John 4:35

35. Say not ye] The pronoun is again emphatic.

There are yet four months, &c.] This cannot be a proverb. No such proverb is known; and a proverb on the subject would have to be differently shaped; e.g. ‘From seedtime to harvest is four months,’ or something of the kind. So that we may regard this saying as a mark of time. Harvest began in the middle of Nisan or April. Four months from that would place this event in the middle of December: or, if (as some suppose) this was a year in which an extra month was inserted, in the middle of January.

are white already to harvest] In the green blades just shewing through the soil the faith of the sower sees the white ears that will soon be there. So also in the flocking of these ignorant Samaritans to Him for instruction Christ sees the abundant harvest of souls that is to follow. ‘Already’ is the last word in the Greek sentence; and from very ancient times there has been a doubt whether it belongs to this sentence or the next. Some of the best MSS. give ‘already’ to the next sentence; ‘already he that reapeth receiveth wages.’ But MS. authority in punctuation is not of much weight. The received punctuation is perhaps better; ‘already’ at the end of Joh_4:35 being in emphatic contrast to ‘yet’ at the beginning of it.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_4:35-38

Say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest

The spiritual culture of the world

Not unfrequently does the Bible represent the great work of the moral reformation of the world by that of husbandry.

I. THE SERVANTS OF GOD SHOULD EARNESTLY SEIZE EVERY OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SPIRITUAL CULTURE OF MAN. Dont think the work distant, to be waited for, it is present and must be attended to at once.

1. Moral seasons are not like material ones, beyond our agency. We cannot hasten the months of harvest. Years come and go irrespective of our choice or effort. But in the moral domain you can change temperature, create seasons, turn foul weather into fair, and make a moral November as bright and genial as June. Say ye not then. Make no excuses.

2. The feeblest honest effort to improve the world will develop encouraging symptoms to persevere. Christs conversation with the woman stirred the heart of the whole city. True thoughts increase the souls appetites and supplies. The more you give the more you need.

II. A LONG SUCCESSION OF AGENTS ARE REQUIRED FOR THE SPIRITUAL CULTURE OF MANKIND. One soweth, another reapeth. Paul plants, Apollo waters. John sowed seeds for Polycarp, he for Athanasius, he for Angustine, he for Anselm; Bernard for Tauler, Luther for Calvin, he for Chemitz; Wickliffe for Tyndale, and he for Coverdale, etc. This suggests

1. The moral connection of the race. Man transmits his principles as well as his nature.

2. The slow progress of moral principles. Humanity requires ages for the full appreciation of great truths.

3. The humble part which individuals play in the history of the world. What we sow may not appear till we are gone. We pluck a few ripe ears, drop a seed or two and then pass on.

4. Results are not the right rules for conduct. We see more the effects of other mens labours than our own. We have to do with work, consequences must be left to God.

III. THERE IS A VITAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ALL TRUE WORKERS IN THE SPIRITUAL CULTURE OF THE WORLD.

1. In working out one grand purpose. Whether they reap or sow.

2. In participating in the same rewards. In the universal rejoicing there will be no under-rating of the humblest, and the greatest will not glory in himself. Each will rejoice in anothers labours rather than his own, all ascribing their achievement to all inspiring love. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The gospel harvest

I. THE GREAT HARVEST REMAINS YET TO BE GATHERED IN. The purposes of grace have as yet received a very partial accomplishment. This is seen if we will consider

1. Gods gracious intentions as announced to us by the ancient seers.

2. The means which God has employed to fulfil His purposes. The incarnation, death, resurrection, and glorification of His Son, and the creation of a Church to proclaim these saving facts to the whole world. Nothing short of the salvation of mankind can indemnify the Redeemer and enable him to see the travail of his soul.

3. The preparatory processes.

(1) Before the Advent.

(a) Among the Jews the progress of redemptive disclosures.

(b) Among the Gentiles the progress of a civilization which should help to carry the Gospel to every creature.

(2) Since the advent.

(a) In early Christian times.

(b) Subsequent to the Reformation.

4. If such has been the length of time over which the preparations have extended, if such the grandeur of the means employed, if such the extent of the plan announced--what must be the harvest that is before us?

II. HAVE WE REASON TO HOPE THAT THE HARVEST IS NEAR? The expectation of seeing it burst on the world in full or hid splendour by stupendous miracle is not to be encouraged. There is no reason to expect it through any other agency than that which God has already employed. As for the signs, observe

1. That the whole world has become accessible to the gospel to a degree altogether unprecedented.

2. The commanding and influential position of those portions of the globe, where Christianity exists in its purest and most active forms.

3. The general spread of knowledge and extension of education.

4. The success already achieved.

III. THE SENTIMENTS AND CONDUCT WITH WHICH THIS STATE OF THINGS SHOULD BE MET BY THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.

1. Attention.

2. Thankfulness, Blessed are our eyes, for they see.

3. Zealous efforts.

4. Steady perseverance. (B. Godwin.)

The gospel harvest

I. A DESCRIPTION OF THE EXISTING CONDITION OF THE WORLD. The fields are the world; they were white unto harvest, ready for the accomplishment of the work of mercy.

1. It was the time which had been appointed in the predetermination of the Divine counsels for introducing the economy of grace. It was the fulness of time.

2. The fields were white because of the spiritual necessities which then actually pressed upon the circumstances of man. No time could have been more apt. Jews and Gentiles were alike at the furthest limit to which want could possibly impel.

3. The time of the Saviours advent was one of great expectancy. Among the Jews were many like Simeon; among the Gentiles many like the Magi. The state of the world since has always to some extent admitted the application of the words white unto harvest, and some periods more particularly than others

(1) When the gloom of the Middle Ages was about to pass away.

(2) Now, as seen in the state and relationships of human governments; the influence of our own country in every continent; the feeling of sympathy and the acknowledgment of duty on the part of professing Christians; the wealth and talent of the Church; the actual wants of heathendom, and their readiness to receive the Word of God. The disciples of the Saviour are summoned themselves to contemplate the state of the world. Lift up your eyes and see.

II. A STATEMENT OF THE DIFFERENT OFFICES OF LABOUR APPOINTED AND HELD IN CONNECTION WITH THE CONDITION DESCRIBED.

1. As to the origin of the offices to be contemplated they are of Divine appointment. The Lord of the harvest alone sends forth labourers; and here the Redeemer asserts His own prerogative, I sent you.

2. The nature of the offices thus exhibited. He that sows has not the immediate tokens of success; he that reaps gathers at once the ripened corn. So the office of some has been to prepare the mind, to settle preliminaries, to lay foundations; of others to follow and to garner the result. The labour of the prophets, and the success of the apostles, is typical of much modern Christian labour. The reformers laboured, ministers now reap. And while we reap from generations past, we sow for generations to come.

3. The spirit in which these offices should be sustained. There should be

(1) Contentedness.

(2) Diligence.

(3) Patience.

(4) Supplication for the Divine blessing.

III. THE PROMISE OF THE BLESSING BY THE BESTOWMENT OF WHICH THOSE OFFICES SHALL BE CONSUMMATED.

1. There is a recompense granted to the faithful exercise of the duties which the offices comprehend. He that reapeth, etc.

2. There will be a final meeting of all the labourers for mutual communion and joy, together. (J. Parsons.)

Earnestness essential to success

Duncan Matheson, the Scottish evangelist, when in the Crimea, was not slow in seeking out men of his own spirit in the army. His first acquaintance was Hector Macpherson, drum-major 93rd Highlanders, a soldier both of his country and of the Cross, of whom the missionary used to tell the following story:--One day, a chaplain, newly arrived, called on the sergeant and asked his advice as to the best method of conducting his work. Come with me, said Hector, to the hill-top. Now look around you. See yonder the pickets of Liprandis army. See yon batteries on the right, and the men at the guns. Mark yon trains of ammunition. Hear the roar of that cannon. Look where you may, it is all earnest here. There is not a man but feels it is a death struggle. If we dont conquer the Russians, the Russians will conquer us. We are all in earnest, sir; we are not playing at soldiers here. If you would do good you must be in earnest too. An earnest man will always win his way. (New Cyclopadia.)

The fields are white

Leonard Keyser, who was burned at Scherding, in 1527, as a Protestant, when he came near to the stake, exclaimed, as he looked at the crowd, Behold the harvest! O Master, send forth Thy labourers. (Bowes.)

The heathen are waiting for the gospel

Rev. J. Hudson Taylor related, in Chinas Millions, the bitter hardships he, with Rev. W. C. Burns, experienced during his early days in China. The sketch closes with an account of a remarkable incident. After they had spoken one day in the city of Ningpo one of the listening crowd said: I have long sought for the truth; I and my father before me. I have found no rest in Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism; but I do find rest in what I have heard here. Henceforth I believe in Jesus. Afterwards he asked Mr. Taylor how long the glad tidings had been known in England. When he was told, Some hundreds of years, he looked amazed. What! he exclaimed, is it possible, and yet you have only now come to preach them to us? My father sought after the truth for more than twenty years, and died without finding it. Why did you not come sooner?

The woman of Samaria

After expressing His own regard to the work that was given Him to do, our Saviour stimulates His disciples to similar zeal. For this purpose He employs three arguments, all borrowed from husbandry.

1. The first is taken from the necessity for their exertions. When the grain is ripe, the sickle must be thrust in.

2. The second is taken from the profitableness of their exertion. The reaper is well paid.

3. The third is taken from the facility of their exertion; the work being prepared to their hands. They besought Him that He would tarry with them.

How natural was this!

1. They were eager to give Him entertainment.

2. They wished to be instructed by him more perfectly. It is the nature of grace to wish its increase.

3. They hoped that He would be useful to those of their families and of their neighbours, who had been either unable or unwilling to come. What a work of God was here!

Let me conclude by calling upon you to observe, who were the subjects of this work, and who was the instrument.

1. The subjects were Samaritans, not Jews: and we may exclaim with our Lord, on another occasion, we have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

2. The instrument was, not a philosopher, not an apostle armed with tongues and miracles, but a poor, wicked, but converted woman. (W. Jay.)

Zeal for soul-gathering

In Switzerland, where land is very precious because rock abounds and the rugged soil is chary in its yieldings, you see the husbandman looking after a little tuft of grass growing on one of the edges of a lofty cliff. From the valley he had caught a sight of it and thought of clambering up to where if grew, but the rock was all too steep. From a ledge nearer the top of the precipitous wall he looked down, but could see no pathway to the coveted morsel of green. That armful of grass would feed his goat, or help to fill the cottage loft with winter fodder for the cow. Every armful is an item, and he cannot forego that tempting clump. He looks, and looks, and looks again, but looks in vain. By-and-by, he fetches his bold boy who can follow wherever a chamois can climb, but the boy after a hard scramble comes back with the tidings, Father, it cannot be done. Fathers answer is, Boy, it must be done. It is only an armful, and would not be worth a farthing to us, but to the poor mountaineer even a farthing or a far- things worth is precious. The grass waves its flowers in the breeze and scorns the daring climbers from below; but where there is a will, there is a way; and what cannot be reached from below may be gained from above. With a rope slung round him, or firmly grasped in his accustomed hand, with a stout stake or tree to hold it up above, the Switzer is let down till he gets to the jutting crag, there he stands with his sickle, reaps the grass, ties it into a bundle, puts it under his arm, and climbing back again, joyfully returns with his little harvest. Poor pay, you think, for such dangerous toil; but, fellow-worker for Jesus, I wish we were as venturesome for souls, and as careful of them, as these poor peasants are concerning miserable bundles of grass. I wish that we sometimes looked up or down upon apparently inaccessible spots, and resolved to reach immortal souls who are to be found there, and pined to bring them to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Love to souls

An old man in Watton, whom Mr. Thornton had in vain urged to come to church, was taken ill and confined to his bed. Mr. Thornton went to the cottage, and asked to see him. The old man, hearing his voice below, answered, in no very courteous tone, I dont want you here; you may go away. The following day the curate was again at the foot of the stairs. Well, my friend, may I come up to-day and sit beside you? Again he received the same reply, I dont want you here. Twenty-one days successively Mr. Thornton paid his visit to the cottage, and on the twenty-second his perseverance was rewarded. He was permitted to enter the room of the aged sufferer, to read the Bible, and pray by his bedside. The poor man recovered, and became one of the most regular attendants at the house of God. (Life of Rev. S. Thornton.)

The wages of doing good--joy

A person was once asked what had been the happiest moment she had ever known. She was one who had had more than a common share of the good things of this world. She had a bright home and many friends. She had achieved success in a brilliant society, and won literary fame, and had drunk deep of intellectual pleasures in the course of a life which was far spent. Yet she said the happiest moment she had ever known was that in which a withered old woman tottered into the room, held out her shaking hands towards her, and wept for joy as she exclaimed, I said Id come and thank you for saving my boy, though I dropped on the road. Her boy was a poacher, who, in a midnight affray, inadvertently, as he said--wilfully, as others declared--shot a gamekeeper. He was tried for his life, and almost to the last moment he had no counsel, as neither he nor his miserable old mother had the means of securing one. The lady, knowing nothing of him, heard incidentally that if he remained undefended it would go hard with him, and she engaged a first-rate counsel on his behalf. The result was that although his sentence was death, it was accompanied by a recommendation to mercy. A petition, which was afterwards drawn up by his defender, procured a commutation of the extreme penalty; and so it was that the joys of happy love, and fame, and pleasure, paled before the grateful light in the poor old mothers eyes as she spoke her homely thanks, and then dropped back to her obscurity and was no more seen. (Good Words.)

Fruit after many days

I was called, in Philadelphia, to visit a sick girl in a very worldly and irreligious household, with whom I had but little acquaintance, and went anticipating only a painful visit of warning to a careless soul. To my astonishment, I found a gentle child of grace, perhaps eighteen years of age, sinking in a consumption, but perfectly clear in mind, and happy, in hope. How, I asked, have you learned all this in your condition here? Her answer was most precious. I had a faithful Sunday-school teacher; and though I left her some years ago, and never gave her much satisfaction, yet when I was taken sick, I took my little Bible, and went over the lessons she used to teach me, and God has taught me here alone. She then showed me her little Bible, turned down and marked with many Sunday-school lessons, her constant and loved companion. Dear child, she had no other religious companion. But she departed in sweet peace and hope, and my visits to her while she lived were full of satisfaction and delight. Similar incidents of actual conversion under Sunday-school instruction have occurred in such numbers, that I might fill many sheets of paper with them. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

The wages of doing good

Occasionally a benevolent action wrought in faith brings with it an instantaneous recompense in kind; therein Providence is seen as smiling upon the deed. The late John Andrew Jones, a poor Baptist minister, whilst walking in Cheapside, was appealed to by some one he knew for help. He had but a shilling in the world, and poised it in his mind, to give or not to give? The greater distress of his acquaintance prevailed, and he gave his all, walking away with a sweet remembrance of the promise, He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, will He pay him again. He had not gone a hundred yards further before he met a gentleman who said, Ah, Mr. Jones, I am glad to see you. I have had this sovereign in my waistcoat pocket this week past for some poor minister, and you may as well have it. Mr. Jones was wont to add, when telling the story, If I had not stopped to give relief I should have missed the gentleman and the sovereign too.

The reapers joy

One Sunday, in the house of God, the minister noticed the restlessness and anxiety of a little girl during the morning service. After the service, he addressed the teacher thus:--You have had a very unquiet class to-day, and one of the children I observed was particularly restless; why did you not keep her quiet? Oh, sir, you mean Sarah She has for these three months past set her heart upon bringing her father here, and this morning he had promised to come, and she was so anxious to see if she could find him among the congregation, until at length she came to me, and throwing her arms round my neck, sobbed out, Oh, teacher, teacher, theres my father! How often I have had my hand grasped by loving persons who have said, I wanted to tell you that you led me to the Saviour! They wanted to say it to me; and often have they written to me, and cheered my heart, because they felt a personal gratitude which wanted a personal expression. A poor woman once forced me with tears to receive a small sum of money for myself. I declined it till I saw that it would hurt her feelings, for she had evidently longed for this opportunity for expressing her thankfulness for the sermons she had read. If we feel thus towards an earthly friend, how much more shall we feel it towards Him who has saved us by His blood! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The harvest and the labourers

(in conjunction with Mat_9:37-38):--On the occasion mentioned by Matthew there were fields of ripe cornwithin sight (Luk_6:1; Luk_6:12-13). The words reported by St. John were spoken four months earlier when the fields were comparatively bare. The one, therefore, was a similitude, the other a contrast.

1. In Samaria, Jesus bade His disciples recognize fields white to harvest. The people were ready to bear if only the gospel were delivered unto them.

2. But there was a risk of letting the favourable opportunity slip for want of preachers. What can be more vexatious to a farmer than to see his crop spoil for lack of hands? So grievous was it to Christ to see the leaders of the ration indifferent or hostile to His heavenly message.

3. The fields of opportunity are constantly widening, but the difficulty is to get an adequate supply of labourers.

(1) Home fields are scrambled over, and while there are too many labourers in some corners, others are neglected.

(2) In foreign fields labourers are too far apart, and their strength overtaxed.

4. It is easy enough to multiply ecclesiastics, but workmen who need not to be ashamed have always been too few.. And field work needs labouring men. Time is precious, and reapers must not spare themselves.

5. Labourers are all the better for a training. In every kind of activity training tells. Much more so here, as shown by Christs careful training of the twelve.

6. But the first requisite is that the labourers be sent by the Lord of the harvest.

7. The Church must pray for such labourers.

(1) Christ so prayed.

(2) Now that Christ has ascended, and is Lord of the Church, we must pray for His gift of labourers (Eph_4:11).

8. Why should we thus pray? The fields are His. He knows the value of the opportunity and the need of labourers; surely He will provide them of His own accord. But prayer is not enjoined to tell Christ what He does not know, or to persuade Him to do what He would otherwise neglect, but to bring His followers into harmony with His will. (D. Fraser, D. D.)

