The Tupelo journal., 1902-12-12

rance L.. Havergal comes to minds:
Joined to Christ In mystic union,
We Thy members, Thou our Head,
Sealed by deep and true communion,
risen with Thee, who once were dead
Saviour, we would humbly claim
All the power Of this, Thy name.
instant sympathy to brighten
All their weakness and their woe,
Guiding grace their way to tighten.
Shall Thy loving members know;
All their sorrows Thou dost bear,
All Thy gladness they shall share.
Make Thy members every hour
For Thy blessed Service meet;
Earnest tongues. and arms of power,
Skil4ful hands and Fastening feet,
Ever ready to fulfill
All Thy word and all Thy viii.
Everlasting life Thou givesr,
Everlasting love to see;
They shall live because Thou Invest,
And their life is hid with Thee.
Safe Thy members shall be found,
When their glorious Head is crowned"
Where in all the realm of religion
or poetry can you find a sublimer
thought than this, that Christ is the
Vine, that His disciples are the
branches and that God the Father
is the Husbandman? The branches
dead and l~ifeless without the Vine,
the Vine incomplete without the
branches, and both planted, and
nourished, and tended by the Fa-
Their, the Husbandman. The life of
the Vine, the life of the branches;
the nature of the Vine, the nature
of the branches; the purpose and
desire of the Vine, the purpose and
desire of the branches; the fruit
bearing power of the Vine swelling
and pushing through the branches
and browning them with the glory
of the luscious fruit. Think of it!
Jack of the nursery fairy tale mount
ed up the miraculous beanstalk into
new and wonderful realms. but the
the True Vine, and is able to mount
to the secret recesses of the Most
High. Everything that the Father
gives to the Vine flows through the
Vine to the branches, so that all the
riches of Heaven and earth are free
ly given as the branches have need.
But remember hat the branches
are not the Vine. This may appear
at first thought as a foolish and
needless statement, but when you
consider that pride and self-centered
esteem, as blasting perils, threaten
every Christian, it becomes a matter
of supreme Importance to emphasize
the fact that after all he is nothing
but a branch and spiritually is alb
solutely dependent upon the Vine
for life, for growth and for fruit
bearing impulses. The lesson of hui
mility is beautifully illustrated and
emphasized by this figure. Nothing
but branches! Why he is the pastor
of the biggest church in the city and
a most eloquent pulpit orator! Yes,
but he is nothing but a branch.
Whatever spiritual life he has, what
eve growth he attains, whatever
fruit he Bears, all come from the
Vine. Whether he is called bishop,
or elder, or writes d. D. after his
name, whether he is Sunday school
superintendent or president of a
young peoples society, before God
he is only a branch, and dependent
upon the Vine. Peter, the great
apostle, upon the rock of whose faith
was to be reared the Church of Jesus
Christ, and Paul, the great apostle to
the Gentiles, the mighty preacher.
the untiring missionary. were moth
ing but branches of the Vine. What
ever success attended their efforts
in Christian service was wholly the
result of being the unobstructed
channel through which Christ, the
Vine, could pour His power and bless
ing. Peter, realizing this, exhorts:
"Be clothed with humility; for God
resisteth the proud, and giveth grace
to the humble. Humble yourselves,
therefore, under the mighty hand of
God, that He may exalt you in due
time" And Paul eXclaims, to the
Galatian Christians, after reminding
them of all the mighty work he had
done among them: But God forbid
that l should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ" Yes.
nothing but branches, but, oh, look
at the possibilities if they will be
only branches and abide in the Vine,
The life of Christ to flow, through
them and make them fruitful unto
Eternal Life and the salvation of
souls!
And another thing, the figure of
the Vine and the branches is destruc-
tive of UNCONVENTIONAL pride. Con-
gregationalists, and Methodists, and
Presbyterians, and Baptists, and
Episcopalians, and SO forth, are only
branches of the Vine. The source
of their life is the same, their growth
is proportionate to the opportunity
they offer for a free flow of the Di-
vine life through them, and their
fruit-bearing possibilities + depend
ent upon a spirit of submission to the
perfect will of the Vine. The mar
rowness of UNCONVENTIONAL pride
would disfgure the Vine with ugly
signs and bristling figures, and. as
sign sunny exposures to III branch
while all the other branches would
be cast into the shade of disapproval
and distrust, wholly unmindful and
forgetful of the fact that Christ the
Vine and the branches abiding in Him
are one beautifully symmetrical and
harmonious whole-the branches all
drawing life and nourishment from
the Vine and the Vine %glorying, not
in one branch to the forgetfulness