Matthew 9:37, commentary and pictures

The harvest is people and souls needing grace, salvation and truth, and it is plenteous, great and ripe and ready to be gathered while the workers to gather them are few and too scarce.
It was spoken after going through the cities and villages teaching, preaching and healing, when seeing the multitudes faint and scattered like sheep without a shepherd moved Him to compassion.
It is both a sorrowful lament over the lack of workers and a call to pray continually to the Lord of the harvest to raise up and send workers into the field.
The work belongs not to ministers alone but to every converted person, who must begin at home and nearby and do something with no idlers left.
The need is urgent because time is short and the end is near, with unworked fields near and far and cities at home and abroad still waiting for warning, so believers must volunteer without delay and labor persistently through weariness and opposition.

Christ's Compassionate Setting

The saying was spoken after going through cities and villages teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease, when the multitudes were seen fainting, weary and scattered as sheep having no shepherd. The people in need of the gospel are a plentiful harvest ready to be gathered, while those ready to serve them are few. Compassion for the weary and scattered moves to the call for workers to be sent into God's harvest, and the call to pray for workers is a call for faithful ministers and others to devote abilities to gospel work rather than bind themselves to lesser pursuits while souls perish in sin. The plain work laid down is Christian united to Christian and church to church, human instrumentality cooperating with the divine, every agency subordinate to the Holy Spirit, combined to give the world the good tidings of the grace of God to all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples. The saying reflects understanding of human worth and the work to bring salvation to sinners through faith that forsakes sin and saves.

Their shepherdless condition included receiving no help from priests and rulers, so help came by teaching them the way of salvation and ministering to them. Revealing truth and bringing the bread of life continued despite prejudice and opposition, with hearts among people without great privileges prepared to receive it. Angels were preparing hearts to receive the warning, even where hundreds of large cities had not yet been reached by a preacher though silent messengers had influenced people, and many were longing for light and asking for help with Scripture. The disciples were then commissioned and empowered to serve, appointed as representatives and teachers to bring the message and the bread of life, so believers would have guidance when He was no longer with them.

The saying describes the early work of preaching the third angel's message, when few workers carried a heavy burden amid hardship and opposition in shortness of time, while later preachers received the truth already carefully developed and made clear, and the shortness of time calls for active labor. The Lord's vineyard has a large work with open doors on every side and only a few years left to work while the day lasts, so missionaries and youth urged by the Holy Spirit must enter speedily and be helped forward and sent out to work while the day lasts, not held back for years of training at Battle Creek or Ann Arbor until education is counted complete. Completeness of education can never be attained in this life because education continues through the ceaseless ages of eternity, and earnest preparation should advance workers to advantage without long delay. Christ's method proves this, for although His followers were fishermen He did not send them first to the school of the rabbis but called them from their nets to follow Him and become fishers of men, and called Matthew from the receipt of custom to follow Him, requiring only that they follow Jesus and do as He commanded in His school where God could be their teacher.

Many needing Bible truth can respond readily, as the Samaritans did, so Christlike compassion for needy souls moves believers to labor for them and grieve over fields left without workers. The plenteous harvest follows when the seed of truth has been sown in hearts by camp-meeting labor, and that harvest must then be ripened and gathered by those who remain to follow up the work through the Spirit's power. It is a large, deep interest with people hungry and greedy for truth and new Sabbathkeepers found every day. Labor put forth after the influence of the meeting has been felt is far more successful than the same expense and labor before it. The laborers gather successfully only by walking softly and humbly before God, praying and watching unto prayer, with the cooperation of heavenly angels and Christ working by His Holy Spirit upon human hearts.

Harvest Plenteous Described

The harvest is people, souls needing Christ's grace and blessing, the gospel, salvation and truth, and it is plenteous, great, abundant, many, ripe and ready, while the work to be done for them is great. The multitudes in their suffering and need make the harvest plentiful, and Christ's compassion for them as weary and scattered leads to the call for workers to be sent into God's harvest, with the disciples then commissioned and empowered to serve. It is His sorrowful lamentation over the lack of workers for such a harvest, showing that God calls for workers and that men of clear judgment and humble hearts are needed, to be reached only with deep Christlike sympathy.

The harvest embraces every class, both the honored and the lowly, including those suffering sickness, sorrow, want, degradation, distress, sin and ignorance, who need the knowledge of Christ's grace and compassionate ministry as Christ gave it, and who can become subjects of His kingdom. The same need remains now, and medical evangelistic tours among towns and villages with faithful canvassing preparing the way can gather many souls from both higher and lower classes. While the poor and destitute are in no case to be neglected, the highways and especially the higher classes are a neglected ripe work needing all capabilities, since there are neither men nor money for work among the very lowest, and working for the higher class will give strength and ability to carry forward the other lines. There are also fields all ripe in a class the work needs, the most promising crops in the vineyard, who will stand royally for truth and give influence to the work for this time, yet too little is done for them in many places; they must not be passed over and left unharvested but harvested by holding camp-meetings in different localities to reach them.

The harvest also means people ready to be gathered, hungry for truth, white and ripe, near to entering the kingdom, longing for light and asking for help with Scripture, seen in many cities and in vast territories and unworked parts of the vineyard where light has not reached. In Europe hundreds of large cities had not yet been reached by a preacher though silent messengers had influenced people and angels were preparing hearts to receive the warning. Gathering requires wise, skilled, sanctified, earnest workers who win rather than drive souls, laboring in evangelism with prayer for more laborers because time is limited, volunteering now with consecration, Scripture study, experience and sincere courteous personal effort to rescue souls in the last days. This readiness, including those who opposed the Sabbath and fields in Australia, calls for revival, reformation and constant change instead of routine narrow plans.

