed in the world to come, where the work reaches its eternal completion and the reward outweighs the self-denial and sacrifice it required.
Fruitful sowing requires preparation through personal consecration to God by earnest prayer and study of His Word for wisdom to save souls, an individual experience of truth, and training of self for self-sacrificing effort. Workers are to be ready to give spiritual food when needed, using every power and talent wholly in service to glorify Him and advance His work while sharing His blessings and learning daily from Christ. Faithful personal labor visits by the fireside, teaches sacred doctrines in the family, becomes acquainted with each member, feels interest for hearers, instructs and leads youth tenderly and lovingly, prays for and with them, and looks to God in faith to water the seed sown.
To sow beside all waters is to keep giving and scattering the seeds of truth continually wherever the cause of God and the needs of humanity call for aid. Those who sow in this way are pronounced blessed, and faithful giving does not tend to poverty, for as seed multiplies by being cast away so blessings increase by being imparted. The sowing is to be wide and impartial, in every place and among every class without judging beforehand who will receive it or which effort will prosper. It belongs to every believer and calls for patient, enduring labor through hardship and slow results, trusting God to water the seed and bring the increase. Printed truth, personal visits, practical kindness and daily witness are chief means of this work, but only God through His Spirit gives spiritual life, and the harvest reaches to eternal life.
Meaning of the Image
To sow beside all waters is to give continually wherever the cause of God or the needs of humanity call for aid. Such generous and wide sowing is blessed, and it does not tend to poverty, for as the sower multiplies seed by casting it away so the faithful increase blessings by imparting them. God supplies enough to keep giving and to continue and enables every good work. Imparting life's blessings also awakens gratitude in those who receive, preparing their hearts to receive spiritual truth and producing a harvest of eternal life.
Sowing is spreading the word of God and the seeds of truth widely and faithfully wherever people can receive it and wherever there is opportunity. It reaches neighbors and those without access to meetings so they may be brought from darkness to light, and extends to people in every place and circumstance and among every group, including cities, towns, villages and small settlements without restricting where the message is shared. It is done even when it is not known which effort will prosper, trusting God with the results and for the increase. One worker may sow the seed and another gather it.
Sending forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass pictures farmers sowing beside every waterway and using their animals to cultivate the ground. In the same way every believer is to take part in this work wherever there is opportunity, using God-given powers in it. Each is responsible for gathering the harvest that labor produces.
Sowing includes using entrusted means, abilities, talents, time and influence in God's service through continual gifts and offerings and generous service wherever opportunities arise. God supplies the faithful steward with enough to abound in every good work, and the seed given for sowing enables the worker to cooperate with the Giver and produce fruits of righteousness. It means diligently using what God provides to spread the truth wherever it can reach people, supporting churches as centers of light, meeting the urgent needs of God's work, and bringing souls to salvation. It calls for doing the duty at hand while there is time, working diligently and cheerfully, accepting sacrifice without reluctance and making any needed sacrifice cheerfully, with such generous labor linked to a bountiful and generous harvest. Used in every place, God-given abilities employed in this wide sowing strengthen and ennoble spiritual powers.
Blessing on the Sowers
Those who sow in this way are pronounced blessed, for faithful, diligent, cheerful sowing is joined to reaping bountifully and to a generous harvest. To sow beside all waters is to use the means entrusted by God, to do the duty at hand while time remains, and to make any required sacrifice cheerfully and without reluctance. It is to spread abroad the good received and to serve wherever opportunity is given, carrying out the work of proclaiming truth widely and persistently, including personal Bible teaching, sharing literature, and supporting churches as centers of light.
Such giving does not tend to poverty, for as the sower multiplies seed by casting it away so the faithful increase blessings by imparting them. To sow beside all waters is to give continually wherever the cause of God or the needs of humanity call for aid, through gifts and offerings shared from what God has given. God supplies the faithful steward with enough to continue and to abound in every good work, and the seed given for sowing enables cooperation with the Giver in producing fruits of righteousness. Giving the blessings of life also awakens gratitude in those helped, preparing their hearts to receive spiritual truth unto a harvest of eternal life.
Blessing attends venturesome, faithful sowing without undue fear of risk, delay, or loss. Appropriate tracts and papers are to be given freely to all willing to receive them, without charge, wherever people can be reached, even where a living preacher cannot go. Labor and means are to be invested in circulating precious light and present truth through publications wherever opportunities arise, and such opportunities are not to be neglected through fear. This free, forward sowing can yield abundant returns.
