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THE METHODIST

NEW CONNEXION MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1876.

GOD'S GOODNESS IN THE GIFT OF HARVEST. WE sometimes think that Evangelical Christians of the present day somewhat fail in their apprehension of the true spirit and practice of piety. With them religion is prone to become too netaphysical. It looks too much inwardly, and is unduly taken up with the exercises and emotions of the inner man. It thus feeds, upon itself, and is like the spider which spins its web out of its own bowels.

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This with many passes for spirituality of mind; but it is falsely so called. True piety is a wakeful and observant spirit. It comes out of the cell of its own heart and looks abroad on the works and ways of God, trying to recognise Him in all He has made and in all He does. Nor is it indifferent to our temporal condition, our material happiness. It looks upon the body as the workmanship of the Divine hand, and the bounties of Providence as given us richly to enjoy. To a true piety the world is full of God, and it is sustained and cherished by meditations on His character and His dealings with the sons of men. In this spirit the Apostle preached to the idolaters at Lycaonia: " God left not himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." In the same spirit the Prophet reproached the people of his day: "This people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season; He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of harvest." We also know that the same spirit is breathed in many of the Psalms; they were, indeed, written to give expression and embodiment to this spirit. There is, for instance, the 68th Psalm. The writer reviews God's beneficent providential dealings with His people in supplying them with things necessary for the body, reaching the climax of his review with the words,

"Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. Thou, O God, has prepared of thy goodness for the poor.". Or take the 65th Psalm, which is still more illustrative of our meaning. This Psalm may be taken as an epitome of the piety taught and exemplified in the Scriptures. The writer commences by representing God as the object of universal invocation and praise. He then bemoans some afflictions of which he is the subject, but expresses a hope of deliverance through the interposition of God. After which, as if to justify his confidence, he describes the operations of God in the earth, both those which are of a fearful and those which are of a beneficent kind. Among the stormy elements, afar off upon the sea, He does terrible things in righteousness, so that men are afraid of the tokens of His presence and power. But then God does not always clothe Himself with awe-inspiring majesty. There are occasions when He is the great without being the terrible God: great in beneficence, great in goodness, great in mercy. Of such a manifestation the Psalmist proceeds to give a most beautiful and enchanting picture. But duly to appreciate what he has so exquisitely written a preliminary step seems almost necessary; that is an actual survey of the scene described. This, however, to us is impossible; yet we may be helped by the exercise of our imagination, or by calling to remembrance similar scenes which at one time or other we may have witnessed. Let us do that. We suppose, then, that at this season of the year we stand on some lofty eminence which commands the view of an extensive tract of country. There is spread out before us on a large scale a landscape, diversified by hill and dale, by groves and streams, by corn fields and pasture grounds. The scene bears traces of a numerous population and the highest culture, combined with thickly-scattered domestic animals and the greatest profusion of natural fertility. Keeping this scene in our memory, we read what the Psalmist has written in this hymn of praise: "Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: Thou settlest the furrows thereof: Thou makest it soft with showers: Thou blessest the springing thereof: Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness; and Thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing."

This enables us to put an intelligent meaning into the utterance, "Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness." That is-Thou

placest on the year at its close a garland of beneficence and love, and Thou doest this by the gift of harvest. As applied to our division of the year the words lose their peculiar and beautiful significance. The year closes with us in the winter season, probably amid storms of rain or snow, and with the extreme of cold and gloom and sterility, and is, therefore, begirt rather with the stern crown of desolation than the mild diadem of goodness. But a reference to the Jewish Calendar shows us that the civil year of the Jews ended with summer, the season when the state of the country was literally as described in this Psalm; when fatness was dropped on the pastures of the wilderness, when the hills were girded with joy, the meadows clothed with flocks, the valleys covered over with corn, and all nature seemed vocal with gladness and praise.

God has just manifested to us, and not to us only, but to all nations, His goodness in the same form as that in which the Psalmist celebrates it. Let us recognise it with the same devout, thankful, and joyous feeling.

He makes the sun to He sends us seed time Sad to think, such

First, let us acknowledge God in the gift of harvest; acknowledge the production of it to be the effect of His interposition. Biblical piety always does this, though scientific piety, if there can be such a thing, does not. The piety inspired of the teaching of the Scriptures is not a belief in Nature but in Nature's God. shine, and sustains the stars in their courses. and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat. a piety is greatly assailed at the present day, sometimes by argument and sometimes by ridicule. We are not careful to enter into a logical defence of it. If our Christian consciousness, if our very natural instincts, do not enable us to rebut the assaults of the scientist or the scorner, logical argumentation will be of little avail. Our hearts tell us that the Apostle, the Prophet, and the Psalmist are right. Fruitful seasons are witnesses for God. He reserveth the appointed weeks of harvest. He renews the face of the earth, and giveth the increase. He openeth His hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. Let us get our minds, at this season especially, imbued with the beautiful idea here given-God's hand holds all the blessings needful for our subsistence and enjoyment, and a fruitful harvest is the opening of it; not its opening merely to let us see what are the blessings therein, but to scatter them down upon us with the richest profusion.

