Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 675
Delivered on Sunday Morning, February 11, 1866
You water the ridges abundantly: You settle the furrows: You make it soft with showers: You bless its growth.” Psalm 65:10.
THOUGH other seasons excel in fullness, spring must always bear the palm for freshness and beauty. We thank God when the harvest hours draw near and the golden grain invites the sickle, but we ought equally to thank Him for the rougher days of spring, for these prepare the harvest. April showers are mothers of the sweet May flowers, and the wet and cold of winter are the parents of the splendor of summer. God blesses its growth, or else it could not be said, “You crown the year with Your goodness.” There is as much necessity for Divine benediction in spring as for heavenly bounty in summer, and therefore we should praise God all the year round.
Spiritual spring is a very blessed season in a Church. Then we see youthful piety developed and on every hand we hear the joyful cry of those who say, “We have found the Lord.” Our sons are springing up as the grass and as willows by the watercourses. We hold up our hands in glad astonishment and cry, “Who are these that fly as a cloud and as doves to their windows?” In the revival days of a Church, when God is blessing her with many conversions, she has great cause to rejoice in God and sing, “You bless its growth.”
I intend to take the text in reference to individual cases. There is a time of growth of Divine Grace when it is just in its bud, just breaking through the dull cold earth of unregenerate nature. I desire to talk a little about that and concerning the blessing which the Lord grants to the green blade of new-born godliness—to those who are beginning to hope in the Lord.
I. First, I shall have a little to say about THE WORK PREVIOUS TO THE GROWTH. It appears from the text that there is work for God, alone, to do before the growth comes. And we know that there is work for God to do through us as well. There is work for us to do. Before there can be growth in the soul there must be plowing, harrowing, and sowing. There must be a plowing and we do not expect that as soon as ever we plow we shall reap the sheaves. Blessed be God, in many cases the reaper overtakes the plowman! But we must not always expect it.
In some hearts God is long in preparing the soul by conviction—the Law with its ten black horses drags the plowshare of conviction up and down the soul till there is not one part of it left unfurrowed. Conviction goes deeper than any plow to the very core and center of the spirit till the spirit is wounded. The plowers make deep furrows, indeed, when God puts His hand to the work! The soil of the heart is broken in pieces in the Presence of the Most High. Then comes the sowing.
Before there can be a growth it is certain that there must be something put into the ground so that after the preacher has used the plow of the Law, he applies to his Master for the seed basket of the Gospel. Gospel promises, Gospel doctrines—especially a clear exposition of free Grace and the Atonement—these are the handfuls of corn which we scatter broadcast. Some of the grain falls on the highway and is lost. But other handfuls fall where the plow has been and there they abide. Then comes the harrowing work. We do not expect to sow seed and then leave it—the Gospel has to be prayed over. The prayer of the preacher and the prayer of the Church make up God’s harrow to rake in the seed after it is scattered. And so it is covered up within the clods of the soul and is hidden in the heart of the hearer.
Now there is a reason why I dwell upon this, namely, that I may exhort my dear Brethren who have not seen success to not give up the work but to hope that they have been doing the plowing, and sowing, and harrowing work, and that the harvest is to come. I mention this for yet another reason—and that is by way of warning to those who expect to have a harvest without this preparatory work. I do not believe that much good will come from attempts at sudden revivals made without previous prayerful labor.
A revival to be permanent must be a matter of growth and the result of much holy effort, longing, pleading, and watching. The servant of God is to preach the Gospel whether men are prepared for it or not—but in order to large success, depend upon it—there is a preparedness necessary among the hearers. Upon some hearts, warm earnest preaching drops like an unusual thing which startles but does not convict. In other congregations, where good Gospel preaching has long been the rule, and much prayer has been offered, the words fall into the hearers’ souls and bring forth speedy fruit.
We must not expect to have results without work. There is no hope of a Church having an extensive revival in its midst unless there is continued and importunate waiting upon God together with earnest laboring, intense anxiety, and hopeful expectation. But there is also a work to be done which is beyond our power. After plowing, sowing, and harrowing, there must come the shower from Heaven. “You visit the earth and water it,” says the Psalmist. In vain are all our efforts unless God shall bless us with the rain of His Holy Spirit’s influence.