Blessing rests on a missionary church in which every working agency is set in operation under wise and helpful supervision by organized plans. It belongs to lay members as well as ministers persevering in soul-winning service. It belongs especially to families well grounded in the fundamental features of faith who move to needy communities to bring many a knowledge of the saving truths of the third angel's message.
Humble, self-sacrificing workers who carry the seeds of truth into spiritually barren places are blessed as they sow through good works and Christian character and through patient opening of Scripture to families, bringing many hearts to faith and a rich harvest. Time, means, talents, and influence are to be used faithfully in doing good and helping save souls rather than wasted in selfish pleasure, for the results endure through eternity. Faithful, persevering missionary work scatters truth widely by gathering papers, tracts, pamphlets, and books and sending them on missionary errands to enlighten homes in all parts of the world, not knowing which shall prosper, this or that. Those who sow in this way will reap what they sowed in the world to come, where the reward outweighs the self-denial and sacrifice it required. Even when results are never seen in this life, each sower will then see and know how much was accomplished for the salvation of souls when the redeemed host is gathered around the great white throne and crowns of glory are given to those who came through great tribulation having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Wide and Impartial Sowing
Beside all waters means in every place where people can be reached, and the seeds of truth are to be sown widely among people in every circumstance without restricting where they are shared. The work belongs in cities, towns, villages and small settlements, along highways and byways, in nearby workplaces and homes, and in places beyond established churches, as a worldwide message to be given to all cities and villages without localizing it. It is to be carried forward wherever opportunities arise, to every nation and people, with living faith and full consecration using mind and body for God's glory so that His work advances rapidly. Even when hearers do not receive it and results are not immediately visible, labor is to continue without discouragement, for limited numbers of followers do not make faithful work a failure.
No class is to be left unreached, for the blessing rests on sowing the seed of truth among all kinds of people. The poor are to be preached to, and the truth in its most attractive light is to be presented with wise, determined, God-fearing effort to those with ability and talent and to the higher classes. Labor is to extend to people of different churches including Catholics and Roman Catholics who are not beyond reach, to be done without creating needless prejudice, since human workers sow but God alone gives the increase. In the South the work is to reach both white and colored people, and people of talent will be brought into the truth to become workers proclaiming the last message of mercy. It includes people in Texas with little access to Bible teaching, travelers and settlers, those in fallen churches, those alienated from religion by inconsistent lives of Christians approached judiciously and cautiously yet with zeal, and those in temperance associations where truth is shared through agreement on common subjects and through gracious influence even without publicly emphasizing prominent features of faith.
Sowing is to be done without knowing beforehand which effort, this or that, will prosper, and without judging in advance who will accept it. It includes unpromising and hard fields, places where results are slow or unseen, and literature left where human judgment might withhold it, trusting that some seed will bear fruit and that God can direct those who will accept the truth to carry its light to others. Tracts are to be distributed everywhere because no one can know who will readily receive them, and withholding them on human judgment may turn away one who would welcome them. People may plant and water, but God gives the increase, and He connects Himself with every consecrated effort, putting His seal upon it and laying up treasure in heaven even when the work looks feeble and its lasting good reaching to eternity is never understood.
The word is to be spread widely and faithfully wherever people can receive it, rather than restricted to convenient times or places. Blessing attends going from place to place to win sinners to Christ, establishing churches as centers of light and then carrying the work to other fields once members are taught to serve. Resources and influence are to be spread beyond Battle Creek into many places instead of concentrating buildings and means in one center, so neglected fields are served, other fields can win souls, and houses of worship can be provided. Publications that spread God's light are to be distributed widely and promptly like leaves of autumn without exclusive boundaries or dependence on a separate society, and where no opening appears, opportunities are to be made.
Faithful Enduring Labor
Sowing beside all waters means keeping at the work of saving souls everywhere opportunity opens, without waiting to see each step clearly, and continuing with faith, patience, tears and patient hope through uncertainty, hardship, discouragement, disappointed hopes and slow or unseen results, trusting the Lord to water the seed and bring the increase. Trials borne in such labor make faith firmer and courage new, and duty remains even when obstacles make progress seem slow. The promised blessing rests on spreading the good news of salvation through Christ widely and persistently, with every effort promoting personal piety and practical godliness.
