The Sermon of the Seasons
by C H SpurgeonFROM SWORD & TROWEL 2002 No 2
Adapted by the Editor from a sermon preached by C H Spurgeon in March 1886
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and
summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8.22).
The Saviour constantly taught the people by parables, and I think He would
have His ministers do the same. Our text takes us back to the time when the waters of the
flood had just assuaged, and God opened the door of the ark and bade Noah and his family
come forth into a new world. For a time there had been confusion. The seasons were mixed
up. The perpetual downpour of the rain had almost turned day into night, and whether it was
summer or winter could scarcely be told. The frame of nature seemed to be out of joint, her
order suspended.
And now the Lord, in making a promise to Noah that He would never
destroy the earth again with a flood, also declares that while the earth remained there shall
be no more of the confusion of the seasons, and mingling of day and night. As there would
never again be a general deluge, so there would never again be a serious disarrangement of
the course of the seasons. Seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter,
would succeed each other perpetually so long as the present reign of forbearance would last.
We are grateful to God for determining that it should be so.
We are at ease because we know that He will deal with us in longsuffering,
tender mercy, and forbearance. There will come an end to this dispensation; but while the
reign of forbearance lasts, nature shall keep her appointed marches. Four seasons will ever
fill the measure of the year. It is very significant that when the Lord ushered in this reign of
forbearance He gave as His reason - ‘I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s
sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.’
This is very remarkable, because this seems to have been the very reason
why the Lord had already destroyed the guilty race from the face of the earth. Can the
reason for judgement become the argument for mercy? Assuredly it can. God Who never
changes, yet changes His method in dealing with men. He had left them to themselves and
permitted them to live through centuries, but the longer they lived, the more wicked they
grew, until sin reached a horrible degree of infamy. Man becomes a bad enough sinner
when he lives to be seventy; but what he became at seven hundred or more it is difficult to
guess. We wonder not that there were giants in those days - giants in crime as well as in
stature.
The Lord saw that however long man lived he only grew more accomplished
in sin, for the imagination of his heart remained evil, and even grew to an intolerable height
of iniquity. Therefore He said that He would destroy the race and begin anew. But when
the Lord looked down upon those whom He had spared, who were to be the parents of a
new race, He saw in them the same fountain of evil, and that their hearts also yielded evil
desires and devices continually. Then He resolved to shorten the life of man, so that no
individual might ever arrive at so horrible a state of iniquity, and He said - ‘I will bear with
them.’
What event could have changed the approach of the Lord in dealing with the
human race? I attribute it to the event noted in the verses which precede our text: ‘And
Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl,
and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.’
This sacrifice was the turning-point. Without a sacrifice, sin clamours for
vengeance, and God sends a destroying flood. But the sacrifice presented by Noah was
typical of the coming sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, and of the atonement that He
would provide for human sin. The very type or shadow of Calvary changed the state of the
world. The Lord now arranges for grace as once He arranged for doom. He of course
expresses Himself in a human way for the sake of our comprehension, but in reality
Jehovah changes not.
For the sake of Christ’s sacrifice God deals very patiently with the human
race, and no more sweeps it away in His wrath. He says, ‘Deliver it from flood, and bid the
seasons keep their round of benefits, for I have found a ransom.’
I would have you notice that in this text there is first a solemn hint of
warning. It begins - ‘While the earth remaineth.’ The voice of the text is a voice of mercy,
but there is an undertone of ‘terrible things in righteousness’, because the earth will not
always remain. There is an end appointed and it will surely come, when the seasons will
melt into the endless age, and time shall be promoted into eternity. Darkness now covers the
earth, and gross darkness the nations. Jehovah has a people, ‘a remnant according to the
election of grace,’ and for their sakes the earth remains yet a little while; but its end draws
nearer every hour.
An hour is set when mercy shall no longer hold back the axe from the barren
tree, and forbearance shall no more restrain the angel with the sharp sickle from reaping the
vintage of the earth. Love now journeys to and fro among the sons of men, with the voice of
trembling pathos, pleading with them to be reconciled to God; but her mission will come to
an end when the day of grace is over. Let us not set our love upon anything that is in this
world, for here we have no continuing city. Poor world! You are surely doomed! God is
gracious to you, but you are like a wreck drifting on to the rocks.
