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The Sheaf of Firstfruits and the Harbest.

n the last two Sundays I have spoken of the unity of Christ's Church; of that unity broken by schism as the one glaring sin of the whole Church against her Lord and Head in the heavens; I spoke of the Lord's prayer for the unity of His Church, and of the necessity of that prayer being answered and visibly fulfilled. I then shewed that the Lord's way of holding His Church in unity was by apostles; that apostles have been restored to the Church, and, from the analogy of the Lord's dealing with Paul and Barnabas in calling them to be his apostles after His ascension into heaven, how He has in like manner called twelve men to be his apostles in this our own day and generation; that the apostles after laboring for forty-five years have done their work, and have all fallen asleep except one; and, moreover, that in the judgment of men their work has been a failure, having been rejected by all the nations of Christendom through their heads in Church and State.

In the judgment of men, brethren, this work of God may he a failure, but not in His whose work it is, any more than the rejection of Christ and of His apostles by the Jewish nation was a failure then in God's purpose. He suffers men to have their evil way of unbelief for a season that His way of salvation may shine out more gloriously, as St. Paul teaches us in that case, "through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles." "Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

The work which the apostles have done has been "to strengthen the things which remain and were ready to die," to restore the worship of God in its integrity, sifting out the errors which had crept in, and to restore the discipline of His house. This has been done by means of a remnant which has in faith and obedience submitted to the Lord's guidance by His apostles, in almost every country in Christendom. Thus the Lord has been able to prepare a firstfruits of His harvest, to he ready for His coming—a first-ripe sheaf as the earnest of that great harvest, which he longs to gather in. The work of gathering that harvest is His next work towards the completion of His grand scheme for man's redemption.

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Does this doctrine of a firstfruits and the harvest sound new and startling to yon, brethren? It ought not to do, if you have sought out in your Bibles for the whole counsel of God, and have not neglected certain parts of His word because they have clashed with your traditions. The doctrine of a firstfruits stands in Holy Scripture in so many plain words, thus, "These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb;" and what of the sheaf of firstfruits under the law, which was gathered from out of the harvest field, "then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you;'' was not the law a shadow of good things to come?

Foreshowings of this doctrine are to be found throughout the Bible, viz., that the Lord will by a handful do a special work for the ultimate benefit of the many.

It is to be seen in Gideon's three hundred. "And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for Me to give the Midianites into thine hand." "And Gideon divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers." The breaking of those earthen vessels, and the light within shining forth, is generally received as a vivid type of the instant change from the earthly to the immortal state.

In the history of Joseph we have a prophetical picture of yet future things. In the bowing of the sheaves of his brethren to his sheaf, which arose and stood upright, and the sun and moon and eleven stars making obeisance to him, we may see a foreshewing not only of what took place when he was made governor of Egypt, but also of events yet future to Israel after the Spirit. In Isaiah xxvi. there is the hiding of the Lord's people in safety from a time of great trouble, the time of the great tribulation under the antichrist, who is here called Leviathan, the piercing serpent, another name for the beast out of the sea, of Rev. xiii.; read Isaiah xxvi., 20, 21, and 1st of xxvii. In Luke xxi. the Lord, speaking of the "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be," tells us of a worthiness to be attained unto, and which some having, they shall escape all those troubles, and be taken from them into His presence, v. 35-36.

But these scattered rays of light are all gathered up into a focus in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ; therefore let us dwell upon the evidence to be found in that book upon this subject, and especially in chapters vii. and xiv. I said on last Sunday that the distinction between the firstfruits and the harvest is to be found distinctly in those two chapters—that the first is a known definite number, viz., 144,000; page 19 while the second or harvest is a great multitude which no man can number that the first are sealed with the seal of the living God, while the second have come out of "the great tribulation," not simply, as in our version out of any "great tribulation," but out of a special definite one, out of "the tribulation the great." The sealing is put upon twelve times 12,000 of all the tribes of the Children of Israel; not of the literal twelve tribes, but of twelve tribes of spiritual Israel; for the book of Revelation is addressed not to the Jews or descendants of Jacob, but to the Chsistian Church, viz., John to the seven churches which are in Asia, and he is told to "Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;" and in accordance with this view, the Christian nations were divided into twelve tribes, and one of the apostles named for each tribe, England being Judah, while Scotland and Switzerland were named together as one tribe. These sealed ones are seen in chapter xiv. standing with the Lamb on the Mount Zion, and it is said of them that "they sing a new song and no man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth." "These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb." After this glorious sight upon Mount Zion, John sees three several angels, who delivered three distinct messages—the first having the everlasting gospel to preach, and that gospel is, that men are to fear God and not Antichrist, who will then be at the zenith of his power; the second angel proclaims the fall of the mystica Babylon; and the third message warns all against the worship of the beast and his image. Thus do these three angel messages shadow forth the great tribulation, out of which the harvest is to be gathered, and from which the firstfruits have been kept, preserved in safety, and standing before the Son of Man; thus plainly in accord with the words of our Lord speaks the Book of Revelation, that out of that unexampled time of trouble, some shall be accounted worthy to escape all those things which shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.

The sheaf of firstfruits having been taken away, it remains to gather the harvest. Is there any indication in Holy Scripture of a special ministry for that purpose? The answer given by apostolic teaching is that it will be done by the two witnesses of Revelation xi. (also answering to the seventy who were sent by the Lord two and two into every city and place whither He Himself would come). They are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth, and it is written, "I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days clothed in sackcloth. They witness for God against the Antichrist, the man of sin, the beast that ariseth out of the sea. They call men to worship God, and not the beast, neither to receive his mark nor the number of his name page 20 They will also witness to the fact of the resurrection of the saints and the translation of the living, a testimony which the world will not endure And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall kill them. This will be the time of the great tribulation, when the ten kings shall have one mind, and shall give their strength and power unto the beast; when all the world wonders after the beast, he of whom our Lord spoke when He said, "I am come in my Father's name and ye receive me not, if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive."