God wants workers of nerve, hope, faith and endurance who venture anything and everything, push ahead in the dark as well as in the light, hold up bravely, and work to the point to advance the truth. This labor is to continue even when many oppose it or try to extinguish its light, in hard fields where hearts are hard and forms, customs, tradition and opposing teachers stand directly in the way of mercy and truth reaching the people. It means not choosing the easiest places but working wherever possible, in opposition, in discouragement, in hope and fear and much trembling, even in valleys watered with the blood of martyrs, laboring earnestly and unselfishly as Jesus did amid equally hard hearts and discouragement, believing the seed will spring up to God's glory and light will shine into moral darkness. Courage with living faith is to carry the gospel even beyond one's own country into the unbelieving world, where the harvest is ready.
Those placed in difficult, neglected fields may act unwisely under pressure and make mistakes, yet later see souls converted and practical good done, for mistakes alone do not prove unfitness for the work. Faithful labor is not measured by how many respond at once, for lack of immediate results should not discourage continued sowing in cities and villages. Christ sowed the seeds of truth widely among people of every class and in every setting so receivers might gain spiritual and physical soundness, yet He had many hearers and few followers, and Noah preached 120 years before only eight were saved.
The faithful watchman bears the precious seed of God's word widely with weeping and earnest, insistent prayer, and when self dies, love for Jesus awakens strong desire for the salvation of perishing souls and for their good. This is work that can heavily tax mind and heart, so workers need strength and freshness to serve effectively, drawing fresh supplies from Scripture and not exhausting themselves until their efforts lose freshness and life. True sowing is done in humility in the Lord's way close at hand rather than by settling in large watering places, hiring large facilities to raise up a large company at once, flourishing self as remarkable to do a big work while neglecting nearby need and seeing no fruit. It is the humble ways and means of reaching people — entering families, sitting with them, having them read the text, interesting them, praying with them, and in meekness and sympathy instructing the few in perplexity and darkness — which counts for far more than much sermonizing.
Everyone Called to Sow
The blessed sowing belongs to every believer, not to ordained ministers or pulpit preaching alone. All who draw from Christ's salvation are called to spread the word of God widely and to help others take part in that work, with those laboring for Christ to be encouraged rather than discouraged. Each one can speak of the reasons for faith and use God-given abilities, talents, time, means and influence faithfully in service rather than wasting them in selfish pleasure, so that the Master may receive His own with increase. Members are to be taught to labor together and then to carry the work to other fields, using their powers in ways that strengthen and ennoble them, and steady persevering labor with God's grace both helps convict and convert others and strengthens the worker's own faith, zeal and love, with results that endure through eternity.
Young men and women are to prepare for missionary service and scatter the seeds of truth wherever they can be shared. They are to make use of every opportunity to labor wherever they can, carrying the message widely through missionary labor. In this they are to persevere through discouragement and hardship with zeal, resolution and faith.
Parents, teachers and ministers are to share the word of life faithfully with all kinds of people, including those who seem difficult or unpromising, through patient, persevering and loving effort. This is personal labor for souls that visits by the fireside, teaches the Bible's sacred doctrines in the family, takes interest in hearers, becomes acquainted with individual members of families, puts forth personal effort, and prays for and with them. It kindly, tenderly and lovingly leads youth to Christ, drives the minister to his knees in prayer and to his Bible, compels him to make God his trust and to walk by faith, praying that God will water the seed sown.
Canvassers who sell books that teach the truth sow beside all waters wherever they go, taking every opportunity to spread truth wherever people can be reached and need instruction. Their work is God's work, in which every talent is to be used for His glory to bring people to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. The opportunity is to be used without delay, giving needed instruction promptly and clearly.
Medical missionary and health workers sow by sharing God's Word with patients in medical institutions, without knowing which efforts will prosper. Sowing includes publicizing and extending medical missionary and educational work, especially through sanitariums and health teaching in cities. It is done through wholesome meals for students, through restaurant and food-store work with reading materials, health lectures, conversations, tracts and papers that may be given away when they cannot readily be sold, and through health-food work with meetings that teach people and can lead souls to conversion. In this gospel work one may plant and another water, but God gives the increase, and His Word brings healing like leaves from the tree of life.
