Ecclesiastes 11:1,2,5,6; Isaiah 55:10,11
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight…As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Can you need a more striking subject of instruction, respecting the spiritual seed of the gospel?
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Men who expect a good return at harvest do not pinch and spare in sowing their seed, for the return is usually proportional to what they sow. “Cast thy bread upon the waters.” “Waters” in Scripture, are put for multitudes, Revelation 17:15.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The husbandman throws his seed freely, because he sows in hope.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The evangelical gardener must not be discouraged by the lack of response he meets with, and the absence of immediate fruitage to his labours. If he is faithful in casting the Bread of life upon the human “waters,” particularly “thy bread”—those portions you have personally received from God and which have proved a blessing to your own soul—the sure promise is “thou shall find it again after many days.” Therefore be not slack or exclusive, but “give portions to seven, yes to eight,” for if you prayerfully seek opportunities and carefully observe the openings which Providence makes—you will be brought into touch with hungry souls. There is many a starved sheep wandering about who will deeply appreciate the ministrations.
AUGUSTUS TOPLADY (1713-1778): Lady Serena, the Countess of Huntingdon, was once speaking to a workman named James who was repairing her garden wall, and pressing him to take some thought concerning eternity and the state of his soul. Some years afterward, she spoke to another workman on the same subject, and said to him, “Thomas, I fear you never pray, nor look to Christ for salvation.”
“Your ladyship is mistaken,” he answered, “I heard what passed between you and James.”
“How did you hear it?”
“I heard it on the other side of the garden, through a hole in the wall, and shall never forget the impression I received. And the word you designed for him took effect on me.”
WILLIAM TIPTAFT (1803-1864): The Lord only knows what hidden ones there are in your dark little town, and He will appoint some means to bring His banished ones home.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You cannot make the gospel enter into men’s hearts. You cannot tell how it does enter and change them. The Spirit of God does that; but your duty is to go on telling it out. Go on spreading abroad the knowledge of Christ; in the morning, in the evening, and all day long, scatter the good seed. You have nothing to do with the result of your sowing; that remains with the Lord. The seed you sow in the morning may prosper, or the seed you scatter in the evening; possibly God will bless both. You are to keep on sowing, whether you reap or not.
MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): If the Lord has ever honoured me in any way by making use of me, it has been in comforting the comfortless, or in speaking a word to the tried and heavy-laden; but never, to my knowledge, in rousing the dead sinner. God does not honour me much in that way. Yet I do feel most anxious for the conversion of sinners. No subject lies so near my heart, and for nothing do I more earnestly pray.
C. H. SPURGEON: Ah! dear friend, you little know the possibilities which are in you. You may but speak a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian church in years to come…Can you not distribute tracts? There is a real service of Christ in the distribution of the gospel in its printed form, a service the result of which heaven alone shall disclose, and the judgment-day alone discover.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Happy if we could learn this one rule, never to write a letter without something of Jesus Christ in it.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): You are not all, it is true, called to be ministers of Christ, but you are all to be witnesses for Him in the midst of a dark benighted world. And such must you be.
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Two qualifications are required in a witness, truth and love, Ephesians 4:15—the law under which we live is the law of love.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): You shouldn’t work as a Christian simply because it’s good and right for Christians to work; the motive is all important. We must work because of the love of Christ.
C. H. SPURGEON: The soul winner must first be a soul lover. If there be no love to God, and no love to man, the vital element is wanting. Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): In general no man ought to be accounted a believer, who conceals the knowledge of God within his own heart.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Happy is he who is not ashamed to say to others, “Come and hear what the Lord hath done for my soul,” Psalm 66:16…If we have anything to tell others about Christ, let us resolve to tell it.
DAVID DICKSON (1583-1662): A lover of the glory of God cannot rest till he communicates with others what he knows of the Lord’s wonders: he “will show forth all the Lord’s marvellous works,” Psalm 9:1.
JOHN CALVIN: Our life is, in other parts of Scripture, compared to the seed-time, and as it will often happen that we must sow in tears, it becomes us, lest sorrow should weaken or slacken our diligence, to raise our minds to the hope of the harvest.
C. H. SPURGEON: Sowing looks like a losing business, for we put good corn into the ground never to see it any more. Sowing to the Spirit seems a very fanciful, dreamy business; for we deny ourselves, and apparently get nothing for it.
BROWNLOW NORTH (1810-1875): But shall God’s people, therefore, cease to try? God forbid.
MATTHEW HENRY: Let us continue our pious endeavours for the good of souls.
C. H. SPURGEON: Let each of us, if we have done nothing for Christ, begin to do something now. Dear friends, you do not expect to see fruit at once, do you? “Cast your bread upon the waters and you shall find it tomorrow”—is that the text? If I read rightly it is, “You shall find it after many days.”
ROBERT HAWKER: Like seed sown in the field, it lays hid for awhile. Its product is in future, not now. How often, indeed, after many days and years do they find the fruit of their labours.
C. H. SPURGEON: Remember the promises, let them come up before your mind—believe them, and go in the strength of them. “In due season we shall reap if we faint not,” Galatians 6:9; “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love,” Hebrews 6:10. But if you should not live to see it on earth, remember, you are only accountable for your labour—not for your success! Sow still, toil on! “Cast your bread upon the waters: for you shall find it after many days.” God will not allow His Word to be wasted—“it shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish that which He pleases,” Isaiah 55:11.