The great harvest

or, Christian enterprise (in conjunction with Mat_9:36-38; Luk_10:2)

I. THE ORIGINAL MOTIVE OF ALL CHRISTIAN ENTERPRISE. He was moved with compassion.

1. Christian enterprise should be irrespective of class, creed, or character. The multitudes were a mixed assembly, a fair picture of the world. Friends and foes. Christ confined His benevolence to none. Christians should do good to all.

2. Christian enterprise should have special reference to the spiritual state of man. Sheep without shepherd. Our Lord did not overlook temporal and intellectual needs, but made them subservient to the spiritual.

3. Christian enterprise should be the result of feeling, deep and genuine.

II. THE PRESSING CLAIM OF ALL CHRISTIAN ENTERPRISE UPON ALL CHRISTIAN MEN (Luk_10:2).

1. The state of the harvest

(1) There is sufficient scope for all Christian labour. No one can complain of lack of material. Work when and wherever you can.

(2) There is a sufficient motive. The harvest is great.

(a) In point of difficulty. The conversion of one soul is a work of no ordinary magnitude; how much greater that of a world! The difficulty arises from human depravity.

(b) In consequence of its responsibilities. To control the parliament of a mighty nation far less responsible than changing the eternal destiny of myriads.

(c) In the glory connected with its final triumph.

(3) There is sufficient maturity. White unto harvest. Gods time is the present. History is what men, under God, make it. Mere time will never bring a millennium. That will result from work, not waiting.

2. The paucity of the workmen. Labourers are few

(1) In comparison with the work to be done.

(2) In comparison with the idle. In every church a few do all the work.

III. THE SPECIAL PROVIDENCE WHICH SHOULD BE EVER RECOGNIZED BY ALL CHRISTIANS IN CARRYING ON EVERY CHRISTIAN ENTERPRISE. Pray ye therefore, etc. There is here a recognition

1. Of the divinity of our work.

2. Of the necessity of human agents.

3. Of the importance of prayer.

4. Of final triumph. Gathered fruit unto life eternal. (Evan Lewis, B. A.)

On reaping

I. WHEN DOES THE REAPING COME (Joh_4:35)?

1. The law of nature is that there should be delay between the sowing and the reaping. It is not always so in grace. It was not so at Pentecost, nor with Philip and the eunuch, with Peter and Cornelius. Both sometimes coincide

(1) To convince us that the power is of God, not of man.

(2) To encourage us to be instant in season and out of season. But commonly there is delay. This should not discourage. God knows best.

II. WHAT DOES THE REAPING BRING?

1. Reward (Joh_4:36). Wages--the work itself. To be workers with God is a great reward. But fruit is also gathered. No Christian labours in vain. Sow the seed and expect the harvest.

2. Joy and mutual rejoicing. (R. V. Pryce, LL. B.)

The soul harvest

The garments worn in those days were white, and as Christ and His disciples were seated on a slight elevation, they could observe the coming of the crowds of people thus arrayed. There are times, seasons, for the natural world, but all seasons are harvest time in the moral world. Why, you ask, has Christianity been so long conquering the world? Will it speedily triumph? I answer, God is working in His wisdom and power most earnestly. He has done everything on His part; the delay is caused by our neglect. The harvest is ready; God is ready; the Church is not ready. Let us look at some of the evidence for the worlds ripeness.

I. THE CIVILIZED NATIONS HAVE PIERCED TO ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD. A century ago how much of the world was unknown, what an impulse has seized the heart of men to find out every foot of land! The destruction of one expedition gives no discouragement; others are pushed forward. Why this impulse? That we may send the gospel everywhere. Observe how geography is being taught in the schools. How different was it when we were children! Providence is thus acquainting the rising generation with the condition of the different nations.

II. THE WONDERFUL FACILITIES FOR ACCESS TO ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD. Wherever commerce can go the Bible and missionary can go.

III. THE CHURCH IS NOW ABLE TO GAIN INTELLIGENCE FROM ALMOST EVERY REGION HOURLY. If a missionary is in danger or needs assistance, help can be sent to him on the wings of lightning.

IV. ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD ARE BEING BROUGHT INTO NEIGHBOURHOOD. The realization of unity amongst nations is marvellously helping the Church.

V. THE BIBLE HAS BEEN TRANSLATED INTO ALL THE PRINCIPAL LANGUAGES. The foundation of Christian work in Mexico was laid during the European invasion by the soldiers dropping fragments of Bibles which were picked up by the natives.

VI. THE SAFETY OF THE MISSIONARY IS EVERYWHERE SECURED. God has given power over the earth into the hands of the great Protestant nations. The Cross is above the flag. The greatest earthly power to day is the Cross of Jesus Christ.

VII. THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD IS IN THE HANDS OF THE NATIONS THAT

ARE SPREADING THE GOSPEL--England, Germany, America.

(Bp. M. Simpson.)

Autumn: a season for national instruction

Autumn, or the feast of harvest, is not only a season for national gratitude, rejoicing, philanthropy, but also instruction. Look at the fields and mark

I. The RESUSCITATING principle of the Divine government. What you see ripened was a few months ago buried and apparently dead, but the dormant germ has been quickened by God. This principle is seen at work

1. In the mind of mankind, calling up buried thoughts and impressions.

2. In the conversion of souls, quickening the conscience, and imparting spiritual vitality.

3. On a grand scale in the general resurrection.

II. The RETRIBUTIVE principle in the Divine government. Nature gives back what she has received

1. In kind. Wheat for wheat.

2. In amount. The more she receives the more she gives. Be not deceived, etc.

III. The MULTIPLYING principle in the Divine government. For one grain many are returned--some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. So in morals. One thought may run into thousands, one noble deed may become the parent of millions. Nothing true is lost; everything true is multiplied.

IV. The MATURING principle: the Divine government. Through slow stages of growth. The blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear. Character ripens. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Lift up your eyes, and look

I. THE STANDPOINT. In calling the disciples attention to the Samaritans who were ready to believe without the help of miracle, our Lord is calling upon them to take a larger, higher, and more spiritual view of things; to labour for that which is more enduring than the grass, the bread without which man cannot live. He is looking down upon us.

1. What does He see? He sees us eager, busy, absorbed, not in things unlawful, but in things below the supreme worth. Harvests, markets, eating, drinking.

(1) The poor struggling for a maintenance.

(2) The middle class striving for wealth, comfort, culture.

(3) The rich absorbed in society and ambitious projects.

(4) The student.

(5) The philanthropist.

2. These are not to be condemned, but are commendable in their way. But the wrong lies in the fact that we are buried in these things.

3. Christ summons us to rise above these things to His own standpoint.

II. THE VISIONS.

1. Of the worlds great spiritual need. There was something in these Samaritans not so obvious as pain, or physical hunger, and that did not seem to be of such importance as the growing corn, or the meat the disciples had brought. Look at the people around you, not with the superficial eye, but with the eye of faith, and you will see in them the children of God, wanting God. This want is not to be satisfied by better houses, sufficient bread, present comfort. There is need in mans heart for a peace, a joy, a liberty, a life, not otherwise to be obtained but by fellowship with the Father.

2. Of the Son of man who can supply this need? This was His revelation to the woman. Every page of the Gospels shows that Christ was not indifferent to mans physical woes. But it was for their spiritual wants that He cared most. And to become food for this He died, as a grain of wheat sinks into the ground to die, in order to bring man back to God, and become the food of the world.

3. OF the future.

(1) The remote future. That which is near is apt to hide that which is at a great distance, and so that which is near in time is apt to hide that which is of infinite importance in the far future. To-morrow with its cares and engagements is big enough to hide from us the eternal. How are we to qualify ourselves for looking on the Lamb slain for us? Only by doing His work and carrying His burden.

(2) The near future, Max Muller tells us that there are no people more ripe for Christianity than the Hindoos, and the same holds good all over the world. But we can only see it with the eye of faith and the spirit of sacrifice. (H. Arnold Thomas, M. A.)

White already.

Our Lord teaches the ripeness of the world for the highest blessing.

1. Men everywhere have a certain religiousness of nature: religious ideas, capacities, instincts, aspirations; in some instances starved, degraded, dulled, but still there--the sense of infinity, dependence, duty, accountability, futurity. So far, then, they are ready for the gospel--able to comprehend its works, to receive its grace, to realize its blessings.

2. Not only so, but there is in all men a felt need for the truth, grace, hope of the gospel. They are feeling after God. Not equally vivid, understood and expressed, are their longings, but they are everywhere existent.

3. But whilst we believe all this we do not believe in the immediate readiness of mankind. We feel that much must be done first There must be a sowing and ripening before the reaping. It is this spirit of doubtfulness and postponement that our Lord rebukes. The sowing and ripening has taken place; put in your sickles. Let us observe the cases in which our Lords rebuke applies.

I. Take the conversion of the YOUNG.

1. You do not expect this. The children must wait. First the blade, etc. So we instruct, encourage, discipline them, but should be much surprised by anything like a religious experience, and should look upon it as on premature bloomings and blossomings in garden and orchard. But what is that doctrine of yours of prevenient grace? That God gives a secret light, light, strength, bias to the soul, and as soon as we awake to consciousness we find within us the sense of law and grace.

2. Have we not been astonished at the spiritual capacity of children? They cannot ungerstand theology, but they can religion. They cannot understand entomology, botany, optics, but they admire a butterfly, love the flowers, leap with joy at the rainbow. Go to them at once with a spiritual appeal and expect the effect. Dont talk about their wanting experience. If a chrysalis be placed in an ice-house, its development may be retarded for years, but take it into a hothouse, and it flutters a thing of beauty in a few days. So with our children.

II. Take the conversion of the MASSES.

(1) Such as are ignorant. What do they want? Education, say many. But on trial it comes out that they discover a spiritual faculty most acute. It was on this ground that the Royal Reaper gathered many noble sheaves. So it was when Wycliffe appealed to the serfs of Leicestershire, Luther to the peasantry of Germany, Wesley to the colliers of Kingswood. Without knowing arithmetic they feel the worth of the soul; without skill in languages they know the voice of God; without aesthetics they admire the beauty of holiness.

(2) Such as are worldly. They appear immersed in the material, but under that thick clay the Spirit of God is at work. There seems no life in a garden in early spring; but under the surface the seeds are swelling, the roots full of ferment. All that is wanted is rain and sunshine.

(3) Such as are vicious. What do these want? Reformation, say the wise of this world. No; with crimson sins they are white unto harvest. How readily Christ found the missing chord in publican and harlot! In this very Samaritan Christ wished His Church to learn that the guiltiest are able to apprehend the sublimest truths, truths which convict and save.

III. Take the conversion of the SCEPTICAL, What do they want? Argumentation, say many. No; men cannot get rid of their religion so easily as some think. The atheist has eyes to see this wondrous universe, spiritual longings, thoughts, arguments within himself not to he.suppressed, and is compelled to doubt his doubts. Go to him, and speak not so much to the sceptic as to the man.

IV. Take the conversion of the SAVAGE. portion of our race. What do they want? Civilization--nature never leaps. Indeed! Is there not a leap from the caterpillar through the pupa lute the butterfly? No, says the man of science, it only seems a leap. Very good; we wont argue. There is the penitent thief; it was not a real leap--the Spirit of God had worked the intermediate stages in silence and darkness--it only seemed a leap. Fiji, fifty years ago, was cannibal, to-day it is Christian. God is in all other dark places. The isles wait for His law.

V. The conversion of THE WORLD AT LARGE. This seems a long way off to the carnal eye. But it is only waiting. The sowing is done.

1. Christ is the Sower. He moves with His Spirit among the million.

2. His ripening forces have long been at work (Joh_1:4; Joh_1:9). The Light of the World acts when He does not manifestly shine. Go and expect fruit. You are not waiting for God; He is waiting for you. (W. L. Walkinson.)

The grain ripe

I. THE SICKLES.

1. Preaching the gospel. The sickle may have a handle of rosewood, and be adorned with precious stones, but it is worth nothing if it does not bring down the grain. We might preach the sciences from our pulpits, but Agassiz would beat us at that. We might philosophize, but Emerson would beat us at that. But he who with faith and prayer takes hold of the gospel sickle, however weak his natural arm, shall gather deep swarths of golden grain.

2. Singing the gospel. This scythe has been long neglected, much abused, but has been sharpened anew.

3. Prayer. By this John Knox reaped Scotland.

II. THE REAPERS.

1. Tract distributors.

2. Sunday-school teachers, ministers.

III. THOSE READY TO BE REAPED.

1. Those who feel too bad to be saved. You are ripe because you feel that. Christ came to save the worst.

2. The religiously educated. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Harvest

I. THE RIPENING principle of the Divine government is at work

1. In the inorganic realm. Our system is travelling to a crisis.

2. In the vegetable realm. The oak moves from century to century from an acorn to a point when its perfection is reached.

3. In the human realm,

(1) In the body. From infancy to old age our bodies are ripening for the grave.

(2) In the character, which is ripening for bliss or woe.

(3) In institutions, which, whether good or evil, reach their culmination.

(4) Individuals are ripening.

(5) Nations.

(6) The world--the harvest is the end of the world.

II. The COMPENSATORY principle in the Divine government. This principle rewards the labourer

1. According to the kind of his work. What was sown is reaped in species and quality. The same holds good in morals.

2. According to the amount. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly. There are degrees in glory which are regulated according to degrees in goodness.

III. The CO-OPERATIVE principle. In the harvest-field you have the result of a vast combination of agencies, animate and inanimate, human and Divine. The harvest demonstrates that man is a co-worker with God. Paul plants, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The fields white to harvest

I. WE MUST LOOK AT THE ASPECT OF THE FIELDS.

1. That in most places there is evidently a preparation in the minds of both Pagans and Mohammedans for receiving the servants of Christ.

2. What are the peculiar advantages which pious and zealous Christians in Britain enjoy for extending the gospel.

3. But the disposition among the heathen to receive the gospel, and the facilities which we possess for diffusing it, would be insufficient, unless the activity of the spiritual Church were awake to improve the occasion.

II. ENCOURAGEMENTS HELD OUT TO THE REAPERS.

1. The important good, which the Christian missionary effects, is, that he gathers fruit to life eternal.

2. The abundant reward which awaits him, when the toil is finished, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

(1) This common joy began when the holy apostles, having finished their labours, were taken to receive their reward.

(2) This joy has been increasing, as the several sowers and reapers, in different ages of the New Testament Church, have been taken to their eternal rest.

(3) It will be completed when all the Church shall meet before the throne; when the mystery of Christ shall be finished; when God shall have accomplished the number of His elect, and have hastened His kingdom. (Bp. Daniel Wilson.)

Fields white for harvest

Many Christians have a large stock of reasons for not expecting many conversions. They are for ever dwelling on the past or in the future, but never look for Gods arm being made bare now. The common reason is, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. This is not the time or the man; we must wait; and in the meantime death doth not cease to slay, and multitudes are perishing for lack of knowledge. Patience is a virtue, but sometimes decision is a greater one. Four months!--have there not been many months? That was the cry in the days of ourforefathers, in the days of our fathers, and it is four months still. Oh, to learn the Saviours words, The fields are white already! Expect a present blessing.

I. SIGNS OF HARVEST.

1. The Saviour had preached a sermon, and the whole of His congregation had been converted. He had only one hearer, it is true. But the conversion of one soul is a sign that God is going to convert others. The cholera is raging. A physician has been studying the disease. Many methods have failed. At last he hits upon the drug which cures one. Now, he says, I shall have a harvest of men, for what cures one will cure all. When Napoleon landed from Elba one man offered to serve the emperor. Here, said Napoleon, is one recruit at least. If some have found the Saviour, why not more?

2. This one was at that moment engaged in making more. It was Christs strategy to bless the men of Samaria through this woman. When this country was asleep half a dozen young men at Oxford felt the inspiration of God, and soon the same inspiration was felt from one end of the country to the other. There is not a plant that grows by the hedge side that does not scatter all adown the bank seeds of succeeding generations.

3. The others were coming to hear. When the fish get round the net surely some will be taken.

4. The persons who were coming to hear were those who seemed least likely to listen. When the giddy multitude crowd together to listen to the gospel it is a good sign of the coming harvest.

5. Recollect the men who have laboured before us. Has all this labour been for nothing? The days that are past have been preparing the population of England.

6. It is a sign of good when there is a stir among the people. The worst thing is stagnation. When people are not thoughtful about other things it is seldom you can get them to be thoughtful about religion. A farm overgrown with thistles is better than a barren one.

7. Old priestcrafts do not now hinder men from hearing the gospel. We can get at the people. If Luther, Bunyan, Baxter, and Alleine could have lived now, how they would have rejoiced!

II. HARVEST WANTS.

1. Many labourers. There is no machine that can do this work of soul-reaping.

2. Sharp sickles; such cutting truths as justification by faith, the total ruin of mankind, the Cross, the energy of the Holy Ghost.

3. Close binders. Those who cannot use the sickle can gather up the wheat. Invite people to the house of God.

4. Some to take the sheaves home, and assist to bring people into the Church.

5. Others to bring refreshment to the reapers. Encourage them.

III. THE FEARS OF HARVEST. The husbandman sometimes fears that

1. Through lack of labourers his harvest may be damaged. After a certain time the wheat spears out, and birds will feast upon it. Every hour that men are not saved there are capacities of usefulness that are falling out, and Satan is running away with them.

2. Some wheat may remain unreaped, and so be destroyed. If the Christian does not work, there are others who will.

3. Whether we gather in the harvest or not, there is a reaper who is silently gathering it every hour--Death. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fields white already unto harvest

I. THE LIKENESS BETWEEN NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL HUSBANDRY.

1. The first coming of Christ was the seedtime, and His second will be the harvest. From the seed which was then dropped will spring ripened fruit.

2. Generally the seed is the Word, and the sowers are the ministers of the gospel.

3. In all cases sowing is a means to an end. No man ever cast seed into the ground for the sake of the sowing. Even when we have preached well our end is not attained.

4. The only aim that will animate a ministry is to save souls from death.

5. When anxious inquirers come and close with Christ the joy is the joy of harvest.

II. THE DISSIMILARITY. Whereas in nature an uniform period intervenes between sowing and reaping, in grace the fruits may be gathered at any season or length of time--longer or shorter.

