Notes on the Feasts of the Lord.

No. 4

FIRST FRUITS AND HARVEST,

Lev, xxiii, 9-14, and 15-22

We read in Genesis, chapter viii, that, when the waters of the flood were abated, and Noah and his family and all the living creatures that were with him in the ark went forth of it, to take possession of the earth, of which the now changed condition was to be learned by the children of men in after ages having their days upon it shortened to about one-tenth of their previous term of existence, the first care of the Patriarch was to build an Allar to the Lord, and offer thereon burnt-offerings.

These were accepted; and the blessing that followed, and the establishment of the first covenant of God with man, and with the creatures of the earth, and with the earth itself, is recorded in the 9th chapter of Genesis.

But before relating this blessing and this covenant, Moses gives us in the two closing verses of chapter viii., a most important word, which the Lord said in His heart: "I will not again curse the ground any more", &c.v,21-22.

These words contain what may be correctly termed the Constitution of the Earth after the Flood; the condition in which by the Word of the Lord it is to remain until the appointed day, when, dissolved and purified by fire, it shall stand forth a new earth, wherein righteousness shall abide for ever.2 Pet.3.

0f these solemn words we select the two that are manifestly the groundwork of the Feast we are now to consider: "While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest........shall not cease", and we but allude to the fact, that these seasons may be blessed or blighted, as God sees fit.

Therefore the need of prayer for the continual blessing of God upon the labour of the husbandman.The analogy established of God between the natural world and the spiritual world presents a most extensive and interesting field of study.

Of this vast field, that part which relates to the sowing of seed, and to the reaping time or harvest, is, perhaps, the most frequently of all pought before us in Holy Scripture.
From the days of Job onwards to those of St, Paul, we find the universally acknowledged truth: "They that sow wickedness reap the same" Job 4:8. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". Gal, vi, 7.

The righteousness of another word of the Apostle finds an echo in the hearts of all: "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully". 2 Cor. ix.6.

But it is in the book of the Gospels that the fullness of this truth is seen.
There, where the doctrine of the kingdom of God is most fully developed; where the mystery and the manifestation are expounded, and the time of its coming, and the then condition of the earth declared by our Lord Himself, there, where our eyes are carried clear over the border of the visible into the invisible and eternal--there we read of the sower and of his seed; of the field and of the harvest; as well as of the hindrances of the husbandman, in devouring birds and barren and weedy ground; of the doom reserved for the tares; and of the gathering of the wheat into the barn or granary of the Master of the field. Matt.xiii, and Mar iv.; Luke viii.

And in order that His people might be kept ever mindful of the way of approach to Him, and of their duty towards Him, we know, that from the beginning He taught them to present sacrifices and offerings: the firstlings of their flocks, and the produce of the ground.

He who bestows all upon man has a right to direct the disposal of His own gifts; and when He not only appoints, but graciously accepts an offering at our hand, and makes it the means of sending more blessings down upon us, it is ours to rejoice in the privilege of serving Him in the way of His appointment, and to meditate upon and learn those purposes of grace and mercy towards us which are expressed in the symbolical and typical services of old; for all of which He supplied the materials, and bestowed on His servants the opportunity of employing them aright.

While the Jews continued to obey the voice of the Lord and to observe His commandments, He blessed them and multiplied them; blessing abundantly the fruit of their land, their flocks and herds, and all their hasket and store, as He promised by the hand of Moses. Deut. xxviii.1-5.

But when they turned aside from His ways, and refused to hearken to His word, then He smote them, and diminished their substance, and visited them with various forms of affliction, as He threatenecl also by the hand of Moses.

And all this is written for our learning, Besides the general truths taught by the history of the Jews, we have many special teachings connected with the peculiar institutions given to them.

For instance; in one of the sublime visions of the Book of Revelation we have not only the scene of the great harvest and the vintage, but a very distinct explanation and illustration of that peculiar feature in the Jewish harvest, which forms the subject of the Feast we are now to consider, namely, the separation of a portion of the fruits of the ground from the rest; the presentation of these to the Lord at a time and in a manner distinct from the time and manner of dealing with all the rest; the acceptance of these in the name of the rest; and as a pledge of the final acceptance and blessing of all the good wheat that shall be gathered in during the appointed weeks of harvest. See Rom, xi. 16; Jerem, ii, 3,

The Feast of First Fruits had respect to the land of Canaan, into the possession of which the Lord was leading His people Israel.
It could not be observed in the wilderness, where they neither sowed nor reaped, but were sustained by manna; fed daily by the hand of the Lord, as no other people ever were.

