Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The harvest is now



Patience is a virtue, but sometimes decision is a greater one. To wait long is well, but not when the harvest is ripe and ready, for then it will lie upon the ground and rot, and so be spoiled. To wait may be well, but not when men are dying, nay, when hell is filling; not when immortal souls are in jeopardy; not when the plague is raging, and we have, today, to stand between the living and the dead, and wave the censer of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the plague may be stayed.

Four months, indeed; four months! Have there not been months enough already? We have waited long; we have waited till our patience may well have exhausted itself. It was to be four months in the days of our grand-sires; it was to be four months in the days of our fathers; and now it is to be four months still. Oh that we would learn the Savior’s words, and say no longer that “there are four months, and then cometh harvest”! but let us do as he says, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” Expect a present blessing; believe that you will have it; go to work to get it, and do not be satisfied unless you do have it.

From a sermon entitled "Fields White For Harvest," delivered July 29, 1866. Image by tskdesign under Creative Commons License.

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