The Yale expositor., 1905-05-05
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
LESSON VI. SECOND QUARTER, INTER-
NATIONAL SERIES, MAY z.

by Rev. ID. NJ. Stearns.
Copyright. 1905. by American Press Association.E
Unless we include in our medltations.
much that the lesson committee has
felt led to omit we shall have had but
a very small glimpse of the life and
teaching of our blessed Lord Here.
for example. we have but one brief
lesson in the most wonderful of all His
discourses and one lesson from the
greatest of all recorded prayers-two
lessons from what has been well called
''the holy of HOLES of all Scripture"
He had eaten with His disciples the
Passover which He so much desired to
eat with them before He suffered, He
had instituted the supper by which we
are to show His death till He come,
He had girded Himself and had wash
ed their feet, teaching them to do to
one another as He had done to them,
and now in these last words He opened
to them His heart as never before and
prayed for them and for us who be-
lieve on Him through their word.
Knowing all that was before Him that
night and on the morrow, He seemed
to forget Himself in His desire TO COM
fort and strengthen them.
Could there possibly be more Helpful
words for all believers ut all times, as
sured that in the world we shat have
tribulation, than the opening words of
this discourse, Let not your heart be
troubled" and, again, Let not your
heart be troubled neither let it be
afraid" xiv, %, reminding us of Matt.
xiv, 6, "Ye shall hear of wars and ru-
mors of wars; see that ye be not trou-
bled?' What more powerful testimony
to our oneness with the risen Christ
can there be than an untroubled heart
in the midst of trouble?
We have heard Him say, IT am the
Light of the world Il am the good
Shepherd" Il am the Door," II am the
Living Bread which came down from
heaven" II am the Way and the Truth
and the Life" but now He uses new
figure, II am the true Nine," taking us
back by contrast TO such words as THE
vineyard Of the Lord of hosts is the
house Of Israel and the men Of Judah
His pleasant plant" and Israel is an
empty vine: he bringeth forth fruit
unto himself Qsa. V, Z; Hos. Y, u.
Here is the true Israel. the Vine that
never brought forth fruit unto Himself,
never pleased Himself, never sought
His own will nor His own glory, and
He tells us that we are branches in
Him, to bear much fruit, that the Fa-
ther, the Husbandman, may be glori-
fed.
Let us remember that He is alone
with the eleven, to whom He had said,
Eye are clean" (xiii, 10y, and again in
verse of our lesson, "Now We are
clean through the word which l have
spoken unto you" These are true
branches in the true Vine and can new
er perish John Y, 27-29). There are
those who, though they may seem to
us to he branches, are not and never
were branches any more than Judas
| Iscariot. Such so out in due time, be-
cause they were never really in the
Vine or the fold. They are plants
which were never planted by God the
Father Il John ii, 10; Matt. XIV, 49,.
But there are true branches in the
true Vine which do not bring forth
fruit unto God. They are spoken of in
l Cor. fill, 10, as having their works
burned and they themselves saved as
by fire or in l Cor V, 3, as having
the flesh destroyed that the spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus
Possibly those in 1 Cor. xi, 80, who
were weak and sickly and dying before
| their time are in the same class.
Instead of this, which may be the ex.
perience Of many, but need not be the
experience of any, it is the desire OF
our heavenly Father that we bear fruit
more fruit much fruit, to His glory
Patiently He waits year after year
looking for fruit and doing all He car
to get 1t before He orders the tree cut
down or the branch taken away duke
xiii, go, but If the self life persistent
ly predominates the order is finally Civ
en-, and men are often the instruments
in His hand to remove and burn the
branches or cut down the tree. Let us
take heed and abide.
How simply and easily the branches
in vine under the skill and care Of a
husbandman bear fruit! There is nc
struggle, no effort, but just a yielding
to the wise care which prunes and
causes to bleed and ties up here and
there. so as to obtain the desired fruit
What, then, is this abiding which is SC
essential and without which all is moth
ing? Verse 81 If It is not by effort
how is it? l know nothing better than
the thought given forth by Hudson
Taylor on one occasion that il is weak.
ness and MOI strength that abides. The
child that 10 too weak to climb out OF
the crib is found by it's mother just
where she put it. His strength. is
made perfect in our weakness" AS
we look more closely we note that there
is an abiding in His love and in His
word Oversees Z, 81.
The first step IS to believe firmly