BY WILLIAM LUFF. AUTHOR OF “OUR KING.”
LAST season was the nineteenth in which Mr. Jones, of Shepherd’s Bush, and myself missioned among the hop pickers of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. In visiting 167 different companies we picked up many illustrations of truth, some of which we pass on.
“What a lot of boxes they bring,” we said, as we saw a wagon load of pickers going to a farm. “They are not all full,” we were told, “but they hope to take them home filled with fruit and other spoil.” This was faith. May we have such faith when coming to God. Bring empty boxes, not a few: such open mouths shall be filled.
Though the hop plants twine affectionately around the pole, they twain are never one: and there comes a time when they are roughly separated. How like the godly wife who clings to an ungodly husband, and yet feels that they two are never one. Living one, let not thine affections twine around the dead. “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:1414Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)).
Weeds grow in every hop-yard, even in the best and cleanest: but do not look for them, much less pick them. Look up for the hops, and you will not see the weeds. There are weeds in the best life, and work, and character; but hop pickers do not search for chickweed and groundsel, nor must we look for faults.
A man at a crib had covered himself with a sack to shelter in a shower. But the measurer wanted the sack, and took it, just as I came up. “Lost your umbrella, old friend?” I remarked, adding, “Get Christ as a cover from the storm, and that will never be taken from you.”
Sometimes fruit trees are planted in the hopyards: and for a time are all but hidden by the poles: but there comes a time when the hops are grubbed up, and to the surprise of the ignorant, what has for years been a hop-yard is suddenly transformed into an orchard. Such is many a conversion: the fruit trees are there, planted by parents and teachers, but unseen until a final decision: then the work of past years is manifested. It is thus with the new nature planted in the midst of much that is contrary: but the new will outlive the old, and flourish in fruitfulness when it is dead and done.
In one hop-yard they were narrowing up the work to one corner. As we addressed them we quoted the words, “Christ died for the ungodly,” making an application from their scene of labor “As you are narrowing up the picking, so narrow up that truth, ‘Christ died for the ungodly,’ for us, for me!” He who does this can say of salvation, “It is finished.” Christian, work in the sunlight, and the labor will be light in a double sense.
As we drew towards the end of the picking the hops began to turn brown, and acres of them were “left to fly.” “Why use that term?” we asked. The hop-cone is really a bunch of winged seeds, and when fully ripe the wind scatters these in all directions, and they blow away. Like some of our young people, once fair and fresh and precious: but if not gathered in time, browned and spoiled by sin, and scattered far and wide, away from home, and Sunday school, and God.
As we left after our month’s work and 300 miles’ tramp among the hop pickers, we saw in the cleared fields heaps of dry bine and leaves, dead and useless: and as we looked across the valley we saw curls of white smoke arising from many of the yards we had visited. They were burning the rubbish. All the hops that were to be gathered were safe, and this was the end of all that remained. It made me think of Rev. 14:1111And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:11): “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever,” and of Rev. 21:7, 87He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:7‑8).
To try by God’s help to gather for Christ those who gather the hops for the growers, we hope to go forth for the twentieth season, as helped by the prayers and gifts of God’s people.