I would have you notice also that the time when the earth shall no longer
remain is not mentioned. The warning is left indefinite as to time, though
definite enough as to fact. The expression, ‘while the earth remains’, is proof enough that it
will remain only for a season; but there is no word about when the season shall close. Do
not attempt to prophesy or guess at dates. ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons,
which the Father hath put in his own power.’ ‘Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no,
not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.’ The uncertainty of the end of all things is
intended to keep us continually on the watch. If we knew when Christ would come we
might be tempted to spend the interval in neglect, but it is written, ‘In such an hour as ye
think not the Son of man cometh.’ It is the Lord’s intention that we should stand with our
loins girt and our lamps trimmed, waiting for the midnight cry, ‘Behold he cometh.’
Let me further remark that the day when the earth shall cease cannot be very
far off, for according to the Hebrew (which you have in the margin of your Bibles), the text
runs thus: ‘As yet all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest shall not cease.’ The
waiting time is counted in the text by days, not months or years. The earth seems grey with
age to us, but in the language of inspiration the present stage of its history is reckoned by
days. Peter says, ‘The end of all things is at hand,’ and he adds, ‘Be ye therefore sober, and
watch unto prayer.’
From the day when God fitted up this earth for the abode of man, to the time
when He shall consume it with fervent heat, there will be comparatively a very short space
of time.
There is also in this text a sentence of promise, rich and full of meaning:
‘While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and
winter, and day and night shall not cease.’ It is a promise concerning temporal things, but
yet it breathes a spiritual air.
This promise has been kept. It is long since it was written, but it has never
failed. There have been times when cold has threatened to bind the whole year in the chains
of frost; but the genial warmth has pushed it aside. Seedtime and harvest have been
threatened, but they have come. The harvest may not have been abundant, but yet there has
been a harvest sufficient to sustain the race. The ordinances of Heaven have continued with
us as with our fathers. No student of nature can doubt that to this hour, despite occasional
extremes of heat and cold, the seasons are unchanged; and notwithstanding occasional
absence of sunshine, and diminution of light, day and night have followed the diurnal
revolution of the earth. Since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were. One
great interruption occurred at the deluge, but the Lord has kept His promise to prevent any
other.
So long-continued is the fulfilment of this promise, that even this race of
unbelievers has come to believe in it. We look for the seasons as a matter of course. I do not
suppose that any one in this audience doubts the coming of the next season. Long
observation has produced in you an unwavering faith. When the sun goes down at night, not
even a little child fears that God has blown out the sun. No, we look for the morning.
I want you to ask yourselves - Why do we not believe God’s other promises?
Why have we not as solid a conviction of the truth of other statements God has made?
When God’s promises appear to be difficult to fulfil, why do we doubt them? They are
fulfilled in due season. They eventually come to pass without difficulty, because He Who is
Almighty God has infinite resources.
As far as we are concerned, we cannot lift a finger to change the seasons.
What could all Parliament do, with all their Acts, towards bringing on spring-tide or
hastening summer and harvest? Nothing at all. These matters are out of man’s power; and
yet they are none the less sure. So, my brethren, when you get into such a condition that you
can by no means help yourself, you are not to doubt that God can achieve His purpose and
fulfil His promise without your help.
Good people have gone very wrong when they have thought of aiding in the
fulfilment of promises and prophecies. See how Rebecca erred in trying to get the promised
blessing for Jacob. When any case comes to its worst, and you can do nothing whatever in
it, you may safely stand still and see the salvation of God.
Remember, also, that every coming of summer - yes, and every rising of the
sun - is a great wonder. Only our familiarity leads us to think of these things without
marvelling. Every break of day and every set of sun is a real miracle. A world of wonders
bursts forth in every springtide, each blade of grass and ear of corn being a display of divine
omnipotence. We are surrounded with works of almighty power and goodness from
morning till evening and through the watches of the night from the first day of the year until
its close. Unseen by us, His hand propels the silent spheres which no force within human
calculation could move in their orbits, sustaining and animating all things.
If God continues thus to work the pleasing changes of the year as He
promised to do, why do you doubt Him concerning other things, O ye of little faith? Will
He not keep His word to His children if He keeps it to the earth? Will He not fulfil His
every promise to His own elect, if He is true to sun and stars? Will He renounce His
covenant and deny His promise to His only begotten Son? God forbid.
