New College Preaching Sta tions Oford Road.. Paddington Chapel. Thos. Dorking. West Street .... 46 10 3 Tunbridge Wells. Auxiliary 8 4 4 Essex. Auxiliary..........300 Central Africa Mission .. 25 0 0 Congregational Church .. Glastonbury..... .... 13 5 0 00 3 16 6 Great Yarmouth. For Native Hadleigh. Auxiliary sion, Central Africa .... 500 Jas. Weston-super-Mare. Phillips and Benj. Perry, Esqs., for Jacob Shinniah 18 0 0 Wandsworth. 0 0 990 ...... 25 8 8 For School Buildings, Madagascar, per W. Temple Bourne, Esq., J. Tritton, Esq.. 330 8 .... 200 A Friend .............. T. E. Fairfax, Africa... Esq., for India .... 40 For Central Africa 20 COUNTRY. Bath. Percy Chapel. La dies' Association. G. B. 10 Vineyard Chapel. Per Mr. A. A. Moon. A. Z. Bedford. Collected by Miss Bicester....... Bitterne, Southampton. Miss Usborne, for Native 25 0 0 0 0 Havant 20 1 2 1 12 Ipswich. A Friend, for New 0 500 2 10 1 400 Pastor under Mr. Pool.. 20 0 0 Do., for School Buildings under Mr. Pool Bognor. Collection........ 50 0 0 34 0 Margate. Mrs. Tanner .... 1 0 0 ..1200 0 0 Newport (Mon.). Auxiliary.. 36 10 0 Auxiliary........100 Proceeds of Sale of Work by the Ladies of Bristol and Clifton, for Female Missions ....... 0 0 SCOTLAND. Per Rev. E. A. Wareham- Abbey Parish Church .... Galashiels. 210 0 200 017 6 300 Parochial Association .... 500 5 11 0 9 Grangemouth. Free Church 3 16 3 Hawick. Buccleuch Street 7.14 0 27 0 3 Cross Wynd U.P. Church IRELAND. Per Rev. E. A. Wareham Cork 11 14 6 ........ 15 20 It is requested that all remittances of Contributions be made to the REV. ROBERT ROBINSON, Home Secretary, Mission House, Blomfield Street, London, E.C.; and that if any portion of these gifts is designed for a specific object, full particulars of the place and purpose may be given. Cheques should be crossed Bank of England, and Post-office General Post-office. Orders made payable at the YATES & ALEXANDER, Printers, Chancery Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE AND MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. SEPTEMBER, 1876. The Golden Harvest-Fields. WE want Vicat Cole, R.A., with us now as we sit by field and shade, and watch the waving corn and the rolling sea. He could well give us the picture of this soft, delicate haze, this purple-tinted distance, this golden foreground of corn-this sharp, clear, crisp contrast of rock and sea. I cannot! All I can do is to talk with you a little about these harvest-fields themselves. And what a world-old, worldwide word it is. Harvest-everywhere that season comes. Some This same Naomi is watching the old harvest-fields in Palestine. year some grain is being stored in the vicinage of Joseph's granaries in Egypt. This same year golden fields of red Indian wheat are waving in the valleys out there where the Pilgrim Fathers found to their intense joy a little sand-heap newly done, for "they saw how the Indians had paddled it with their hands." Oh, moment of joy! how the aisles of the neighbouring forests must have rung with their cry of delight they found a basketful of red Indian corn! Yes, everywhere wide as the offer of a Saviour's mercy is the provision for earthly bread-and harvest is the spectacle that greets, and the supply that gladdens, the whole family of man. It is perhaps the most beautiful season of the year in England. Our summer-time is short, and the harvest month brings out the fulness and sweetness of fruit and flower! God has linked use and beauty together. The useful is not unlovely— the bloom of the grape-the blue of the sea-the russet of the apple— the silver of the river-the gold of the cornfield-these teach us that God "has made everything beautiful in its time." It may be that the teachings of harvest have been the theme of so many minds that it is difficult to avoid the beaten paths of old reflections, but one or two thoughts suggest themselves which may quicken in us some useful meditations. There are, for instance, thoughtless persons everywhere, and you see the edges of these corn-fields are trodden over, and the beautiful grain is crushed. Why? Because there is no room in the path? No. Two persons can walk abreast there. It is done simply from carelessness and unconcern, and so it happens that if you could measure the wasted places, whole acres of wheat in England are this year thus destroyed. How true is it that "Evil is wrought from want of thought, as well as want of heart." So, too, is it with the better seed of the Kingdom of grace. Words quick and powerful, uttered on God's holy day, are trodden under fcot by some trifling talker, who thus desecrates God's grain, as he comes home from the sanctuary, and a sister has the first beginnings of heavenly life crushed by a brother's flippancy, or a companion's careless converse. There may even be depth of earth in the heart where the precious seed is dropped, but as it begins to sprout it is trodden under foot. I have thought, too, of a strange fancy in looking at these autumn fields. Perhaps a dead hand planted some of it! Yes, it may be that some seed-sower has fallen on sleep before this fruitful harvest came. But the grain grows all the same. So, too, it is in higher things. Many a harvest waves over the graves of those who planted it--in mission fields abroad, and in our home acres too. I remember John Angell James saying in a sermon he preached shortly before my old friend Dr. Morison's death, "The wheels of the Redeemer's chariot stop at no man's grave." And this represents the same thought. We plant in anxiety, in hope, and yet sometimes in tears, but even in our own children's hearts the harvest that is the result of our planting may not come until after we have entered into rest. Then, too, my vision changes, and in a moment I see the stubble and the reaped fields, and remember that over the same brown earth ploughs and harrows must do their work again, and fresh seed be dropped into the furrows. So is it with our churches and our schools, and all our fields! Children and fathers die, and as new generations arise, the like work must be carried on. But what comfort there is in the thought that as these ears of wheat do not wear out their quickening power, but, dropped into the earth, bring forth and bud again; so the seed of the Gospel is a living seed, amid all natures, and in every age. And then another thought comes to one. What a pity it is that we are not more thankful. Harvest-fields are associated in my mind with some of the sweetest There the lark carols forth in high heaven its thrilling notes, and drops down in sharp descent to the earth. There is music in the songs. |