Summer is the right season for gathering in the harvest. To say, then, that it is wise to gather in summer is only saying, in other words, that a wise man will make the most of his opportunities, and will gather whatever he has to gather at the best and fittest season.
I. Is not this a practical lesson for children, as soon as they begin to learn? Their summer is the time they spend at school. That time is just as much the season for them to learn in, as the month of August is the season for their fathers to reap in.
II. Is not this a practical lesson for those who are in the prime and strength of life? These are in the summer of their days, so far as practice is concerned. The seeds of the good principles which were sown in them during their childhood should now be springing up in them, and ripening and bearing fruit. Do not sleep in this your spiritual harvest of duty to God and man. If you are far gone in manhood, and have slept hitherto, call to mind St. Paul's words, that now it is high time for you to awake out of that sleep. If you are just entering into manhood, beware of falling asleep. If it would be madness to put off the harvest of the bread that perishes, how much worse than madness must it he to put off the harvest of holiness and obedience!
A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 269.
Reference: Proverbs 10:6-12. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. i., p. 230.