Their need for the pure gospel and the bread of life is like hunger, requiring devoted earnest workers themselves guided by the Spirit of God to break that bread to hungry souls. The harvest field is the cities where people have not had truth presented, have not heard the warning of the Lord's soon coming and that the end of all things is at hand, and hasten to death without the gospel invitation and without knowing sins may be forgiven through a crucified and risen Saviour. Unless the church receives the missionary spirit to go in devoted self-sacrificing aggressive warfare, pleading for the Holy Spirit and holding forth the words of life as doors open, laborers remain few, though opposers will enter by the same open door and hearers once taught as it is in Jesus become responsible for rejection. The Lord therefore calls for workers to teach and preach in cities and villages, in highways and byways, to all classes, for large cities are abundant fields ready for sowing and gathering, while those remaining at home share by prayer and encouraging words that hold up the workers' hands.

The world is the field, a great harvest field in need of workers, and working in it is laboring with Christ where God works through the workers to help precious souls progress in light. God's people are to go out as missionary laborers, spread truth widely in many places, serve souls unselfishly rather than concentrate in one place, use resources to support fields throughout the world, and work together with each helping the others, which leads people to believe God sent His Son. The whole world is missionary ground where the message should be carried wherever not yet heard, fields once difficult are opening, Christians must work actively with urgency to proclaim truth, and present efforts with divine power alongside human effort will bear results whose full extent is known only in eternity.

The fields are all ripe, with great work in cities and suburbs and calls in every direction, because repentant souls in both Christian and heathen lands lift voices for help, including neglected home fields left undone for want of laborers so that little is accomplished. Destitute fields ready for gospel work need support so institutions can be established. Ministers and members must go into the vineyard at once with decided testimony and not a moment to lose, proclaiming forgotten Bible truths and finding harvest in accepters who stand beside teachers to win others, while at the same time inhabitants under Satan bind in bundles ready to burn, for God's judgments are in the land and the obstinate unconvinced by warnings will be bound for burning. The plenteous harvest is mission fields nigh and afar that Providence has opened, new territory and dark corners belonging to God though usurpers hold His property, to be entered at once to raise the standard, present truth and push to victory without waiting for treasury funds or letting an exhausted treasury retard enlargement, trusting infinite resources, moving wisely, following the Spirit who opens ways and means, avoiding needless purchases, binding wants, studying necessity over convenience, and training youth to self-denial as Sabbath-school pennies supply beneficence.

The harvest is pictured as fruit ready nearby that can be missed when workers look elsewhere, where delay leaves some spoiled, requiring steady firm persevering effort without failing or discouragement by consecrated sowers of truth, under which a good work can be done where much remains. Gathering even one person can be a sign of a coming harvest, calling for every possible effort to win people with confidence of success, as at Maitland where success could bring many who then work for others. Large crowds show precious souls to be gathered by leading to Christ, needing wise work so people find in Him the peace and rest that foretaste heaven.

The greatness lies in souls perishing unwarned in cities and other fields, where present truth must be proclaimed without delay by willing workers and supporting gifts, for each soul saved unto eternal life is worth more than a world and calls to follow and labor in self-denial and sacrifice. Unworked ready fields are people who have not heard truth, needing workers and resources to carry it before they perish in sin. The harvest includes those benumbed, dead in trespasses needing arousing by Bible truth, precious souls out of Christ outside the fold, and a great field of nations, tongues and localities now whitening and wasting near the close of time for want of workers. Laborers are few because people are sleepy, unconsecrated, apathetic, self-indulgent, loving ease, without Christ's self-denying spirit, prizing not and holding back qualified gifts God sends, losing opportunities recorded by angels; the call is to humble hearts in deepest humiliation, pray for pardon and blotting out of neglected duty, seek co-workers for extended effort, double the presses, establish schools to educate youth, gain knowledge to reach other peoples, and labor and give influence and means freely as received. Those knowing truth share by urging ministers forward, backing them with prayers like sharp sickles, bearing decided witness, bringing gifts and offerings so goers have means, and bringing money though not called to ministry shares through the teacher supplied and doubles talents, bringing great blessing.

Few Labourers Lamented

The harvest of souls to be gathered to God is truly great, yet the workers to gather it are few and too scarce. The present lack is felt especially in distant places and in cities, villages, towns and homes where the work has scarcely begun, calling for many more living preachers and other workers to warn sinners and win them to Christ. That need extends throughout the world to carry truth to those in darkness and to foreign missions among people of different nationalities, and it is met as men develop their abilities to become ministers who teach truth and seek the salvation of others. Those who learn with humility and become qualified to serve show what such workers are, and Christians are to develop intellect by study, observation, reflection and prayer in order to serve and share Christ's love and power.

The shortage grows worse when talent is not developed and church members are not enlisted and taught to serve, for trained lay members could help care for those reached and keep the work advancing. Laborers have been held back from the harvest, and lost opportunities with inadequate knowledge of how to reach different nations and communities have delayed the missionary work that calls for diligent self-denying labor. Selfishness and talents left unused deepen the lack, while proper education and cultivation could prepare more workers, even raising twenty ministers where there is now one. Ripe fields have been neglected because of narrow plans and failure to look beyond established ways, calling workers to take responsibility for advancing Christ's commission. In America there are thousands of places where the standard of truth has never been raised and the proclamation never heard, while thousands who might enter the field remain religiously idle, stumbling and doubting for lack of vital connection with Christ, instead of using given knowledge to save perishing souls, moving where truth has not been proclaimed even at cost, and setting up the standard of the cross wherever access is found rather than merely giving money while withholding self.

Calls for truth to be preached come from all directions while there are too few ministers to send, so many who ask must be left without a living messenger in towns and villages that have not heard. Rochester was a large field with broad opportunity and few laborers, showing the need for more workers and willingness to endure poverty and hardship so the work could advance. The vast field of Texas, where many longed for light but had only one preacher, illustrates the same abundance of ready harvest with too few workers, calling for more ministers and men and women as missionaries and for prayer to the Lord of the harvest to raise them up. The question where the reapers are applies to New Jersey, where many places still required workers to reach the plentiful ready harvest. The urgent need is for qualified workers, and harm comes when those already in the field neglect their duty to reach and teach. This lack is to be taken to heart and supplied in faith and hope by personal effort, preaching to thousands by writing living matter with holy power for papers and tracts and by intelligent correspondence.