Brethren, we have come not only to believe this promise as to the seasons,
but we practically act upon our faith. The farmers sow their autumn wheat, but what is
sowing but a burial of good store? Farmers feel sure that seedtime will in due time be
followed by harvest. Why do we not act in an equally practical style in reference to the rest
of God’s promises? Genuine faith makes the promises of God to be of full effect by viewing
them as true, and putting them to the test. When faith asks of God, it believes that it has the
petition which it has asked of Him. Why do we not reckon upon every word of Scripture
being fulfilled? We ought to take the promises into our matter-of-fact estimate, and act
accordingly.
Let me go further: if a person did not act upon the declaration of God in our
text he would be counted foolish. Suppose a man said, ‘I do not feel sure that there will
come a harvest, and therefore I shall not sow’; his neighbours would look upon his
uncultivated fields, and reckon him out of his mind. If another should say, ‘I shall lay by no
stores for the winter, because I believe that we have arrived at perpetual summer, during
which there will always be corn in the sheaf and fruit on the trees,’ we should regard him as
ready for the asylum.
Equally mad are they who treat other promises of God as if they were idle
words, no more worthy of notice than the prophecies of a charlatan. The masses of our
fellow men never search the Word of God to find a promise suitable to their case, and even
if such a promise were laid before them, they would only regard it as a matter of
imagination or meaningless jargon. What shall I say of those who trifle with eternal verities,
but that madness has carried away their hearts.
Let me add that whether people believe God’s declaration or not it will stand
as true. If a man says there will be no winter, and provides no garments, he will
shiver in the northern blast all the same. If he declares that there will be no summer, and
therefore he will not sow nor prepare his barn, will his foolish scepticism prevent the
coming of summer? He will secure a harvest of thorns and thistles to reward his unbelief,
but a harvest will come to the rest of the land, to his confusion. The year will go on whoever
plays the fool. God’s purpose and God’s promise will stand fast though the hills be
removed. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you shall be saved, but if you believe not, you
must perish; in either case, the law will not alter for you.
There is also in the text, I believe, a suggestion of analogies. Reading these
words I see in them a moral and spiritual meaning. Holy Scripture is intended not to teach
us natural but spiritual things: I conclude, therefore, that there is an analogy here well
worthy of being worked out.
While the earth remaineth there will be changes in the spiritual
world. Read the text laying a stress upon the words of change, and see how it rises
and falls like the waves of the sea: ‘While the earth remaineth, seedtime
and harvest, and cold and heat, and
summer and winter, and day and night shall
not cease.’ Not one of these states continues; it comes and goes.
The seasons are a perpetual procession, an endless chain, and an ever-
moving wheel. Cold flies before heat, and in due course summer is chased away by winter.
Nothing is stable. Such is this life: such are the motions of spiritual life with most men:
such is the history of the church of God. We sorrow and we rejoice; we struggle and we
triumph; we labour and we rest. We are not long upon Tabor, neither are we always in the
valley of Baca. Let us not be amazed, as though some strange thing happened to us, if our
day darkens into night, or our summer chills into winter. From joy to sorrow, from sorrow
to joy, from success to defeat, from defeat to success, we pass very rapidly. It is so: it will
be so while the earth remaineth, and we remain partakers of the earth.
Yet, there will be an order in it all. Cold and heat, and summer
and winter, and day and night, do not come in a giddy, unpredictable dance, or a
tumultuous hurly-burly, but they make up the ordered and beautiful year. Chance has no
part in these affairs. God compels winds and storms, and sun and sea, to keep the order of
His house, and none of these influences rebels against His direction. So in the spiritual
kingdom, in the life of the believer, and in the history of the church of God, all things are
made to work for good, as the spiritual is educated into the heavenly.
In our seasons there is an order visible to God, even when we walk in
darkness and see no light. We have our winters, in which the sap is prepared in secret to
produce the clusters of summer. We have our colds, in which we lose the superfluities bred
of our heat. Expect the changes, and believe that they come by rule.
Great rules will stand while the earth abideth, in the spiritual as
well as in the natural world. For instance, there will be seedtime and harvest, effort and
result, labour and success. There will be to you, dear brother, a time in which you will
chiefly have to receive. It is your seedtime, and God is sowing you by instruction and
sanctification, in order that in due time you may yield Him a harvest to His glory.
Sometimes we lie passive, like the ploughed fields, and then our divine
Sower casts into us the living seed. But soon other days arrive when we are active, and yield
unto God the results of His grace experienced in former days. It ought to be so. To you,
beloved workers in the Mission-hall, or the Sunday School, there will be a time of sowing.
