THERE is a solemn text on sowing and reaping which every young person should not only know by heart, but have in the heart. It is this: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal. 6:77Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7).) Whatsoever seed! You sowed certain kinds of seed in your garden in the spring, and of that very seed sprang up the flowers which you loved in the summer. You did not gather sweet peas from thistle down, nor mignonette from dandelion seed. You reaped what you sowed. And just so is it in daily life—what you sow you reap. If you are kind and unselfish, you will find pleasure in your heart; if you try only to please yourself, and are greedy and ungenerous, you will be wretched. What you do to-day will come up to-morrow, or by-and-by, like the seeds you hid in the ground. You placed a little stick over the seed you buried, to remind yourself where you had sown it. By-and-by it came up above the soil. So all that you do God marks, and for everything done, good or bad, the reaping time will come.
The bright and sunny boy in the midst of his playmates, who are ever glad to have him among them, reaps in their affection towards him the love for them he has sown. While the gloomy boy who, just because he is not so successful as others in the game, cries out, "I won't play any more," reaps in his unhappy spirit his own sowing.
And what is true of the little things of the day, is true of the great things of a life; and what is thus illustrated to us in time is true of eternal things. Such as live for pleasure and for sin will reap what they sow, not only in time, but in eternity. The Lord Jesus tells us that even a cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple will not lose its reward; there will be the reaping time by-and-by. All the sorrows and trials of God's people endured here for Christ's sake will be like the good seed sown in the winter's ground, the harvest from which makes the autumn so beautiful and glad. Again the Lord tells us, that for every idle word men speak they must give an account in the coming time. So that really every day and every year of our lives is sowing seed.
Now, as year by year rolls away, how important does this great truth make each of our actions appear. When you grow older you will see in your own lives and the lives of others, how true it is that whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reap. You will see many of your friends and companions grow up to be useful or useless, just as they lived out their moments and their hours. But, remember, too few believe what God says about sowing and reaping; the many live as if the passing hour was everything for and to them. May you all sow the seed day by day which God loves and values.
“For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”