Only one worker stands where there should be one hundred, even hundreds are needed where only two or three serve, and the world's need of the last gospel message in the short time for work calls for thousands of well-trained evangelists. It is high time to awake out of sleep and multiply workers, scattering the forces and making new plants in all parts of the vineyard and moving forward in faith to gather the harvest with assurance that the Lord will care for those who go, without delay before probation closes. The field is large with many lines of work in different parts, needing a hundred laborers where now there is but one, and advancing into new fields makes it necessary to train many laborers without delay. Intelligent and promising youth are needed to fill positions in schools and sanitariums and to be trained as medical missionaries where they are, and they must not be called away from places they can fill to be centered in one place from which God has told them to move.

The scarcity is seen in the vast German mission field with few German-speaking laborers to meet its need. Rochester is described as a large field with much work to do and few workers, needing more laborers to advance the work. The move to Rochester was an entering of such a plentiful field despite poverty and hardship, and enduring hardship there is worthwhile if it advances God's work. Because laborers are so few, losing two missionaries is a serious loss. Candidates for ministry therefore cannot spend years in thorough education but need rapid training in the subjects most necessary for their work.

Experienced laborers are so few that every worker is needed and none can be spared from the ranks, but faithful laborers should remain in service, walking by faith and trusting the unerring Guide even when finite sight cannot discern all that God knows. God raises humble, devoted, godly people to work in the harvest, while ministers who become reprobate concerning the faith lose the crowns that faithful laborers will receive. Humble workers who answer the call for urgent consecrated labor receive divine help and labor with Christ in the field. Those called should enter humbly, patiently and faithfully, proving worth through continuous effort, with service giving opportunity to learn and become ready for greater responsibilities. Reaping is done through heavenly instrumentality cooperating with human agencies, and the extent reaped will match the increase of human agency working under the superintendency of holy messengers. In the destitute neglected settlements near Cooranbong, on every station to Queensland and from Morisset to Sydney, many souls ready to be saved need warning and the Word of life opened to them, and prayer must be made for laborers to pray, worship, and read and explain the Scriptures, depending on the Holy Spirit, for God has made every provision and laborers together with God must wait and pray for the Spirit to work for them and in them to make labors acceptable, with burden for those ready to perish hungering and thirsting to feel need of a new heart and surrender to take hold of God's strength.

Prayer for Labourers

The saying is a sorrowful lament over the lack of workers for a plentiful harvest, and a call to pray continually to the Lord of the harvest to raise up and send workers into His harvest and vineyard. The prayer is to come from sincere lips, with fasting for fields where souls are ready to receive truth, rather than criticizing those He accepts to labor. Its setting is compassion for fainting multitudes scattered as sheep without a shepherd, and its plain work is Christian united to Christian and church to church, human instrumentality cooperating with the divine with every agency subordinate to the Holy Spirit to give the good tidings of grace to all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples. The harvest so lamented is people needing the gospel, abundant and ready while workers are few, and the call to pray is a call for faithful ministers and others to devote abilities to gospel work rather than bind themselves to lesser pursuits while souls perish in sin, including in sanitarium work where Jesus as Chief Physician works alongside those who serve body and soul.

Prayers that go with laborers into the field are like sharp sickles preparing the way and giving fruit. They are sent by the people, by those remaining at home, by orderly churches, and by backers urging ministers forward with witness and offerings. Churches must send preachers out into new work rather than hold them for sermonizing over established believers, while sowers and reapers alike are followed by prayer. In times when countries open and ask for the word, no one is to remain idle or leave people unreached, and the lasting results of faithful work will be known only in eternity.

Those who remain at home share the work by giving themselves to prayer and by speaking encouraging words that hold up the hands of the workers. The church and its institutions are to send workers into the Lord's field and sustain them with sympathy, opportunity to develop, and means, for He watches over those at work so their interest need not fail. God answers such prayer by raising up worthy men who can do good work, yet laborers remain few when there is no board and wages to keep them in the field, so the work is cut down and essential needs go crippled. Spending entrusted means on wholly unessential items and needless selfish gratification instead of supporting workers violates stewardship of God's goods, since Christ gave His own life to save perishing souls.

Fervent prayer and faith can bring Pentecostal seasons even now. The work has eternal significance and time belongs to God, so servants must work faithfully and willingly to the best of ability, bringing love into all service and linking the seen with the unseen in complete faith, and then God labors with them to give definite results. The way to obtain more laborers is by most earnest prayer to the heavenly Father and by receiving the impartation of the Holy Spirit, which wakes people from half-hearted working and spiritual indifference to zeal, animation, genuine interest in eternal things and unreserved consecration. United prayer thus seeks ingathering, as in the hoped-for spiritual harvest of people gathered to God in Oakland.

Prayer for success must be matched by giving self and personal labor, not desire without effort. The ready harvest includes vast territories where truth has not reached and places calling for help, so especially young men are to consecrate and prepare themselves, and those religiously idle should enter the work rather than wait to be carried, since vital union with Jesus enables labor for God. Believers should go where truth has not been proclaimed to sow and reap for Christ, and doing this keeps them busy helping others instead of criticizing fellow believers. Yet people may pray for help and still reject the help God sends when it comes in unexpected humble form, as the Jewish nation rejected Christ, which calls the church to humility and correction rather than overlooking what it needs.

Praying God to raise laborers requires acting faith when ready human agents appear. Willing men anxious to give Bible readings and enter the ministry, as at Ashfield and Sydney, must not be coolly dropped for lack of support but kept at work with a helping hand, work to do, and remuneration from honest tithe sufficient for room, rent and living, with ministers themselves doing with less in clothing to clothe others. The present lack of workers and money is felt especially in distant places and cities where the work has scarcely begun and has nothing to give it character, calling for constant day and night supplication for the Lord to send money and workers. Believers in America who are nearsighted, cannot see wants afar off, and keep nearly all means where truth already has every advantage must be stirred to make even the first move where it is unknown.