1. Do not wait four months, for the harvest may come at an earlier period. The seed sown to-day may be ripe to-night, as at Jacobs well and on the day of Pentecost. Ministers, therefore, should look for immediate results.

2. Do not despond although four months, four or forty years, should pass. If the cultivator of grain does not see his harvest whitening in four months, he abandons hope. Not so the Christian seed-sower. To know that some of the seed ripens early keeps his hopes active from the first; and to know that some of it ripens late prevents his hopes from sinking even to the last. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

One soweth, and another reapeth

The reaper and the wages

A double reward is promised the garnerer of souls. It is a reward which flows back to the garnerers, and it is a reward which flows out to the souls garnered.

1. He that reapeth receiveth wages; something comes to him.

(1) He has the wage of being linked into the highest fellowship.

(2) He makes the best possible investment of his toil.

(3) He has the wage of the supremest joy.

(4) He has the wage of richer reward in heaven.

2. The garnerer of souls has wage also toward others; He gathereth fruit until life eternal.

3. Consider the place where the reaper is to reap. Lift up your eyes and look--you need not travel far to find a place for reaping your own local church, your own special Sunday-schools, your own neighbourhood--put in at once your sickle there. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)

Sowing and reaping

In Palestine neither all the sowing nor all the reaping of the fields is done at one and the same season. As soon as one crop is out of the ground another is prepared for. Ploughing and sowing follow close upon reaping and gleaning. Different crops require different lengths of time for their maturing; and, as a consequence, the planting for one crop will sometimes be going on while another crop near it is not yet ready for the harvest. As soon as the fields are cleared, in the midsummer or in the early autumn, the ground is ploughed, and the winter wheat or some other grain is sowed, in advance of the rainy season. Again, between the early and the latter rains of the springtime, there will be ploughing, and the sowing of barley or oats or lentils for a later crop. In the second week in April I saw on the Plain of the Cornfields, not far from Jacobs well, the grain already well ripened toward the harvest, while just southward of that region, and again, two days later, just northward of it, I saw ploughing and planting going on; so that I might have been in doubt, from my own observations, whether that were the time of seed-sowing or of harvest; and so it is likely to have been in the days of Jesus. Whether this were the springtime or the early winter, whether it were at noonday or at eventide, are points which have been much discussed in connection with the gospel narration of the visit of Jesus. It would seem most natural, from the story as it stands, to suppose that the season was the springtime, and that the hour was noonday; but, however that may be, it is obvious that there were within the eye-sweep of Jesus and His disciples the signs of seed-sowing on the one hand and of ripening harvest on the other; and that it was by calling attention to these two processes of nature in so close proximity of time and space that Jesus taught the lesson His disciples were shown that even while seed-sowing for one crop was going on in the natural world there might be also a making ready for an ingathering of former crops; so that sowing and reaping should go on together. Then came our Lords application of this fact in natures sphere. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)

Sowing and reaping

The proverb, One soweth, and another reapeth, as generally used, suggests that the rewards of labour often fall into hands that have not earned them. The profits of an invention are frequently made by others than the inventor. In diplomacy, as Leicester says, The hap of some is that all they do is nothing, and ethers that do nothing have all the thanks. Job could wish himself nothing worse than Let me sow, and let another eat. But Christ widens our view; He corrects the selfishness of the individual by fixing his thoughts on humanity, and brings the rewards of eternity to counterbalance the apparent anomalies of time. Consider

I. OUR RELATION TO THE PAST. Every man is born into an inheritance which he had no hand in earning. This distinguishes him from the brute. Instinct makes no progress. Through long millenniums the earth was preparing for man. One species of vegetation after another came and left its deposit. One kind of animals after another left their bones to petrify. Thus stratum after stratum arose.

1. Thus the child of to-day is richer than our own childhood. Take the matter of schoolbooks. The discoveries of one age are confined to the few; in the next they are the creed of the learned; in the third they become the elementary principles of education. What strides have been made in science since Galileo, Newton, and Watt! No child can begin where his father began.

2. The same holds good in religious matters.

(1) The Church is richer to-day than she was a hundred years ago by the whole missionary enterprise, by which she has added a new volume to Christian evidences, acquired new property in noble lives, raised the standard of home piety and augmented her joy.

(2) The same is true in hymnology and

(3) in Christian literature. All this has come about largely without our own exertions. No man is self-made: he is what he is because of others labours.

II. OUR DUTY TO THE PRESENT. Not to rest in our inherited advantages, but to so add to them as to leave a richer inheritance. The danger of the youth to whom a large fortune has been left

1. In the direction of indolence or prodigality. It is a common remark that the children of wealthy men often come to grief.

2. In the direction of conservatism. The young heir is apt to think that he must be simply a repetition of his father. The same perils attend us in receiving the heritage of the past.

We must, therefore, set ourselves to such work as is in harmony with our generation.

1. In science Franklin went a certain length in the investigation of electricity; but his successors did not rest there. Hence we have through Henry, Morse, Wheatstone, Bell, and Edison, the telephone.

2. The literature of the present is not a reproduction of the past, but an outgrowth.

3. The theology and Church life of to-day are distinctive of to-day. Each age has to meet its own problems, and without drifting from central truths must solve them in its own way. Thus it happens that the leaders of a former generation fail to secure a hearing in the next.

III. OUR JOY IN THE FUTURE. Jesus takes in eternity and gives all workers alike a share in the reward--the reaper for his reaping, the sower for his ploughing. Conclusion:

1. How much there is in this to cheer the desponding labourer. Livingstone seemingly accomplished little in missioning Africa, but he stimulated others to evangelize. Though a man bring only one soul to Christ, he has an interest in all the successes of that soul.

2. This truth is well calculated to keep us humble. The credit is due to God. He gives the increase. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

One soweth, and another reapeth

I. HOW THIS PROVERB WAS VERIFIED IN THE CASE OF THE APOSTLES. The general view is that they went into a moral wilderness, and that planting and sowing were simultaneous. This was not the case.

1. As regards the Jews, the prophets, etc., John and our Lord had sown the seed. The harvest at Pentecost was the result of centuries of seed-sowing, and in preaching Peter was merely putting in the sickle.

2. As regards the heathen the seed had been sown

(1) By the teaching of nature and conscience.

(2) By priests and prophets such as Melchizedek, Jethro, Job, Balaam, by whom the tradition of a purer age had been preserved.

(3) By the dissemination of truth through the dispersion of the Jews.

3. Thus the fields were now white unto harvest, and the apostles reaped where others had sown.

II. HOW IT MAY BE CONTINUALLY VERIFIED AMONGST OURSELVES.

1. Sudden conversions produced by preacher or friend are only the outcome, it may be, of a long series of impressions.

2. An apparently unfruitful ministry may be a preparation for a rich harvest under some successor.

III. THE GRACIOUS ASSURANCE THAT BOTH SOWER AND REAPER SHALL REJOICE TOGETHER. It may make a difference to a man as far as his present comfort is concerned whether he be a sower or a reaper, but none as far as his future is concerned. If he has done his work faithfully he shall have his reward. Moses and the prophets and the Gentile teachers will rejoice with apostles and Christian missionaries; apparently unsuccessful parents and missionaries with those who have spoken effectively. Lesson: Be not weary in well-doing--parents, teachers, preachers--you may see no fruit, but you are sowing good seed. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Sowing the gospel seed

I. THE SOWERS--men, not angels.

1. This seems strange when we consider the grandeur and breadth of the gospel Who is equal to summarizing the truths of the gospel, much less to expounding them?

2. Yet men have ever been entrusted with the gospel--Adam, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek. On a human body was placed the priestly robe, and he who entered the Holy of Holies was a man. When another order of teachers arose neither Gabriel nor Michael were summoned, but Samuel, Elijah, and Isaiah. And when Christ came He entrusted the gospel not to the heavenly host, but to Galilean fishermen.

3. There is a fitness, however, in this. The fields are those of earth, the harvest is of men, therefore the sowers and reapers must be not angelic, but human. Knowing their weakness and fallibility, ministers may well shrink; but if they forsake the plough angels will not direct it along the furrow. And with all their fallibility they being men can weep with mens sorrows and partake of their joys, which angels cannot. The appeal of an angel would be more powerful, that of man more pathetic. No angel could speak of human sympathies and call to remembrance the pathos of a mothers prayers.

II. THE MAGNITUDE OF THEIR WORK.

1. The seed--the Word of God.

2. The field.

(1) The apathetic.

(2) The infidel.

(3) The depraved.

3. The personal feebleness of the instruments.

II. THE GREATNESS OF THEIR REWARD.

1. God-given help to do what they have to do.

2. The sympathy of those who are benefited by their labours.

3. The present benediction of the great Master.

4. Eternity of blessedness in heaven. (R. B. East, M. D.)

Spiritual harvest

I. THE SALVATION OF SINNERS IS THE WILL OF GOD AND THE DELIGHT OF HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. This is manifest from

1. The provision He has made for effecting it.

2. The place it has borne in the eternal counsels.

3. The preparation of infinite wisdom and almighty power in overruling the affairs of the world.

4. The succession of great men inspired to fore-announce it.

5. The manner in which it was carried into execution by the incarnation and cross of Christ.

II. THOUGH THE GOSPEL IS AT ALL TIMES NECESSARY FOR SALVATION, CERTAIN PERIODS ARE PECULIARLY FAVOURABLE TO IT.

1. Always necessary because

(1) It is the means appointed by Christ.

(2) Because of its proved fitness.

(3) Because God is to have all the glory.

2. Sometimes specially seasonable.

(1) As here. The providence of God had over-ruled the envy of the Jews to the driving of the Saviour into Galilee and His going to Galilee to lead Him through Samaria; when He meets with the woman, who, saved herself, summons her fellow citizens to Christ.

(2) As in the case of modern missions. What doors have been opened by the abolition of slavery, the progress of commerce, etc.

III. WHEN SUCH A PERIOD ARRIVES CHRISTIANS ARE CALLED UPON TO EMBRACE IT AS A HARVEST TIME. Such a seasonal. Must be immediately embraced. Its duties cannot be put off to a more convenient season. It is now or never. Men are crying for the words of life. If we refuse, the curse of Meter will be ours.

2. Must be diligently pursued: from various considerations.

(1) The shortness of the season.

(2) The precariousness of the weather.

(3) The ripeness of the crops. Idleness, amusements, in harvest time!

3. Should be joyfully performed. Harvesting is hard work, but there is much pleasure in it, and it is generally performed with cheerfulness.

IV. BOTH SUCCESS AND REWARD WILL CROWN THE FAITHFUL LABOURER.

1. One of the greatest stimulants to labour is the probability of success, but here success is certain.

2. The almighty influence of the Holy Spirit is behind it.

3. It is assured by the pledged word of the Lord of the harvest. (J. Gwyther, B. A.)

The harvest of heathen souls

I. THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT IMPLIED.

1. This principle combines two apparent opposites: it necessitates the agency of man and preserves the supremacy of God. By the one it precludes man from yielding to the bent of his natural indolence and attaining nothing; by the other it annihilates the unseemly arrogance which would vaunt the arm of flesh as though it could accomplish everything.

2. It furnishes a reply to scepticism which asks, Why, if God be a perfect agent, does He need man; and why, if man be an imperfect agent, does God employ him? Lift up your eyes! Though the husbandman has to sow, on God depends the fruitful seasons. Man works for God, God works by man. It is for us to employ, it is for Him to bless the means.

II. THE DUTY ENJOINED. In the natural world we do not expect a harvest without labour, nor without Gods blessing. So Paul must plant and Apollos water, but God giveth the increase. Duty is irrespective of results.

III. THE BENEFIT TO BE CONFERRED Labourers do not depend for their hire on the upspringing of the seed, nor for its quantity or quality. Under all circumstances he is worthy of his hire. But in spiritual husbandry He who employs the sowers can also command the elemental influences. He who engages the reapers can ensure the crop, He therefore who sows not only receives present wages, but gathereth fruit, etc. (T. Dale, M. A.)

I. THE DUTY OF ALL WHO POSSESS THE PRECIOUS SEED TO SOW IT.

Missions

1. Our obligation to sow must be in proportion to our estimate of the value of the seed.

2. This obligation affects the Church collectively and individually.

(1) It is the execution of a trust with which all Christians are put in charge.

(2) It is the acceptance of a benefit to which all are permitted to aspire.

3. It is the accredited indispensable token of union with Christ and of membership in His Church.

II. THE CERTAINY THAT THEY WHO SOW SHALL REAP.

1. The liberal soul shall be enriched. He that watereth others shall himself be watered. The exercise of grace under one aspect leads to the communication of grace under another.

2. The preciousness of the future reward may be gathered from the excellence of the present.

3. Both are sure. They may be long delayed, but the seed shall spring fresh and vigorous even as Jesus rose triumphant from the grave.

III. OVER WHAT FIELD THE SEED IS TO BE SCATTERED. The field is the world.

1. In its widest extent.

2. In its varieties of guilt.

3. In its diversities of promise and prospect.

IV. WHAT HARVEST WE MAY HOPE TO SOW FOR OTHERS, AND WHAT WE MAY CALCULATE ON REAPING FOR OURSELVES.

1. Remember the promise.

2. Remember its fulfilment.

(1) In England under previous missions.

(2) Abroad under existing missions.

V. THE MANNER IN WHICH WE CAN PROFITABLY PERFORM THE DUTY AND EFFECTUALLY ENSURE THE BENEFIT. Let each do what he can, where he can.

1. Prayerfully.

2. Earnestly.

3. Patiently.

4. Believingly. (T. Dale, M. A.)

The passion for immediate results

Men read what the Missionary Herald tells them of the progress of the gospel among the heathen; and there are those that take out their pencils and say: The whole missionary world numbers so many millions, and there have been about so many hundred people converted by the influence of this amount of capital. That is about tea thousand dollars for one soul. It is rather dear work, aint it? There are such moral arithmeticians that sum up the fruit of moral seed-sowing under arithmetical proportions. But the whole world has been stirred up by the mission cause. I am what I am because Henry Obookiah, from the Sandwich Islands, was taught at the Cornwall School in Connecticut, and in my boyhood came down to my fathers house, and produced an impression on me which has undulated, and propagated, and gone on influencing me. Some of the enthusiasm which I have felt for moral conditions came to me from seeing him. Who can tell what the retroaction of foreign missions is? Who can tell what benefit may be received here from our Western missions? Who can tell what is the effect of sending our abundance to the waste places of our own land, and to the torrid and frigid zones? It stirs up that which is not reportable. Ten thousand more leaves are born every year than the botanist ever sees. Ten thousand times more storms blow on every sea than are ever registered on charts or log-books. (H. Ward Beecher.)

Reaping

Once a vessel bound to a distant part of the world happened to be detained by contrary winds at the Isle of Wight. A minister who was on board went on shore to preach. His text was Be clothed with humility. Among his hearers was a thoughtless girl, who had come to display her finery rather than to be instructed. The sermon was the means of her conversion. Her name was Elizabeth Wallbridge, the celebrated Dairymans Daughter, whose interesting history by Legh Richmond has been the means amongst nearly all peoples of bringing thousands to Christ. (Family Churchman.)

Receiving wages

What wages? Christ had already told them that His own wages were to do the will of God, and to finish His work. Did they want better? They would gather in fruit--the fruit of all His work and travail, of all Gods revelations of Himself from age to age, of all the toil of patriarchs, kings, prophets. These had laboured--they were entering into their labours. They were come in at the end of a period when all things were hastening to their consummation. They would have the reward which all these men had longed for; the reward of seeing Gods full revelation of Himself, of opening the spring of eternal life, of which all might drink together. The divisions of time had nothing to do with an eternal blessing. The sower and reaper would rejoice together. Why might not Jacob, who had given the well, and the newest Samaritan convert who drank of it, share in those pleasures which are at the right hand of Him who is, and was, and is to come? (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

Large results from humble beginnings

A small bit of rock feels something or other tickling it behind; and through a seam, at last, there trickle out some drops of water, as if the rock itself were shedding tears; and the drops increase; and a rill is formed; and it runs quietly, finding its way, down the declivity. Soon another little rill is met on the road, and they join forces; and a little further down a third is added; and then a fourth, and then a fifth, and so on, till by-and-by they make a plunge through the gorge with spray and thunder; and out comes below the stream, voluble and violent; and down in the meadows it quiets itself, and runs between flowery banks, until a mill catches it and makes it work for its way; and passing through industries it still deepens; other streams break into it here and there towards its mouth; and there the city dwells upon, and navies ride upon it; and in its pride of strength and depth and width and accomplishments, it says, Who but I? But that great voluminous river is itself the child of those drops, those trickling rills, those mountain springs. If it had not been for them it would not have existed nor have been nourished. We need not despise, therefore, in any direction, small things. Who can tell what that poor old nurse wrought who cared for the orphan child of her mistress that was gone, crooning songs to the child, telling her fairy stories, and making an empyrean above her? Setting loose in that little child all the germs of poetry, she fashioned its mind; and her humble, unconscious work will never be washed out; nor will the colour be taken from it; it will go on and be part and parcel of the child, if it lives to be fifty or a hundred years old. When the child has come to mature womanhood they will say: Well, were you not brought up in your babyhood by that old nurse? Yes; she was a nice old creature, and that is all you say about it; but you are very largely what you are from what she did for you. If the throbbing of her heart sets yours to throbbing more, if the outlook of her imagination threw open the windows of yours, she, I might almost say, was your creator; and though she was so humble and powerless, without learning or genius, nevertheless you were so plastic that her influence moulded you. (H. Ward Beecher.)

The penalties of neglect

To what will the wilful neglect of seed-time on the part of the whole community be equivalent but to an act of national suicide? If, again, a distant colony were dependent on the surplus produce of the land that sent it forth, and yet enough were purposely sown only for home consumption, what would such conduct be but an act of national fratricide? It would be to exhibit the maliciousness of Cain, and to bring the curse of a brothers blood upon that guilty nation. Like the first--like an act of national suicide--would be the crime of the Church, which is bound to love the Lord her God with all her heart, did she not take care to provide sufficient ministration of Gods Word throughout the circumference of her immediate domestic responsibility; and, like the second--like an act of national fratricide--would her crime be, if, forgetful of the second principle of action, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, she made no proportionate effort and application to extend similar ministrations in those her missionary stations, which are her colonies, planted in heathen lands, and all around which there is a famine and a perishing, not for want of the natural sustenance, but of the bread that cometh down from heaven, and which alone giveth life unto the world. (T. Dale, M. A.)

