SERMON XIV. ON THE HARVEST. O GOD, Father of men, Father of all things in heaven and earth, thou openest thy bountiful hand without wearying, and fillest and rejoicest and blessest all that live with good things. Thou hast this year also not left us without witness, but hast graciously given us what we need for our support. Thou hast preserved the fruits of the field by thy guardianship, and permitted us to gather them in in undisturbed tranquillity under the protection of peace. Thou hast again done great things for us, and by all thy gifts hast laid upon us the obligation to praise thee with emotion of soul. O then that our thanksgiving were not merely the work of the lips, but the effusion of the heart! that we perceived and felt what new and just claims thou hast acquired thereby on our love, our trust, and our obedience! that we might present to thee on this festive day an offering worthy of thee, agreeable to thy will and to our duty! Yes, to extol thy good ness, and revere the ways of thy Providence, to be contented, and not as dissatisfied creatures, not as guilty rioters in thy kingdom, to rebel against thy established regulations; to limit our wishes, and to enjoy with wise moderation, with a calm mind, in innocence and virtue, what thou bestowest on us; this becomes us as men and as Christians; let this therefore be our sincere resolution and our earnest endeavour. And let us be encouraged and strengthened thereto in the present hour, consecrated to thy worship, let us be forcibly reminded of it by the call which the harvest now addresses to us; let the fruits of the earth thereby become beneficial to our mind, beneficial with regard to our higher destination. Amen. JOHN iv. 35-38. 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. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour; other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. If we did not behold the works of nature in our earliest childhood; if the view of its great and admired phenomena, following each other in regular |