This daily pead was not withheld even during their sad and oft-repeated
revolts against the Lord; but from the fact of its having ceased only on the day that they first ate of the corn of the land of promise. Josh. v. 12, we may at the very threshold of our examination perceive this truth; that the antitype of the harvest in all its details cannot be looked for until the time that is prefigured by the wandering in the wilderness shall have been fulfilled; when the true Joshua shall be seen as the Leader of the people whom Moses had so long and so faithfully led.

Many kinds of first Fruits are spoken of under the law--chiefly of a private and personal nature--as of orchard, garden, vineyard, c.; dough, Numb.xv.20; Neh. X.37; fleece, Deut. XVlll, 4. See Ex, xxiii, 16,19; xxxiv. 26; Lev.,ii, 12,14; Deut, xxvi, 10; Prov. iii, 9; but that spoken of in the text Lev, xxiii, is the common, public, universal feast, having regard to the harvest of the land, in which the whole nation was concerned.

Let us first consider the letter of the commandment regarding the first fruits, and then inquire into the spiritual truth shadowed forth by it.The mode of pinging this sheaf of first fruits to the priest was, in later times, according to the tradition of the Jews; as follows.

As soon as the barley harvest began to ripen, a procession of priests was seen issuing from the gate of the city of Jerusalem that led to the valley of Kedron, where the first ripe ears were generally found.

Of these ripe ears the priests gathered each a handful, picking them carefully one by one as they found them. These were then all bound together so as to form one sheaf and carried by the priests, in procession, with much pomp, and ramid the rejoicings of the people, into the city, and along the streets of it, up to the temple, where the high priest awaited their arrival.

He received the sheaf from their hands, and reverently laid it up before the Lord in the Sanctuary.This took place on the eve of the Sabbath, answering to our Friday afternoon.

The sheaf remained undisturbed during the Sabbath day, but on the morrow after the Sabbath, as we read, v,11, it was taken from its resting-place and waved by the high priest before the Lord, and accepted for the people.

This solemn act was celepated by the special offering of a lamb without blemish as a burnt offering unto the Lord, together with the invariable accompaniment of a meat-offering and a drink-offering; but in this case the meat-offering is a very significant one, consisting of a double amount of fine flour mingled with oil, v.13.

The usual meat-offering presented with a lamb was one tenth deal of flour, Ex. xxix, 40; so that this departure from the usual rule clearly marks a two-foldness in some part of the corresponding truth.

This is the letter of the Feast.

Let us now consider the spiritual signification of it, observing, for the sake of distinctness, this order in our exposition:
1: What we are to learn from the time fixed and required for its celepation,

2: Its application to our Lord.
3: Its application to the Church.

Finally, that the seven weeks of harvest began to be numbered from that day. The day on which the sheaf of first fruits was gathered and laid up before the Lord;

The day of rest that followed; and the third day wherein all this activity and renewed sacrifice, and double offering on the part of the priests and people, and of acceptance and blessing on the part of God; these days are all of them most significant.

Having the express warrant of the Holy Ghost through the Apostle Paul, 1 Cor.23 for applying the name: "First Fruits" to the Person of our Risen Lord, we find how Moses wrote of Him in the wondrously minute and beautiful adaptation of the type to:--

1 the Day of His Death: the Friday,

2 the Day of His Rest in the grave: the Saturday or Sabbath day; and

3 the Day of renewed activity and of blessing: the Sunday, the first day of a new week, the Lord's Day, the opening of a new time and a new life for us.

Nor is this all. On the same third day when the sheaf was waved before the Lord, the burnt offering of one lamb was presented; another most expressive symbol of the unity of the Person, already indicated by the one sheaf, in whom the type should have its primary and principal fulfilment.

As in the daily Sacrifice and the Feast of the Passover the one lamb presented to God was the confession of Israel to Christ as the One Way of approach to the Father, so here, where the truth typified can have its fulfilment only in One Person, One Offering made once for all, this feature of unity is, as we have said, beautifully symbolised by the unity of the principal sacrifice; while the double meat-offering accompanying it shows that a twofold application of the mystery may be looked for in the unfolding of the great purpose of God.

It was, further, on this third day, and after the offering of the lamb and the waving of the sheaf of first fruits, that proclamation was made by sound of trumpet to all the inhabitants of the land, that now the harvest might be commenced; because the produce of the fields throughout all their tribes had been sanctified by this offering of first fruits; and this offering, in the name of all, and as representing all, had been accepted of God.

Up to that day no participation in the produce of the ground was allowed to any one. V.14.

These are minute but most significant points, that to the attentive reader of Scripture demonstrate the consummate wisdom of God in the institution of these symbolical rites, which, all combined, do form the typical, and, therefore, prophetical setting forth of the truth concerning the Person and work of the Lord. see John iii, I3; Acts ii. 29-34.

2: Its application to our Lord. Not only is the name: "First fruits," expressly applied to our Lord, risen from the dead on the morning of the third day, but in the above and other passages of the New Testament we find a peculiar emphasis laid on the fact of His being the first man raised from the dead.

Instances are not wanting of persons, who, having died, have been recalled to life.
The son of the widow of Zareptha, 1 Kings xvii.22; the child of the Shunammite, 2 kings iv; the man cast into the sepulchre of Elisah, 2 kings xiii,21, and the several persons raised by our Lord Himself of whom we read in the Gospels; but all these were recalled to the enjoyment of a life that was still under the power of death.

Whereas the Resurrection of our Lord was unto a life over which death hath no more power for ever.

And in this, He is certainly the First.-See: Acts xxvi,23; 1 Cor.xv,20; Coloss.i.18; Rev. I.5.

3: Its application to the Church: Of all those passages, that in 1 Cor. 15 is clearly the fullest, because the Resurrection of our Lord is not alone spoken of, but also the Resurrection of all men.

The argument of the Apostle is this: As Christ died for all, so He rose for all. His Resurrection is the pledge of that of all flesh, because He clothed Himself with our common nature. Heb,ii,14, 16.

He is thus the first of that immense harvest which we read shall satisfy His loving heart. Isa.1iii.11.

As in looking upon the sheaf of the first fruits, God beheld and blessed all the harvest to be reaped, so in looking upon the face of His Anointed He beholds the Church in Him and blesses her in every way of His sake.

Here we learn also that the Resurrection of Christ,-- not His death, is the gospel for mankind; and the hope of the earth.

The pother of every man is at the right hand of God; the dust of the earth in the person of Christ is on the throne of the Creator of heaven and earth

Yes, all men who have gone down to the grave must rise again, but in this grand fact of Resurrection there are degrees or orders.And every man shall be found in his own order.

St. Paul says expressly: first Christ Himself,--secondly, at the coming again of Christ-they who are His; thirdly, when the end is come, all the rest of the dead.

So that when we read of the resurrection of life, John v. 29, or of the ,
resurrection of the just, Luke. xiv,14, the resurrection from or out from among the dead, Luke. xx, 35; Acts iv. 2; Phil, iii.11; 1 Thess. iv.16, we have no difficulty in assigning these to their place in the second class or second order designated by the Apostle as "those that are Christ's," and we find this confirmed by the word of Rev, xx, 4 and 6.

We have thus an inspired exposition of the symbol of the double meat-offering.

As Christ Himself is termed "First fruits" in reference to His being distinct from all men, from all that sleep, 1 Cor, xvw 20; including the Church; so is the Church herself termed a kind of First fruits of the creatures of God. Ias, i, 18.

And in the vision of chap, xiv. of the Revelation, the company seen standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion--the sealed ones of chap. viiw--; the 144,000 are called "the First fruit" to God and the Lamb". Rev, xiv. 4.

This passage, as already noticed, derives peculiar significance for us from the fact, that in the context both harvest and vintage are spoken of.
Let us, therefore, examine it a little. It cannot escape the observation of an attentive reader of this passage that a clear distinction is made between those called the First fruits and those signified by the Harvest--following between the sealed company of chap. vii., and the great multitude spoken of in the end of that chapter; this distinction is manifest as to number; time of gathering; character; and position.

A few words on each of these will suffice to set this in the clearest light.
1: Number. The fact of the number of this band or sheaf of first fruits being so definite-the square of I2000--taken from the twelve tribes of the spiritual Israel for all the contents of this book refer to the Church and her destiny, not to the literal Israel, whose future history is already clearly written in the books of Moses, Deut. xxx, and xxxii, and of all the prophets, this fact; we say, clearly establishes a distinction between them and those from among whom they are taken.

They are taken from the rest, and for or in name of the rest.
Again, the distinction is seen in the contrast of this company of a definite number, see Rev. vii, 4, with a multitude-v,9-, which no man could number-of all the varied dwellers upon earth.

As these last come out of the great tribulation, of which nothing is said as affecting the sealed company, it is clear that the latter are removed before that tribulation comes upon the earth.

2: The time in which these are gathered is an additional proof of their distinctness as a class of saved ones from all others who shall eventually be partakers of the great salvation.

In Luke xxi. v. 36 we have the clearest and most formal assurance that some shall be counted worthy to escape the things coming on the earth; which things, the context shows, are the troubles and sorrows of the days immediately preceding the revelation of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven.

His coming in a cloud with power and great glory, vv,25-27, and it is in the beginning of these days, v.28, that the promise to the watchful and prayerful shall be fulfilled.

These days are days of vengeance, days of closing the controversy that has so long been carried on against God; in a word, the days of Antichrist whose blasphemy and violence shall ping down the consuming judgements of God upon him and all his followers.

This is confirmed by the context of Rev, vi., where at the opening of the sixth seal, earthquake, darkness, tempest, and universal panic suddenly visit all the dwellers upon earth.

Those, therefore, who shall escape these calamities must be previously removed from the earth, from its corruption and defilement, and therefore from its desolation.

And to this agree the words of the gracious promise to the Church in Philadelphia, Rev, iii, 10. As before every great dealing of God with His people a word of warning has been given and a means of escape provided; so before the Fearful day of retribution shall come upon apostate Christendom we have the fullest assurance that this order of God's dealings shall not be departed from.

3: Another point of distinction between the first fruits and the harvest is found in the character of the sealed company.
While the dwellers on earth for the most part, Rev, xiii, 16 receive the mark of the beast in their right hand, or in their foreheads, these bear the name of the Father of our Lord and Saviour in their foreheads.

While all else are worshipping the beast, or fleeing from his power, these are singing the New Song unto the Lord-the words of which we have in ch. V.9, 10 while the mother of harlots defiles and intoxicates the kings of the earth and their subjects, these are cleansed and pure, and presented as a chaste virgin to Christ. 2 Cor, xi, 2.

While the dwellers on the earth are deceived by the false prophet, and seduced from the way and worship of God, -these follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
While the lather of lies shall have got the ear of all else, these are guileless in word, and faultless in character before the throne of God.

In a word, these are they in whom the Holy Ghost-rejected, grieved, and quenched by the many-has prevailed to work conformity to the image of Christ, sealing them unto the day of Redemption, cleansing their conscience, and all their ways, and purifying them even as the Lamb is pure, through the Faith which is of the operation of God, and the Hope that elevates, and sustains, and saves.

The formation of these characteristics or qualities is the fruit or operation of that sealing described in ch.vii., the impress of the Seal of the Living God; that blessing enjoyed by the Church at the beginning, 2 cor, i, 22; Eph, i.13 and iv,30; and now again restored to the Church in the gift and ministry of apostles at the first.

4: Finally, on this point, the evidence of a distinction between those called to be presented as First fruits, and those who shall be gathered in the harvest is established by the fact of the position of the former.

Whatever more may be conveyed by the term "standing with the Lamp on Mount Zion," this is clearly conveyed by it, that they are removed from the operation and influence of all the evils that fall upon Christendom in the day of its final visitation; redeemed and removed from the earth, that is given into the hand of Antichrist for a season; removed to a place of safety and honour, and blessedness; to a place of dignity, where shame and confusion of face are for ever unknown; to a place of holy worship, where no discord mars their song, no weariness dulls the eye or the spirit, but where the Presence and the Voice of the Son of Man; the Lamb of God, are the pledges of their safety, the earnest of their eternal blessedness.

All this--and far more than we can now utter or conceive-is contained in How far the faithful Jews, in keeping the Feast of First Fruits, and worshipping the Lord, presenting the prescribed sacrifice of the One Lamb, along with the double meat-offering peculiar to this day-how far they were able to enter into this wondrous mystery of Incarnation and Atonement, of Resurrection and glory, we are not told, nor does it now concern us to inquire.

But the scene on the bank of the Red Sea, when all Israel sang the song of Moses--when the power of Egypt was finally smitten, and their redemption through the blood of the Passover Lamb was complete--that scene must have been recalled to the hearts of all who, with Joshua, crossed the bed of the Jordan, and for the first time kept the Feast of First Fruits.

It is clear that the word in Jerem, ii. 3, refers to this, and the passage in Rev,xv, 2-4, manifestly refers to it also.

We have seen enough of the manner in which the Spirit of God has, through Apostles, opened the mystery of the First fruits, to entitle us to say that it enters very deeply indeed into the purpose of God towards the Church, as well as into the Truth of God concerning Christ, the First fruits of them that slept.

Thus did Moses write of Christ; thus clearly and minutely did he write, not of the glory of the Head alone, but of the Church, His Body also; not of the Lamb alone, but also of the pide, the Lamb's wife.

We wonder at the minuteness of the type, but how can it be otherwise, seeing that it is one of the types given by Him who seeth the end from the beginning, and who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. Eph, i,11.?.

It will assist us in forming a right conception of the spirit of worship which the Lord sought to awaken and sustain in His ancient people by means of this Feast, if we read the precept given for private offerings of first fruits, which every one was required to make, besides having his part in the celepation of the great national annual feast now under consideration.

We find this in Deut.xxvi, I-II: "And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord they God giveth thee For an inheritance, and possesses it, and dwellest therein; that thou shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth; which thou shall ping of they land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there, And thou shall go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us. And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God. And thou shall speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: And when we cried unto the Lord Godof our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: And the Lord pought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And be hat pought us into this place, and hat given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now behold, I have pought the first fruits of the land, which thou, 0 Lord, has given me, And thou shall set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God, And thou shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hat given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you."

From this touching picture of a pious Jew presenting the first fruits of his garden, or orchard, or field, or vineyard, we learn something of the obedience, the devotion, the gratitude, the worship, the holy joy, and the benevolence towards the poor which the Lord would keep alive in His Covenant people.

And this pings us, in concluding this part of our subject, to speak of the way in which the Church should celepate or keep this Feast of the Lord. Happy is the people whose history is exhibited in a liturgical service.

4: The practical and permanent keeping of this Feast in the Christian Church is a twofold one: first, literal; and, secondly, spiritual.

So long as the Church on earth needs a class of men called and separated to minister in holy things, so long must the obligation remain to ping up tithes and offerings to the altar of the Lord for the support of His servants ministering thereat, or going forth among their pethren, bearing the Word of Reconciliation.

Therefore must that Word stand as a law of God's house: "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase". Prov, iii, 9.

But that is only a part of our duty. We are not our own, but bought with a price, therefore called, bound, privileged, honoured to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God's. 1Cor. vi.19, 20.

Therefore must we devote to God the first and best of all our powers and
faculties, presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. Rom, xii, I.

We must be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, v,11; dedicating to Him the first of our time and strength.
In devoting to His worship the first hour of every day, and the first day of every week, the Church enjoys a continual Feast of First fruits. But she has also a special day in each year for commemorating the Fact of the Resurrection of her Lord-Easter Sunday; and the fixing of that day determines the service of three-fourths of all the Sundays in each year.

It is, as it were, the centre around which they revolve.
In every land of Christendom, save, alas ! in our own, it is a day of joy and gladness, of feasting, and bounty to the poor, as it ought to be.

And, need we add, that on that day, and on every Lord's day, the Church comes grievously short of her duty if the grand truth of His Resurrection, as the First fruits, be not pleaded before God as the ground of all her confidence towards Him,

"It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is ever at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us". Rom. iii, 34.

And if the hope, the blessed hope, of our being caught up to meet Him when He shall come again, and so being of the number of those who are the First-fruits to God and to the Lamb, be not expressed in our prayers.

As we are privileged to say: "God hat given us the first fruits of His Spirit, therefore do we groan, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body," so must we continually desire the resurrection of all who sleep in Jesus, all who are waiting the redemption of their bodies. Rom. viii. 23.

Thus the Communion of Saints becomes a reality; thus is our devotion kept burning, our attention fixed, our hope defined, and all our convictions and impressions deepened; and whether we look back to the Resurrection of Our Lord, or forward to our own resurrection or translation, the special truth set forth in this Feast of Fruit fruits effects in our spirit its comforting, strengthening, purifying work; and we pray that the time be hastened when the first fruits shall be presented, when we, who are even now the children of God, though it doth not yet appear what we shall be, shall become like unto Him who is the First fruits, the First-begotten from the dead, the First-born of many pethren, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John iii, 2.

