Galatians 6:7

AN INEXORABLE LAW

‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’

Galatians 6:7

Every habit formed is seed sown. Our thoughts, our words, our deeds are all seed which, in the world to come, we shall reap, in sorrow or in joy.

After all, is it not simply just? And for this reason, that a man sows what he likes, as he likes. As it is with the seed sown in the fields, so it is with our lives, a fixed law! Yet men ignore it: seem to hope that after all it may not be true. As well might a farmer sow barley and hope that after all there may spring up oats!

I. Putting aside the reaping that will be in the next world, do we not find the words abundantly fulfilled even in this?—We are, we enjoy, we suffer in the present, as we have done, or as we have left undone, in the past.

(a) You see a man in the evening of life, full of riches and honour. You knew him long ago a struggling youth, yet even then noted for application to business, sober, self-denying, honest. The seeds of industry have produced a harvest of peace and plenty.

(b) You see another born to better things thrown on the parish. You don’t wonder when you know that drink was his master. The seeds of intemperance are bearing the bitter fruit of ruin and disgrace.

(c) A third case, perhaps, puzzles you for a time. You see a man struggling hard to keep his head above water, and yet going steadily down. His health is broken. And you say, ‘It seems hard, doesn’t it?’ ‘Ah,’ some one replies, ‘he is wonderfully changed, wonderfully sobered. But I can remember the time when he was “ sowing his wild oats”—he sowed at the same time the seeds of the disease which is killing him now.’

II. The inexorable law.—A man lives a life of the most reckless waste—waste of time, waste of health, waste of opportunities. He ‘sows to the flesh’ in the indulgence of every passion. When he has done ‘sowing his wild oats’ he ‘settles down.’ But—before he is middle-aged he is old! His health is gone, he is broken down. Then he cries out bitterly, and says that ‘it is hard, so hard, that the sins of his youth should be remembered against him!’ Remembered! Why, it is only the working out of a natural law. If you forget that you put seed into a field, your forgetfulness will not prevent it springing up. Remembered! Nay! the wild oats sown so recklessly do but yield the harvest of pain, and feebleness, and sorrow, and regret. Sowing and reaping! You cannot separate the two. Young men, must you sow your wild oats? Do they tell you that it is ‘only natural.’ Very well; but ‘whatsoever a man soweth,’ remember ‘ that shall he also reap!’

—Rev. J. B. C. Murphy.