The Penn's Grove record., 1904-10-28

BROOKLYN, N. Y.-Upon his return to
his pulpit from his vacation, the Rev. DIR.
Thomas B.. Mcleod, pastor of the Clinton
Avenue Congregational Church, preached
an eloquent sermon Sunday morning on
"~Glorifying the Father" The text was
chosen from John xy:e:. Herein io My
Father glorihed that We bear much fruit,
so shall ye be My disciples" DR.. Mcleod
said:
How vital, dear friends, are all New
Testament representations of religion
Compare the New Testament with the eth
ical teaching, or religious teaching of ali
other books in this respect, and you are
simply astonished. There is nothing me-
chanical in them, nothing formal, nothing
institutional-every process is a process OF
life. 1t is no use for a man, or for men, to
claim that they have Abraham for their
father. Religion is not a matter Of VINO a
mans ancestors were: it Is a matter OF
what a man himself is. Jesus has given US
in one pithy sentence His estimate of the
worth of the claim that is based on de-
scent, on heredity, on social prestige, when
He says that God could raise up, or make
children, unto Abraham out of the very
tones of the roadside. The concern that
interests God, when it comes to the matter
of religion, is whether a man is a living
plant or a dead stick. The hedge. though
it be a hedge of flowers or roses, in which
the stake OCcuISs uOeS nOL MAKE Tic sJdhG
a living thing. The line of descent In
which a man stands, nor the social posi-
ton he occupies, nor the church of which
he is an attendant, or a member, is moth
ing. The man may after all be nothing
better than a dead stake in a hedge.
There was a certain fine man, a fine man
socially, ~religiously, poEtically-one of the
best OF men as men ,went..came to Jesus
to make inquiry on the subject of religion.
He was reverent and devout and respect
full and courteous and cultured and learned,
a leader and teacher of the people, a lee
turer on ethics, but when it came to reli-
gion, Jesus said to that man, eye must be
born again" The vitality of the represen-
tation we find in the New Testament reli-
gion is its life; Il have come that We might
have life, and that We might have it more
a0undantly."
And SO of tests. Not simply of the rep
reservations or descriptions of religion, but
also of the tests, the New Testament tests
of religion. How are we to know that we
are living Christians? How are we to
know that others are living Christians?
Why, the New Testament pushes us up to
the point Of urgent belief, and insists on
it, that the test is fruit, not leaves, not
flowers, but fruit, and that fruitfulness is
the only essential thing that shall triumph
under the test. Jesus may ndure barren
ness outside of the church, but He cannot
endure it inside of the church. A bramble
in the woods is b~earable, but a bramble in
the orchard, that is intolerable. "By their
fruits We shall know them. Men do not
gather figs of thistles or grapes of thorns."
"The man of God is perfect, fruitful unto
all good works"
How little stress Jesus lays upon those
tests that are so universally adopted and
applied, and admitted to be sufficiently ad-
equate; attendance upon religious ordin-
ances, subscription to creed and statement,
routine observance of rites and ceremonies;
He makes nothing of all that, and He
comes to us, friends, Just as He came to
the fruitless, leafy fig tree by the wayslde,
searching for fruit, not for leaves, not for
| blossoms, not for hOrescence, not for es-
thetic delight in sacred music. not for fond
ness of the literary side of religion, not for
a keen appetite for well digested and pre-
= sented truth. but for fruit-fruit, and He
comes up closer to US, friends, than any
body else can COMEDIAN our dearest and
nearest can come-for, after all. these can
see only outside appearances. He sees real
tiles. They see things that pass for good
works in us, born. it may be, of wicked
ambition or of self-coneeit. He sees right
down into the centre of the soul, and He is
looking for fruit. What shall He find in
you and me? Fruit or leaves, or just bare
branches?
Tx LC6k 10 ANO AAAdN
to be an easy test to apply, and it surely:
friends, is a safe test to apply-for you and
me to apply to our own selves. But then,
some one may say, "Well, what constitutes
fruitfulness? / am ready now to lay bare
my soul before God; | am ready now to go
down on my face before God and apply the
test; l am ready now for heart-searchlng,
and to measure myself BY this standard,
but | want to know what constitutes
fruitfulness." sWhat are the fruits that
Jesus expects and that l am to look for
and by which / am to measure myself.
Why, the Bible is simply full of that. 1t
has set the whole thing so plain, and so
fully, and so variously that a wayfaring
man though a fool need not mistake as to
what fruitfulness IN the Christian life is.
Jesus says. BLESSED are the poor in spirit.
Come now, we are examining ourselves
about the fruits. BLESSED are the poor in
spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are
the mereiful 1.-THE good heartfelt; blessed
are the pure in heart; blessed are the
peacemakers; blessed are they who have
not simply a relish now and then, but a
hunger and a thirst after Righteousness
rightness. These are the fruits that the
Christian man is expected to grow in his
character. :.
An apostle says, the fruits, or the fruit
of the spirit, is love, JOY, long suffering,
patience, meekness, faith. temperance. The
fruit that the Christian is to develop, that
will be developed, that Jesus will expect II
there be life-love-the heart of all good
ness-love to God and love to man. "Wh
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,
how shall he love God-how can he love
God whom he hath not SEEM" Fruit; love
-ioy. JOY in fellowship with God; JOY In
fellowship with believers; JOY in service
and ministry. Love-ioy-peaee. Content
ment of mind under all circumstances. the
harmony of conviction, of thought and at
lection. Long suffering patient endur-
ance not only in affection, but patient en-.
durance of wrong and provocation; and
meekncss and temperance and all the rest.
What does fruitfulness mean? 1t means
simply the development or achievement OF
character that viii approve itself to Cod.
But this growth of character does not ex-
haust the expectation of Christ concerning
us. 1t docs not exhaust the fruit which
the Christian has to bear. There is other
fruit. You read that passage again and you
will see that the tenor of it has to co with
Observation-Disclosures with Jesus. fellow
ship in His purpose to redeem this world
from sin. Jesus is not thinking altogether
of the good His disciples are to get through
fellowship with Him. but He is thinking
also of the good which His disciples are to
do through fellowship with Him. Not alto
gether of what His disciples are to receive,
but Of what His disciples are to achieve.
Except the branch abide in the vine il
bringeth forth no fruit. If We abide in Me
and My words abide in you, we shall bring
forth much fruit"
Oh, friends, we lirlit the range of the
Christian life, and our hearts and minds
are so set uron getting, getting, getting
enjoying, enjoying, enjoying-that we arc
deaf to the words of Christ concerning do
ing, doing, doing. Apart from the vino the
branch can bear no fruit; apart from the
branch the vine cannot bear fruit. And
here, friends, we COM up to something
that ought to bring you and me very lowly
before Cod. Lowly, not so much with the
sense of modification and p~enitencc. but
with a kind of e~xultant joy. 1t BELTS us IL
confess always our dependence upon Christ
but here we have Christ confessing His de
pendence on us. Marvellous thing 'The
branch cannot bear OF itself except it abide
in the vine" and the vine cannot bear
fruit without the branches. The Apostle
Paul puts that thought in another form
when he says: 'Ye are the body of Christ
and members-each severally-members Of
that body" Apart from the body the