We pass on to the consideration of the Feast of Harvest, so intimately connected with and, in fact, springing out of and forming the complement of the Feast of First fruits.

Regarding the Feast of Harvest, we read in Lev. xxiii, I5-22 the details of the offering presented on the fiftieth day after the waving of the Sheaf of First fruits and in Deut, xvi. 9-12, we learn something of the spirit of joy and holy worship and of beneficence towards the poor, that should accompany that Feast.

To mark the importance of the interval between this Feast and the one we have been considering, we find it frequently called: "the Feast of Weeks", Exod.xxxiv, 22; Deut, xvi.10,16; 2 Chron, VIII. I3.

And sometimes it is called-"the first fruits of labours sown in the field". Exod, xxiii, 16; and the "first fruits of wheat harvest"; Exod, xxxiv, 22.

It was thus a second feast of first fruits, although in all points different from the first, and most notably in regard to the meat-offering, the two loaves baked with leaven, which formed a principal feature of it.

The application to the Church is so continuous, that we shall follow the order of the verses in Leviticus xxiii.

Verses I5,16: The number of seven times seven days intervening between these two feasts is of itself sufficient to denote the highly symbolical nature of this institution; and the light needful for us in showing the interpretation of this Feast, and its application to the Hope of the Church of the New Testament, is contained in the one word of Our Lord spoken regarding the parable of the tares. Matt, xiii, 39: "The harvest is the end of the world". or age.

In the light of this word, we see that the seven weeks preceding the Day of the Feast of Harvest represent the whole period of the Church's history in her earthly state, that is: in her conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil; the time of the Lord's absence from the field; the time of the ripening and gathering in successive generations of those who in the great Day of the Harvest shall all be pought forth to the light, and shall shine as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Matt, xiii, 43.

It would seem, that, in order to teach His disciples the truth that the Church was not to be set under conditions of time and place, as Israel after the flesh had been; and to prevent misconception on the part of the first apostles and disciples of the Lord as to the comprehensiveness of the work to be done by the Holy Ghost during the interval of our Lord's absence, as welt as to prepare them for their part in the commencement of that work, our Lord did not give the commission to go forth and gather a people from Jews and Gentiles, until the literal seven weeks following the Day of His Resurrection--the Waving of the Sheaf of First fruits--had nearly run; and that the promised Comforter, through Whose power alone they could do any work for God, did not descend upon them until the entire seven had fully run out, and the fiftieth day, the day of Pentecost--the day of the Feast of the Harvest, according to the letter-had fully come. Acts ii, I.

From this sequence or order in these events several most important truths were declared, of which we note the following:
1: As the very day of our Lord's death was shadowed forth by the slaying of the Passover Lamb, and the very day of His Resurrection by the Waving of the Sheaf of First fruits; so it seemed good to the Lord, in fulfilling the words and writings of Moses, that the very day so peculiarly numbered and set apart for the Second Feast of First fruits, should be distinguished by the sending of the Comforter.The Law was thus magnified, and made honourable.

2: By this descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles and first company of believers were constituted the earnest of the great harvest now to be reaped, they were shown what were the end and object of the sufferings, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord; what was the true standing of the Church, as the Temple of the Holy Ghost; and what were her constitution and endowment, her gifts, privileges, and responsibilities in all time coming.

3: The good things foreshadowed by the ordinances of the Law being now come, the Church was, through this opening of a new period, taught effectually that she was no longer under the Law, but under Grace.

4: By the commission given to the Church in the persons of the first apostles, she was taught that the scene of her labours for the Lord, and of her sufferings for faithful testimony to Him, was not to be limited to the land of Juda, though these must begin at Jerusalem; nor the subjects of those labours limited to the race either of Jews or Gentiles then living, but to extend to all the nations, and to empace every creature.

5: The term of these labours, of this witness-bearing, of this gathering of the great harvest for Christ, to be presented in the Great Day of the Harvest, being unknown, the history of the Church must be one of constant activity and continual watchfulness; worshipping and witness-bearing, praying and pleading, until the Lord's return from heaven to take His Church to Himself.

