I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
I sent you to reap means to gather a spiritual harvest into eternal life that was made ready by work you did not do, entering into the labors of others who sowed before you. At Sychar this was the Samaritans already coming to Christ through the woman's testimony, a field white already to harvest with no four months to wait, though the disciples had done nothing to prepare them. Christ Himself was the great Sower who had presented the truth and awakened interest, together with patriarchs, prophets, holy men, and John the Baptist who prepared minds to receive the gospel. He looked ahead to the great ingathering at Pentecost, when empowered by the Holy Spirit the disciples would gather thousands in a day and do even greater works than He had done. One sows and another reaps, so sowers and reapers are fellow workers who share the joy and reward, and the reapers must not take the glory to themselves but enter the former work with humility.
Setting at Samaritan Well
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples at the well of Sychar after His talk with the Samaritan woman. They had been gone a long time to get food and found Him absorbed in meditation with His face beaming, and when they urged Him to eat He answered lovingly that He had food they did not know. That food was to do the will of the Father who sent Him and to finish His work.
The mission work there commenced with His asking her, Give me to drink, though Jews thoroughly despised Samaritans. To her He offered the gift of God and living water. In that offer were invitations of mercy and goodness that cut away doubt and questioning about finding mercy and grace and salvation in God.
In that Samaritan mission He crossed Jewish prejudice and Pharisaic custom by mingling freely with a despised people. He lived among them, accepted their hospitality, slept under their roofs, ate food prepared and served by their hands, and taught in their streets. He treated them with utmost kindness and courtesy, with human sympathy and social kindliness, and He likewise sat as honored guest even at the table of publicans in recognition of the dignity of humanity.
The woman listened, believed His word without any miracle, and was glad for the light. She left her waterpot, went and published it to her neighbors and told the city about Him, and the people came out to Him. His own teaching then led many to believe after hearing Him Himself.
Their coming was a field white already to harvest with no four months to wait. It was given as an object lesson to the disciples and to all seeking the salvation of souls that locality after locality needs workers and the harvest is to be reaped at once. The work calls for men who see beneath the surface and discern present readiness instead of saying there are yet four months.
The disciples failed to recognize the ready field in Samaria. The Samaritan woman whom they despised proved more effective than they did, bringing a whole city to hear. Their later work built on hers before they recognized the field's readiness.
The lesson at Sychar showed the gospel reaches beyond the Jews. His grace is not limited by race or nation, and people regarded as unworthy were hungry for truth. The saving message is for all peoples without territorial or social barriers, and the disciples were being taught to share in that work. They later found a welcome and gathered a harvest among Samaritans who had once been their enemies, after the Samaritans had heard how Jesus treated them with love despite their earlier rejection of Him.
Knowing the doctrine depends on coming to investigation of the Scriptures with a teachable spirit, ready to learn, with the heart emptied of prejudice. It means seeking to bring ideas to the Scriptures rather than bringing the Scriptures to ideas. Miracles alone do not give faith, for the Jews saw Christ come with majesty and grace in mighty healings and a mighty outpouring of His Spirit yet would not recognize Him, because prejudice reigned in their hearts and made even the mightiest miracles have no effect on them.
The Samaritans coming out and hearing proves that those who have never heard the truth and are counted as unbelieving have hearts more susceptible to the truth than those who have been in the truth and had the evidences of God's work yet excuse their unbelief.
Reaping Without Prior Labor
The saying means those sent are to reap a spiritual harvest produced by work they did not begin, entering into the labors of other men who sowed before them and gathering results made possible by that earlier labor. It was applied first to the twelve and later to the seventy, sent to preach the kingdom of God in towns and villages, to gather people into the gospel work begun by others. Its success is not the reapers' to claim as glory, since God's appointed workers prepared the way before them.
In its immediate sense they were sent to gather the Samaritans who were already coming through the woman's testimony, though they had not done the work that prepared them. The harvest began when truth was given to one woman, who invited others to come and hear, and their response followed by direct teaching brought many to believe, with sowing and reaping close together and both sides rejoicing together. Those who reap in this way build on labor already done by others, and should go out to reach people who need the truth rather than remain focused only on the churches.
