A harvest heap in the day of grief' points on to a solemn ending--the day of judgment.
(a) How poor the fruit will be that a God-forgetting man will take out of life I There is but one heap from all the long struggle. He has sowed much and brought home little.' What shall we take with us out of our busy years as their net result? A very small sack will be large enough to hold the harvest that many of us have reaped.
(b) All this God-forgetting life of pleasure-seeking and idolatry is bringing on a terrible, inevitable consummation.
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.'
No doubt there is often a harvest of grief and desperate sorrow springing, even in this life, from forgetting God. For it is only they who set their hopes on Him that are never disappointed, and only they who have chosen Him for their portion who can always say, I have a goodly heritage.' But the real harvest is not reaped till death has separated the time of sowing from that of ingathering. The sower shall reap; i.e. every man shall inherit the consequences of his deeds. They that have planted it shall eat it.'
(c) That harvest home will be a day of sadness to some. These are terrible words--grief and desperate sorrow,' or pain and incurable sickness.' We dare not dilate on this. But if we trust in Christ and sow to the Spirit, we shall then rejoice before God as with the joy of harvest,' and return with joy, bringing our sheaves with us.'