6: The sole and exclusive object of hope set before the Church was the blessed, purifying, sustaining one of the coming again of her Lord, according to His promise, to finish the work of the harvest, by binding and burning the tares and gathering the wheat into His garner.

7: The end of the Law being the manifestation of Christ, the Prophet like unto Moses, yet greater ! than Moses, the pinger-in of the dispensation of grace and truth, John i, 17; the Mediator of the New Testament, Heb. ix.15; the Revealer of the Adoption of Sons, Gal, iv; the Church was shown that from henceforth Jesus, the Risen One, the King of Glory, was her Head; His Melchisedek priesthood, her dignity; and His quickening, life-giving, teaching, guiding Spirit, her life and strength.

These truths are expressed in all the Epistles and constitute the very definition of the Church, as the One Body of Christ; her calling, constitution, and glorious destiny.

It is essential both to the right exposition and understanding of this Feast of First fruits and Harvest to bear in mind, that as the Resurrection of our Lord was the substance and reality of the thing typified in the wave sheaf of First fruits, our thoughts are necessarily carried over the border of this present life into the glory of the world to come, and that we cannot look for any further fulfilment of the type in any corresponding action limited to this present time and mortal condition-to nothing short of the resurrection and translation of those that are Christ's at His coming; just as the thoughts of a pious Jew, on hearing of the ordinance of first fruits were carried beyond the wilder-ness into the land of promise, we repeat the substance of it rather than announce a new truth, when we observe that the truth set forth by the harvest as welt as by the first fruits is expressive of the time when the wilderness history of the Church shall have been closed, and the realities of the world to come, disclosed, through the act of judgement passing upon that generation of men who shall be found upon the earth in the day of the appearing of the Lord as the Harvest-man, who shall say to His angels, the reapers: "Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn"- Matt, xiii, 30.

Then, but not till then, will the truth of the mystery so often spoken of in Scripture under the figure of reaping, of cutting down, and threshing, and winnowing; of burning and driving away of stubble and chaff, and the like,be fulfilled.

In the 28th chapter of Isaiah, we have a very distinct passage, showing what depths of spiritual truth are hid under the most ordinary details of ploughing, and sowing, and threshing--vv, 23-29.

The context shows clearly that the work of judgement is that spoken of so parabolically by the prophet.

Taking this in connection with the parables of the sower and his seed, and of the wheat and the tares, Matt, xiii, with the repeated allusions in the Epistles: 1 Cor, ix, I I: Sowing spiritual things; -xv, 42. Body sown and raised again, 2 Cor, ix. 10: Prayer for blessing on seed sown, recalling Isaiah Iv, 10,;
Jas, iii, 18: Fruit of wisdom and righteousness is sown in peace;
Gal. vi, 8, 9,: Sowing to flesh, &c., and season of reaping:--taking, we say, all these passages into view, we see how continually the harvest day was kept before the eye of the Church together with the duty of sowing, and the duty of patience. Jas, v,7,8.

But it is in the same chapter of the book of Revelation--xiv,--to which we called your special attention in treating of the first fruits, that the full order of proceeding on the Lord's part in gathering His harvest is pought out; first, the gathering and presenting of the first fruits; and then, after an interval of varied proclamations of judgement, vv,6-12, the reaping of the harvest by Him who sitteth upon the cloud, like unto the son of Man, having on His head a golden crown and In His hand a sharp sickle.

We allude to this again, because of the important truth it teaches: that, however far the people of the Lord may have departed from His Law, He Himself will not depart from one jot or tittle until all be fulfilled.

We come now to the peculiar meat-offering of the Feast of Harvest, Iev. xxiii, Ié and 17: the two loaves baked with leaven being the First fruits of wheat-harvest.

As clearly as the sheaf of barley waved before the Lord set forth Christ the First-begotten from the dead, the first fruits of them that slept, so clearly does this offering point to something else than His Person.

The fact of there being two loaves teaches this, and the circumstance of the leaven with which they are prepared confirms it.

As the double meat-offering on the preceding feast pointed to the two~foldness of the mystery that with the Lamb, who is the First fruits to God, there should stand on Mount Zion a company who are the First fruits to God and the Lamb, so here we are compelled by the symbols employed to look fur an application of these two loaves to the condition of those who shall, in that day; be presented to God, a condition at first of imperfection, as the Church has; even from the beginning, been composed of men, women and children encompassed with infirmity; having much that the Apostles laboured to purge out, as we see from all their Epistles; and which every faithful minister, from the days of the first Apostles until now, has laboured to purge out.