Reaping is gathering people into eternal life and into God's kingdom and the gospel work, and the reaper receives wages by gathering fruit unto life eternal. That harvest is the work of gathering souls, and it requires capable laborers with tact and skill so that none are lost, for the field is the world and the harvest is ready. Jesus urged immediate reaping because He saw what intelligent effort could accomplish when the fields are already ripe. The work needs men who see beneath the surface and discern present readiness instead of saying there are yet four months, exposing the sadness of few laborers and no delay.
The call therefore is for men who can both sow and reap, and for members long in the truth to feel a burden for souls to stay with and follow up interest raised by city evangelists after the evangelist leaves, so that a harvest of souls is gathered and not lost in places like Los Angeles. The saying promises success in labor because souls among both Jews and Gentiles were hungry for the bread of life and perishing for knowledge of the truth, with a great field open and the harvest ripe for the sickle to gather the sheaves. The readiness of the Samaritans, where seed sown in one mind immediately bore fruit without the usual waiting time between sowing and reaping, was a lesson to increase faith and encourage hearts to pray for laborers and enter the work.
Laborers Who Sowed Before
Christ Himself is the great Sower who had already presented the truth and created interest before the disciples were sent to reap. He had been sowing seeds of truth in the streets of the cities and in the synagogues and in Judea, clearly setting out the plan of salvation and outlining the conditions of salvation distinctly. By that teaching He awakened interest for the disciples to follow up and to perfect by reaping, so that Sower and reapers might rejoice together.
Since Adam's fall He had entrusted the word to servants who sowed it in human hearts, while God's grace nourished the seed and He watered it with His own blood during His earthly life. The conversions at Pentecost were the harvest of that long work and showed the power of His teaching.
The sowers include patriarchs, prophets, holy men, and God's ancient chosen people enriched with precious truth as the river of God. Christ did the earlier sowing as their invisible leader through the wilderness travels and as the water of life to Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and all who received His instruction. Through His Son He supplied them with the Word and with the dews and showers of grace.
The other men who labored were prophets and teachers who prepared minds to receive the gospel, and holy men sent before Him to prepare the way. John the Baptist, whose voice cried in the wilderness, prepared for this very result.
The words were spoken in anticipation of the disciples' being ordained and sent out when Christ's earthly work was soon to close. The apostles were to follow after to bring the work to completion and to perfect it by reaping the harvest.
Pentecost Harvest Foretold
At Samaria Jesus was looking forward to the great ingathering at Pentecost, when through the work of the disciples thousands would be converted in a day. After His ascension they would be empowered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to do even greater works than He had done, testifying of His trial and rejection and death until multitudes believed. That harvest would be the result of His own sowing and not of their efforts alone, for since Adam's fall He had entrusted the word to servants who sowed it in human hearts, while God's grace nourished the seed and He Himself watered it with His blood during His earthly life, so that the Pentecost conversions showed the power of His teaching. The same sending still holds for His workers now, for the fields are ripe and they are called to take up work made ready by those who labored before them.
That harvest was not to be viewed as the result of their own labor, since it depended on truth prepared and grace given before their own work. The sowers were the patriarchs and prophets and holy men, and God's ancient chosen people enriched with precious truth as the river of God. Christ Himself had done the earlier sowing as their invisible leader through the wilderness travels, and as the water of life to Abel and Seth and Enoch and Noah and all who received His instruction, supplying them through His Son with the Word and with the dews and showers of grace. Because God's blessings in that sowing are often overlooked while men take the glory to themselves, those who reap must recognize the former laborers and enter into their labors with humility rather than claiming the honor for themselves.
The sending to reap was applied first to the twelve and later to the seventy, sent to preach the kingdom of God in towns and villages. Their work was part of a shared harvest in which those who sow and those who reap rejoice together in fruit gathered for eternal life. The field for church members is still the world, and the task is to gather the harvest already prepared by earlier workers.
Sowers and Reapers Together
One sows and another reaps, for sowing and reaping are divided between different workers who serve as fellow workers for God and share in the joy, reward, and eternal harvest, and the sower may not gather the harvest he planted. Those sent to reap enter into labors performed before them and gather fruit unto life eternal, so that sower and reaper rejoice together, each using gifts and abilities faithfully in the role given. The success of the reaping is not for the reapers to claim as glory, since God's appointed workers and agencies prepared the way before them, and those blessings in the sowing are often overlooked while men take the glory to themselves. The harvest gathered depends on truth sown by the great Teacher and by others before, so workers enter it with humility and let Sower and reapers rejoice together rather than taking the honor to themselves.
Faithful sowers present the testing truths for this time before large and small gatherings at much labor cost, and they may face opposition and see no harvest in their own lifetime. Later workers of God's appointment may return to the same ground or go over the same ground after the sowers rest, serving at different times or in different places, and many souls see the truth under their labors. Then hardship, adversity, sorrow, loss of property, changes of providence and changes in people's lives recall earlier words with vivid distinctness and prepare minds to accept the truth, so seed planted long before takes root and bears fruit for another messenger and finishes the sower's work in reaping with much rejoicing. In spiritual work faithful sowing may thus bear fruit through another worker, so the visible result does not alone measure a worker's character, but honest, diligent labor does. Those who receive the truth owe God their individual service as living agents and channels to win others, whether their work is sowing or gathering, each laboring faithfully in the work God gives.
The harvest is the gathering of souls into eternal life, and it requires capable laborers with tact and skill so that none are lost, for harvesters are few. Soul-winners are needed in every place where the standard of truth bearing the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus has been lifted up, receiving wages by gathering fruit unto life eternal. Much unselfish labor bears fruit beyond the worker's knowledge and even after death, for faithful parents, teachers, and other workers may die without seeing the good begun, while those taught carry its influence onward for others to reap. In the hereafter the full, lasting, multiplying effects of such labor will be made clear.
New workers reap results made possible by older workers and should honor them, working conscientiously in responsibilities entrusted to them rather than claiming control or imposing their own plans. They should not presume to take over labor prepared by others, but should first work alongside an experienced, wise worker who can test ability and readiness for ministry. As people begin the work in any place, God sets heavenly agencies to prepare the way for those who sow and reap, for God gives each person work to do and no one should restrict that work by human plans or barriers. Those now in charge of the publishing work at the great heart of the cause have entered into other men's labors, since that great instrumentality was built by others' toil and present managers are only men employed to carry on work entrusted to their hands. Because they did not create it, all God requires is to deal justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God, and labor conscientiously without gathering control into finite hands or placing their own mould and superscription upon it.
Later workers in the publishing work who take over what earlier workers built and reap advantages in large wages from branches prospered and grown financially strong do no wrong in itself by so benefiting, for they are beneficiaries of years of planning and executing by others who did the self-denying part. Those earlier builders brought the work forward step by step by self-denial, self-sacrifice, and putting earnings back into the cause. Present handlers are called to remember that history, discern who did the work, show they value it, and truly appreciate the trials, perplexities, financial pressure, prayers and tears behind its rise, which most now handling it ignorantly overlook and fail to appreciate.
Present Calls to Reap
Christ's followers are sent to gather people already prepared by the labor of others, and therefore they must go out to those who need the truth rather than remain focused only on the churches. Ministers must learn not to hover over the churches while souls close by perish for lack of knowledge, but to work all parts of God's vineyard, some to sow and some to reap, remembering that they reap seed sown by the great Teacher and must not take the glory to themselves because God's appointed agencies prepared the way before them. The harvest is shared, with sower and reapers rejoicing together in fruit gathered unto life eternal.
Workers are called to act while opportunity is ripe and to gather diligently where ripe fruit is already available, for neglected fruit may spoil and opportunities can be lost through delay. At Newcastle earlier workers had distributed books and prepared people to hear, so the field was ready for those then preaching there, and sowers and reapers share in that work and its eternal harvest. The same sending applies to proclaiming the gospel in neglected fields including nearby cities in America, where believers are responsible to enter the work and gather people to eternal life even where earlier laborers prepared the way. It applies with urgency to warning the cities and using every God-given ability to spread the truth as Christ's coming draws near, since gospel workers enter into the labor of those who sowed before them and share with them in joy over fruit for eternal life.
The harvest image is directed to the Southern field, which needs workers to sow and reap and needs financial support to maintain them. There workers are to help those receiving the truth become equipped to help others, for one sows and another reaps and those who reap enter into earlier workers' labor. Destitute, unworked fields, especially the colored people of the South, are a harvest to be reaped, for they have souls to save and are neighbors in God's sight, and those in most need are the ones God's people are called to consider and help. Lifting eyes to look on the field is not enough, and God's people must not fix their eyes on more promising fields near their own borders nor merely look and pity and deplore the discouraging appearance and pass by, but must unitedly take hold, go in and reap as workers together with God with a missionary spirit forming character after Christ's pattern, helping as help is needed with no time to be lost.