The need to pray in faith for God to raise up and send laborers is illustrated by many openings on the Pacific coast with too few to fill them. San Francisco and Oakland with great need for workers, Sweden as a ripe field of honest people who have not heard the first, second and third angels' messages with very few workers, the interest from the Armadale camp-meeting with calls from Melbourne's suburbs showing need for more workers and resources, and growing New England needing additional help to guide new believers onward near the close of time all show the same shortage.

The call to pray is not a demand for ceaseless toil, for Jesus tells disciples to pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers and speaks compassionately to worn workers inviting them to rest awhile. Workers are appointed agents and channels through whom light from heaven is communicated, and their God-given powers must be carefully used, since careless use weakens ability to serve effectively when greatest good can be done. The worldwide work calls for all the ability and strength workers have, yet its urgency does not require abuse of powers, and after doing their best they may recognize the greatness of the harvest and fewness of workers while remembering God knows human frailty. They are not to ignore rest or press beyond strength, for overwork can cost lives and leave them resting in the grave until the resurrection, so speech, voice and energy are to be kept without passion or waste for highest service to prolong life.

Labourers God Calls

The laborers called for are men and women of clear judgment and humble hearts, wise, skilled, sanctified, earnest, efficient and God-fearing, needed because the harvest is plentiful and ready. They win souls rather than drive them away, putting away all self-sufficiency and self-importance and tearing every cherished idol from the soul temple in the meekness of Christ. Those chosen are such as are won by the whole-hearted example of believers in service, who can receive orders and perform the work with steadfast faith in Christ as an accepted personal Saviour, a pure clean heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith that works by love and purifies the soul. With self hid in Christ, with love to God supremely and to neighbor as self, with meekness, humility, unselfish love and obedience filling the soul with the joy of Christ, they live as light in the Lord in constant support of grace, with tact and wisdom to win many.

The work does not belong to ministers alone but to every converted person whose life matches faith, beginning at home and nearby. People of good character can labor for the salvation of neighbors and friends by speaking with them, urging the importance of truth with wise, careful, loving effort, and they must not leave it all to ministers or wait for them while neglecting duty. All who know the truth, including neighbors and nearby towns, and all who believe the message for this time, must do something for the Master, with no idlers.

Consecrated young people, able youth who know the truth, students and missionaries can become earnest, persevering workers who warn sinners, guide them to Christ, and point unbelieving and discouraged souls toward heaven. They should enter promptly without waiting to finish years of training, because vast territories are open now, opportunities are present, and the time for labor is short. The church should help qualified youth, new believers and ordinary workers to enter with opportunities, money and influence, and Sabbath-school teachers are to win pupils to Christ so they in turn become faithful missionaries and Bible workers early.

The Master calls and sends from ordinary occupations, young and older with little formal education, seeing qualifications where others do not. Christ can prepare and fit them if they commit themselves to the work and keep learning, giving each work suited to abilities and opportunities entrusted without requiring of the lowly, unlearned, poor or infirm what circumstances or strength do not allow. In the closing work helpers are drawn from ordinary people whom Christ fits, including beginners who as they humbly learn and work receive the Spirit's power to speak, and people may go directly from the churches into the harvest even without ordination, and none should forbid them.

Women who believe the last-days warning message are called to active self-denying gathering work and must not be discouraged, reaching those ministers cannot reach. Families accepting the third angel's message must make earnest untiring efforts to proclaim truth amid opening countries asking for the word, with lasting results revealed in eternity, and the work includes bringing Jews the light by Jewish believers who take their stand. Women can also serve by writing missionary letters and distributing tracts and papers in the vineyard, and both unordained men and women can serve in many branches at home and abroad, with the church helping worthy students by raising education funds to be repaid so the fund remains, for the work must be done while there is time.

Laborers are needed who go and work wholeheartedly, even bearing their own expenses, where fields remain unentered for lack of self-sacrificing helpers. Christ calls workers to seek the saving of souls rather than worldly gain, wealth or an easier life, accepting self-denial, sacrifice, hardship and suffering, giving from responsibility not for wages. They may serve even without expecting wages in this world, for they will be abundantly rewarded in the next, and the need for more is reason to pray earnestly for God to send them rather than criticize or hinder those He has chosen.

Laborers are accepted only when learned in Christ's school with practical godliness, having the saving power of truth and joy in their own souls so they cannot forbear communicating it. Those imbued with His Spirit share intense love for all He died for and His desire to save sinners, serving as His representatives with His missionary spirit as One sent to gather into the garner, filled with the Spirit and working earnestly. New workers should be tested and trained alongside experienced leaders before responsibility, students trained early as Bible workers trusting God to establish the work, and the young and old from ordinary work with little education are equipped as they give themselves and keep learning.

Proper education and cultivation can prepare many more, raising twenty ministers where there is now one, while selfishness and unused talents worsen the fewness. The work languishes for want of workers, so people must be prepared to bear responsibility and God must be asked to raise workers, since the Spirit's blessing on effort matters more than abundant resources, and many youth must be trained for the various branches so the work is not hindered for lack of competent workers. Developing abilities brings more into service, while leaving talents unused leaves few.

One hundred consecrated women going forth as missionaries toiling in the field are called for, with more Frenchmen who can labor where Americans can do nothing. The real work is not ease, visiting churches and being waited upon, but hard work in hard fields among steel-hard hearts, winning way by working, weeping, praying and toiling in weariness under discouragement. Redlands and Riverside are fertile fields where brave committed workers are needed to reach visitors to southern California, proclaim present truth and warn of the day of the Lord, and the neglected colored work in education, health and mission needs laborers from those who love Jesus.

The sacred ministerial work of saving souls is crippled when defects of character and imprudences disqualify, so many more whole-being workers developing abilities to reach all classes are needed. The call is for consecrated earnest labor using different kinds of service to reach all classes unto conversion, with clear proclamation answering seekers often ending in disappointment. Work is judged by soul harvest, where truly won souls are seen, not by commercial lines where business rule yields little, and heavy debt and perplexing business binding a man and family to close hard labor unfit for the special soul-saving work of this last time.