Herein is that saying true.--The frequent use of proverbial sayings in the New Testament deserves notice. It shows the value of proverbs, and the importance of teaching them to children and young people. A pointed proverb is often remembered when a long moral lesson is forgotten. (Bp. Ryle.)

Sowing and reaping

A ragged school teacher was telling a friend in Philadelphia that he was afraid he would have to discontinue the school, as he had seen no fruit whatsoever of his labours. At the moment a little ragged boy came up and asked him if he would come and see his brother who was very ill. He went with the boy into one of the lowest streets in the city. On entering the room he was struck with the supreme misery of it. Going up to the suffering boy, the teacher said, My poor boy, what can I do for you? Shall I get you a doctor? Oh, no, captain, said the boy, but tell me, tell me, did you say that Jesus died for everybody, that He gave Himself for me? Yes, I did. And that He will receive any one who comes to Him? Yes, indeed I did, dear boy. Well, I know that since He gave Himself for me, that He will receive me. And then the boy dropped back on his bundle of rags--dead.

Sowing and reaping

From the labours of ministers that are dead and gone much good fruit may be reaped by the people that survive them, and by the ministers that succeed them. John the Baptist and those that assisted him had laboured, and the disciples of Christ entered into their labours. (Matthew Henry.)

Sowing and reaping--missions

A seaman, on returning home to Scotland after a cruise in the Pacific, was asked: Do you think the missionaries have done any good in the South Sea Islands? I will tell you a fact which speaks for itself, said the sailor. Last year I was wrecked on one of those islands, where I knew that, eight years before, a ship was wrecked and the crew murdered; and you may judge how I felt at the prospect before me--if not dashed to pieces on the rocks, to survive for only a more cruel death. When day broke we saw a number of canoes pulling for our ship, and were prepared for the worst. Think of our joy and wonder when we saw the natives in English dress, and heard some of them speak in the English language. On that very island the next Sunday we heard the gospel preached. I do not know what you think of missions, but I know what I do.

Sowing and reaping

Mr. M was for many years a pious and indefatigable Sunday-school teacher. It pleased God to call him to suffer severe affliction and to an early death. During his long affliction though it was painful even to see him walk, he went to his class; nor would he resign as long as he could possibly reach the school. It was my happiness, says a writer in the Teachers Magazine, to visit him during his trying illness, and the calmness of his mind under affliction, and his triumphant departure, I never shall forget; nor shall I cease to remember another circumstance. Turning to me, and with something like despondency, he said, Well, I believe I never was useful as a Sunday-school teacher. Some short time after his death, I visited a Sunday School in a small town some distance from that in which Mr. M. had lived. I soon recognized among the teachers one who had been a Sunday scholar; I conversed with him, and found he was a professor of religion, and a member of a Christian Church in that town. I congratulated him upon his employment, and inquired by what means he had been led to love the Lord Jesus Christ. He replied, The advice which my teacher again and again gave me, led me to reflection and to prayer, and I hope was the means of leading me to Christ. And who was that teacher? He replied, Mr. M. Yes, that same dear friend who, upon a dying bed, said he believed he had never been useful as a Sunday-school teacher. (New Cyclopaedia.)

Sowing and reaping--tracts

A clergyman some time since, as he was riding, passed some young females near a school-house, and dropped from his carriage two tracts, which he had previously marked. Some time afterwards he was conversing with a young woman with reference to her spiritual state, and found her rejoicing in the hope of pardoned sin. He inquired the history of her religious feelings, and she traced them to a tract dropped by a traveller, which was manifestly one of the two above referred to. He was afterwards called to visit another young woman on a sick-bed, whose mind was calm and composed in view of death, which the event proved was near at hand. She traced her first serious impressions to the circumstance of two tracts being dropped by a traveller, one of which, she said, was taken up by her cousin, and the other by herself; and now, said she, we are hoping both in Christ. She had retained the tract as a precious treasure, and, putting her hand under her pillow, showed it to the clergyman, who immediately recognized the marks he had written upon it. (New Cyclopaedia.)

Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours

I. TRACE THE STREAM OF PROVIDENTIAL EVENTS FROM THE BEGINNING SO FAR AS THEY BEAR ON THE SPIRITUAL CULTURE OF THE WORLD. The fall, the first promise, animal sacrifice, Enoch, the deluge, the colonization of the world through the confusion of tongues, the call of Abraham, and the preparation of the Jews in Egypt for their inheritance, idolatry exposed and punished by the plagues, the establishment and mission of the Jewish nation, the captivity, restoration and dispersion, the function of Persia, Greece, and Rome, the fulness of time, the papal apostacy, Luther, the Puritans, Methodism, missions, Sunday Schools, Bible Society, education.

II. NOTICE SOME OF THOSE EXISTING EVENTS WHICH HARMONIZE WITH THOSE OF PAST TIMES, AND ARE CONNECTED WITH THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND.

1. Consider what is doing within the Church. It has awakened out of sleep. All denominations have their missionary society. All are talking about the coming of Christ.

2. Consider what is doing without the boundaries of the Church. Many, without thinking or meaning it, are contributing to the spread of the knowledge of Christ.

(1) Think on the increase of knowledge--Bacon, Newton, and their successors.

(2) The rapid progress of colonization.

(3) The extension of the British empire. Why has God given us India? Not to add a new gem to the crown of our monarch, nor to give us an increase of power, not to augment our luxuries, but to extend the gospel.

III. STATE THE DUTIES WHICH THE YOUNG OWE TO THIS GREAT CAUSE, AND THE WAY IN WHICH THEY MAY FURTHER IT.

1. You may do this by your own personal religion. Give yourselves first to the Lord, then to His Church.

2. Maintain a deep conviction of the importance of mans spiritual interests, and of the necessity of religion to promote them. Knowledge will not save the world, only Christ can do that.

3. Maintain right views of the importance of truth in the conversion of the world, The divinity of Christ, His atonement, regeneration by the Holy Ghost.

4. Let all your efforts be carried on in the spirit of religion.

(1) Beware of the secular spirit in religion.

(2) Do everything in a spirit of prayer. Resolutions, sermons, speeches are vain without this.

IV. PRESENT SOME MOTIVES TO URGE THE YOUNG TO DEVOTE THEMSELVES FULLY TO THIS CAUSE.

1. Think of the nature of the cause itself.

(1) Its first attribute is religion. It is to proclaim salvation to the sinner, and immortality to those who have no prospect beyond the grave.

(2) It is intellectual. The heathen world is a vast wilderness of mind.

(3) It is characterized by compassion.

(4) By comprehension. The missionary society is a Bible society, a school society, a home missionary society, a mechanics institute, a peace society, an anti-slavery society, a civilization society.

2. Think of the advantages you possess.

3. Remember that it remains with you whether the missionary cause shall be transmitted to posterity. (J. A. James.)

Personal effort must be encouraged

A little maid directed a great prince to Elisha. Our Saviour, by instructing one poor woman, spread instruction to a whole town. Philip preached the gospel to a single gentleman, in his chariot upon the road; and he not only received it himself, but carried it into his own country and propagated it there. This woman could say but little of Christ, but what she did say she spoke feelingly. He told me all that ever I did. Those are most likely to do good that can tell what God has done for their souls. (Matthew Henry.)

Mutual dependence

We enter upon life weak, unconscious infants, depending every moment on other eyes to watch for us, and other hands to minister to us, while we kindle in their hearts the most powerful emotions. But not less dependent are we on our fellow-creatures for our continuance in life from the cradle to the grave. There is not a thread of clothing which covers our body, not a luxury that is placed on our table, not an article which supplies the means of labour, not one thing which is required of us as civilized beings, but involves the labours of others on our behalf; while by the same law we cannot but contribute to their well-being. The cotton which the artizan weaves or wears has been cultivated by brothers beneath a tropical sun and possibly beneath a tyrants lash. The tea he drinks has been gathered for him by brothers in distant China. A mother writes a letter to her son in some distant spot in India, and conveys it in silence to the postoffice, perhaps thinking only when she may receive a reply. But how much is done before that letter reaches its destination! The hands of unknown brethren will receive and transmit it; rapid trains will convey it over leagues of railways; splendid steamships will sail with it. It is watched day and night, through calm and hurricane; and precious lives are risked to keep it in security until, in safety, after months of travel, it is delivered from the mothers hand into that of her boy. (Family Churchman.)

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed

The first female missionary

I. HER PREVIOUS CHARACTER.

1. Of dissolute morals. Antecedent wickedness no barrier to grace, given repentance and faith (Isa_1:18; Isa_55:7-9; Mic_7:18; Mt 1Jn_1:7-9). Examples: Manasseh (2Ki_31:16; 2Ch_33:12-15); Saul of Tarsus (Act_9:1-18); Philippian jailer Act_16:34), and no disqualification for after service.

2. Of lively understanding. The success of the gospel not dependent on the intelligence of its preachers, but high mental endowments no misfortune. Paul and Luke have their place as well as Andrew and Peter:

3. Of religious inclinations. Divine grace often keeps alive in souls seemingly going downwards to perdition--a spark of goodness that only waits the Spirits breath to fan it into flame.

II. HER INSPIRING MOTIVE.

1. Not mere excitement. Her love and novelty an unsatisfactory hypothesis, since she grounds her invitation on a moral basis (verse 29).

2. Not conscious peace. She was scarcely yet rejoicing in the assurance of salvation. But

3. Simple faith. She believed Christ to be the Messiah. It was impossible, therefore, for her to be silent. She acted like David (Psa_66:16; Psa_116:10), the apostles (Act_4:20), Paul (2Co_4:13), the Mar_1:45).

III. Her glowing zeal (verse 28).

1. The trivial action..

2. The important revelation.

(1) An intention to return.

(2) The forgetfulness of her errand in her eagerness to proclaim her new-found joy (verse 34).

(3) The importance she attached to one who could answer all questions and satisfy all aspirations (Mat_13:44-46).

(4) The estimate in which she held Divine things in comparison with earthly.

(5) The desire she felt that others should hear the good news.

IV. HER GLADSOME MESSAGE (verse 29).

1. The startling announcement. The language of exaggeration contained a truth. Christ had not only shown His acquaintance with details of personal history, as in the case of Nathanael (Joh_1:48), and with the quality of her spirit, as with Peters (Joh_1:42), but had discovered her to herself so as to enable her to realize her guiltiness before God (cf. Luk_5:8)

, and her need of that living water of which she afterwards drank.

2. The joyous question. An interrogation not of doubt, but of faith. She spoke as if she believed not for joy (Luk_24:41). Her adroitness is worthy of all imitation.

3. The eager invitation. Compare Christs address to Andrew and John Joh_1:39; cf. Psa_34:8; Joh_7:17).

V. HER WONDERFUL SUCCESS (Joh_7:30; Joh_7:39; Joh_7:41).

1. The extent of it.

(1) She produced a commotion in the city--as the gospel usually does in strange places (Act_8:8; Act_13:44; Act_17:5).

(2) She enkindled faith in the hearts of many citizens.

2. The reason of it.

(1) A persuasion of the womans sincerity and accuracy guaranteed by her humiliating confession.

(2) A feeling of the self-evidencing power of the truth even when repeated at second-hand (2Co_4:2; 1Th_1:5; 1Th_2:13).

Lessons:

1. The duty of those who know the truth to publish it (Joh_17:18,Mat_5:16; Mat_10:8; Act_5:20; Rom_10:14-15).

2. The place and power of female agency in the Church, e.g., Mary Luk_1:26-38), Elizabeth (Luk_1:6), Anna (Luk_2:37), Dorcas (Act_9:36), Lydia (Act_16:14), Priscilla (Act_18:26), etc.

3. The adaptation of the gospel to the highest needs of man (Isaiah lit. 7; Eze_47:8; Luk_1:78-79; Joh_8:32; Joh_12:50; Rom_1:16).

4. The certainty that all nations will yet be obedient unto the faith Psa_2:8; Psa_72:8; Isa_11:9; Dan_2:35; Mat_28:18; Rom_1:5; Php_2:11; Rev_11:15). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

Faith

I. IN ITS NATURE.

1. Testimony.

(1) Credit or assent (Joh_4:39; 1Co_11:18). Hearsay faith: that of a child who accepts, on the word of his teacher, facts about Egypt, Palestine, etc., or as a child receives at his mothers knees what she says about God, and Jesus, and heaven.

(2) Confidence and trust (Joh_4:40). This differs from assent in that it leads men to act. In this sense all men live by faith.

(3) The Samaritans first faith. What a contrast between them and the Jews I They received Him on the word of a woman when they saw the change wrought in her. She was a living epistle.

(4) Faith in the testimony of God (Joh_1:33).

2. Conviction (Joh_4:41). Their faith advanced beyond trust in the womans word.

3. Experience. Know.

II. IN ITS OBJECTS.

1. The word of Christ (see Joh_4:47-53).

2. The promise of God (Mat_8:7). Faith in the promises makes the future present, and the heirship possession.

3. The work of Christ (Joh_4:42).

4. The Person of Christ.

III. IN ITS RESULTS.

1. Its effects on this occasion.

(1) In the woman. She showed it by proclaiming Christ.

(2) In the Samaritans. They came to Christ, confessed Him, invited Him to tarry with them, believed His word, and knew Him to be the Saviour.

2. How it grew: by stages.

3. Its issues (see Act_8:6-25). (J. Gill.)

Testimony and experience

I. HUMAN TESTIMONY IS FREQUENTLY MADE THE MEANS OF PRODUCING FAITH IN MENS HEARTS. A large number owe their conversion to the personal and practical testimony of others. To encourage others to testify note that this was that of

1. A woman. A woman was the founder of the Church in Samaria; a woman was the first convert in Europe. Let none of our sisters, therefore, refrain from giving their testimony.

2. A sinful woman. Now the very life which had else been so just a cause for silence became an impelling motive for witness-bearing. The more mischief we have done, the more good we should try to do. The chief of sinners became the chief of apostles.

3. Her testimony was personal, and that was the secret of her power. She did not discuss or quote the opinion of others, as some preachers do. If we wish to win souls there is nothing like telling them what the Lord hath done for our souls.

4. Her testimony was delivered very earnestly. If our sermons are icicles they are not likely to melt the ice in your minds. If in speaking to a man you treat your conversion as commonplace, or aim at his conversion as though it was a matter that didnt much signify, you might as well be silent.

5. Notice the judiciousness of her testimony. She did not say, I am sure He is the Christ. If you positively assert a thing, it is very likely some one will deny it, although they would draw the same inference if left alone. In fishing for souls you need as much judgment as in angling. We must be wise to win souls.

6. Observe the result. Many believed because of the womans speech. Her heart was in it, and therefore God blessed her.

7. Your not believing in Jesus does not arise from want of testimony. You have had the best testimony--of a mother, a wife, a minister.

II. FAITH MAY ARISE APART FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MEN. When you have borne testimony to a man, and he doesnt yield to it, dont despair of him. God has other ways of working besides the testimony of His servants.

1. Some of the Samaritans who had not received the testimony of the woman believed because of His own word. We have Gods Word amongst us now, and it will work in hearts quickened by the Spirit to remember what they learned in the Sabbath school.

2. Sickness, poverty, and other ills are Gods servants, and sin itself has led men to the Saviour.

III. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ECLIPSES HUMAN TESTIMONY.

1. It is far more convincing.

2. More essential. A doctors medicine may have overwhelming testimonials, but that will do no good unless you take it.

3. More complete. Testimony may tell you something about Christ, but not much compared with what you may learn by going to Him yourself. The Queen of Sheba did not learn half of what she saw.

4. More enduring. What you receive from others you may give up, but only experience can make you faithful unto death.

5. More persuasive to others. This woman had first of all a personal experience herself. In conclusion. It is a serious thing to reject the personal witness of others, but it is false not to try for yourself whether Jesus is what He professes to be. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The worlds redemptive faith

I. ITS OBJECT. Christ.

1. He thoroughly knows all pertaining to human life (Joh_4:29; Joh_4:39).

2. He is susceptible to human appeals (Joh_4:40).

3. He is the Restorer of mankind (Joh_4:42).

II. ITS GROUNDS.

1. The initiatory faith. This is built on testimony (Joh_4:39). In their initial faith they accepted two things

(1) Omniscience as a proof of Divinity.

(2) The credibility of the womans testimony. This is the faith of all mere nominal Christians.

2. The consummating faith (Joh_4:41). This faith was

(1) Intuitive.

(2) Direct (Joh_4:42).

(3) Certain (Joh_4:42). (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Closing incidents

I. THE TWOFOLD BASIS OF ALL RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

1. The evidence of faith illustrated in the message of the woman, which elicited an unhesitating assent to the trustworthiness of the tale.

2. The evidence of sight obtained by personal converse. Of these two the first alone remains; but it is well to remember that the faith of many was kindled not by the irresistible testimony, but by that which we deem the less satisfactory.

II. MEN CRAVE FOR THE FAITH WHICH COMES THROUGH SIGHT, like Thomas, forgetting Christs benediction on those who have not seen and have believed. That higher blessedness is ours.

III. THE SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF PREACHING TO MIRACLE. In Judaea Christ did many miracles, yet no man received His testimony. Here He did no miracles, He simply spoke the living word, and multitudes believed. It was the same at Pentecost; and now while the temporary and miraculous agency has ceased the truly efficacious still remains. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, etc.

IV. THE RECEPTION OF CHRISTS WORDS LEADS TO THE WELCOME OF CHRISTS PERSON (Joh_4:40). It was a blessed and transient visit. Those who forfeited the opportunity of the hearing Him forfeited it for ever. There are tarry days of Christ in the soul; when sickness, bereavement, trial brings Him within the Shechem gates. Have we made the most of the season?