The call exposes the sadness of few laborers and no delay, for intelligent effort can accomplish much when fields are already ripe, and it calls for men who can both sow and reap. Members long in the truth must feel a burden for souls to carry on city work after the evangelist leaves so that a harvest is gathered and not lost, entering into others' labors by staying with and following up interest raised by city evangelists, as needed in places like Los Angeles. The same harvest opportunity is present in reaching people seeking health and those who care for them, where fruit for eternal life can already be gathered by those who enter into earlier workers' labor and share their joy. Efforts such as a restaurant, treatment rooms, and a reading room sow seed by serving people and teaching the message, and the harvest will soon follow with sowing and reaping close together.
Present workers also enter others' labors by taking up properties and buildings already prepared and suitable for sanitarium work, especially in Southern California, purchasing them and carrying the work forward in the country on sensible, rational lines where patients can have sunshine, fresh air, and out-of-door life, for the fields are white already and the work must not be delayed. They enter a harvest field made ready through earlier labor where the whitening field is ready, and should go forward in faith even when funds are scarce, for God will be with them and persevering effort will open new fields and bring many to know the truth. They must press into fields where little or nothing has yet been done, laboring earnestly to bring people to eternal life, for the field is the world and the harvest is ready and prepared by earlier workers including the pioneers. This sending was first to the twelve and later to the seventy to preach the kingdom of God in towns and villages, and now applies to church members whose task is to gather the harvest already prepared.
The harvest field is the work of winning souls, and sowing and reaping for the Master calls believers away from faultfinding into active service. Christ's work among the Samaritans sowed truth that others can carry forward, and those who know the truth are to sow it in minds of people who need to understand the Bible, so their labor may bear fruit through work begun by Christ and others. Every laborer is to do his very best to improve talents so he can be a successful sower and also a successful reaper of harvest sown by other men of God's appointment, using every God-given ability to spread the truth and warn people while the harvest is ready. Faithful sowers present the testing truths for this time before large and small gatherings at much labor cost and may rest without gathering the harvest, and afterward other appointed workers go over the same ground where hardship, adversity, sorrow, loss of property, and changes of providence recall earlier words with vivid distinctness and prepare minds to accept the truth, so the sower's work is finished in a rejoicing reaping.
I sent you to reap means to gather a spiritual harvest into eternal life that was made ready by work you did not do, entering into the labors of others who sowed before you. At Sychar this was the Samaritans already coming to Christ through the woman's testimony, a field white already to harvest with no four months to wait, though the disciples had done nothing to prepare them. Christ Himself was the great Sower who had presented the truth and awakened interest, together with patriarchs, prophets, holy men, and John the Baptist who prepared minds to receive the gospel. He looked ahead to the great ingathering at Pentecost, when empowered by the Holy Spirit the disciples would gather thousands in a day and do even greater works than He had done. One sows and another reaps, so sowers and reapers are fellow workers who share the joy and reward, and the reapers must not take the glory to themselves but enter the former work with humility.
Setting at Samaritan Well
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples at the well of Sychar after His talk with the Samaritan woman. They had been gone a long time to get food and found Him absorbed in meditation with His face beaming, and when they urged Him to eat He answered lovingly that He had food they did not know. That food was to do the will of the Father who sent Him and to finish His work.
The mission work there commenced with His asking her, Give me to drink, though Jews thoroughly despised Samaritans. To her He offered the gift of God and living water. In that offer were invitations of mercy and goodness that cut away doubt and questioning about finding mercy and grace and salvation in God.
In that Samaritan mission He crossed Jewish prejudice and Pharisaic custom by mingling freely with a despised people. He lived among them, accepted their hospitality, slept under their roofs, ate food prepared and served by their hands, and taught in their streets. He treated them with utmost kindness and courtesy, with human sympathy and social kindliness, and He likewise sat as honored guest even at the table of publicans in recognition of the dignity of humanity.
The woman listened, believed His word without any miracle, and was glad for the light. She left her waterpot, went and published it to her neighbors and told the city about Him, and the people came out to Him. His own teaching then led many to believe after hearing Him Himself.
Their coming was a field white already to harvest with no four months to wait. It was given as an object lesson to the disciples and to all seeking the salvation of souls that locality after locality needs workers and the harvest is to be reaped at once. The work calls for men who see beneath the surface and discern present readiness instead of saying there are yet four months.