A great work is to be done with many broad fields of usefulness opened in every direction ready for harvest, creating an extensive pressing demand, especially for those with literary qualifications and entrusted talents, which God alone can fit agents to meet. Those with fewer advantages and only ordinary ability who devote themselves in humility and unreserved consecration and submit to the Holy Spirit's discipline yoke with Christ and become laborers together with God. Their consecrated energy of character provokes others to zeal and good works.

Manner of Labour

The plenteous harvest with few workers is the church's united work under the Holy Spirit, Christian joined to Christian and church to church, human instruments cooperating with the divine to carry grace tidings to all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples. The extent gathered grows as human agencies increase under holy superintendence, for reaping is done by heavenly messengers working with human agents, and workers are appointed channels through whom light from heaven is communicated. Every agency is to be subordinate to the Spirit, with meekness putting away self-sufficiency, self-importance and cherished idols, and with devoted self-sacrificing labor in unison with angels moving hearts and consciences, while gifts given above all other purposes sustain the work and keep givers supplied.
A harvest of souls is gathered when workers follow right methods energetically and labor sincerely, humbly and selflessly under God's direction, with consecration and earnest study of Scripture giving experience, clearer knowledge and greater skill to rescue souls where needed. That work prospers when Christ dwells in workers and His power unites with their efforts as they work as He did to save sinners, while failure to work in step with God and angels impressing hearts hinders the cause. Ministers, Bible workers and canvassers gather souls by serving differently yet rightly and energetically, especially when the young are trained beside the experienced.
Labor for conversion means far more than sermonizing, requiring earnest personal effort in many kinds of work, with success coming not from the preacher but from the unseen worker behind the minister bringing conviction and conversion, so laborers need daily converting power of the Spirit to bear much fruit. Experienced workers are to take young inexperienced workers into the field and teach them to work successfully, church members are to qualify themselves and those fitted are to bear church burdens, and ministers thus freed are to go into aggressive labor taking younger men to train for active service. The shortage of ministerial workers makes preparing people to open the Scriptures and serve in ministry urgent, rather than turning them aside by misplaced encouragement.
The harvest field is the world and new regions without the message, not churches long in truth where believers have heard and received, and laborers as delegated messengers are not to hover over established believers but to carry Calvary's triumphs into new places. Members are to cease weak dependence and keep at work with intelligence and spirituality, churches are to appoint devoted pastors and faithful officers for local care and to bring in the tithe, prayers are to go as sharp sickles, and tithe is to sustain world messengers, since too much labor is spent on churches while the world must receive the message. Going out to sow and reap in Christ's lines to convict, convert, proclaim truth and help the suffering obeys God's law and cures criticizing and fault-finding, for workers with so much to do forget self and have no time for dissecting character, surmising evil, looking for faults, or working on the negative side as stumbling blocks to those working. All members can share though not preaching, helping in many other ways as shown in the object lesson of Brother Shireman's Spirit-guided and blessed work.
Strength is to be used where most good is done, entering new fields for conversion of unbelievers rather than spending it on those unwilling to learn, and directing workers and resources toward fields bringing a harvest rather than fruitless plans. Churches already raised also need continued care or they decline despite labor and means spent, and where interest has awakened with more work than hands can do, workers should concentrate where the harvest is ready instead of scattering.
Searching and gathering is required even where houses and activity make success seem unlikely, with readiness to care for results, and some joining expecting recreation rather than work does not change the call. Those nearby must not be overlooked, including intelligent influential people sought with earnest prayer, wise loving effort and patient invitations followed up, and abundance follows faithful sowing as the Lord teaches, blesses and brings in through preaching, visiting, Bible instruction and prayer.
The vineyard is large and calls for soul-saving labor for which all must give account before the Lord, and nothing is to keep anyone from it, with canvassing a most successful way all are urged to try. Young men with genuine burden gather the plentiful harvest by missionary work including circulating present-truth books that convert souls, and laborers together in the field are to be perfectly united in love as blood-purchased and precious, overcoming indifference and variance, putting away disunion, and speaking only encouraging words that advance one another, for in unity is strength and in division weakness.
Calls from all directions with too few ministers to send leave many without a living messenger, and the lack is to be supplied in faith and hope by personal effort, preaching to thousands by writing living matter with holy power for papers and tracts and by intelligent correspondence. Medical evangelistic tours among towns and villages gather many from higher and lower classes, faithful canvassing prepares the way, and well-trained medical missionaries carry mercy where work is undone.
The world's great harvest with too few workers calls for intelligent trained reform workers preparing a people for Christ's coming, skilled in combating disease and caring for sick and suffering, teaching and healing as appointed to gather a rich harvest. Trained medical missionaries must carry mercy to unreached parts rather than settle near established sanitariums for profit, physicians failing that service misuse influence against God, and medical work belongs in every harvest field where present truth goes and in earth's dark places, not bound only to lifting the depraved.
The claim reaches the church as long as any suffer and perish as shepherdless sheep, making it continuing duty to relieve physical suffering and spiritual poverty by presenting comfort and hope in Christ, including providing treatment places, which is a great work. Sanitarium work serves body and soul for every class including poor and afflicted, with Jesus the Chief Physician alongside workers, and physicians, managers and workers together lead patients to Christ while caring physically. Ministers entering the great field honor their calling by bringing people to truth and warning and teaching diligently unto maturity, and God's husbandmen opening Scriptures share joyous service not drudgery.
Willing offerers must first be educated and drilled by ministerial institutes and Bible schools until they learn laboring with God as Bible workers and canvassers who do proper work, or work goes haphazard, for the field needs thorough training to labor correctly since unprepared defiled workers harm while well-trained strengthen. The time to set apart workers had come with need for experience, instruction and correction to serve well, and workers now should volunteer, prepare by consecration and Scripture study, and make sincere courteous personal efforts, which deepens experience and equips to help souls. Schools and sanitariums like Takoma Park prepare workers for the great field, brief focused preparation suits young ministers, and leaders must recognize talents, train under experienced guidance and encourage going, not expecting miracles to replace effort.
The dark world is the field for the last message, and as God's plan deepens and widens each age to embrace the world, light-bearers and churches must stay awake, move with His purpose, embrace new territory and seize opportunity with greater devotion and zeal. All must work now putting away self-indulgence and idolatry, ministers laboring unselfishly, dying to self, pressing together in love, kind and courteous, a savor of life, missionaries going with holy zeal, and those at home adding the saved with earnest zeal and sending prayers as sharp sickles, with consultation and each doing duty to ability, brethren viewed as blood-purchased, and no time lost in personal troubles that forfeits bringing many to Christ. Best use of youth's talents by educating and training for home and all nations, unity of means and abilities rather than division amid Satan's and the world's opposition, entry in faith without waiting for funds with God present and persevering effort bringing souls, and awake zealous self-denying sacrifice after Christ's example in harmony with heaven's messengers belong to this same manner of labor.
God can supply sufficient humble workers through whom He works to advance the cause and bring embrace of truth where the harvest of souls is plentiful, but taking up work He has not assigned hinders the work.