V. THE TESTIMONY OF FAITH CONFIRMED BY EXPERIENCE. This inward, subjective evidence is more convincing than that of the schools. It is the soul testing the remedies of the Great Physician.

VI. THE FUTURE OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN AND CHURCH. Cornelius a Lapide tells us that the womans name was Photina, that she journeyed to Carthage, proclaiming in that vast city salvation through Christ; and that after an honoured martyrdom her head was conveyed to Rome, Where it is still preserved as a holy relic in the Basilica of St. Pauls: moreover, that the 20th of March, the day of her death, is still held in reverence in the Roman martyrology. As for the Church (see Act_8:14-25; Act_9:31), founded under circumstances of such interest.by this wayside fountain, it was not suffered to languish or decay. A Christian bishop, Germanus, has his name appended among the subscriptions to the councils of Ancyra and Nice, and so late as the middle of the fifth century his successor signs in the Synod of Jerusalem. Alas, however, subsequently to this, the old intolerance and hatred of the Samaritan towards the Jew was transferred to the Christian. During the reign of the Emperor Zeno savage atrocities were perpetrated by fire and sword. The Church at Shechem, now called Neapolis, was invaded during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist; the consecrated emblems, torn from the bishops hands, were subjected to shameful indignity, and he himself frightfully wounded in his effort to prevent the sacrilege. The emperor espousing the cause of the injured, drove the aggressors from their sacred mountain, and a church in honour of the Virgin Mary crowned the heights of Gerizim. Under the succeeding reign of Justinian, the turbulent Samaritan tribes made an ineffectual attempt to recover their lost sanctuary. They destroyed by fire five Christian temples within Neapolis, subjecting many to torture and death; but they were overpowered by the Roman troops. The brick walls which surrounded the Church on Gerizim were further strengthened; and, indeed, it is conjectured that it is a portion of this second wall or outer fortress, whose ruins survive at the present day. Shechem once more emerges from obscurity in the time of the Crusades. An appanage to the Latin bishopric of Samaria, its revenues reverted to the abbot and canons of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But unable to escape being involved in these fierce wars, it was sacked and plundered twice by the infuriated army of Saladin, and after a varied alternation of fortune, it finally fell into the hands of the Mohammedans, where it continues at this day. (J. R.Macduff, D. D.)

Success in unexpected quarters

The historian seems to put an emphasis upon their being Samaritans. These had not that reputation for religion that the Jews had: yet the Jews, who saw Christs miracles draw Him from them, while the Samaritans, who saw not His miracles nor shared in His favours, invited Him to them. The proof of the Gospels message is not always according to the probability. (Matthew Henry.)

For the saying of the woman.

Woman as a Christianizer

I. WHEREIN IS WOMAN NOT DIFFERENT FROM MAN.

1. Certainly not as a sinner, nor as a sinner saved. Not in the plane which her averaged powers give her.

2. To her as to man belong the superiorities of the intellect, the aspirations of the Holy Ghost, the sublimities of faith or genius, the openings into the realms of prayer.

3. But all these require the human activities as their occasions.

4. Hence it must be that now as once Jesus is best pleased with Marys, whose activities take higher regions and aim at the better part, than with Marthas, who lose all in the wearying round of petty cares and fitful fashions.

5. Spiritual service being the requirement of growth, and woman having an open sea to those elevations upon the condition of toil, spiritual service is her high privilege.

II. WHEREIN DOES WOMEN DIFFER FROM MAN? There is an unlikeness radical and essential. Man excels in outerness. He is stronger persistently than woman, although in a spasm woman is endowed with greater strength. Man is moral, woman emotional; the one rational, the other affectionate; the one is fibre, flax, and tow, the other silken. Man in method is decisive, woman incisive; what one would do by force the other would do by tact. From man as from Rome, we deduce principles and bring laws; from woman as from Greece we derive nice adaptations and graces; and so from both blending their contributions to the Redeemers cause we look for a many-sided evangelism. Difference is the law of life.

III. Let us now turn to THE WORK TO BE DONE and ask

1. What ideals of character does Christianity seek to establish? It seeks to bring into human character faith, liberty, heart purity, heart power, to bring about a reconciliation on the basis of love. Christianity would not break into hearts by mere force.

2. What has Christianity done already? The John the Baptist and purely masculine part of the work. The law of love has been from the beginning, but because of the hardness of heart, the bill of divorcement has seemed to show Christianity with the Christ out.

3. What is the character of the work to be done? After war and its chaos, peace, order, gentleness, conciliation. Lights have been carried by masculine sacrifice and heroism into forty centres of India, it remains for feminine affection and tact to carry them into 10,000,000 Zenanas around each centre.

IV. WOMAN IS PECULIARLY ADAPTED TO THIS PART OF THE WORK OF CHRISTIANIZING THE EARTH. The kind of work on hand calls for those elements which distinguish her. The old question, would it not be unfeminine to meet mocking crowds and bear severe travel? lose all their force by the absence of former obstacles.

V. WOMANS SPHERES. She does not have to seek them; they come to her.

1. All civil and ecclesiastical organizations grow out of the family. In all the earth mothers hold none but Christs own. The Millennium is suspended on two hooks.

(1) Keeping the children.

(2) Using the spiritual power that is offered us. Woman has marvellous power and privilege in both.

2. Woman pioneered Sunday-school work. Hannah Ball was in the field before Robert Raikes, and now of the teachers in the United States, 84,000 are women, 42,000 men.

3. In the charities of life woman can do more than man, or than Government as a Christianizer: witness Florence Nightingale and the Red Cross sisters, and Grace Darling. What does the Scripture say of their predecessors? That they were well reported of, received strangers, washed the disciples feet, aged women as mothers, diligently followed good works, laboured much in the Lord.

4. It was women who led the Holy Crusade against the liquor traffic in America, and it is women who arc doing the most effective Home Mission work among the poor and depraved.

5. As to foreign missions, the testimony is strong that nothing but the hand of infinite love through the agency of Christian women can work out the full and final redemption of India.

6. But shall women preach? Let the hearers decide. Perhaps woman is needed now in the pulpit to call ministers back to telling the old, old story.

7. Let but Christs light fall upon womans heart and intuition and her mission--she will find it--anywhere. (N. H. Axtell.)

The ministry of woman.

I. WOMAN IS EVER FOREMOST IN ALL GOOD. This is but fitting since she was first in transgression; but it is a fact, as witnessed by all historians and travellers, charity has been her vocation from the days of Dorcas to those of Elizabeth Fry. The Sisters of Mercy were the stars that relieved the darkness of the Middle Ages. Paul put Priscilla before Aquila. The most faithful friends of Christ were women. A woman watched by His cradle; woman stood weeping by His cross; a woman was first at the sepulchre; and from that time to this woman has most firmly laid hold upon the crown of martyrdom, and been amongst the most devoted and dauntless missionaries for Christ.

II. WOMAN HAS ALWAYS MOST FAITH. Oh woman, great is thy faith, the Saviour is saying still. If man be confident, woman is confiding. This is her weakness and her strength. By this she fell and by this she rises to newness of life. All churches prove this. Christs mother was His first disciple. Few are the Christian women that dishonour their profession or deny their faith.

III. WOMAN DOES NOT SPEAK OFFICIALLY. Had one of the apostles said, Come, see a man, etc., he would not have had such success as this unofficial woman.

IV. WOMAN DOES SPEAK MORE TENDERLY. In her tone of voice there is the key to unlock the human heart. It is not fit for strife or controversy, but for persuasion and consolation. And wherefore has she the larger share of sorrow? To kindle sympathy. Hers also is a mothers love not for her children only, but for mankind. The congregation wants a son of thunder, society a daughter of consolation.

V. WOMAN HAS SPECIAL INFLUENCE OVER MAN, whether for good or for evil. Her moral force is greater than all the physical force of government.

VI. WOMAN OWES MUCH TO CHRIST. To her the Gospel brought the promise and possession of the life that now is. In every country in proportion to its Christianity she has her rights and the pure joys of life. Owing so much her love to Christ should be deep, and her work for Christ energetic. But what can she do?

1. Are you a wife? If your husband be not a Christian you have to make him in love with religion, or if he be one build him up in the faith; and knowing that he has many temptations from home, see that he has none at home.

2. Are you a mother? No one but God has such power over your infant as you, and if your children are grown up, and are beyond a mothers authority, you may yet reach them by a mothers love.

3. Are you a sister? Your love is second in power to a mothers.

4. Are you a mistress? A womans kindness will have double weight from you. Your servants have souls for whom you are responsible.

5. Are you a servant? Adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things. If you cannot speak about religion to your employers you can live it. (J. De Kewer Williams.)

Great results from small causes.

How often will a small cause set in motion a train of events that will issue in universal good, May I be allowed to recapitulate what, I have no doubt, some of you have either heard or read before? About two hundred years ago a travelling pedlar with his bundle on his back entered a Shropshire village. He called at a farm-house and offered for sale a copy of the Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes. The farmer bought the book, and the farmers son read it, and through it found salvation in Christ. That farmers son was none other than Richard Baxter. Baxter wrote a book called the Everlasting Rest of the Saints, which was read by a young man, who was led by it to consecrate himself to the service of God. That young man was Dr. Doddridge. Doddridge in his turn wrote a book called The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. That book was diligently perused by another young man, who was led by it to a life of holiness and widespread influence. That young man was William Wilberforce, the liberator of the slave. In his turn he wrote a book entitled A Practical View of Christianity, the study of which was blessed to the conversion of Legh Richmond. Again, Legh Richmond wrote a book called The Dairymans Daughter, a book blessed to the salvation of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Englishmen all over the world. Let us therefore take encouragement, and labour in season and out of season, for we know not which will prosper, this or that. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

Conviction

Conviction lies at the root of all consistent action. A mechanical genius conceives an idea. It is as clear as noon-day in his mind, but that idea is embodied, he must believe in the possibility of its embodiment; and just in proportion to the strength of his conviction as to its practicability and success, will he be consistent and earnest in working it out. Columbus conceived the existence of a continent; the conception grew into a conviction; the conviction was followed by consistent action, and that action was crowned with success by the discovery of America. A man believes that an observance of certain physical laws is conducive to health, and be acts accordingly. Another believes that obedience to certain moral laws is necessary to a good character, self-respect and peace, am[ he obeys those laws. Christianity, then, by making mans pardon and happiness hinge on faith acts in accordance with the laws of his mental and moral being. A man, e.g., must believe in God or he will never serve Him; in sin or He will never see the necessity of a Mediator. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. Convictions are the springs of actions, and actions make the man. (H. Tozer.)

He abode there two days.--According to the unwritten law of hospitality in the East, the stranger who enters your house or your tent, and touches any part of your property in claim of protection, is entitled to protection as your guest for three days and a part of the fourth day, sufficient to permit him to get safely off your territory. If a Bedwy enters a strange camp, and touches the tent-ropes, he becomes by that act a protected guest, for the same period, of the Arab whose tent-ropes he has touched. This unwritten law of hospitality is honourably observed. Our Lord, as the protected guest of the Samaritans, could have remained in the house of His host, according to custom, for three days. If He hod desired to stay longer among the Samaritans, He could then have changed His lodging to the next house, where He would have been entitled to stay for three days longer; and He could have gone on changing from house to house, until He wished to go away. The three days limit, however, does not bind the host not to give more than three days hospitality. On the contrary, a host may press a guest to stay for weeks and months; and if the guest is too polite to leave without the hosts permission, he can generally get that permission by calling for things which he knows the host does not possess. (S. S. Times.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 4:35-36. Say not ye, There are yet four months, &c. — Dr. Whitby, Grotius, and many others, understand this, as if our Lord had said, It is a proverbial expression for the encouragement of husbandmen, that there are but four months between seed-time and harvest. “But I cannot acquiesce,” says Dr. Doddridge, “in this interpretation, 1st, Because none of the learned writers referred to above, nor Dr. Lightfoot, who is large on this text, could produce any such proverb. 2d, Because, indeed, there could be no foundation for it, since the distance between seed-time and harvest must differ according to the different kinds of grain in question. And, 3d, Because if there had been such a proverb, it would have been improper to apply it here, since our Lord was not speaking of the period of time between the prophets’ sowing, and the apostles’ reaping; (to which four months has no analogy;) but only means to tell them, that though they reckoned yet four months to the earthly harvest, the spiritual harvest was now ripe. So that I choose, as Sir Isaac Newton does, to take the words in their plainest sense, as an intimation that there were then four months to the beginning of harvest. And I take this passage to be of great importance for settling the chronology of Christ’s ministry.” Lift up your eyes, even now, and look on the fields round about you, for they are white already to harvest — Laden with a plentiful crop of ripe corn. He alluded to the disposition of the people in general to receive the gospel, and more particularly to the multitude of the Samaritans, who, struck with the report of the woman, were coming in such numbers as covered the ground, to inquire after him as the Messiah, and to hear his doctrine; and unto whom he pointed and directed his disciples to look, as being within their view. And, as they laboured together with him in this spiritual harvest, to encourage them, he puts them in mind of the reward, adding, And he that reapeth — The harvest of which I now speak; he that by labouring in the word and doctrine converts sinners, and turns them to God; receiveth wages — Infinitely more valuable than men can give; and gathereth fruit unto life eternal — Both saves himself and those that hear him, 1Ti 4:16. Christ compares the case of a faithful Christian minister to that of a considerate reaper, who is supported in his fatigue, not only by a regard to his own wages, but to the advantage which the public receives by the harvest he gathers in. This the original expression, συναγει καρπον εις ζωην αιωνιον, seems plainly to import, and so is parallel to Jas 5:20, He that converteth a sinner shall save a soul from death, &c., and suggests a most forcible consideration to diligence and zeal. If the spiritual reaper save his own soul, even that is fruit abounding to his account, fruit gathered to life eternal. And if, over and above this, he be instrumental in saving the souls of others too, there also is fruit gathered, good fruit, the fruit that Christ seeks for, Rom 1:13. This is the comfort of faithful ministers, that their work has a tendency to, and is instrumental of, the eternal salvation of precious souls.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:35 Four months between planting and harvest: Jesus cited a local parable to contrast the natural harvest with his own. It was harvest time in Samaria, and the fields were ripe. Jesus, however, had planted seed at the well and now was already reaping the harvest of belief among the Samaritans (4:39-42).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 4:35. Τετράμηνος, four months) Very few copies have τετράμηνον.[85] Τετράμηνος is used in the common gender, as δίμηνος, ἓκμηνος, ἑξάμηνος; see Scapula on μήν. Also Glassius in this passage so reads. Μετὰ τὴν τετραήμερον, Arist. 3 polit. ii., p. 214.—ἔτι τετράμηνός ἐστι, καὶ ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται, as yet there are four months, and the harvest cometh) καὶ, and, is equivalent to until: as ch. Joh 7:33, “Yet a little while I am with you, and I go unto Him that sent Me;” Joh 14:19, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more;” Gen 40:13, ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέραι, καὶ μνησθήσεται Φαραώ, etc.; Jon 3:4 “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” These are the four months, Nisan in its latter part, the whole of Ijar, the whole of Sivan, and Thammuz in its earlier part. [Coresponding to our April, May, June, and July.—V. g.] The wheat harvest, which is called actually the harvest, differs from the barley harvest. The beginning of the one was about the time of Passover: that of the other was considerably subsequent; Exo 9:25; Exo 9:31-32, “The barley was smitten, for the barley was in the ear; but the wheat and the rye were not smitten; for they were not grown up;” to wit, in Palestine, about the time of Pentecost, Exo 34:22, “Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat-harvest.” Moreover, the harvest was later in Galilee than in Judea. And so the feast ordained by Jeroboam was later [than that in Judea], 1Ki 12:32, “Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah;” comp. Lev 23:34, “The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles.” And they were generally Galileans, to whom the words were addressed, Do ye not say! Finally, in that year in which these words were spoken, the first day of Thammuz was the 13th of June, which was very speedily [early], for on the following year, the 6th day of June had Pentecost itself in fine [i.e. Pentecost was not till the 6th of June], the time when wheat harvest commences.[86] In fact, therefore, the wheat harvest of the Galileans, in the fourth month after this discourse, began quickly enough [to meet the requirements of the case] in the month Thammuz. Read in addition, Harmon. Evang. § 27.[87])—λέγω ὑμῖν, I say to you) This formula indicates in this passage, that His speech is figurative. The antithesis to the words here is, ὑμεῖς λέγετε, ye say, who look more to external things. So Joh 4:32, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”—τὰς χώρας, the regions [fields]) The Samaritans are described as ripe for believing, Joh 4:39, “Many of the Samaritans believed on Him, for the saying of the woman,” etc., who were at the time being seen on the plain [sc. coming towards Him]; Joh 4:30, “Then they went out of the city, and came unto Him.” The natural, though in progress, is at a greater distance than the Gospel harvest.

[85] The reading of Rec. Text. But τετράμηνος ABCD Orig.—E. and T.

[86] What Beng. wishes to prove is, that Thammuz, this year, was the month of the Galilean harvest; for the first of Thammuz this year was the 13th of June, which was very soon for Thammuz commencing, inasmuch as, on the following year, even Pentecost itself (seven weeks after Passover, or the 15th of Nisan; i.e. early in Sivan) did not occur till 6th of June: so that Pentecost (early in Sivan) which was the harvest-time, being the 6th of June, Thammuz would be considerably later. But in the year when our Lord speaks, Thammuz comes soon enough for the late harvest of Galilee to have occurred in it.—E. and T.

[87] Whoever desires a further vindication of this view, may be referred to my Beleuchtung der Erinnerungen, etc., § 29, p. 111, etc., and especially p. 116, etc., where there is brought forward from Harm. Ev., Ed. ii., that more recent conjecture of the departed Author, by which he believed, there was intimated in the speech of the Saviour rather that harvest (the barley harvest) which claimed the month Nisan to itself, than that which claimed Thammuz. In which case this is the sense of the words: You disciples, with the rest of men, when sowing time is past, are wont to say, Still there are four months, and harvest cometh: but truly the spiritual harvest, however long delayed, even immediately succeeds the sowing time.—E. B.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_4:35. The approaching townspeople now showed how greatly already the ἵνα ποιῶ was in process of accomplishment. They were coming through the corn-field, now tinged with green; and thus they make the fields, which for four months would not yield the harvest, in a higher sense already white harvest-fields. Jesus directs the attention of His disciples to this; and with the beautiful picture thus presented in nature, He connects further appropriate instructions, onwards to Joh_4:38.

οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε] that is, at the present season of the year (ἔπι). The ὑμεῖς stands contrasted with what Jesus was about to say, though the antithesis is not expressed in what follows by ἐγώ, because the antithesis of the time stands in the foreground.[194] The supposition that the disciples had, during their walk, made an observation of this kind to each other (and this in a theological sense with reference to hoping and waiting), as Hengstenberg suggests, is neither hinted at, nor is in harmony with the Praesens λέγετε.

ὅτι ἔτι … ἔρχεται] Harvest began in the middle of Nisan (Lightfoot, v. 101), i.e. in April. Consequently the words must have been spoken in December, when Jesus, as the seed-time fell in Marchesvan (the beginning of November), might be surrounded by sown fields already showing tints of green, the harvest of which, however, could not be expected for four months to come. We render therefore: there are still four months (to wait, until) the harvest comes. As to the paratactic expression with καὶ instead of a particle of time, see Stallbaum, ad Plat. Symp. p. 220 C; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. 881. Concerning the bearing of the passage upon the chronology, see Wieseler, Synopse, p. 214 ff. The taking of the words as proverbial (Lightfoot, Grotius, Tittmann, etc., even Lücke, Tholuck, de Wette, Krafft, Chronol. p. 73), as if the saying were a general one: from seed-time to harvest is four months (seed-time would thus be made to extend into December; comp. Bava Mezia, f. 106, 2), is forbidden, not only by the fact that such a proverb occurs nowhere else, but by the fact that seed-time is not here mentioned, so that ἔτι (comp. the following ἬΔΗ) does not refer to a point of time to be understood, but to the time then present, and by the fact, likewise, that the emphasized ὙΜΕῖς would be inexplicable and strange in an ordinary proverb (comp. rather Mat_16:2).[195] It is worth while to notice how long Jesus had been in Judaea (since April).

τετράμηνος] sc. χρόνος; see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 549.

τὰς χώρας] regiones. They had just been sown, and the young seed was now springing up, and yet in another sense they were white for being reaped; for, by the spectacle of the townspeople who were now coming out to Christ across these fields, it appeared in concrete manifestation before the eyes of the disciples (hence ἐπάρατε τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, κ.τ.λ.), that now for men the time of conversion (of ripeness) was come in the near establishment of the Messiahs kingdom, into which, like the harvest produce, they might be gathered (comp. Mat_3:12). Jesus, therefore, here gives a prophetic view, not only of the near conversion of the Samaritans (Act_8:5 ff.); but, rising above the concrete fact now before them, consequently from the people of Sychar who were flocking through the fields of springing green, His prophetic eye takes in all mankind, whose conversion, begun by Him, would be fully accomplished by His disciples. See especially Joh_4:38. Godet wrongly denies this wider prophetic reference, and confines the words to the immediate occurrence, as an improvised harvest feast. Such an explanation does not suffice for what follows, Joh_4:36-38, which was suggested, indeed, by the phenomenon before them, but embraces the whole range of service on the part of Christs disciples in their relation to their Lord. If we do not allow this wider reference, Joh_4:38 especially will be of very strange import.

ὅτι] not for, but according to common attraction (Winer, p. 581 [E. T. p. 781 f.]), that they are, etc.

ἤδη] even now, at this moment, and not after four months; put at the end for emphasis (Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phaedr. p. 256 E; ad Menex. p. 235 A). Comp. 1Jn_4:3; Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. i. 8. 16. Not, therefore, to be joined with what follows (A. C.* D. E. L. א. Codd. It. al., Schulz, Tisch., Ewald, Ebrard, Godet), which would make the correlation with ἜΤΙ inappropriate. For the rest, comp. Ovid, Fast. v. 357: maturis albescit messis aristis.

[194] The versatility of thought often in Greek changes the things contrasted as the sentence proceeds. See Dissen, ad Dem. de cor. 163; Schaef. ad Timocr. p. 763, 13.

[195] This also is in answer to Hilgenfeld, who takes ἔτι with reference to the present, and not the future, and interprets it: four months are not yet gone, and yet the harvest is already here. This strange rendering derives no support whatever from Joh_11:39.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 4:35 . οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε , etc. These words may either mean “Are you not saying?” or “Do you not say?” that is, they may either refer to an expression just used by the disciples, or to a common proverb. If the former, then the disciples had probably been speaking of the dearness of the provisions they had bought, and congratulating themselves that harvest would lower them. Or sitting by the well and looking round, some of them may have casually remarked that they were four months from harvest. In this case the time of year would be determined. Harvest beginning in April, it would now be December. But the phrase οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε is not the natural introduction to a reference to some present remark of the disciples; whereas it is the natural introduction to the citation of a proverb (Mat 16:2 ). That it is a proverb is also favoured by the metrical form ἔτι τετράμηνόν ἐστι καὶ ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται . No trace of such a proverb has been found, but that some such saying should be current was inevitable, the waiting of the husbandman being typical of so much of human life. (Wetstein quotes from Ovid ( Heroid. , xvii. 263), “adhuc tua messis in herba est,” and many other parallels.) If this was a proverbial expression to give encouragement to the sower, we cannot infer from its use here that the time was December. Our Lord quotes it for the sake of the contrast between the ordinary relation of harvest to seed-time, and that which they can recognise by lifting their eyes. ἐπάρατε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑμῶν .… Your harvest is already here. What the disciples see when they lift their eyes from their food is the crowd of Samaritans ripe for the kingdom and now approaching them. In Samaria a long time might have been expected to elapse between sowing and reaping; but no! λευκαί εἰσι … the fields are already ripe for cutting. [ λευκαί Wetstein illustrates from Ovid, “maturis albescit messis aristis”.]

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35. ἔτι τετράμ. κ.τ.λ. This cannot be a proverb. No such proverb is known; and a proverb on the subject would have to be differently shaped; e.g. ‘From seedtime to harvest is four months;’ ἔτι points to a single case. So that we may regard this saying as a mark of time. Harvest began in the middle of Nisan or April. Four months from that would place this event in the middle of December: or, if (as some suppose) this was a year in which an extra month was inserted, in the middle of January. The words form an iambic verse.

ὅτι λευκαί εἰσιν. In the green blades just shewing through the soil the faith of the sower sees the white ears that will soon be there. So also in the flocking of these ignorant Samaritans to Him for instruction Christ sees the abundant harvest of souls that is to follow. Ὅτι should be taken after θεάσασθε, behold that, not as A.V. ‘for,’ or ‘because.’ The punctuation is very uncertain, as to whether ἤδη belongs to this verse or the next. The balance of authority gives ἤδη to Joh 4:36; but in punctuation MSS. are not of great authority, and ἤδη at the end of Joh 4:35 seems intended to balance ἔτι at the beginning of it. Comp. 1Jn 4:3.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 35, 36. “Say ye not that there are yet four months, and the harvest cometh. Behold I say unto you: Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white for the harvest. 36. Already even he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.”

The following verses (Joh 4:35-38) have presented such difficulties to interpreters, that some have supposed that they should be transposed by placing Joh 4:37-38 before Joh 4:36 (B. Crusius). Weiss has supposed that Joh 4:35 originally belonged to another context.

It must be admitted that the interpretations proposed by Lucke, de Wette, Meyer, and Tholuck are not adapted to remove the difficulties. Some see in them a prophecy of the conversion of the Samaritan people, related in Acts 8; others apply them even to the conversion of the entire Gentile world, and especially to the apostolate of St. Paul. In that case, it is not surprising that their authenticity should be suspected! If the words of Joh 4:36 ff., have no direct connection with the actual circumstances, how can we connect them with those of Joh 4:35, which, according to Lucke and Meyer themselves, can only refer to the arrival of the inhabitants of Sychar in the presence of Jesus? From a word stamped with the most perfect appropriateness, Jesus would suddenly pass to general considerations respecting the propagation of the Gospel. So de Wette, perceiving the impossibility of such a mode of speaking on Jesus’ part, has, contrary to the evidence, resolutely denied the reference of Joh 4:35 to the arrival of the inhabitants of Sychar. This general embarrassment seems to us to proceed from the fact that the application of Jesus’ words to the actual case has not been sufficiently apprehended and kept in mind. They have thus been despoiled of their appropriateness. A friendly and familiar conversation has been converted into a solemn sermon.

Vv. 35 is joined with Joh 4:30 precisely as Joh 4:31 is with Joh 4:27. Jesus gives His disciples to understand, as already appeared from His answer (Joh 4:34), that a scene is occurring at this moment of which they have not the least idea: while they are thinking only of the preparation of a meal to be taken, behold a harvest already fully ripe, the seeds of which have been sown in their absence, is prepared for them. Jesus Himself is, as it were, the point of union between the two scenes, altogether foreign to each other, which are passing around His person: that in which the disciples and that in which the Samaritans are, with Himself, the actors.— Lightfoot, Tholuck, Lucke, de Wette find a general maxim, a proverb, in the first words of Joh 4:35 : When a man has once sowed, he must still wait four months for the time when he can reap—that is to say, the fruits of any work whatever are not gathered except after long waiting (2Ti 2:6).

But in Palestine not four, but six months separate the sowing (end of October) from the reaping (middle of April). Besides, the adverb ἕτι (there are yet) would not suit a proverb; the words: since the sowing, would have been necessary. Finally, why put this proverb especially into the mouth of the Apostles (you), rather than in that of men in general? There is then here a reflection which Jesus ascribes to His disciples themselves.

Between Jacob’s well, at the foot of Gerizim, and the village of Aschar, at the foot of Ebal, far on into the plain of Mukhna, there stretch out vast fields of wheat. As they beheld the springing verdure on this freshly sown soil, they no doubt said to one another: we must wait yet four months till this wheat shall be ripe! From this little detail we must conclude that this occurred four months before the middle of April, thus about the middle of December, and that Jesus had consequently remained in Judea from the feast of the Passover until the close of the year, that is, eight full months.—The words: You say, contrast the domain of nature to which this reflection of the disciples applies, to the sphere of the Spirit in which Jesus’ thought is moving. In that sphere, indeed, the seed is not necessarily subject to such slow development. It can sometimes germinate and ripen as if in an instant. The proof of this is before their eyes at this very moment: ἰδού (behold)! This word directs the attention of the disciples to a spectacle which was wholly unexpected and even incomprehensible to their minds, that of the Samaritans who are hastening across the valley towards Jacob’s well.— I say unto you: I who have the secret of what is taking place. The act of raising the eyes and looking, to which He invites them, is, according to de Wette, purely spiritual; Jesus would induce them to picture to themselves beforehand through faith, the future conversion of this people (comp. Acts 8). But the imperative, θεάσασθε (look), must refer to an object visible at that very moment. And what meaning is to be given to the figure of four months?

The fact to which these words refer, therefore, can only be the arrival of the people of Sychar. We understand, then, the use of the imperfect they were coming (Joh 4:30), which formed a picture and left the action incomplete. These eager souls who hasten towards Him disposed to believe—this is the spectacle which Jesus invites His disciples to behold. He presents these souls to them under the figure of a ripening harvest, which it only remains to gather in. And, as He thinks of the brief time needed by Him to prepare such a harvest in this place, until now a stranger to the kingdom of God, He is Himself struck by the contrast between the very long time (five to six months), which is demanded by the law of natural vegetation, and the rapid development which the divine seed can have in a moment, in the spiritual world; and, as an encouragement for His disciples in their future vocation, He points out to them this difference. The ἤδη (already), might be regarded as ending Joh 4:35. “They are white for the harvest already.” This word would thus form the counterpart of ἔτι (yet), at the beginning of the verse; comp. 1Jn 4:3, where ἤδη is placed, in the same way, at the end of the sentence. This word, however, becomes still more significant, if it is placed, as we have placed it in the translation, at the opening of the following verse: ἤδη καί (already even). This is acknowledged by Keil, who rightly observes that in this way also already forms a contrast to yet.

There is, indeed, between Joh 4:35 and Joh 4:36, a climactic relation which betrays an increasing exaltation. “It is true,” says Jesus, “that already the harvest is ripe, that at this very hour the reaper has only to take his sickle and reap, in order that both the sower and the reaper may in this case, at least, celebrate together the harvest-feast.” If such is the meaning, the authenticity of καί, and (after ἤδη), is manifest, and Origen, with the Alexandrian authorities in his train, is found, once more, to have been an unfortunate corrector. After having connected ἤδη (already), with the preceding sentence, he rejected the καί (and or even), in order to make of Joh 4:36, instead of an expression full of appropriateness and charm, a general maxim. The reaper, according to Joh 4:38, must denote the apostles. The expression, μισθὸν λαμβάνειν (to receive wages), describes the joy with which they are to be filled when gathering all these souls and introducing them into the kingdom of heaven. This expression (receive wages) is explained by συνάγειν καρπόν (to gather fruit). Perhaps there is a reference to the act of baptism (Joh 4:2), by which these new brethren, the believing Samaritans, are about to be received by the disciples into the Messianic community. And why must the reaper set himself at work without delay? Because there is something exceptional to happen on this day, ἵνα (in order that). God has intended in this circumstance to bring to pass a remarkable thing, namely: that both the sower and the reaper may once rejoice together.

Those who apply the figure of the harvest to the future conversion of the Samaritans by the apostles, or to that of the Gentile world by St. Paul, are obliged to refer the common joy of the sower (Jesus), and the reaper (the apostles), to the heavenly triumph in which the Lord and His servants will rejoice together in the fruit of their labor. But, first, this interpretation breaks all logical connection between Joh 4:35 and Joh 4:36. How pass directly from this spectacle of the Samaritans who hasten to Him to the idea of the future establishment of the Gospel in their country or in the world? Then, the present χαίρῃ (may rejoice), refers naturally to a present joy, contrary to Meyer. Luthardt seeks to escape the difficulty by giving to ὁμοῦ (together), the sense, not of a simultaneous joy, but of a common joy, which is, of course, impossible. This sense of the adverb would, moreover, suppress the idea which constitutes the beauty of this expression, the simultaneousness of the joy of the two laborers. Jesus recognizes in what takes place at this moment, a feast which the Father has prepared for Him, and which He, the sower, is about to enjoy at the same time with His disciples, the reapers. In Israel Jesus has sowed, but He never has had the joy of being Himself present at a harvest. The ingathering will one day take place, no doubt, but when He will be no longer there. Here, on the contrary, through His providential meeting with this woman, through her docility and the eagerness of this population which hastens to Him, He sees the seed spring up and ripen in a moment, so that the harvest can be gathered, and He, the sower, may, at least once in His life, participate in the harvest-feast. This simultaneousness of joy, altogether exceptional, is strongly brought out by the ὁμοῦ (together), but also by the double καί (“both the sower and the reaper”), and by the ἤδη (already), at the beginning of the clause. To understand fully the meaning of this gracious expression, we must remember that the Old Testament established a contrast between the function of the sower (united with that of the laborer), and the office of the reaper. The first was regarded as a painful labor; Psa 126:5-6 : “Those who sow with tears ...He who puts the seed in the ground shall go weeping ...” The reaper’s task, on the contrary, was regarded as a joyous thing. “They shall reap with a song of triumph ...He shall return with rejoicing, when he shall bring back his sheaves.” On this day, by reason of the rapidity with which the seed has germinated and ripened, the labor of the seed sowing meets the joyous shouts of the harvest. Herein is the explanation of the construction by which the verb χαίρῃ is much more closely connected, in the Greek sentence, with the first subject ὁ σπείρων, the sower, than with the second ὁ θερίζων, the reaper: “that the sower may rejoice at the same time with the reaper.”

Weiss refers the in order that to the intention of the reaper, who, being in the service of the same landholder as the sower, wishes that the latter also may rejoice with him. The idea, if we thoroughly understand him, is that the disciples were to reap in their future ministry, and this in order that Jesus may rejoice in heaven, at the same time that they rejoice on earth. But where has Jesus ever given to His disciples such a motive as this? And in what connection would this expression stand with the present case?

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When the spiritual corn is ripe, we must not linger: for so the children of this world would condemn us.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

yet four months, and then harvest--that is, "In current speech, ye say thus at this season; but lift up your eyes and look upon those fields in the light of another husbandry, for lo! in that sense, they are even now white to harvest, ready for the sickle." The simple beauty of this language is only surpassed by the glow of holy emotion in the Redeemer's own soul which it expresses. It refers to the ripeness of these Sycharites for accession to Him, and the joy of this great Lord of the reapers over the anticipated ingathering. Oh, could we but so, "lift up our eyes and look" upon many fields abroad and at home, which to dull sense appear unpromising, as He beheld those of Samaria, what movements, as yet scarce in embryo, and accessions to Christ, as yet seemingly far distant, might we not discern as quite near at hand, and thus, amidst difficulties and discouragements too much for nature to sustain, be cheered--as our Lord Himself was in circumstances far more overwhelming--with "songs in the night!"

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 35. There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?] In Palestine, the harvest did not begin till after the passover, which was fixed on the 14th of the month Nisan, which answers to our March, and sometimes extends into April. The barley harvest was the first; after that the wheat; and both were finished by Pentecost. For, in the feast of Pentecost, the first fruits of all the harvest were carried to the temple, and waved before the Lord. See Le 23:11. The four months, of which our Lord speaks here, must be computed, according to M. Toynard, from Shebat, which was the eleventh month of the sacred year, and which commenced that year on the 13th of January: from that, till the beginning of the wheat harvest, which began about a month after the passover, there were exactly four months. The passover was that year on the 15th of Nisan, or March 28; and Pentecost took place on the 17th of May. We may therefore suppose that it was about the 13th of January, or beginning of the month Shebat, that John the Baptist was cast into prison, and that Christ retired into Galilee. The fixing of this epoch is of considerable importance. See Calmet's Com. on this place.