The disciples failed to recognize the ready field in Samaria. The Samaritan woman whom they despised proved more effective than they did, bringing a whole city to hear. Their later work built on hers before they recognized the field's readiness.
The lesson at Sychar showed the gospel reaches beyond the Jews. His grace is not limited by race or nation, and people regarded as unworthy were hungry for truth. The saving message is for all peoples without territorial or social barriers, and the disciples were being taught to share in that work. They later found a welcome and gathered a harvest among Samaritans who had once been their enemies, after the Samaritans had heard how Jesus treated them with love despite their earlier rejection of Him.
Knowing the doctrine depends on coming to investigation of the Scriptures with a teachable spirit, ready to learn, with the heart emptied of prejudice. It means seeking to bring ideas to the Scriptures rather than bringing the Scriptures to ideas. Miracles alone do not give faith, for the Jews saw Christ come with majesty and grace in mighty healings and a mighty outpouring of His Spirit yet would not recognize Him, because prejudice reigned in their hearts and made even the mightiest miracles have no effect on them.
The Samaritans coming out and hearing proves that those who have never heard the truth and are counted as unbelieving have hearts more susceptible to the truth than those who have been in the truth and had the evidences of God's work yet excuse their unbelief.
Reaping Without Prior Labor
The saying means those sent are to reap a spiritual harvest produced by work they did not begin, entering into the labors of other men who sowed before them and gathering results made possible by that earlier labor. It was applied first to the twelve and later to the seventy, sent to preach the kingdom of God in towns and villages, to gather people into the gospel work begun by others. Its success is not the reapers' to claim as glory, since God's appointed workers prepared the way before them.
In its immediate sense they were sent to gather the Samaritans who were already coming through the woman's testimony, though they had not done the work that prepared them. The harvest began when truth was given to one woman, who invited others to come and hear, and their response followed by direct teaching brought many to believe, with sowing and reaping close together and both sides rejoicing together. Those who reap in this way build on labor already done by others, and should go out to reach people who need the truth rather than remain focused only on the churches.
Reaping is gathering people into eternal life and into God's kingdom and the gospel work, and the reaper receives wages by gathering fruit unto life eternal. That harvest is the work of gathering souls, and it requires capable laborers with tact and skill so that none are lost, for the field is the world and the harvest is ready. Jesus urged immediate reaping because He saw what intelligent effort could accomplish when the fields are already ripe. The work needs men who see beneath the surface and discern present readiness instead of saying there are yet four months, exposing the sadness of few laborers and no delay.
The call therefore is for men who can both sow and reap, and for members long in the truth to feel a burden for souls to stay with and follow up interest raised by city evangelists after the evangelist leaves, so that a harvest of souls is gathered and not lost in places like Los Angeles. The saying promises success in labor because souls among both Jews and Gentiles were hungry for the bread of life and perishing for knowledge of the truth, with a great field open and the harvest ripe for the sickle to gather the sheaves. The readiness of the Samaritans, where seed sown in one mind immediately bore fruit without the usual waiting time between sowing and reaping, was a lesson to increase faith and encourage hearts to pray for laborers and enter the work.
Laborers Who Sowed Before
Christ Himself is the great Sower who had already presented the truth and created interest before the disciples were sent to reap. He had been sowing seeds of truth in the streets of the cities and in the synagogues and in Judea, clearly setting out the plan of salvation and outlining the conditions of salvation distinctly. By that teaching He awakened interest for the disciples to follow up and to perfect by reaping, so that Sower and reapers might rejoice together.
Since Adam's fall He had entrusted the word to servants who sowed it in human hearts, while God's grace nourished the seed and He watered it with His own blood during His earthly life. The conversions at Pentecost were the harvest of that long work and showed the power of His teaching.
The sowers include patriarchs, prophets, holy men, and God's ancient chosen people enriched with precious truth as the river of God. Christ did the earlier sowing as their invisible leader through the wilderness travels and as the water of life to Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and all who received His instruction. Through His Son He supplied them with the Word and with the dews and showers of grace.
The other men who labored were prophets and teachers who prepared minds to receive the gospel, and holy men sent before Him to prepare the way. John the Baptist, whose voice cried in the wilderness, prepared for this very result.
The words were spoken in anticipation of the disciples' being ordained and sent out when Christ's earthly work was soon to close. The apostles were to follow after to bring the work to completion and to perfect it by reaping the harvest.