Fields Ripe Worldwide

The plentiful people needing the gospel call for workers to be appointed and sent into neglected places, including cities at home and abroad that have received little work, with towns, villages and suburbs to be entered to sow, reap, build up the church under the Holy Spirit and carry the last message. Vast territories where the light of truth has not reached must be warned, for people there are ready to receive it, yet too few consecrate themselves, prepare and respond. Workers and resources must spread beyond centers rather than remain concentrated, so that all may receive warning and none be left unreached. Giving self to the work, and not prayer for success alone, is required to answer the calls for gospel light.

The worldwide mission embraces fields in America, Australia, England and beyond that are ready, white and ripe, while workers already in the field are few and need support. Countries are opening to the gospel and asking to hear God's word, so believers including families accepting the third angel's message must not remain idle but make earnest untiring efforts whose lasting results eternity will reveal. Missionaries are not half numerous enough for the white fields, and students preparing for missionary work must receive power from on high which God waits to give so they may go forth. Workers and means must be sent to neglected places rather than tied up where they cannot be used, with faithful tithe bringing means into the treasury to sustain those laboring and send out more to proclaim the last warning message.

In Europe hundreds of large cities had not yet been reached by a preacher, though silent messengers had influenced people, angels were preparing hearts, and many longed for light and asked for help with Scripture. The European field is great but laborers too small, and many more must be raised up by prayer. Many in Boston crave and are eager for the simple truth as it is in Jesus, yet too few workers are available to bring it and gain access, so laborers must enter, prepare the way in word and doctrine, sound the message, with reaping depending on the Holy Spirit on minds. The Southern field needs people to sow and reap as well as means to support them. Even a small number as in Copenhagen can share the truth, with each praying for success so prayers go with laborers like sharp sickles, and the work includes bringing Jews light by Jewish believers laboring for their own people, many to be convinced and stand for God, with any permitted to go from churches without ordination and none forbidding them.

The vast Texas field where many longed for light with only one preacher calls for more ministers and men and women missionaries, with prayer to the Lord of the harvest to raise them up. Many places in New Jersey still required workers where the question where are the reapers applies among ready receivers. The cities and valleys of Italy where many are ignorant of God's Word and hard to reach are a field needing missionaries, with prayer that God raise up workers. Destitute barren fields in plain sight including many unworked places in Iowa are ripe, already furnished in mercy with laborers of precious talents, but means must flow from churches into the treasury to carry forward, uplift the standard, and place workers, with neglect bringing condemnation.

In Colorado even one hundred workers would not suffice to proclaim the message in every place, calling for full devotion so the few do not exhaust themselves while others remain idle. Michigan as a neglected ripe field where many inactive should be winning souls calls for urgent wise finding, educating, training and sending, to have one hundred where there is one, without delay before Michael stands up and probation closes. America as a long-neglected ripe field with great work undone brings both joy for workers sent to Australia and sadness for need left behind, met only as God lays the burden and fills capable talented ones with His Spirit. Many American cities unworked need greatly enlarged work, since faithful city work wins those who then win others, while neglect leaves the harvest waiting and treasury depleted. Field after field stands open including the English-speaking field in Europe where people will be raised to carry truth to others, with greatest need where without light, so those with message and power must leave the editorial chair, enter where need greatest, plant the standard in new places and leave no portion unworked, under solemn responsibility where leaving God's children without light reflects on God and returns in judgment on neglecters of sacred truth.

The South is a plenteous harvest of white and colored needing salvation, many indifferent yet open to God's love, where the few must become many as talented Southern whites and blacks enter truth, answer calls and proclaim the last mercy message. Entering is steady forward work without debt, establishing Nashville publishing to supply suitable reading, seeking help even from sympathizing unbelievers for the colored work, sowing beside all waters, building churches schools and sanitariums, with worldly honor convenience and pleasure sinking beside saving souls. The colored harvest ripe white as precious grain must be given means now by cutting needless expenditure, dispensing with the not necessary, and giving savings by economy and self-denial, as God-given responsibility and duty. The Southern field long neglected to reproach, with thousands perishing for lack of workers, needs workers means encouragement and practical effort, needing help more than Europe or any country, with decided effort to redeem neglect, firm establishment of Nashville first, and hinderers who criticize and tear down what they did not build called to repent, cease judging, keep away if they will not build, and go work themselves.

In Australasia the broad field with too few workers brings urgent opportunity to train workers and send them to nearby islands. Large fields in Australia and New Zealand lacked workers, calling Christians including lay members to move to towns cities and islands to raise the standard. Destitute neglected settlements near Cooranbong, every station to Queensland and Morisset to Sydney, hold many ready souls needing warning and the Word of life opened by praying worshiping and reading and explaining Scripture, depending on the Spirit's cooperation, with every provision made and laborers with God waiting and praying for the Spirit to make labors acceptable with burden for perishing hungering hearts to feel need of new heart, surrender and take hold of God's strength. Fields in Australia were white with seekers of the Word, needing experienced faithful workers to carry truth into new fields and cities and to remain among ready fields saving the lost rather than repeatedly called away to institutes. In Cooranbong and surrounding bush many may respond to the marriage supper invitation, needing one hundred where one and work without stopping.