But subsequently when the mystery shall be fulfilled, the presentation of the Church to Christ shall be of a pide of virgin purity, a glorious Church, sanctified and cleansed by the Word, having neither spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing.

The barley-sheaf was presented in the same condition in which the corn was found in the field. These loaves, on the contrary, are prepared by the hand of man from the corn of the field, and pought out of the habitations of the people.

All these details are significant of spiritual truth; and this contrast is one which is frequently presented to us in Holy Scripture.

That company--typified by the two loaves--consists, as we have seen, of persons sealed and saved from the hour of temptation, as the first believers were sealed with the Holy Ghost and saved from satan's power through steadfast resistance of him, and by following the leaders whom the Lord gave them.

Yet still the eye of God could rest on nothing perfectly holy and pure from all sin, save the Person of His Son; in Him He saw the ripe fruit that was pleasing to His taste, the new fruit, the Risen Man, alive from the dead, alive for evermore; but in the Church, even at her best estate, short of resurrection glory, He sees beings needing to be cleansed, in whom, that is, in whose flesh, dwelleth no good thing, who have, indeed, in themselves the incorruptible Word, the powers of the world to come; but who have this treasure in earthen vessels, in bodies of humiliation needing to be changed, and made like unto the glorious body of the son of God.

"Leaven", as we have before observed, is "assimilated to the old lump".
The apostolic precept: "Put of the old man, which is corrupt", &c.,--Ephes, iv.22-24; "Mortify your members which are upon the earth", &c.,Coloss, 5-11, teach clearly with what it is that Christians have to contend; what must be crucified; what lusteth against the Spirit, under what the most spiritual groan being burdened, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with the heavenly house, the resurrection body: "Flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God". 1 Cor, xv, 50, is spoken in immediate connection with the revelation of the mystery of resurrection and translation, by which the Church shall be perfected at the coming of the Lord. vv,51,52.

As to spiritual life, the Church is already risen with Christ, Eph, li.; Col.iii.1, but as to the mortal body, the curse of mortality, the liability to fall, she needs to be delivered from it, and looks forward to that redemption called the adoption, the manifestation of the sons of God. Rom,viii,19, 23.

18-20: At the time of offering these loaves, the Jews offered a sacrifice of seven lamps, one bullock, and two rams, for a burnt-offering; a kid of the goats for a sin-offering, and two lamps of the first year as peace-offerings.

These were waved with the pead of the first fruits.

The seven lamps represent the entire Church of Christ, as they represented the entire people of Israel; the one bullock points to the Angel, the representative of the one Head of all priesthood and power, to Him Who is the One Mediator between God and man, the true Melchizedek, king and priest in one person; while the two rams indicate that plurality in the direction and guidance of the Lord's Rock which is a law of the Church of Christ standing under Apostles, as we observed in treating of the Feast of Unleavened pead.

The goat, the usual sinoffering, denotes the class ofspecially gifted persons without whom no congregation in the early days of the Church was complete.

The whole holocaust shows the entire worshipping people, diverse in ministry and gifts, yet all forming one body.

v, 21 The publication of a holy convocation, that is a sabbath, on the day of the Feast of Harvest, is a beautiful type of the Rest which remaineth for the people of God.

The Jews who came out of Egypt, did not all enter into the land of promise, and even those who entered under Joshua, did not long enjoy the rest which he gave them.

So the Apostle argues in Heb, iv, that the glorious rest which is still the object of hope to the people of God, v, 9, is the entrance into the Kingdom when the Harvest-man shall have done His work, and when the children of God, the members of the Body of Christ, shall shine forth as the sun in their Father's Kingdom.

And, finally, the assembling together of all the males in Israel at this Feast is again typical of the glorious general assembly of the Church of the First-born-as at the Feast of Unleavened pead.

It marks the cheering and social character of that blessed meeting, when parted ones shall be for ever re-united, and all the sorrow of separation forgotten in the rapture of recognition and eternal blessedness; while the diffusive joy commanded in Deut. XVl, shadows forth the joy and rest of the Kingdom of Christ, when the Church associated with Him in the blessing of all Creation shall be herself supremely blessed in the active service of God and the Lamb, worshipping without resting, for weariness shall then be unknown, and sleep shall be required no more for ever.

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Further to part 5