The following method of dividing the seasons among the Jews is thus stated in Bava Metsia, fol. 106. "Half Tisri, all Marheshvan, and half Cisleu, is זרע zera. SEED-TIME. Half Cisleu, whole Tebeth, and half Shebat, is חורף choreph, WINTER. Half Shebat, whole Adar, and half Nisan, is קור kor, the WINTER SOLSTICE. Half Nisan, all Ijar, and half Sivan, is קציר katsir, HARVEST. Half Sivan, all Tammuz, and half Ab, is קייץ kyits, SUMMER. Half Ab, all Elul, and half Tisri, is חום chum, the great HEAT." The Jews sowed wheat and spelt in Tisri and Marheshvan; and barley in Shebat and Adar. Now let us reckon τετραμηνον, the four months, backwards, from the beginning of the barley harvest, or the middle of the month Nisan, and we shall go back to the middle of the month Cisleu, which will fall in with the beginning of our December, whence it will be easy to conjecture what feast that was, mentioned Joh 5:1, viz. the passover. See Lightfoot; and See Clarke on Joh 5:1.

After all that learned men have said on this passage, it does not appear that our Lord meant any thing by it more than an illustration of his present subject. Though there were ordinarily four months from seed-time to harvest, and that a man, after he had sowed his seed, must wait patiently till the regular and natural harvest came, yet it was not the case now: the seed of life which he had sown but a few hours ago had already brought forth much fruit; therefore he says, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, over which it is likely the Samaritans were then coming in troops, guided by the woman who had already received the light of the Gospel of peace.

The fields - are white already to harvest.] Multitudes of Samaritans are coming to believe on me, and to be saved unto eternal life. Probably they had a kind of white raiment.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

35. Do you not say? He follows out the preceding statement; for, having said that nothing was more dear to him than to finish the work of the Father, he now shows how ripe it is for execution; and he does so by a comparison with the harvest. When the corn is ripe, the harvest cannot bear delay, for otherwise the grain would fall to the ground and be lost; and, in like manner, the spiritual corn being now ripe, he declares that there must be no delay, because delay is injurious. We see for what purpose the comparison is employed; it is to explain the reason why he hastens to perform his work. By this expression, Do you not say? he intended indirectly to point out how much more attentive the minds of men are to earthly than to heavenly things; for they burn with so intense a desire of harvest that they carefully reckon up months and days, but it is astonishing how drowsy and indolent they are in gathering the heavenly wheat. And daily experience proves that this wickedness not only is natural to us, but can scarcely be torn from our hearts; for while all provide for the earthly life to a distant period, how indolent are we in thinking about heavenly things? Thus Christ says on another occasion, Hypocrites, you discern by the face of the sky what sort of day to-morrow will be, but you do not acknowledge the time of my visitation, (Matthew 16:3.)

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(35) Say not ye, There are yet four months.—The emphasis in this verse should be laid upon “ye.” It follows immediately out of the contrast between the natural and spiritual food. Every outer fact is the sign of an inner truth. They here, as the woman in Joh_4:11, as the teacher of Israel (Joh_3:4), as the Jews (Joh_2:20), speak in the language of the outer facts only. He speaks of the spiritual realities. Looking on the fields of springing corn, they would say that in four months there would be harvest. He sees signs of life springing up from seed sown in receptive hearts; and eyes lifted up and directed to the wide fields of the world’s nations would see that the fulness of time was come, and that the fields were even now white to harvest. The Samaritans coming to Him are as the firstfruits, the earnest of the abundant sheaves which shall follow.

Four months.—This gives us probably a note on time. There is no evidence that it was a proverbial saying, and the form of the sentence is against the supposition. The legal beginning of harvest was fixed (Lev_23:10; Deu_16:9) for the 16th of Nisan (April). This would give us in that year, which was a Jewish leap-year, with a month added (Wieseler’s Synopsis, Eng. Trans., p. 187), some time about the middle of the month Tebeth (January) as the date of this conversation. (Comp. Joh_5:1.) For the idea of the harvest, comp. Mat_9:36-38, and the parable of the Sower, Mat_13:3 et seq.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Say not ye, there are yet four months,.... Our Lord had been in Jerusalem and Judea, about eight months from the last passover, and there remained four more to the next passover:

and then cometh harvest? barley harvest, which began at that time. Now as the passover was in the middle of the month Nisan, which was about the latter end of our March; reckoning four months back from thence shows, that it was about the latter end of our November, or beginning of December, that Christ was in Samaria, and at Jacob's well. Some think, that this does not refer to the then present time, as if there were so many months from thence to the next harvest, but to a common way of speaking, that there were four months from seed time to harvest; during which time there was a comfortable hope, and longing expectation of it: but this will, by no means, agree either with the wheat or barley harvest. The wheat was sown before this time, and the barley a good while after.

"Half Tisri, Marcheshvan, and half Cisleu, were, seed time (w)''

The earliest they sowed their wheat was in Tisri, which answers to our September and October; i.e. to half one, and half the other. The month of Marcheshvan, which answers to October and November, was the principal month for sowing it (x): hence that paraphrase on Ecc 11:2,

"give a good part of thy seed to thy field in Tisri, and do not refrain from sowing even in Cisleu.''

As for the barley, that was sown in the months of Shebet and Adar, and usually in the latter (y); the former of which answers to January and February, and the latter to February and March. And we read (z) of their sowing seventy days before the passover, which was within six weeks of the beginning of barley harvest.

Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields: pointing to the lands which lay near the city of Sychar:

for they are white already to harvest; alluding to the corn fields, which, when ripe, and near harvest, look white: hence we read (a) of , "the white field": which the Jews say is a field sown with wheat or barley, and so called to distinguish it from a field planted with trees; though it may be rather, that it is so called from its white look when ripe. So the three Targums paraphrase Gen 49:12,

"his hills (his valleys, or fields, as Onkelos) "are white" with corn, and flocks of sheep.''

Christ here speaks not literally; for the fields could not be white at such a distance from harvest; but spiritually, of a harvest of souls; and has regard to the large number of Samaritans that were just now coming out of the city, and were within sight, and covered the adjacent fields: and these he calls upon his disciples to lift up their eyes and behold; and suggests to them, that it was not a time for eating and drinking, but for working, since here was such a number of souls to be gathered in: and thus as from corporeal food he proceeded to treat of spiritual food; so from a literal harvest he goes on to speak of a spiritual one, and encourages his disciples to labour in it, by the following arguments.

(w) T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 106. 2. (x) Gloss in T. Bab. Roshhashana, fol. 16. 1. (y) Gloss in Bava Metzia & in Roshhashana ib. (z) Misn. Menachot, c. 8. sect. 2. (a) Misn. Sheviith, c. 2. sect. 1. & Moed Katon, c. 1. sect. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

35 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.

Ver. 35. Say not ye, There are yet four months] As who should say, ye so long for the time, that ye count how many months, weeks, days it is to harvest; should ye not be much nmre solicitous of such a heavenly harvest? These Samaritans do but hang for mowing, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Say not ye - This seems to have been a proverb. Ye say - that is, men say.

Four months and ... - The common time from sowing the seed to the harvest, in Judea, was about “four months.” The meaning of this passage may be thus expressed: “The husbandman, when he sows his seed, is compelled to wait a considerable period before it produces a crop. He is encouraged in sowing it; he expects fruit; his labor is lightened by that expectation; but it is not “immediate” - it is remote. But it is not so with my preaching. The seed has already sprung up. Scarce was it sown before it produced an abundant harvest. The gospel was just preached to a woman, and see how many of the Samaritans come to hear it also. There is therefore more encouragement to labor in this field than the farmer has to sow his grain.”

Lift up your eyes - See the Samaritans coming to hear the gospel.

They are white - Grain, when ripe, turns from a green to a yellow or light color, indicating that it is time to reap it. So here were indications that the gospel was effectual, and that the harvest was to be gathered in. Hence, we may learn:

1. That there is as much encouragement to attempt to save souls as the farmer has to raise a crop.

2. That the gospel is fitted to make an immediate impression on the minds of men. We are to expect that it will. We are not to wait to some future period, as if we could not expect immediate results. This wicked and ignorant people - little likely, apparently, to be affected - turned to God, heard the voice of the Saviour, and came in multitudes to him.

3. We are to expect revivals of religion. Here was one instance of it under the Saviour’s own preaching. Multitudes were excited, moved, and came to learn the way of life.

4. We know not how much good may be done by conversation with even a single individual. This conversation with a woman resulted in a deep interest felt throughout the city, and in the conversion of many of them to God. So, a single individual may often be the means, in the hand of God, of leading many to the cross of Jesus.

5. What evils may follow from neglecting to do our duty! How easily might Jesus have alleged, if he had been like many of his professed disciples, that he was weary, that he was hungry, that it was esteemed improper to converse with a woman alone, that she was an abandoned character, and there could be little hope of doing her good! How many consciences of ministers and Christians would have been satisfied with reasoning like this? Yet Jesus, in spite of his fatigue and thirst, and all the difficulties of the case, seriously set about seeking the conversion of this woman. And behold what a glorious result! The city was moved, and a great harvest was found ready to be gathered in! “Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For they are white already to harvest. The great harvest of souls was approaching, when Christ was come to teach men the way of salvation, and was to send his apostles to convert all nations. They succeeded to the labours of the prophets, but with much greater advantages and success. And to this is applied that common saying, that one soweth and another reapeth. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

There was in those countries but four months’ space betwixt seed time and harvest; yet they fed themselves (as soon as they had sown) with the expectation of it. My harvest, saith our Saviour, is the gaining of souls for my Father: look yonder what a troop of the citizens of Sichem are coming to me, upon my revelation of myself to the woman of Samaria; I have but just sown my seed, and the fields are white to this spiritual harvest, Mat 9:37. In the judgement of the, best interpreters, our Saviour in this verse useth a comparison, and passeth from his similitude used in the former part of the verse, fetched from a worldly harvest, to discourse of that spiritual harvest, which he by and by reaped of the citizens of Sichem coming to him; it is of that he saith, that the fields were already white, by which (as will appear from the following verses) he quickeneth his disciples to put in their sickles. Some critical authors, understanding both the former and latter part of the text of a worldly harvest, have used their wits to determine how the fields should be

white to harvest four months before it came; but the most and best interpreters interpret the latter part of a spiritual harvest, and that will be also justified by what followeth.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

35. Say not ye—As he spoke, the luxuriant grain fields of el-Mukhnah were probably full in view. The interval between sowing and harvest in Palestine is four months, and hence this saying is proverbial. But in this spiritual field the harvest is close upon the sowing. The coming forth of the Samaritans follows close upon his word to the woman. If there had been some interval of time between these words and the preceding verse, he may have pointed to the coming Samaritans. Otherwise, he may in spirit have seen them about to come.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Say not ye has not your talk with one another been, as you have passed through the springing corn, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? This cannot be a proverbial expression for the time which elapses between sowing and harvest, as some (Lucke and Tholuck) have supposed, because, firstly, there is no mention of sowing at all; and secondly, because six months was the customary period between seed time and ingathering; and also because the "say not ye?" would then be inappropriate. I cannot doubt that it was a chronological hint that the time at which Jesus spake was four months from either the barley or wheat harvest. These harvests generally occurred between the middle of March and the middle of April. The time must, therefore, have been either the middle of November or of December. Tristram (Westcott) says the (wheat?) harvest began about the middle of April and lasted till the end of May. This would bring the time forward another month. This makes our Lord to have spent some eight months since the Passover, either in Jerusalem or in the Judaean land, on his earliest mission, which as yet had brought no obvious results. Men had come to his baptism, but had not appreciated or accepted his claims. The faith already awakened had been of the evanescent character, based on "signs," outward not inward, a "milk faith," to which he did not entrust himself. (Joh_2:24) Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; they are whitening untoharvest. Our Lord now uses another metaphor he bids the disciples glance across these rich cornfields, to observe the obvious effect already produced by the sowing of good seed in Samaritan soil. The people are flocking towards him. The harvest of souls is ripening, and it is great. You must wait four months before this springing corn will need the sickle. But I say unto you, The time is come. The kingdom is come. The reaper must prepare for instant service. Again, we have a note of personal identity between the Jesus of the Fourth Gospel and the Author of the parables of the sower and the harvest. The very rapidity with which he passes from the symbolism of water to the symbolism of food, and then to that of seed time and harvest, reminds us of One who "without a parable spake not." The words so far have universal application in every age. The harvest has always been ripening. The word leukov is used in this place only for the aspect of ripening corn. It has elsewhere the meaning of glittering, translucent whiteness, and perhaps it is used here for "dead ripe." The golden grain in late summer becomes white, and this intensifies the force of the image. It seems to say, "These fields will be sacrificed, these fruits will be wasted, these souls will be lost, unless they are reaped and brought into the heavenly garner.

Vers. 35-38. The Christian harvest.

Notice

I ITS NATURE. It is spiritual. "Lift up your eyes," etc. To see the temporal harvest you look down and around, but to see this you must look up; it is in the spiritual region, and concerns the spiritual nature and interest of man. It is the harvest of souls the harvest of Jesus" soul. It is spiritual in its processes, its sphere, its aim, and its results. It means the spiritual quickening, the germination, the growth, the cultivation and ripening of human souls. Think not that this world is only for material and physical purposes. Its chief end is the production of holy and perfect souls. And as the system of nature is adapted to produce different grains in perfection, so there is a spiritual system of Divine grace adapted to produce perfect souls.

II THE OPERATIONS OF THE HARVEST.

1. There are preparatory operations. As in the material, so in the spiritual harvest, the soil of the soul is ploughed, cultivated, by warnings, by judgment and mercy, by Divine threatenings and promises; and the seed. of the Divine Word is sown with much prayerfulness and tears, and then left in hope and anxiety.

2. There are the secret, Divine operations. Once the seed is deposited carefully in the soil, the husbandman can do nothing more but hope, watch, and trust. It is now in the custody of God; he alone can make it grow. The Christian husbandman can only commit the Divine seed to the soil; he must there leave it to the secret and quickening operations of the Holy Spirit.

3. There are the subsequent Divine and human operations. As soon as the seed begins to bud, it is partially given back to human care. As soon as the Divine Word begins to bud in repentance and faith, and grow in grace, it is at grace, to some extent, under human discipline and supervision. The Divine and human operations join in its development and progress.

4. These operations are very great and various. There is infinite thought, sacrifice, and life, and there is much toil and labour, and there are various agencies. "One soweth, and another reapeth.

III THE VASTNESS OF THE HARVEST.

1. Vast in relation to space. The space of the harvest is the whole earth. The field is the world. But there are fields. Human geography is recognized. "Look on the fields." Judaea, Galilee, and especially Samaria, were in the eye of Jesus now. Human geography fits in well with the Divine purposes. The whole earth is the Lord"s farm, and the harvest covers it all; but it is well for the purpose of spiritual cultivation that it is divided into fields. Thus labour and vastness are distributed so as to suit finite comprehension and energy. Through the parts the whole will be reached. Field after field will be cultivated till the whole earth he covered with waving corn fit for harvest.

2. Vast in relation to time. It reaches from the first moment of the "day of grace" to the last, and in results stretch forward to the endless eternity. Men have a series of harvests, but Jesus has only one great harvest, embracing all time and all ages.

3. Vast in relation to the labour and agencies employed. These embrace all Divine, human, and angelic agencies from the first sower to the last reaper. Abel, Paul, and Luther worked in the same harvest. All the spiritual energy brought to bear upon this world belongs to the same. The spiritual harvest is infinitely vast, its labour infinitely great, and agencies infinitely various.

IV THE RIPENESS OF THE HARVEST. "Look on the fields; for they are white," etc.

1. Whiteness is the colour of ripeness, the colour of the ripe corn. It is the colour of heaven. All is white there, for all is ripe and perfect. Ripeness, when applied to souls here, is used relatively. Its full meaning must be realized hereafter.

2. Souls are ripe to harvest when they begin to manifest a genuine concern for their spiritual welfare. Then they begin to blush with the first colour of ripeness, and naturally call for harvesting.

3. As in the natural harvest, so in the spiritual, some fields ripen more quickly than others. As in soils, so in souls, some bring forth fruit sooner than others. This was the case now in Samaria as compared with Judaea and even Gahlee, and it is ever so.

4. There is a difference between the natural harvest and the spiritual indicated here.

(1) In the natural there is ever a certain stated period between the sowing and the reaping. In the East there was generally four months. But it is not invariably the case in the spiritual harvest. There may be more than four months, and there may be less than so many hours. "The fields are white already." No sooner is the seed sown than it begins to germinate and grow. So it was in the Samaritan woman now, and others.

(2) Men are entirely dependent on the appointed season of harvest. They cannot by any effort make it come a day sooner. It comes according to fixed laws. Not so the spiritual harvest. The servants of God, under him, may bring about a harvest of souls at any time. The Divine Spirit quickens and causes souls to grow and ripen through our earnest and faithful efforts. He blesses our earnest labour, so that the spiritual harvest is not limited by seasons and climates, but is carried on continually as we labour. There are fields ever white to harvest.

V THE REWARD OF THE HARVEST. "Receiveth wages," etc.

1. The reward is partly present. Especially with regard to the reaper in the fruit gathered, which is very precious; in the holy pleasure of doing the will of God, and saving souls.

2. The reward will be chiefly in the future. At the great harvest home. For the fruit is gathered unto life eternal. Every effort can only be fully rewarded at its final issues. The final issue of spiritual harvesting is "eternal life," which can only be fully enjoyed in the future.

3. The reward of the future will consist of the highest and greatest happiness. Like the joy of the harvest.

(1) The happiness of a perfect life. Spiritual life, "life eternal." Can a man be happier than in the full enjoyment of all he can desire, and of all he is capable of? This will be reached in eternal life the perfect ripeness of the soul, and the climax of being, the fulfilment of our sublimest hopes, and the reward of our best efforts with Divine interest.

(2) The happiness of abundance. The thought of famine will be forever buried in the consciousness of plenty. All the labourers in the harvest will be more than satisfied, and their satisfaction will leap into joy.

