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I. MARK THE ANALOGY BETWEEN CORN AND A GOOD MAN. "Thou shalt come to thy grave," etc.

1. In both cases there is labour. Spontaneous harvests do not spring up in this world. If a larger yield is to be produced, and a better quality obtained, he puts more management into his land, and bestows more labour upon It, and the result, in most instances, is a rich crop.

2. The life of a good man, like corn, is a great mystery. If the little, tiny seed which grows in your field baffles you, how much more God's work in the human heart! We need not trouble ourselves about the process; the great question is, "Has the incorruptible seed of the Word of God entered into my nature?"

3. Corn has life in it, and will grow! The men who tell us that Christianity is being played out, are the men into whose souls it has never been played in!

4. The good man, like corn, is nourished by various influences. Through how many processes must a tiny seedling pass, and to how many influences must it be subjected, before it becomes bread on our tables? And how many influences are necessary to form and mature the character of a good man?

5. The great agent is the Holy Spirit, who softens the heart to receive "the incorruptible seed."

6. Adversity helps to mature a good man's character. It is said that each day's sunshine, in the month of June, is worth a million of money to our farmers; but if all the days of summer and autumn were unbroken sunshine, would that be helpful to full barns and big hay stacks? No! David said, "It was good for me that I was afflicted," and millions have made the same confession. These blights and disappointments of life are designed to remind us that eternal fields are within our reach — fields which are always rich in golden harvests. Temporal loss often leads to spiritual gain, and millions have exclaimed, with Richard Baxter, "Oh! healthful sickness! Oh! comfortable sorrow! Oh! gainful loss! Oh! enriching poverty! Oh! blessed day that I was afflicted!"

II. AND WHAT IS MEANT BY A GOOD MAN COMING TO THE GRAVE IN A FULL AGE. "Thou shalt come to thy grave," etc.

1. That he has filled up the measure of human life. We often measure life by length; God measures it by depth and breadth. We look at quantity; God looks at quality. Many a man has died full of good works, long before he has reached forty years of age. Others have passed the allotted span of human life, and left no good works behind them.

2. Coming to the grave like a shock of corn, fully ripe, means the maturity of Christian character. The farmer knows the proper time for cutting down the corn. If he cut it down too soon the ear would not be filled, and if he waited too long, the best of the corn would be shaken and wasted. Our times are wholly in the hands of unerring wisdom and unsearchable goodness, and He will not allow death to overtake us too soon, or be delayed a moment too long.

3. And observe the certainty of all this. "He shall come." Some bestow great labour on that which yields them no profit. The old age of a good man is always richer than his youth. God cares as much for the poor remnant of an old man's life that remains, as for the fresh and stainless period of his youth. And one of the most enviable sights out of heaven, is that of a good old man, waiting, with undimmed powers and unsoured temper, till his Master shall say, "He is ripe for the garner." Indeed, when such a man dies, it is heaven's testimony that he's ready for heaven. The great Dr. Clarke, in old age, looking back on a useful life, and forward to a glorious rest, said, "I have enjoyed the spring of life: I have endured the toils of summer; I have culled the fruits of autumn. I am now passing through the rigour of winter, and I am neither forsaken of God nor abandoned of man. I see at no great distance the dawn of a new day: the first of a spring which shall be eternal. It is advancing to meet me. I run to embrace it. Welcome, eternal spring." Did you ever meet with a godly man who was not prepared to die when death came? Never!

4. A good man, like a shock of corn, is safely garnered. Corn is laid up to be preserved; but that is not all. It is also laid up that it may be used. The best use of corn comes after it has been cut down. Some people imagine that heaven will be a place of perpetual indolence and selfish delights. That is not the Bible conception of heaven. I know that heaven is a place of rest, but then, as Baxter says, "it is not the rest of a stone, but a rest consistent with service; an activity without weariness, a service which is perfect freedom." When a good man dies, he is not flung away as a useless instrument, to be no longer employed in his Master's service, but passes from the humbler services on earth to the nobler service of heaven; from an obscure to a loftier service, "where His servants do serve Him." The sanctity of a good man's soul is not lost at death, but will continue to grow forever.

(1) To the unconverted we say, "Sow to yourselves in righteousness" (Hosea 10:12).

(2) To the Christian we say, "Be not weary in well doing," etc. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true," etc. (Philippians 4:8, 9).

(3) Let the aged be encouraged.

(H. Woodcock.)

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KJV: Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

WEB: You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.