Not much seems to be accomplished, though a great deal of effort may be invested.
To me in preaching there are times for sowing, and nothing else but sowing;
few seem to be the green blades which spring up around me. Perhaps a year may intervene
before the worker shall see any reward for his toil: ‘The husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth.’ The missionary upon his district, the Bible-woman on her round,
may see no manifest effect produced by daily teaching: but harvest and seedtime are tied
together in a sure knot. ‘He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.’ Brethren, believe that,
and be of good cheer. ‘Your labour is not in vain in the Lord.’ While the earth remaineth,
seedtime and harvest will take each one its turn.
So, too, while the earth remaineth there will be the interchanges of cold and
heat. Where there is life there must be change; only in death is there monotony. There will
be times in your experience when you will feel the awful withering of that convincing Spirit
Who dries up the glory of the flesh. ‘Who can stand before his cold?’ Soon, there will be a
melting season of contrition and repentance, and then the Holy Spirit will have warmed
your heart into hope and faith and love and joy and delight in God.
Cold and heat come to the church. I have noticed oftentimes her bitter cold,
and I have cried to God about it. But then the heat has come; we have felt the glow of
revival; enthusiasm has been kindled, and zeal has abounded. I wish we could always keep
at one glorious summer heat, walking in the light as God is in the light. It ought to be so
with us. Some of us labour to be always zealous and full of fire; but should times come
when we or others are not in the fulness of the blessing, we will not despair; but we will the
rather cry mightily unto the Lord to send His Word and cause the waters of His grace to
flow, and make our winter to be over and gone, while the flowers appear on the earth and
the time of the singing of birds comes on.
So, too, have I seen in our temporal life summer and
winter, prosperity and adversity. Do not expect, dear brother, while you are in this world,
always to dwell among the lilies and roses of prosperity. Summer will come, and you will
be wise to make hay while the sun shines by using all opportunities for usefulness; but look
for winter.
I do not know into what trade you can enter to be secure against losses, nor
what profession you could follow in which you would escape disappointments. I know no
corner of the earth without its night, no land without its stones, no sea without its storms.
As to spiritual and mental experience, it seems to me that while the earth remaineth I shall
have my ebbs and flows, my risings and my sinkings. Do not therefore begin to kick and
quarrel with the dispensations of God’s providence.
When it is summertime say, ‘The Lord gave, and blessed be His name.’
When it is winter say, ‘The Lord hath taken away, and blessed be His name.’ Keep to the
same music, even though you sometimes have to pitch an octave lower. Still praise and
magnify the Lord whether you be sowing or reaping. Let Him do what seemeth to Him
good, but to you let it always seem good to praise.
Beloved, labour will be followed by rest; for while the earth remaineth there
will be day and night. In the day man goeth forth to his labour; at night he lieth down. Let
him bless God for both. There comes a night in which no man can work. To us this is not
dreaded, but expected. I do not know for which I thank God most, for day or for night. Our
young people praise God for day, with its activities; but we who are older are more inclined
to bless the Lord for night, with its repose.
The grey beard, the man of many years and sad experiences, looks forward to
that night in which the wicked cease from troubling him, and the weary are at rest. If we
regard death as night, we look forward to an endless day, which will follow when the sun
shall go no more down for ever. Jesus our Lord is the Sun of that glorious country to which
we wend our way.
While the earth remaineth, there will continually be a variety of
benedictions, a change-ringing upon the silver bells of mercy. When you are on high, my
brother, remember you must descend; and when you are cast down, expect a cheerful lifting
up. When it is broad day, let us travel swiftly, for night comes on; but when it is dark, let us
watch hopefully, for the morning comes.
As sojourners in a changeful country, let us spend the days of our pilgrimage
in a holy fear, which shall preserve us from love of the world. I need not further work out
the analogies of the text; many more will rise before the meditative mind.
Last of all, I want you to regard my text as a token for the assurance of our
faith. ‘While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and
winter, and day and night shall not cease.’ And they do not. Every morning light salutes my
eyes, and declares that ‘His name shall be continued as long as the sun’; and when the
shades of evening fall, and the stars shine, I hear a sound of ‘abundance of peace so long as
the moon endureth’. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and of His kingdom there is
no end. The Lord Jesus is King in Zion, and head over all things to His Church while the
earth remaineth.
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