Pentecost Harvest Foretold
At Samaria Jesus was looking forward to the great ingathering at Pentecost, when through the work of the disciples thousands would be converted in a day. After His ascension they would be empowered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to do even greater works than He had done, testifying of His trial and rejection and death until multitudes believed. That harvest would be the result of His own sowing and not of their efforts alone, for since Adam's fall He had entrusted the word to servants who sowed it in human hearts, while God's grace nourished the seed and He Himself watered it with His blood during His earthly life, so that the Pentecost conversions showed the power of His teaching. The same sending still holds for His workers now, for the fields are ripe and they are called to take up work made ready by those who labored before them.
That harvest was not to be viewed as the result of their own labor, since it depended on truth prepared and grace given before their own work. The sowers were the patriarchs and prophets and holy men, and God's ancient chosen people enriched with precious truth as the river of God. Christ Himself had done the earlier sowing as their invisible leader through the wilderness travels, and as the water of life to Abel and Seth and Enoch and Noah and all who received His instruction, supplying them through His Son with the Word and with the dews and showers of grace. Because God's blessings in that sowing are often overlooked while men take the glory to themselves, those who reap must recognize the former laborers and enter into their labors with humility rather than claiming the honor for themselves.
The sending to reap was applied first to the twelve and later to the seventy, sent to preach the kingdom of God in towns and villages. Their work was part of a shared harvest in which those who sow and those who reap rejoice together in fruit gathered for eternal life. The field for church members is still the world, and the task is to gather the harvest already prepared by earlier workers.
Sowers and Reapers Together
One sows and another reaps, for sowing and reaping are divided between different workers who serve as fellow workers for God and share in the joy, reward, and eternal harvest, and the sower may not gather the harvest he planted. Those sent to reap enter into labors performed before them and gather fruit unto life eternal, so that sower and reaper rejoice together, each using gifts and abilities faithfully in the role given. The success of the reaping is not for the reapers to claim as glory, since God's appointed workers and agencies prepared the way before them, and those blessings in the sowing are often overlooked while men take the glory to themselves. The harvest gathered depends on truth sown by the great Teacher and by others before, so workers enter it with humility and let Sower and reapers rejoice together rather than taking the honor to themselves.
Faithful sowers present the testing truths for this time before large and small gatherings at much labor cost, and they may face opposition and see no harvest in their own lifetime. Later workers of God's appointment may return to the same ground or go over the same ground after the sowers rest, serving at different times or in different places, and many souls see the truth under their labors. Then hardship, adversity, sorrow, loss of property, changes of providence and changes in people's lives recall earlier words with vivid distinctness and prepare minds to accept the truth, so seed planted long before takes root and bears fruit for another messenger and finishes the sower's work in reaping with much rejoicing. In spiritual work faithful sowing may thus bear fruit through another worker, so the visible result does not alone measure a worker's character, but honest, diligent labor does. Those who receive the truth owe God their individual service as living agents and channels to win others, whether their work is sowing or gathering, each laboring faithfully in the work God gives.
The harvest is the gathering of souls into eternal life, and it requires capable laborers with tact and skill so that none are lost, for harvesters are few. Soul-winners are needed in every place where the standard of truth bearing the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus has been lifted up, receiving wages by gathering fruit unto life eternal. Much unselfish labor bears fruit beyond the worker's knowledge and even after death, for faithful parents, teachers, and other workers may die without seeing the good begun, while those taught carry its influence onward for others to reap. In the hereafter the full, lasting, multiplying effects of such labor will be made clear.
New workers reap results made possible by older workers and should honor them, working conscientiously in responsibilities entrusted to them rather than claiming control or imposing their own plans. They should not presume to take over labor prepared by others, but should first work alongside an experienced, wise worker who can test ability and readiness for ministry. As people begin the work in any place, God sets heavenly agencies to prepare the way for those who sow and reap, for God gives each person work to do and no one should restrict that work by human plans or barriers. Those now in charge of the publishing work at the great heart of the cause have entered into other men's labors, since that great instrumentality was built by others' toil and present managers are only men employed to carry on work entrusted to their hands. Because they did not create it, all God requires is to deal justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God, and labor conscientiously without gathering control into finite hands or placing their own mould and superscription upon it.