In California every jot of ability is needed because the harvest ripens for evangelical work. Parramatta and surrounding country hold sheaves ready where work only begun, yet the past year's report spread far and near, so moving from Melbourne is going directly into harvest to scores of souls brought to truth by testimony with the Lord present. Brighton and Williamstown near Melbourne show excellent interest with profound attention, several in Brighton standing on the Sabbath and in Williamstown from no Sabbathkeeper to steady increase with decisions in the valley of decision, calling for continued Spirit preaching under taxing strain, prayer for minds, immediate raising of healthy church and building and ordering believers without friction. Newcastle with many people and places ready needs more earnest devoted workers to begin and sustain, feeding spiritually hungry where few bear more than they can carry. Work for one with medical knowledge has ample room including New Zealand and islands and should not be pushed aside without encouragement and place. Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland, Melbourne and Australian cities with honest souls amid opposition need families sent from Battle Creek and churches.

God's field has abundant work for all, each responsible to use God-given abilities, with guilt for neglecting what one could do, and teaching youth to work reaches eternity with blessing on faithful effort. The plenteous harvest includes neglected American cities not yet entered needing help, with higher classes in highways to be reached rather than only depths of iniquity or lowest classes, making entering these cities first work that gives strength for other lines God pointed out. Boston as field with thousands craving simple truth needs the Lord in answer to prayer to raise laborers who gain access while the Spirit reaps.

Destitute fields all around in this portion of the vineyard are ripe and open, places never hearing truth waiting for the last mercy message, with new fields constantly opening and calls for worship places for receivers. Fewness is lack of means and workers to uplift the standard, build small meetinghouses and place workers, calling for urgent donations and self-denial by every privileged family, even denying bicycles to consecrate a fund. Foreign countries and new territory already ripe must be worked without delay, every field worked with due regard where nothing done, moving straight into new ground annexing territory, carrying truth to new places and establishing work abroad including sanitariums, sharing means with capable neighboring fellow laborers loved as self. Intense interest only in established work and disproportionate investment of capital and sanitarium income in one locality or under one man retards God's work, robs foreign ripe fields and leaves them unworked.

The field large and ready lacks workers and means as seen in Wellington, Christchurch and many New Zealand and Australian places, so prayer must ascend for laborers with urgency near earth's close to work while day lasts before night when none can work. Every representative must lift his burden to carry light to all earth, aroused from lethargy and languid slow measures, for want of deep interest grieves heaven in light of God's gift of His Son. Australia ready for advance with earnest workers should be established with sanitariums and schools then carry to England. The call to open new fields applies to Takoma Park and Washington as urgent missionary work needing laborers.

The great gathering work with unworked fields urgently needs home and foreign missionaries, with youth entering without delay rather than spending years preparing when they could work. The harvest of ready hearers great with too few calls for prompt decisive united humble Spirit-guided efforts with sufficient ministerial help and every possible effort for cities and distant places asking for workers and support. Advancing into new fields rather than gathering in one place or restricting resources to favored spots is required, for centralization and favoritism delay work and leave souls without Christ. Sydney of about a million, still larger Melbourne, and Queensland to be entered show abundance, with thirty Sabbathkeepers in one place never seeing a living preacher and others scattered waiting for truth.

Support Urgency and Reward

The few already in the field need to be supported, given sympathy and given opportunities to develop, while the Lord watches over His vineyard and the need continues as long as Satan works to destroy souls and people still need laborers. Supporting those workers is a proper use of the resources God gives, so that the work can be carried forward and bless others, and destitute ripe fields require such support including means to establish institutions there. Resources for this must remain available and not be diverted where they cannot be used, for God entrusts gifts so that offerings sustain His messengers in the field, while withholding tends toward poverty. Place after place still unworked is ripe and calling for workers, so the few must be upheld and still more sent forth, with faithful tithe bringing means into the treasury to sustain those laboring and to send out more.

Laborers have already been furnished for destitute ripe fields in plain sight, as in Iowa with its unworked places and precious talents, but means are now needed to carry the work forward so gifts must flow into the treasury from the churches. To neglect such ripe neglected fields brings condemnation. The means comes when all pay a faithful tithe, providing more in the treasury to support those already in the field and to send still more into places calling for the message. Holders of means are stewards and not owners, entrusted with resources so that gifts and offerings sustain workers and advance soul-saving, and the need for more messengers to carry light and truth is itself the call to use entrusted means. Spending largely on one portion while refusing others is misappropriation for which account must be given for memorials left unbuilt.

New and promising mission fields ripe for harvest call for time and money, and cutting off means from them brings sorrowful loss. Means too largely devoted to non-producing work should be redirected to reap the plenteous harvest in fields ready for labor. Money must be kept free and not tied up for years in Sanitarium bonds or other investments where it cannot be used when the work needs it, but kept available to supply workers for place after place still unworked. The fewness of laborers has come from withholding money so the vineyard could not be worked, binding about the work and centralizing facilities and congregations in Battle Creek while souls elsewhere starve for the bread of life, leaving a barren unworked vineyard where thousands should be rejoicing. The remedy is to spread believers over a larger surface, stop multiplying buildings where there are already too many, scatter the seed widely, and go forth to enter and work new destitute fields with sowing and warning, for there can be no harvest without seed-sowing.

The need is urgent because time is short, the end is near, and this is the closing work of the last days. Followers of Christ should volunteer without delay, prepare through consecration and Scripture study, and serve while opportunity remains with persistent untiring efforts through weariness and opposition. The ripening fields hold the unconcerned who must be warned with forgotten truths, and those truths will find accepters who in turn win others, with work to be done house to house wherever one is, especially as distant lands accept the message. Believers should ask the Lord to raise up more laborers and faithfully do what they can to rescue perishing souls and bring them to salvation, devoting abilities to gospel work rather than binding themselves to lesser pursuits.

Preparation requires experience, instruction and correction so workers can serve well, gained through consecration, earnest study of Scripture, and sincere humble courteous personal effort. In such labor workers gain clearer knowledge of truth and greater skill in helping people where they need it, while humble service deepens experience and equips them to reach souls. Love for those Christ died for should move believers to leave home comfort and labor for others as Jesus did. Those who resist discipline and refuse their God-given duty will answer to God, and neglecting the work leaves people without truth and brings a fearful account at the final judgment.