Yes, men will receive him and worship him, because he will be the embodiment of selfishness, and in him they will see their own likeness. they will see in him all the qualities which the natural man admires, viz., pride of intellect, eloquence, science, supreme power, boundless wealth, and beauty of person. How will men without faith in the living God be able to resist the fascination of such a being? This will be the outcome of the present worship of Mammon, of the advance in scientific power applied to the steam engine, to railways, to the telegraph and the telephone, to mighty powers of destruction by dynamite, by torpedoes, and twenty millions of soldiers armed with deadly rifles and artillery; for all this great advance in wealth and power of the Christian nations is being made without one thought of giving the honor to the God of the whole earth, or to Christ who hath redeemed it and them; and yet they call themselves by His name!

Let us now turn to the history of God's dealings with Elijah and Elisha for further light, in 2 Kings, ii. Elijah is a type of the sheaf of firstfruits caught away in a chariot of fire and horses of fire, without tasting of death, while Elisha is left behind to go through the troubled times of Ahab and Jezebel, types of the beast and the false prophet. Elisha is thus a type of the harvest, gathered in the midst of storm and tempest. Let us trace the account. "When the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal, thence to Bethel, and from thence to Jericho, and then to Jordan. At Bethel the sons of the prophets came forth to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace." So that it was known, you see, not only by Elisha, but also in Bethel, what the Lord was about to do. The sons of the prophets come out in like manner from Jericho and say the same words and receive the same answer. Then they two go on and stand by Jordan, and fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off. Elijah divides the water of the river and they two went over on dry ground. And as they still went on and talked, behold there page 21 appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Now comes the part that ought to be a warning to this generation. These sons of the prophets, who knew beforehand that a wonderful thing was to happen to Elijah, witness it and see it with their eyes, yet they do not really believe in the goodness of God; but they believe that Elijah has been aught out of their sight only to be cast upon some mountain or into some valley, and they bow before Elisha and ask his permission to send fifty young men to seek for his master, and he said, Ye shall not send. But they urged him till he was ashamed, and he said, Send. Is this a picture of the state of mind of those who shall know that the translation of the firstfruits has taken place? It would seem so. Now let us read this chapter through without comment, and see if you can read it or hear it in any other sense than that I have done.

Well, brethren, does all this sound to you like idle tales? Is it all a feverish dream with which you can have nothing to do? We speak it to you in sober earnestness; the belief in it is and has been the solace of our lives for many years: that Jesus has come to the help of His people in their great need, and in answer to long-sustained prayer; that He hath had long patience and forbearance with the weakness and waywardness of those who have believed and followed Him. The long-suffering of God is salvation; not willing that any should perish. Now is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time. The door of faith is still open.

But perhaps you find it hard to believe that Jesus Christ, who ascended from the earth 1850 years ago, has in these last days come to the help of His people as the Head of the Church. No doubt, brethren, it is hard to believe; but all His actings have ever been hard to believe. Was it not hard for men and women in olden time to believe that Jesus the son of the carpenter, whom they saw going about their streets dusty and toilworn, preaching and doing good—that that man whose brothers and sisters they knew—was the Son of God, the long-expected Messiah? And besides, who was rejected by their High Priests and Scribes and Pharisees. The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but He had not where to lay His head. Was it not much harder to believe God's acting in that old time than what you are asked to believe now viz., that He hath sent again apostles to prepare a people for His coming, to prepare all who will come to Him for help, and who will accept that help in the only way He wills to give it? You may not choose the way that He will accept you in; it must be His own way. The Jews thought they would have accepted Messiah some other way, but He was the way, and they must believe in Him, and submit to be taught by Him, or else become aliens from the family of God. Jesus said if any man will do page 22 His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. So it is now—not by the power of reasoning, or by the working of the intellect, but by doing His will.

You hare heard much in late years of the coming of the Lord, but the doctrine has been obscured and rendered almost powerless as to its purifying influence on the lives of men by its having become associated in men's minds with the end of the world as it is at present constituted. The coming of the Lord will be to take His firstfruits unto Himself—to snatch away His jewels. Does He not say, Behold I come as a thief? According to the analogy of the taking away of Elijah fifty sons of the prophets came out of Jericho and stood to view afar off, but none of those who were left in Jericho, or in Bethel or Gilgal, knew of the wonderful fact having taken place, except what they would hear afterwards from those who saw. And may it not be the same again? It will be a nine days wonder—soon forgotten in the absorbing whirl of events taking place in Christendom.

The armies of Europe may any day be hurled upon each other, and then who can foretell what will follow?

The coming of the Lord may be at any instant, and the world will still go on in its usual way for a time; only those who are His people, and who are left behind, who have gone for oil for their vessels when it is too late for the marriage supper, they will know the terrible nature or that word, Too late, ye cannot enter now.

Yes, our Lord and Saviour will come as a thief to take away his firstripe sheaf—those who sleep in Him, and those who shall be changed without tasting death. To them he saith, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world." This firstripe sheaf is the earnest of the great harvest which the Lord will gather, viz., those who remain faithful to their God in the fiery trial of the great tribulation—who refuse to worship the beast and his image, or to receive his mark, or the number of his name.

The Lord hath sent apostles as His ambassadors to His people, and hath opened His arms to receive them for these forty-five years past. His word is still, "Come all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls."