, 1886-04-25

John Nv, ): Herein IL my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit; 90 shall We DO my
disciploSn He said:
Fruit-bearing Is the test of discipleship
Herein is my Father glorihed. that ye bear
much fruit, 80 shall ye be my disciples"
II you will take the trouble to stir up your
memory. you will find tha scarcely any
figure so abounds in all its shapes in the
5ible Us that OF the vine. The vine, the
vineyard, the vintage. the vintner. And In
in every shape, both as IL regards the church
and as it regards Individual persons; as 1t re-
CARDS those that are good and those that are
bad, having application In every direction,
the whole Bible IA ~ | OF figures OF moral
truth turning on the vine.
But the height Of sacredncss h reached when
Christ likens Himself TO the vine and His
disciples 10 tho branches And in this chap
ter it Is run out almost into an apologize
The sentiment for our consideration, then,
Is the fruitfulness of Christian life
as tho evidence OF religion The
church Is Gods vineyard, Christians
are Gods vine branches Now, how
Is God glorifedl 1t cannot be that we can
add anything 10 his intrinsic excellence. We
can glorify a man by office, by dignities and
honors, in various ways. The father can
exalt his son; can plant him in life; can use
all his experience and knowledge and inHu-
ence to give him dignity, success, prosperity
and happiness But nobody can add anything
10 God, nor can anybody make Gods glory in
trinsic. The stature of his being, IL out
spread Of His power, His infinite qualities
no man can exalt them. The only thing we
can do Is to reveal Gods glory, and we can
glorify Him only by revealing In some degree
what His excellences are. We can do nothing;
we can reveal much We cannot by
our thought come to an under
standing OF God, but by 10 much
OF His nature as it is seen in Christian life,
only so much No man can glorify the sun,
but when the day has hung dropping, melan.
choly, and by and by toward evening the
sun springs up and the clouds begin to
fold and spread, and hers and there
snnbnrsts come in, and at last
the ever-increasing sun sweeps the
whole heaven out of every cloud; we do not
create the sun and we do not burnish il nor
make 1t any brighter, but the wind reveals
IL; that which was hidden before is brought
out In its fulnesS. And we cannot In any
way increase, we cannot even under
stand the full glory OF God; but
In our lives and dispositions we can make
known to men the quality of divine at
tributes One drop OF water Is enough to
teach us what liquid Is, but one drop Of
water would not be able to teach us what the
Atlantic OCEAN Is IL we had not seen Il; and
No one single development OF love 70 sals the
glory of the God OF love; although the ocean,
the tides, the infinities that belong to the
divine nature, we shall not know until wa be-
hold them from a higher point OF vision,
even II then.
SO then 1t is the declaration OF Christ. that
II we bear much fruit we glorify God. Now
what tha fruit IL Wa knn.r .I~..I.. IT,
fruit Of the spirit is love, Joy, peace, long
suffering, gentleness, patience, goodness,
faith, self control These are very precious
fruits, for garden or orchard, and Christ
says the more OF them we bring forth
the more we reveal the nature OF God
II is through these Developments that
men at large come gradually to form
a conception OF the divine nature.
| do not think that you can learn 1t by
in~vestigation-I mean such as YOU wonld
bestow upon geology, or astronomy, or the
higher mathematics, or anything OF that
kind It Is not that power that reveals IL,
though that power recognizes 1t. 1t Is the
revelation OF these qualities that constitute
the glory Of God-it Is the revelation OF
them in ourselves A diamond is nothing in
itself, and yet having the power of refrac-
tion and reflection in IL, every facet gives
~ AAAAhLI aha AVAbA AAkh1 oO IL II WIFI
those that are really Gods gems and jewels.
The light that flashes from their lives from
day to day reflects Him. and makes men
easily 10 know Him
Now, look at the example OF Christ |
summon this because the whole tenor OF my
discourse this morning Is to show you that
the power Of the church lies in its quality,
not In its quantity that the few are a great
deal more than the many; that rs In Israel
the great mob OF a hastily gathered army
wa discharged and sent home and two or
three hundred did the work, so In the Chris
tan community the million do not do the
work; 1t is the few hundreds hat do IL The
power OF the church lies in its fruit and the
abundance and quality OF tho fruit
heart fruit
You will, on reflection, call back the er-
ample OF Christ He did not organize a
church All that talk about Christ organic
ing a church is pure invention. He not only
did not, but He was obedient to the temple
and TO the synagogue Himself. Nor did His
disciples understand that He had laid the
foundations OF a church. They continued them
selves TO attend the temple worship and TO at
tend also the ~synagogues, nearly TO the end Of
their lives And after thirty years. James,
the brother OF Jesus, rebuked Paul for hAy-
ing abandoned the JSwish worship, and
urgently compelled him to go up into the
temple and to cleanse htm@slf from VOWS
made, in the presence OF the people, that
they might see that he had not aban-
doned Moss. The brother OF Jesus, and
one Of the apostles. thirty years after lie
had gone up; instead Of saying TO Paul,
Christ has formed a church You have no
business to take any other lines than those
that have been laid down." instead Of that,
be says to him. You awe wandered from
the lines that Moses laid duwn, now show the
people that you ars not opposed 10
Mo~c-,' and be went up into the temple and
did H. Aud yet men go on saying that
Christ laid the foundations, doubtless, OF a
church, and that the disciples afterward.
doubtless carried them ont When you ex-
anime what His habit was, the
miracles that He wrought excited
unive, sal curiosity; no town, no road,
no hillside, was larRc enough for the throng
that went out for Him. and 10 far from en-
couraging it. He voids- IL, aud when He
wrought any miracle he warned them to 20
back. aud said. "See that thou tell no man
Go home 10 thy house, Il was 10
prevent universal public excitement Not
abstractly that il was improper, but that it
evaporatsd the enthusiasm Of the people by
looking at strange or miraculous things. it
subjected thsm also 10 the suspicion OF
the government that might at any
time bring down the bloody hand upon
them At any rate, He was disposed rnfhar
to repr~-s than 10 excita public interest la
His affairs He wa. on the other hand. per
p-t1ally stimulated to teach His disciple
Thousands SAY 80.