The work in the home conferences is only begun and not finished, while vast numbers elsewhere reach for help where nothing has yet been done and calls at home and abroad are numerous. This requires efficient earnest God-fearing laborers with interceding power with God, with humiliation of soul and weeping between porch and altar, awakening from sleep to full realization of the situation, and seeking God to demand and receive His waiting blessing instead of groping in doubt and darkness. The shortage urges ministers to wake up, repent and answer faithfully, and young people should be encouraged to enter home and foreign service without delay rather than spend years preparing when they could already be working. Pastors must involve and train members in active service and prepare more to bear responsibility.

Every believer should care for every part of the work and make persevering self-denying efforts to save souls, especially in difficult fields, helping the helpless and oppressed with received gifts and knowledge to lead others to the Saviour. The harvest work among the needy and suffering lays the most sacred responsibilities and most glorious privileges on God's people, so none believing in Christ can see that need and do nothing. All who believe the message for this time will go forth to do something, daily receiving grace from heaven to impart, and those who go will doubtless return rejoicing bringing sheaves, with confidence increasing, talents multiplying, obstacles becoming a plain path, and the spiritual desert blossoming as the rose. That harvest labor across different churches is one cause, advanced by setting things right in the churches.

Prayers go with laborers into the field like sharp sickles, and even a small number as in Copenhagen should each pray for success. Those remaining at home work with earnest zeal to add the saved to the church and send prayers with missionaries into the harvest, while lasting faithful results will be revealed in eternity. He who goes forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoicing bringing sheaves, for nothing succeeds like success, and when success is secured the work moves forward, so workers must go forth in faith even when the treasury is exhausted rather than wait. When young people enter with strong desire to save others their efforts reap a harvest with the Lord cooperating, and in Boston many more could be converted if workers followed Christ's self-denying example.

The Lord's work is vast with much to be done in many lines, needing more workers to carry truth to all the world against opposition. Youth talents are to be put to best use by educating and training them to serve at home and carry truth to all nations, with means and abilities united rather than divided, and institutions at Takoma Park established to prepare workers to go into the great field. The whitening field is ready, so workers should enter in faith rather than wait for adequate funds, trusting God will be with them and persevering effort will bring souls to truth. Saving souls is a great harvest requiring earnest toil in short time as Christ and the apostles exemplified in devoted zeal, with every moment used carefully, and shepherd ministers must faithfully care for the flock as examples and not be frivolous.

The plenteous harvest includes souls in regions where truth has never entered, portions of the vineyard left to run waste, and large communities in peril through making void the law yet praying for light while Christ draws them. Fewness of laborers comes where God's people are weakened by leaning on the minister and depending on human beings, so not ministers alone but every follower must lift the standard beyond a few select friends, yoked with Christ to plow, sow and gather a precious harvest with hope and courage. The field holds work suited to different abilities, some bearing larger burdens and teaching while others canvass among neighbors and cities not yet reached, and faithful service in a smaller task prepares for greater responsibility. Gospel work must spread into more places by sowing widely and establishing centers in different localities rather than crowding many lines into one place, and men and women including the unordained can serve in its several branches at home and abroad.

The Lord calls able young men to enter the great field and work by connecting with experienced laborers in new fields rather than with churches already established, trading on talents and trusting His guidance. Those He calls receive evidence they are chosen vessels with words and subject matter given them, and they are not to be made mere machines grinding out subjects by human dictation. God prepares both the fields and the way, and though discouragement comes His servants can rely on Christ's presence and promises. God needs missionaries because barren fields in America and Australia and all over the world call to heaven, and consecrated youth who form characters like God's will receive knowledge, wisdom and preparation, becoming vessels unto honor into which He pours the oil of His Spirit to communicate to others.

The field for gathering is large and needs many to accept responsibility, develop abilities and bring salvation's message, with more men and women prepared through earnest effort to spread light. The missionary field is plentiful with few, so new fields need energetic laborers to bring light to the perishing, for work moves slowly without them. The European field is a great harvest field where workers should be ready to serve wherever duty and opportunity lead, making most of time to win souls, and the gospel field needs diligent hands. Spiritual abundance calls workers to leave comfort urgently in this important time to carry the Word to those asking for it, opening Scripture to warn of danger and enable sanctification, with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit in every soul.

This new country is a wide field with few facilities, no finished sanitarium, incomplete school buildings and only a modest fifteen-room health retreat begun, so a sanitarium at Sydney must be erected with help from American believers who already have many. Students should receive instruction and training to go out and work for others as fields open on every side. The harvest field is ready, and the work advances as leaders recognize talents, train and place workers under experienced guidance, and encourage them to go, not through miracles replacing human effort.

Unused Check

The work of preparing people for the coming of the Son of man is great, while the laborers are few. Because the number of workers is so small, ministers must preserve their strength to win souls. Unnecessary long prayers and sermons can exhaust them and hinder that work for souls.

The harvest field is great and needs workers. Workers are to be prepared to go out into this field. The institutions at Takoma Park are to prepare workers to go into that field, with the school and sanitarium there established to help prepare them.

The work of gathering people to God is abundant while workers are too few. That shortage calls for pastors to involve and train church members in active service and to prepare more people to bear responsibility in the work. The plentiful harvest has too few workers because capable laborers are lacking. Christians should therefore develop their intellectual abilities through study, observation, reflection, and prayer, and use them to serve and to share Christ's love and power.

The field for gathering souls is large and great and needs many workers, while the workers are few. It calls those who know the truth to accept responsibility, develop their abilities, and serve as workers who bring others the message of salvation. Ministers entering this harvest are to honor their calling by bringing people to the truth and by diligently warning and teaching them so that they may become mature in Christ. The work of reaching people with the truth is abundant and calls for laborers. Those who serve as God's husbandmen and open the Scriptures to others take part in this work, which is a joyous service rather than dull drudgery.