Secondly, then, let us acknowledge God's goodness in the gift of harvest, especially in the harvest given this year, not only to England but to the world. All, we should suppose, will admit that an abundant harvest is a good to those to whom it is given. In all

the descriptions of the Promised Land given to the Israelites previous to their possession of it, to awaken their expectation and inspire their hope and courage, this was a prominent feature. In setting forth its chief material excellence, Moses calls it "a land of wheat."

What numerous evils does the recurrence of harvest avert, evils of the direst kind-such evils, in fact, that the mere apprehension of them may well appal us. Were harvest to fail, famine would ensue. And who can adequately depict the horrors of famine? Within living memory we have had a partial visitation of it in the British Isles. The Irish famine of 1846-7 has not altogether passed out of the thoughts of many of us; but a perusal of the following description of its effects will give to such whose recollections go not so far back some idea of the painfulness of the calamity:-.

"It was painfully interesting to mark the progress of the famine. The potato having failed, the pig was sold. Turnips alone would not fatten. Bran was too dear. If the pig were in good order, it brought a high price, but if young and poor, it was sold for almost nothing. Eggs served occasionally to nourish the father or the children. But when the potato failed the hens ceased to lay, and at length the cottiers were obliged to sell them to buy a little meal. The small farmer had only his grain designed for rent and seed. He was obliged to take it to the mill to ward off starvation. The markets were enormously high, and rising every day. The children, placed on short allowance, became ravenously hungry. Mothers worn down to skeletons, sad, heartbroken, were seen on certain days proceeding in groups to some depôt where Indian meal was to be had at a reduced price, but still double that of the ordinary market. As they returned, with their little bags on their heads, a faint joy lit up their famine-stricken features. Children who had lived two days and two nights on raw turnips would now be relieved! Their fathers, who kept away from their homes till after bed-hour to avoid their heart-piercing cries, might now sit down and look their little ones in the face. But to meet the mother returning home empty! That was misery to the full! They had no money, could obtain no credit. Yesterday no breakfast-no dinner-no supper. The same to-day-no prospect of better to-morrow. What was to be done? Rob? Few, very few, did that, and those not the most needy. Overpowered by hunger, multitudes, thousands-ay, hundreds of thousands-sank down, sickened, and died. Thousands more fled from the land of the shadow of Death, and crowded into English ports, an thronged the poorhouses, carrying with them the fatal typlus."

But look at the positive side of the blessing. A fruitful harvest secures to us abundance of food. Plenty induces cheapness, and that without loss to the producer. Cheap food stimulates trade and commerce, and so, while mankind is in a condition of plenty, the plenty is not monopolised by a few, but is placed within the reach of all on easy terms; the result being that the voice of complaining ceases in our streets and dwellings, and in the stead thereof is heard the voice of gladness and mirth. Let it not be said that this is a state of things about which the Christian should not be much concerned. Such cant is despicable. No one believes in it for himself. If he do, we pity his fanaticism. Food is an essential of our existence. We cannot live without it, and to have abundant and cheap food is a source of physical enjoyment and social happiness scarcely to be over estimated.

The worth of food as a substantive blessing, and the goodness of God in bestowing it upon us, may be illustrated by a consideration of its relation to all the other gifts and blessings of life. It is the means of their attainment and the standard of their value. Nothing is of real and permanent value to man that cannot be converted into food and clothing, or which will not procure for him the means of subsistence. Money is highly prized among men, and to give it away bountifully is considered almost the climax of benevolence. But can gold be made a substitute for food? Will the precious metals satisfy the cravings of hunger? The real value of money is according to the amount of food it will purchase; but suppose there is not food to be given in exchange for gold, how worthless does it become! As worthless as it was to the man on the wrecked vessel, who offered all the thousands he had with him for the saving of his life.

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Men might subsist, and perhaps with equal comfort to what they now do, if all the gold and silver mines ever discovered were lost in the sea; but this cannot be said of pastures clothed with flocks and valleys covered over with corn. At first view, an unreflecting mind might think it would be very benevolent on the part of God if He gave us gold as He gives us corn; but for once only a harvest of gold instead of a harvest of wheat would be a calamity that would go far to annihilate our race.

Again, we refer to the domestic value of a plentiful harvest. The picture of the Irish famine will illustrate this. It may be that some of our readers consider that they are not particularly or personally interested in this view of the subject. The home aspect of harvest is one which your circumstances do not call you to coutemplate. Whether food be cheap or dear, plentiful or scarce, your wants are sure to be supplied to the full. You will still eat of the

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