Do we praise God sufficiently for His mercies? Do we always value them? Sometimes we do not fully appreciate them until they are withdrawn.
It seems to me that if the Master walked our crowded cities, He would repeat again those words, ‘Truly the harvest is plenteous.’ Plenty to reap; only labourers are wanted to go out. The masses are still there; the need is for some one to go to the masses.
Then the note of sorrow seems to drown and spoil the note of joy. ’The harvest is plenteous’–rejoice! ’But the labourers are few’–cause for sorrow. The masses are there–the opportunity–but so few to take hold of it. Corn to be gathered in, but few reapers.
The harvest was plenteous in the time of Christ, but it is even more so now. The people are waiting for us, they expect us and look to us, who are the followers of Christ, to go to their help!
Oh, the open doors! Was the door of the public ear ever more ready to listen to us than at the present time? Those who once turned a deaf ear, and did not believe in us, now say, ’Yes, you are right. You have got the right thing, and are doing the right thing.’
Were people ever more ready to open their doors to us than they are now? How they appreciate the visit of the Salvationist! The doors, too, of the workhouses, the prisons, the hospitals are opening more widely to us.
Yes, the people are ready to open their hearts to us. The poor drunkard, as he rolls from one side of the road to the other, exclaims when he sees a Salvationist, ‘God–bless–General–Booth!’
The masses may not always rush as excitedly after us as they once did–there are so many counter-attractions now–but they are there. We must go to them; they need us.
I have heard the story of a little boy who lost his mother, and was found lying upon her grave weeping and praying. Some one who had felt moved to do something for the motherless boy discovered him in this position. ‘Jesus has sent me to you!’ said the lady. ’I am going to love you as my own little boy.’ ‘Oh,’ he said, through his tears as he looked up as though he had been expecting her, ’so Jesus has sent you! You have been a long time coming though, haven’t you?’
Do the sinners and drunkards feel we are a long time coming, because the labourers are too few, and you have kept back from becoming one?