The Tupelo journal., 1902-12-12
CHRIST AS THE VINE.
Beautiful Figure Which illustrates
Deep Spiritual Truth.
Sermon by the "Righway and BY
way ON One of the
Six Striking Sayings of
Jesus.
copyright, 1902, by A. n. Kellogg News
paper Col

Text:-"I am the True Vine, and My Fa-
Their is the H~usbandman. We are the
branches. John l5:l, 5.
In the garden-decked land of Pales-
tine, where the grape vine flourished in
all of its splendid beauty and luxuri-
ance, came One from God Whodeclared
Himself the True Vine, that His Father
was the Husbandman Who planted the
Vine, and that His disciples in their re-
lations to Him were the branches of
the Vine. The vine was known and
cultivated from the earliest times in
Palestine and is very frequently re-
ferred TO in the Old and New Tesla
ments. The short biography which
Gods word gives us OF Noah acquaints
us with the fact hat he planted a
vineyard and became a ~husbandman.
The monuments in Egypt bring their
indelible messages from past ages and
by their tracings show that the vine
was grown in the land of pyramids and
s~phinxes, and Osiris is credited with
having first taught the inhabitants OF
the land the use of the vine. But the
vines of Palestine were celebrated for
their luxuriant growth and for the i'm
lnense clusters of grapes which they
produced. 1t was a wonderful sight
which greeted the eyes of the spies
when they had penetrated the Promised
Land as far as the Valley of Eschol.
for we are told that they cut down a
branch bearing one cluster of grapes,
which two of them bore between them
on a staff. Travellers have frequently
testified to the large size of the grape
clusters of Palestine, and Schulz
speaks of supping at Beitshin, a viii
lage near Ptolemais, under a vine
whose stem was about a foot n a
half in diameter, and whose height was
about thirty feet, which by its branch
es formed a hut upwards of thirty feet
broad and long. And it vas the vine
which Christ selected to illustrate the
close and intimate union which existed
between Himself and His disciples and
the relationship which His Father bore
to both the Vine and the branches.
He declares: 81 am the True Vine
Here is a beautiful intimation: That
Nature in her gift to man of the vine
has but foreshadowed the Christ and
strikingly illustrated what the Father
is to Him and He to His followers.
Nature sings a perpetual song OF
praise and testimony t o God of His will
and purposes toward man. Always in
perfect harmony with the Divine will
herself, Nature seeks to teach man,
who is out of harmony with God, spir-
itual truths which will bring his way
ward heart into sweet communion n
fellowship with it's Maker. The mis-
sion of the sun to the earth is not alone
10 give light and heat, but to bea tes-
timony to that True Light which light
eth every man that cometh into the
world. The rainfall and the dew come
not only to refresh the parched earth
and make it blossom and bear fruit,
but each %pattering drop and each
sparkling dewdrop tells the thirsty
soul of man hat there are times of re-
freshing from the Lord. The grains
and the fruits that crowd barn and
cellar do o rejoice alone that they
give physical life to man, but that they
come laden with the message that
imam shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of Cod" that as Natures
bread feeds the body and gives it life,
so Christ, the True Bread from Heav-
en-, feeds the soul and gives it life.
Christ from the beginning to-the end
of His ministry delighted to take His
illustrations from Nature. His crea-
tive hand had fashioned the worlds;
had piled the rocky heights down
which the refreshing waters coursed;
had planted the fertile valleys, and in
the leafy tops of the trees He had nest
ed the happy birds. The busy hum of
Nature caught it's music from the ac-
tivity of the Divine workshop. and is it
any wonder when Jesus came into the
world that the lilies of the field sang
to Him Of the Fathers loving thought
and care; that the rolling bosom of
the blue Galilee should have given Him
refreshing and rest after many a
wearying day. and that the quiet Sc
clusion of the mountain retreats
should have become the sacred tenn
pies in which He met and communed
with the Father? During the boyhood
days of Jesus, at His home in Naza-
reth, as He roamed the hillsides sur
rounding the town, He had seen the
sower go forth to sow. He had seen
the seed planted in the cold, damp
earth; had discovered the green
sprout come pushing up to the sun
shine and the rain; had watched the
tasseled stalk waving it's grain-ladeu
head in the ,breezes as the harvest time
approached, and had seer it yield,
some forty, some sixty and some an
hundred fold. Nature taught Him the
beautiful lesson that Except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone; but if it die it bring
eth forth much fruit" and He willing
ly trod the pathway of death that
through His death He might give life
unto all the world.
And He Who had lived in the realm
of Nature and had so forcibly taught
spiritual lessons from the pages of her
book, brings to His disciples as a last
parting message this beautifully sug-
gestive figure of the vine and the
branches to comfort their hearts and
help them to realize that though their
Lord was to be no longer with them in
the flesh, still the union between Him
and His disciples was not broken,
but was more vital and intimate
than ever before. This is the most
striking of all the figures which Jesus