Later workers in the publishing work who take over what earlier workers built and reap advantages in large wages from branches prospered and grown financially strong do no wrong in itself by so benefiting, for they are beneficiaries of years of planning and executing by others who did the self-denying part. Those earlier builders brought the work forward step by step by self-denial, self-sacrifice, and putting earnings back into the cause. Present handlers are called to remember that history, discern who did the work, show they value it, and truly appreciate the trials, perplexities, financial pressure, prayers and tears behind its rise, which most now handling it ignorantly overlook and fail to appreciate.
Present Calls to Reap
Christ's followers are sent to gather people already prepared by the labor of others, and therefore they must go out to those who need the truth rather than remain focused only on the churches. Ministers must learn not to hover over the churches while souls close by perish for lack of knowledge, but to work all parts of God's vineyard, some to sow and some to reap, remembering that they reap seed sown by the great Teacher and must not take the glory to themselves because God's appointed agencies prepared the way before them. The harvest is shared, with sower and reapers rejoicing together in fruit gathered unto life eternal.
Workers are called to act while opportunity is ripe and to gather diligently where ripe fruit is already available, for neglected fruit may spoil and opportunities can be lost through delay. At Newcastle earlier workers had distributed books and prepared people to hear, so the field was ready for those then preaching there, and sowers and reapers share in that work and its eternal harvest. The same sending applies to proclaiming the gospel in neglected fields including nearby cities in America, where believers are responsible to enter the work and gather people to eternal life even where earlier laborers prepared the way. It applies with urgency to warning the cities and using every God-given ability to spread the truth as Christ's coming draws near, since gospel workers enter into the labor of those who sowed before them and share with them in joy over fruit for eternal life.
The harvest image is directed to the Southern field, which needs workers to sow and reap and needs financial support to maintain them. There workers are to help those receiving the truth become equipped to help others, for one sows and another reaps and those who reap enter into earlier workers' labor. Destitute, unworked fields, especially the colored people of the South, are a harvest to be reaped, for they have souls to save and are neighbors in God's sight, and those in most need are the ones God's people are called to consider and help. Lifting eyes to look on the field is not enough, and God's people must not fix their eyes on more promising fields near their own borders nor merely look and pity and deplore the discouraging appearance and pass by, but must unitedly take hold, go in and reap as workers together with God with a missionary spirit forming character after Christ's pattern, helping as help is needed with no time to be lost.
The call exposes the sadness of few laborers and no delay, for intelligent effort can accomplish much when fields are already ripe, and it calls for men who can both sow and reap. Members long in the truth must feel a burden for souls to carry on city work after the evangelist leaves so that a harvest is gathered and not lost, entering into others' labors by staying with and following up interest raised by city evangelists, as needed in places like Los Angeles. The same harvest opportunity is present in reaching people seeking health and those who care for them, where fruit for eternal life can already be gathered by those who enter into earlier workers' labor and share their joy. Efforts such as a restaurant, treatment rooms, and a reading room sow seed by serving people and teaching the message, and the harvest will soon follow with sowing and reaping close together.
Present workers also enter others' labors by taking up properties and buildings already prepared and suitable for sanitarium work, especially in Southern California, purchasing them and carrying the work forward in the country on sensible, rational lines where patients can have sunshine, fresh air, and out-of-door life, for the fields are white already and the work must not be delayed. They enter a harvest field made ready through earlier labor where the whitening field is ready, and should go forward in faith even when funds are scarce, for God will be with them and persevering effort will open new fields and bring many to know the truth. They must press into fields where little or nothing has yet been done, laboring earnestly to bring people to eternal life, for the field is the world and the harvest is ready and prepared by earlier workers including the pioneers. This sending was first to the twelve and later to the seventy to preach the kingdom of God in towns and villages, and now applies to church members whose task is to gather the harvest already prepared.
The harvest field is the work of winning souls, and sowing and reaping for the Master calls believers away from faultfinding into active service. Christ's work among the Samaritans sowed truth that others can carry forward, and those who know the truth are to sow it in minds of people who need to understand the Bible, so their labor may bear fruit through work begun by Christ and others. Every laborer is to do his very best to improve talents so he can be a successful sower and also a successful reaper of harvest sown by other men of God's appointment, using every God-given ability to spread the truth and warn people while the harvest is ready. Faithful sowers present the testing truths for this time before large and small gatherings at much labor cost and may rest without gathering the harvest, and afterward other appointed workers go over the same ground where hardship, adversity, sorrow, loss of property, and changes of providence recall earlier words with vivid distinctness and prepare minds to accept the truth, so the sower's work is finished in a rejoicing reaping.