(3) The happiness of safety. Like the joy of the harvest, when all the produce of the fields is secured, there will be the joy of personal salvation, and the salvation of all. Let the storm rage, and the rain descend in torrents, all will be safe and infinitely happy in consequence.

(4) The happiness of gratitude. Gratitude to the great Lord of the harvest, for all his defence and loving kindness. After the "harvest home" there will be the great thanksgiving service. And it will be quivering with happiness and singing with joy.

1. All will be rewarded. "He that soweth and he that reapeth." Every one that bestowed any labour on the harvest will be remembered. Even the most insignificant labourer will not be overlooked.

2. All will be rewarded simultaneously. "He that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together together in time, in place, in mutual benefit and reciprocity. There will be no partiality, no disadvantage, but as in the labour so in the joy of the harvest, every one shall help himself to the full The lonely sower who ages ago sowed in tears without reaping scarcely any will suffer no disadvantage, but will be fully compensated his joy will be all the more. Every one will be happy in himself and in others. All will be happy in the Lord of the harvest, the chief Sower and Reaper, and all will be happy in him. The joy of the redeemed throng will be really personal, but intensely mutual, so as to make one anthem of leaping joy.

3. The reward will be everlasting. The fruit is gathered unto life eternal; and. the happiness will be as eternal as the life, as lasting as the fruit. The fear of its coming to an end, even at the remotest period, shall never pass as a cloud over its bright disc, nor cause a discord in its ever-harmonious and thrilling music.

LESSONS.

1. Let us realize our relationship to all past and future agencies, that we may feel our indebtedness to the former, and our responsibilities to the latter. We reap much which others have sown. Let us not be elated with pride, but with gratitude remember the tearful sowers. Let us sow faithfully, even if we reap not; and remember the reward and joy of the harvest. Let us leave the same legacy of fruitful labour to our successors as our predecessors left to us.

2. Let us be very diligent in spiritual service. It is harvest. And in relation to us is very short it will be soon over.

3. Let us be punctual and prompt. "The fields are white." It will be too late soon. There is danger that some corn will spoil for want of timely harvesting. Procrastination is a besetting sin. We cannot say, "There are yet four months," etc. No; "the fields are white already." They call us now to work.

4. Let us be very earnest and watchful "Lift up your eyes, and look," etc. Spiritual cultivation demands earnest and continual watchfulness. The spiritual eye should be keen, and ever on the look out on the old fields and new ones. Let us watch lest we lose an opportunity, lest the fields be riper than the husbandman he green and they white. The harvest of souls the harvest of Jesus is infinitely great, important, valuable, and promising. B.T.

Vers. 35-38. The two harvests.

I A SEARCHING LOOK INTO THE PAST. There can be little doubt that, when Jesus said the fields were white already to harvest, he meant his disciples to consider the company of Samaritans eagerly coming out of the city towards them. Why were they coming? Jesus knew that the coming was not sufficiently explained by saying that the woman"s report had stirred up the curiosity of the people in the city. Jesus rejoiced in the fresh proof he had got of how people everywhere were waiting for the Messiah. Even the Samaritan was waiting, and, if the Samaritan, how much more the Jew! People were ready to run in any direction where they might find one to answer their expectations. And Jesus looked upon this expectant state of mind as the harvest of what had been sown long ago. He did not forget his Father"s faithful messengers in ages past, with their testimonies, messages, and predictions. And so we may be sure Jesus would ever have us consider how the present is the result of the past. The valuable and gladdening things we have today did not spring up all in a night. This faith in a coming Messiah had been growing for generations. At first the faith of only a few, it had come to be the faith of more, and then the faith of all.

II THE PECULIAR WORK OF THE DISCIPLES. They had to he in readiness for a people who, more or less, were ready for them. When harvest time comes, how the reapers are on the look out! Reaping is not like some sorts of work, it cannot be spread over a long term. And these disciples were to be just as reapers, coreapers with Jesus himself. If the farmer has a large extent of ground under corn, he cannot reap it all with his own hands; he must have helpers proportioned to the ground that has to be covered. While Jesus was in the body of his humiliation, he worked with bodily restrictions upon him. Hence the need of colleagues who could do what he was not able to do himself, going forth each one of them, specially authorized and endowed to communicate the blessings of the Christ to needy and eager Israel. We must ever he on the look out for harvest work.

III A PATHETIC ELEMENT IN AGRICULTURE. Of all who go out to sow in the sowing time, not all survive to the harvest time. This must happen every year, and so no proverb is more likely to start into utterance than that which speaks of the sower being one, and the reaper another. But when Jesus comes to dilate on the higher harvest, he speaks of a state of things where nearly always the sower is one, and the reaper another. The necessity of the case makes it so. Superstitions and traditions have to be overthrown. But when the sower for God well understands that he cannot also reap, then all is right. He does his work with his own joy in the doing of it; he does the work into which God has put him; he is sure of the equity, nay more, of the love, of his Master; and thus he is sure also that the due reward will duly come. The sower and the reaper will rejoice together; and what a new, unimaginable experience that will be! Here sowers have a measure of rejoicing together, and reapers a measure of rejoicing together; but the sowers and reapers must be all together, looking upon the work before they can see it in all its wisdom and fulness. The earliest prophet of the old covenant must clasp hands with the latest servant of the new. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The fields are white already - As if he had said, The spiritual harvest is ripe already. The Samaritans, ripe for the Gospel, covered the ground round about them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Our blessed Saviour having, in the former verses, given a most plain and evident demonstration of his fervent desire to bring souls home to God, doth in these verses labour to stir up and kindle the like affections in his disciples; and this he doth by three very effectual arguments.

The first argument is drawn from the ripeness of the people, and their willingness to hear, and their readiness to be reaped and gathered by the gospel (whereof there was a present instance in the Samaritans, who were now coming forth in multitudes to Christ) which opportunity was therefore to be improved: Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.

Learn hence, That as a people is sometimes ripe for the ministry of the word, as corn is ripe and ready for the reaper’s hand, so it is the duty of the ministers of Christ to lay hold upon such opportunities, with as much desire and delight, as the harvest-men do upon a reaping season.

The second argument to stir up the disciples diligence in preaching the gospel, is drawn from the great reward they should receive for this their work. He that reapeth receiveth wages. The harvest-man’s wages is double to what other labourers receive. The ministers of God shall receive good wages at his hand, how ill soever they are requited and rewarded by an unkind world.

And, as a farther encouragement, it follows: He that soweth, and he that reapeth, shall rejoice together; that is, the prophets who took so much pains in sowing the seed of the gospel, and particularly John the Baptist, and you my apostles which succeed them, and reap the fruit of what they did sow, shall have the same reward in glory, and rejoice together.

Learn hence, That not only the successful, but the faithful labourer, in God’s harvest, shall be rewarded; not only those which see the fruit of their ministry in the conversion of sinners, but such as are faithful seedsmen. Though the seed does not come up till we are in our graves, nay, though it rots under the clods, and does not come up at all, yet shall the faithful seedsman be rewarded according to his labour, not according to his success.

The third argument to quicken the disciples diligence, is drawn frrom the easiness and facility of that labour which God required of them: Others have laboured, and ye are entered into their labours; that is, the prophets and John the Baptist have prepared the ground, and sown the seed, and made ready a people for the Lord, and now you enter into their labours, performing and gathering them into the gospel-church; yet this must not be understood absolutely, but comparatively: not as if the prophets reaped nothing, converted none: but that their fruit was small in comparison of the success which the apostles found. Nor is it to be understood as if the apostle took no pains at all, but that the prophets greater pains render the apostles labour successful, who took less pains.

Learn hence, That the wisdom of God sees it fit that all his servants in the work of the ministry do not meet with the same difficulties, nor enjoy the same success. Some are laborious sowers, others are joyful reapers; some labour all their days with little visible success, others bring in many to Christ, perhaps by a single sermon: some labour even with weariness, and reap little, others enter into their labours, and reap much.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? Harvest began about the middle of April in Palestine. The time when the Savior spoke would then be about the middle of December. But the harvest of souls was ripe already. Lift up your eyes. No doubt he pointed to the Samaritans now flocking out to see him (verse 39).

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

35.] The sense of these much-controverted words will be best ascertained by narrowly observing the form of the sentence.

οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι.… surely cannot be the introduction to an observation of what was matter of fact at the time. Had the words been spoken at a time when it wanted four months to the harvest, and had our Lord intended to express this,—is it conceivable that He should have thus introduced the remark? Would not, must not, the question have been a direct one in that case—‘are there not four months?’ &c. I know not how to account for this οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι.… except that it introduces some common saying which the Jews, or perhaps the people of Galilee only, were in the habit of using. Are not ye accustomed to say, that …? That we hear of no such proverb elsewhere, is not to the point;—for such unrecorded sayings are among every people. That we do not know whence to date the four months, is again no objection:—there may have been, in the part where the saying was usual (possibly in the land west of the lake of Tiberias, for those addressed were from thence, and the emphatic ὑμεῖς seems to point to some particular locality), some fixed period in the year,—the end of the sowing, or some religious anniversary,—when it was a common saying, that it wanted four months to harvest. And this might have been the first date in the year which had regard to the harvest, and so the best known in connexion with it.

If this be so, all that has been built on this saying, as giving a chronological date, must fall to the ground. (Lightfoot, Meyer (1), Wieseler, i. p. 215 ff., and others, maintain, that since the harvest began on the 16th of Nisan, we must reckon four months back from that time for this journey through Samaria, which would bring it to the middle of Chisleu, i.e. the beginning of December.)

To get the meaning of the latter part of the verse, we must endeavour to follow, as far as may be, the train of thought which pervades the discourse. He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man: our Lord had now been employed in this His work. But not as in the natural year, so was it to be in the world’s lifetime. One-third of the year may elapse, or more, before the sown seed springs up; but the sowing by the Son of Man comes late in time, and the harvest should immediately follow. The fields were whitening for it; these Samaritans (not that I believe He pointed to them approaching, as Chrys. and most expositors. but had them in his view in what he said), and the multitudes in Galilee, were all nearly ready. In the discourse as far as ver. 38, He is ὁ σπείρων, the disciples (see Act_8) were οἱ θερίζοντες:—He was the κεκοπιακώς, they were the εἰς τὸν κόπον αὐτοῦ εἰσεληλυθότες. The past is used, as descriptive of the office which each held, not of the actual thing done. I cannot also but see an allusion to the words spoken by Joshua (24:13), on this very spot;—‘I have given you a land for which ye did not labour’—ἐφʼ ἣν οὐκ ἐκοπιάσατε ἐπʼ αὐτῆς (αὐτήν Α).

Taking this view, I do not believe there was any allusion to the actual state of the fields at that time. The words ἐπάρατε κ.τ.λ. are of course to be understood literally;—they were to lift up their eyes and look on the lands around them;—and then came the assurance; ‘they are whitening already towards the harvest.’ And it seems to me that on this view—of the Lord speaking of spiritual things to them, and announcing to them the approach of the spiritual harvest, and none else,—the right understanding of the following verses depends.

It is of course possible that it may have been seed-time;—possible also, that the fields may have been actually whitening for the harvest;—but to lay down either of these as certain, and build chronological inferences on it, is quite unwarranted.

ἤδη belongs certainly to ver. 35, and refers back to ἔτι. Taken with ver. 36, it would not agree with the truth of the comparison. The harvest was not yet come. The ancient mss. are not trustworthy guides in division and punctuation, which rather form matter of criticism, in which we stand on the same ground as they.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35. The illustration of the harvest used by Jesus to unfold to the disciples the significance of the incident just narrated brings Jn. into line with the Synoptists, who repeatedly tell of His parables of the seed.

He was the Great Sower (cf. Mar 4:14ff.), and the seed just now sown in the heart of the Samaritan woman was springing up already. The harvest of souls at Sychar followed forthwith upon the sowing, contrary to the natural order in which he who wishes to reap must have patience and wait. Natural law does not always prevail in the spiritual world. The spiritual harvest was ready to be reaped with joy (v. 35), so that Sower and reaper might rejoice together (v. 36). But the reaping would not be for Him. It was the apostles who were to reap at a later date the harvest which originally sprang from the seed that He had sown in Samaria.

τετράμηνος So אABCDLNTbΘ, as against the rec. τετράμηνον. τετράμηνος does not occur again in the Greek Bible, although τετράμηνον (used as a substantive) is read by A at Jdg 19:2, Jdg 20:47. The meaning “four months long” is not doubtful, and the words τετράμηνός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται mean “the harvest comes in four months’ time.” But we cannot interpret this as indicating that the harvest of the fields of Sychar would not be ready for four months from the date of the interview of the woman of Samaria with Jesus, for that would involve the scene being laid in January or early in February. That was the rainy season, and there would have been no difficulty in getting water to drink, such as is suggested (vv. 6, 7). The words οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε, “Do you not say?” which introduce the sentence, suggest that it was a proverbial phrase.

J. Lightfoot (Hor. Hebr., in loc.) quotes a passage from a Rabbinical writer, showing that the agricultural year was divided into six periods of two months each, viz. seed-time, winter, spring, harvest, summer, and the season of extreme heat, so that the interval between sowing and harvest would be reckoned roughly as four months, although actually it might be a little longer. Thus Jesus here reminds His disciples of a rural saying, “Harvest does not come for four months,” and then he points to the contrast with the spiritual harvest already ripe for gathering in the hearts of the Samaritan villagers, although the seed had been sown only that day.

The words of this proverbial saying, with a trifling change, form a line of iambic verse:1

τετράμηνός ἐστι χὡ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται.

If Jn. represented Jesus as quoting Greek iambics, then there would be some ground for treating the narrative of c. 4 as an allegory rather than as an historical reminiscence, freely edited. But this would be at variance with the general lines on which the Gospel is written. The disciples elsewhere (see on 1:38) address Jesus in Aramaic, and doubtless He spoke in the same language to them. That Jn. should represent them as familiar with a Greek proverb in verse is incredible. Further, not only is this proverb unknown in Greek literature, but it would be hard for it to have currency among Greeks. There is no evidence that the Greeks had a sixfold division of the agricultural year as the Hebrews had; and if they did not adopt this division, four months would not be as likely an interval to be contemplated as normal between seed-time and harvest as five or even six months.

Again, ἔτι precedes τετράμηνός ἐστιν κτλ. in אABCNTbWDΘ, and has to be retained, although it is omitted by DL fam. 13 Syr. cur. But ἔτι spoils the iambic senarius, and yet it must be reckoned with; for the saying which Jesus quotes as familiar to the disciples is, “There are yet four months (sc. from the time of sowing), and then comes the harvest.”

We conclude, therefore, that the rhythm of ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται is an accident, and that we are to regard the whole phrase as the Greek rendering of an Aramaic agricultural proverb. See 5:14 for another accidental Greek verse.

With the paratactic constr. ἔτι τετράμηνός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται, Milligan2 compares the illiterate P Par. 18:14 ἔτι δύο ἡμέρας ἔχομεν καὶ φθάσομεν εἰς Πηλοίσι.

ἰδού λέγω ὑμῖν. ἰδού is unusual in Jn., occurring again only in 16:32, 19:5 (12:15 is a LXX quotation). Jn. generally has ἴδε (see on 1:29). ἰδού here and at 16:32 is almost equivalent to “but”; it introduces a contrast with what has gone before.

ἐπάρατε τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς is an expressive phrase, suggesting careful and deliberate gaze, which we have both in O.T. (Gen 13:10, 2Sa 18:24, 1Ch 21:16, Eze 18:6) and in N.T. (Luk 16:23, Luk 18:13, Mat 17:8). See on 6:5 (cf. 11:41, 17:1), where, as here, the phrase is followed by the verb θεᾶσθαι, which in the N.T. (see on 1:14) is always used of seeing with the bodily eyes.3

The disciples could see for themselves that the fields (cf. Luk 21:21 for this use of χώρα) were whitening for the harvest already. Jesus does not say that the material harvest of the fields of Sychar was springing up immediately after it had been sown; the harvest of which He speaks is expressly contrasted with the harvest that takes months to grow and ripen. The allusion is to the spiritual receptiveness of the Samaritan woman, the measure of faith which she has already exhibited (v. 29), and the eagerness with which her friends and neighbours were even now coming to inquire of Jesus for themselves. These were the fields for the spiritual harvest, which was patent not to the eye of faith only, but to the bodily eyes of the disciples, for these people were hastening to meet them even at the moment of speaking.

ἤδη may be taken either with what precedes, or with what follows. But the word “already” seems to go more impressively with what has just been said than with the saying of v. 36.

Nothing, then, can be certainly inferred as to the time of year from this verse. The fields may have, literally, been ready for the reapers, and if so, it was the harvest season. That, in itself, would bring home to the disciples the meaning of the Lord’s words about the spiritual harvest; but it is clear that it is the spiritual harvest which is primarily referred to in v. 35b, while it is the natural harvest which is the subject of the proverb of v. 35a.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Say not ye. In what follows, Jesus is contrasting the natural harvest - time with the spiritual, which was immediately to take place in the ingathering of the Samaritans. Ye is emphatic, marking what the disciples expect according to the order of nature. As you look on these green fields between Ebal and Gerizim, ye say, it is yet four months to harvest. There are four months [τετραμηνον εστιν] . Properly, it is a space of four months. Only here in the New Testament.

Harvest [θερισμος] . See on Luk 10:2.

White [λευκαι] . See on Luk 9:29.

Already unto harvest. Spiritual harvest. The crowd of Samaritans now pouring out toward the well was to Jesus as a ripe harvest - field, prefiguring the larger harvest of mankind which would be reaped by His disciples. By the best texts the already is joined with the next verse, and the kai, and, at the beginning of that verse is omitted : Already he that reapeth receiveth, etc.

Wages [μισθον] . See on 2Pe 2:13.

Unto life eternal. This is explained either, which shall not perish but endure unto eternal life, or into life eternal, as into a granary. Compare ver. 14.

Together [ομου] . The construction is peculiar : that both the sower may rejoice together and the reaper. Together signifies not in common, but simultaneously. So quickly does the harvest follow the gospel - seed sown among the Samaritans, that the sower and the reaper rejoice together.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.