Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.
The spiritual harvest-field
1. How closely connected the spiritual commission of the apostles was with deep sympathy for the physical wants of humanity.
2. That it is the Lord of the harvest who has power to send forth labourers into His harvest. We rely too much on our own agencies.
3. The strong expression of constraint which the Lord here uses-“that He may cast out.” It has been so with the more eminent saints at all times. (S. Leathes, D. D.)
The harvest-field and the harvest labourers
I. The field is the world.
1. It is precious, in the very fact that it is a harvest-field. Men are the fruit for the sake of which the world was made.
2. It is plenteous.
(1):Pagans.
(2) Mahomedans.
(3) Papists.
3. It is ripe.
4. It is perishing.
II. The harvest labourers.
1. All who try to win souls are in His eye as reapers gathering the wheat into the garner. Labourers are not a high class of functionaries, and need not expect to get all their own will as to the times and places of their toils.
2. In the judgment of our Lord labourers are few. His heart is so enlarged toward a lost world that He will complain, Few are coming. Few, in proportion to the world’s need-a contrast to the multitude pressing to the natural harvest.
3. When additional labourers enter the field, they are sent into it by the Lord of the harvest. They are grasped by the Providential hand of God.
4. The Lord of the harvest presses labourers into the field in answer to the prayers of His people. (W. Arnot.)
The multitudes pressing to the natural harvest
The pressure has slackened of late; but a few years ago you might have seen, any day about the beginning of autumn, dense crowds of Irish labourers clustering like bees about the wharves of Liverpool and Glasgow. On one occasion the master of a Londonderry steamer, on arriving at Glasgow, was prosecuted for admitting a much greater number of passengers than his ship was legally entitled to carry. His defence was that the men rushed on board in spite of his efforts to prevent them, and took forcible possession of the deck. Such were the numbers that poured into the Scottish harvest-fields at that time, and such the eagerness of each man to get a share of the work and the reward. (W. Arnot.)
The harvest-field near
Exercise is provided for the spiritual life. None shall be able to say that the field was too distant, and that lie consequently had not an opportunity of rendering service as a reaper. A man cannot sit at meals in his own family, walk along the streets, or pursue his daily toil on the farm or in the workshop, without passing along this laden harvest-field. Everywhere precious fruit, ready to perish, offers itself to the reaper’s hand. (W. Arnot.)
Labourers wanted
I. Christ manifested an intense zeal for the evangelization of the world. “And Jesus went about all their cities,” etc.
1. Christ was the great Teacher-“Teaching in their synagogues,” etc.
2. Christ was the great Physician-“and healing every sickness.”
II. Christ displayed the tenderest sympathy while evangelizing the world. The spirit in which Christ did His work, almost as important as the work itself.
1. Christ was deeply affected by the spiritual depression of the people-“they fainted.”
2. Christ was deeply affected at the spiritual destitution of the people-“were scattered abroad.”
III. Christ enjoined a devout spirit for evangelizing the world-“Pray ye therefore,” etc.
1. Christ indicated the right spirit for the work-“Pray ye.”
2. Christ indicated the right men for the work-“Labourers in His harvest,” etc. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
Harvest-men wanted
I. Our lord states the case. The people who gathered round Him He likened to harvest-fields: wherein lay the similarity?
1. The thought of multitude rises naturally from the sight of a harvest-field. You cannot count the ears of corn, neither will you be able to count the sons of men.
2. The second idea was that of value. He did not speak of blades of grass, but ears of corn. The souls of men precious in the sight of God.
3. The idea of danger. Fear lest it should perish.
4. Accessible. Multitudes are near at hand.
5. Immediate need.
II. The service needed. Labourers are wanted. We must not despise instrumentalities. God could do without them, but does not.
1. They must be labourers. Idler no use.
2. They must go down into flee wheat.
3. He cuts right through. Delicate words useless. The preacher must not file off the edge of his scythe for fear it should hurt somebody.
4. He binds it together.
III. Our Lord directed his disciples how to obtain a supply.
1. Pray ye.
2. Pray ye therefore.
3. Pray to the Lord.
IV. The lord jesus heard their prayers. “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, he gave them power,” etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)