God will raise up qualified men to sow everywhere the great light He has given on important truths, using every opening to the world. This includes publications and articles in secular papers to awaken souls, explain doctrines, meet the arguments of objectors, answer misrepresentation of Bible truth with clear statements, and equip new believers to defend themselves, so that in defending themselves they spread seeds of truth to others.
Methods and Harvest
Printed matter is a chief way to sow beside all waters, with books, papers, tracts, pamphlets and leaflets to be spread freely, promptly and widely like leaves of autumn wherever people can be reached. Appropriate tracts on present truth are to be given to all willing to receive them without charge, without holding back through fear of risk, venturing by faith even where the cost or outcome is uncertain. This literature carries spiritual truth where a preacher cannot go and calls attention to the closing events of history, and such venturesome, faithful distribution is blessed with abundant returns.
Bible readings and family visits are another form of this wide sowing, seeking everywhere for opportunities to lead people to investigate truth. With love and humility the truth is shared quietly and wisely from house to house, opening Scripture patiently so hearers are drawn to deeper knowledge. Young as well as older workers who do this with right motives carry out an important ministry that spreads truth, saves souls, and praises God for calling people from darkness into light. Patiently opening the Bible in homes, even in spiritually barren places, can bring many hearts to faith and reap a rich harvest.
Practical kindness also sows beside all waters, since serving poor, sick and bereaved neighbors with tender compassion, unselfish concern, love and sympathy opens hearts to receive divine truth. Sharing food together with reading matter can become seed sown with hope of spiritual fruit, and providing wholesome meals and health teaching creates openings to share truth through papers, tracts and lectures. Understanding people's needs, earning confidence by kindness, and speaking kindly can win even those prejudiced against present truth, so no opportunity for such loving service is to be wasted.
This sowing belongs to daily life, done while walking, working, traveling, trading or visiting by tactfully introducing matters of eternal interest in ordinary conversation. Ordinary scenes in nature and daily affairs become means of teaching about the kingdom, and careful cultivation of speech and voice makes words fit channels for truth while prayer prepares hearts to receive it. The spirit of Jesus and the light received are to be shared continually through restoring works that lead others toward salvation, and truths gathered and cultivated in the heart are to be given out widely so they multiply, imparting light and aiding growth in grace and Christian experience.
Such sowing calls for self-denial and consecrated use of entrusted means and abilities wherever opportunity arises, supporting gospel proclamation rather than spending on selfish gratification, luxury or pleasure. Resources are to meet the urgent needs of the work, including religious instruction in schools, the press, churches as centers of light, and reaching those in spiritual darkness, with duty done at hand and any needed sacrifice made cheerfully. Workers are to keep gathering more seed to share while developing God-given powers for service in humble reliance on the Holy Spirit and divine power, and generous labor of this kind is linked with a generous harvest under God's blessing.
Human workers plant and water, and one may sow while another gathers, but only God gives spiritual life and the increase through His Spirit and power. Each is to do his best in every place to share saving truth by life and work, trusting God with results and working humbly and trustfully beside Christ who remains with His followers. Heavenly agencies are set in motion for those who labor in Christ's way, with angels opening ways, preparing hearts, and cooperating with soul-winners who carry the message to every nation and people.
The harvest from this sowing includes gratitude awakened by generosity, which prepares hearts to receive spiritual truth and yields eternal life, with God supplying enough so that giving multiplies blessings instead of tending to poverty. It includes fruits of righteousness, healing like leaves of the tree of life through God's Word shared in medical missionary work, restoration toward salvation, and treasure laid up in heaven that reaches to eternity. Those who spread seeds of truth through good works and Christian character will reap what they sowed in the world to come, where the work reaches its eternal completion and the reward outweighs the self-denial and sacrifice it required.
Fruitful sowing requires preparation through personal consecration to God by earnest prayer and study of His Word for wisdom to save souls, an individual experience of truth, and training of self for self-sacrificing effort. Workers are to be ready to give spiritual food when needed, using every power and talent wholly in service to glorify Him and advance His work while sharing His blessings and learning daily from Christ. Faithful personal labor visits by the fireside, teaches sacred doctrines in the family, becomes acquainted with each member, feels interest for hearers, instructs and leads youth tenderly and lovingly, prays for and with them, and looks to God in faith to water the seed sown.