He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.
Summer and harvest
I. God affords you opportunities for good. He favours you with seasons which may be considered as your harvest.
1. You are blessed with a season of gospel grace.
2. You have a season of civil and religious liberty.
3. Some are living in a religious family, where they have the benefit of instruction, prayer, and example.
4. Some have seasons of disciplinary trouble.
5. Some have seasons of conviction.
6. All have the susceptible time of youth.
II. The necessity of diligence to improve your reaping season.
1. Consider how much you have to accomplish.
2. Consider the worth of the blessings that demand your attention.
3. Remember that your labour will not be in vain in the Lord.
4. Your season for action is limited and short.
5. Reflect upon the consequences of negligence.
Having made no provision for futurity--for eternity--your ruin is unavoidable. A strict account will be required of all your talents and opportunities. (William Jay.)
Using our opportunities
Our efforts in life must be seasonable. There is a religious forethought. He who neglects to gather in summer neglects the bounties of the Lord as well as neglects his own future necessities. The man who sleeps in harvest is pronounced a fool, because he lets his opportunity slip. The historian writes concerning Hannibal that when he could have taken Rome he would not, and when he would he could not. We are to be men of opportunity--that is to say, we are to buy up the opportunity, to redeem the time. When God opens a gate He means that we should go through it, and pass into all the inheritance beyond. There was a king of Sicily who was called “The Lingerer,” not because he stayed till opportunity came, but because he stayed till opportunity was lost. There is a time to wait and a time to act. Overlong waiting means loss of chance, for the king has passed by, and the gates are closed; but to wait patiently until everything is ripe for action is the very last expression of Christian culture. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Summer, the Christian’s gathering-time
I. The person spoken of. “A wise son.”
II. The season in which the wise son exerts himself. “In summer.” And why is the gospel dispensation represented by summer?
1. Winter is over and gone. His reign was tyrannical and cold. But now summer returns. So the gospel dispensation reveals to us the bright extended beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
2. In winter the face of nature is squalid and deformed. But summer comes; and, by a touch surpassing magic, beauties on beauties start into view. So the gospel dispensation mollifies the hard heart, removes the deformity of sin from the soul, adorns the temper and the conversation with all the beauties of holiness.
3. In winter the heavens distil no kindly influence; all is adverse to vegetation. But when summer returns the air breathes balm, the clouds drop fatness, and the earth is fertilised. So the gospel brings along with it refreshing clouds of spiritual influences.
4. In winter no flowers adorn the earth; their beautiful tints, their savoury smell and delicate forms sleep in the earth; but in summer these appear in rich profusion and of variegated colours. In like manner the gospel dispensation is attended with a rich profusion of gracious young converts, whose souls are endowed with knowledge, faith, and affection, and breathe forth a precious perfume, as the Holy Spirit breathes on them.
5. In winter we search the orchard and garden in vain for fruit. But when summer returns we mark with grateful pleasure the pleasant contrast, and gather the mellow fruits of various hues and flavours. In like manner the gospel dispensation is attended with a variety of fruits to the praise of God the Father.
III. I would now direct your attention to the exercise in which the wise son is engaged. “He gathereth in summer,” or during the gospel dispensation.
1. He gathereth a knowledge of God and of his duty to Him, as these are revealed in God’s Word and the dispensations of His grace.
2. He gathereth holy tempers, which cause him to resemble his heavenly Father in watchfulness, patience, meekness, and forbearance.
3. He gathereth an experimental knowledge of God’s providence. These are heavenly fruits; they will not corrupt, nor can they be pilfered; they will last for ever, and the happy soul will relish them through the endless ages of eternity.
In conclusion, see from this subject--
1. The character of one who believes and practises the true religion: he is a “wise son.”
2. The excellency of the gospel dispensation. It is a season which affords every means and opportunity to promote the peace and comfort of the soul.
3. The duty and responsibility of the young. (James Logan, M.A.)
Youthful neglect
Walter Scott, in a narrative of his personal history, gives the following caution to youth: “If it should ever fall to the lot of youth to peruse these pages, let such readers remember that it is with the deepest regret that I recollect, in my manhood, the opportunities of learning which I neglected in my youth; and through every part of my literary career I have felt pinched and hampered by my own ignorance, and I would this moment give half the reputation I have had the good fortune to acquire if by so doing I could rest the remaining part upon a sound foundation of learning and science.”
Thrift of time
Every moment lost in youth is so much character and advantage lost; as, on the other hand, every moment employed usefully is so much time wisely laid out at prodigious interest. It was to the young Mr. Gladstone was speaking when he said, “Thrift of time will repay you in after-life with a usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams.”
Opportunity to be used
In our present career a man has but one chance. Time does not fly in a circle, but forth, and right on. The wandering, squandering, desiccated moral leper is gifted with no second set of early years. There is no fountain in Florida that gives perpetual youth; and the universe might be searched probably in vain for such a spring. Waste your youth; in it you shall have but one chance. Waste your middle life; in it you shall have but one chance. Waste your old age; in it you shall have but one chance. It is an irreversible natural law that character attains final permanence, and in the nature of things final permanence can come but once. This world is fearfully and wonderfully made, and so are we, and we shall escape neither ourselves nor these stupendous laws. It is not a pleasant thing to exhibit these truths from the side of terror; but, on the other side, these are truths of bliss, for, by this very law, through which all character tends to become unchanging, a soul that attains a final permanence of good character runs but one risk, and is delivered once for all from its torture and unrest. It has passed the bourne from behind which no man is caught out of the fold. (Christian Age.)