The Harvest Truly is Plenteous, But the Laborers are Few (Matt. 9:37)

By Ch. Hodge

I. What is the harvest? It is the mass of human souls. It is called a harvest,

1. Because intrinsically valuable.

2. Because designed to be saved.

3. Because it must be reaped. If let alone it will perish.

4. Because it is prepared, or ready for the sickle.

II. This harvest is plenteous.

The number of human beings now living on the earth, and accessible more or less to the gospel, is 800,000,000 or 900,000,000. The harvest includes not the men of this country only, nor of Europe, but of Asia, of Africa, of India, of China, and of the Islands of the sea. All these need the gospel, all are capable of salvation, all are accessible.

III. The duty of reaping the harvest, rests,

1. On the whole Church.

2. Specially on the ministers.

3. On each individual minister.

IV. In what part of the field each should labor, depends,

1. Not on the wishes of the individual, but on the will of God.

2. His will is to be determined in relation to each, first, by general considerations, and, second, by special considerations.

First, the general considerations which should determine our personal duty are such as these: 1st. The relative size of the different portions of the field. 2d. The relative proportion of laborers in those fields. 3d. Their relative importance in reference to the whole. 4th. Their accessibility and state of readiness for the gospel. 5th. The relation in which they stand to us. We have a greater duty to the people of this country than to others, just as a man is under greater obligations to provide for his own family than for others.

Second, the special considerations are, 1st. Those which relate to our qualifications. 2d. To our constitution or health. 3d. To our domestic or social obligations. 4th. To the dealings of God’s providence and Spirit.

V. Motives which should induce us to give ourselves up to this work, to go where God may send us.

1. The command of Christ, which is explicit and obligatory, and its addressed to us as truly as though we were specially named in the commission. Disobedience as to going at all, or as to going where we ought to go, is certain to entail the greatest evils on our own soul.

2. Love to Christ and gratitude for the benefits of redemption. The special motive is love to the Redeemer, founded on his glorious excellence as God manifested in the flesh, on his love to us, and on the benefits which we receive from him. The force of this motive is seen in all the apostles and martyrs and missionaries whom God has sent and blessed.

3. The absolute necessity of the gospel to the salvation of the heathen. This is clearly the doctrine of the Bible and of the Church. If they do not hear, they cannot believe; and if they do not believe, they cannot be saved.

Let this subject, therefore, come before you in all its solemn importance, and let it weigh constantly on your minds.