March 5

Who will go for us? — ISAIAH vi. 8.

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields: for they are white already to harvest. — JOHN iv. 35.

IN the natural world there are four months, more or less, after the seed is sown before the harvest can be expected. In like manner, months and years sometimes elapse between the preaching of the gospel and the gathering of converts. But, as at Sychar, it is not always so. "Behold! lift up your eyes, and look on the fields" — these fields of human souls — in many lands. The sowers of the Word have gone forth. Much seed has been sown. Some gospel sheaves have been gathered. But the sphere is widening: many fields are already white for the harvest. Multitudes in many heathen lands are even now ready to renounce idolatry, and like the Samaritans, to receive Jesus as the Saviour of the world. But, while some fields are ripe and others are ripening, much ground is still unsown. God calls for both sowers and reapers. "Who will go for us?" Yes, "Who?" One may sow and another reap: but when sowers and reapers see the fruits of their joint labor safely garnered in heaven, they will "rejoice together." They will together share the joy of their Lord.

John Newton

Where are the reapers? Oh, who will come And share in the glory of the harvest home? Oh, who will help us to garner in The sheaves of good from the fields of sin?

EBEN E. REXFORD.