St. Helena, California,
August 7, 1902
(8T 30)
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VC
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathered fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.”John 4:35-37.
(8T 30.1)
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After sowing the seed, the husbandman is compelled to wait for months for it to germinate and develop into grain ready to be harvested. But in sowing it he is encouraged by the expectation of fruit in the future. His labor is lightened with the hope of good returns in the time of reaping.
(8T 30.2)
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Not so with the seeds of truth sown by Christ in the mind of the Samaritan woman during His conversation with her at the well. The harvest of His seed sowing was not remote, but immediate. Scarcely were His words spoken, before the seed thus sown sprang up and produced fruit, awakening her understanding, and enabling her to know that she had been conversing with the Lord Jesus Christ. She let the rays of divine light shine into her heart. Forgetting her water pitcher, she hastened away to communicate the good news to her Samaritan brethren. “Come,” she said, “see a man, which told me all the things that ever I did.”John 4:29. And they came out at once to see Him. It was then that He likened the souls of these Samaritans to a field of grain. “Lift up your eyes,” He said to His disciples, “and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”John 4:35.
(8T 30.3)
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“So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they besought Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two days.” And what busy days these were! What is the record of the result? “And many more believed because of His own word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”John 4:40-42.
(8T 30.4)
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Christ, in opening to the minds of the Samaritans the word of life, sowed many seeds of truth and showed the people how they, too, could sow seeds of truth in the minds of others. How much good might be accomplished if all who know the truth would labor for sinners, for those who need so much to know and understand Bible truth and who would respond to it as readily as the Samaritans responded to the words of Christ! How little do we enter into sympathy with God on the point that should be the strongest bond of union between us and Him-compassion for depraved, guilty, suffering souls, dead in trespasses and sins! If men shared the sympathies of Christ, they would have constant sorrow of heart over the condition of many needy fields, so destitute of workers.
(8T 31.1)
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The work in foreign fields is to be carried forward earnestly and intelligently. And the work in the home field is in no wise to be neglected. Let not the fields lying in the shadow of our doors, such as the great cities in our land, be lightly passed over and neglected. These fields are fully as important as any foreign field.
(8T 31.2)
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God’s encouraging message of mercy should be proclaimed in the cities of America. Men and women living in these cities are rapidly becoming more and still more entangled in their business relations. They are acting wildly in the erection of buildings whose towers reach high into the heavens. Their minds are filled with schemes and ambitious devisings. God is bidding every one of His ministering servants: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”Isaiah 58:1.
(8T 31.3)
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