As he sowed these tares, up came serpents and
reptiles, and they were crawling up on his body, and all around were
woods with wolves and animals prowling in them. I have seen that
picture many times since. Ah! the reaping time is coming. If you sow
to the flesh you must reap the flesh. If you sow to the wind you
must reap the whirlwind.

And yet it must not be thought that indulgence in the grosser vices
is the only way of sowing to the flesh. Every desire, every action
that has not God for its end and object is seed sown to the flesh.
If a man is sowing for a harvest of money or ambition, he is sowing
to the flesh, and will reap corruption, just as surely as the liar
and adulterer. No matter how "polite" and "refined" and
"respectable" the seed may be, no matter how closely it resembles
the good seed, its true nature will out, the blight of corruption
will be upon it.

How foolish are the strivings of men in view of this judgment! Many
a man will sacrifice time, health--even his character--for money.
What does he gain? Corruption; something that is not eternal, that
has not the qualities of "everlasting life." John said, "The world
passeth away, and the lust thereof." Peter said, "All flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." None of these
fleshly things have their roots in the eternal. You may even outlive
them in your own short life.

No Bridge Between.

Now, men make this mistake--they sow to the flesh, and they think
they will reap the harvest of the spirit; and on the other hand,
they sow to the spirit and are disappointed when they do not reap a
temporal harvest.

A teacher had been relating to his class the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus, and he asked:

"Now, which would you rather be, boys, the rich man or Lazarus?"

One boy answered, "I would rather be the rich man while I live, and
Lazarus when I die."

That cannot be: it is flesh and corruption, or, Spirit and
everlasting life. There is no bridge from one to the other.

"Seed which is sown for a spiritual harvest has no tendency whatever
to procure temporal well-being. Christ declared, 'Blessed are the
pure in heart; for they shall see God; blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled' (with
righteousness); 'blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted.' You observe the beatific vision of the Almighty--