"Ye Are The Branches."

by Horne, A. C. | Category: General | Jun 1936

These words from the opening verses of John 15. spoke by the Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples just prior to His death,; apply directly to every believer to-day. We are branches o the True Vine, chosen by the Lord of His own sovereign will, and appointed to bear fruit-" Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear' fruit " (verse 16).

A husbandman plants a vine that it may, through the branches, bear much fruit. How carefully he tends them that they may grow large and strong. How frail and tender at?. first are the young branches, the small green shoots; but he cares for them, guiding here, easing pressure there, and taking great pains to preserve them from injury. And how grieved he is should anyone damage his precious vine, leaving the branches bruised and crushed, or even lifeless! But as the branches continue to feed on the life-giving sap they grow, becoming longer and stronger, and in due time bearing much fruit.

Thus is it with the Divine Husbandman, the True Vine, and the branches. The young branch-the young believer, is so happy in the new life, but oh! so easily bruised. So strongly does the Lord pronounce judgement upon any that causeth a young one to stumble that "It is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18. 6). Let us beware that we are not guilty of stunting the growth of any young disciple-maybe by misleading teaching, or by bad example, and in this sense perhaps destroying the young life ere it has well begun.

May we all, young and old alike, daily, yea hourly, draw our nourishment from the Vine, that we may grow strong and healthy and well able to bear fruit. Consider what happens to those branches that no longer feed on the sap. They wither and die, and the husbandman cuts them off and they are burned. We must never cease to feed upon the Vine, for so surely as we seek to live in our own strength, so surely do we wither and become useless, and no more able to be fruit bearers (verse 5). We are better cut off and destroyed, than left to hinder the growth of other branches, and clutter up an otherwise flourishing Tree.

At certain times, too, the husbandman cleanses and prunes the branches. Perhaps to the untrained eye he clips the very choicest branches, the very ones that promise to bear lovely fruit. But he knows that this is but the way to strengthen those very boughs, that their fruit may be yet more plentiful and more pleasing to him. Do trials beset and almost overwhelm us? Does illness lay us aside? Do we sometimes wonder why God is so dealing with us? Why He apparently hinders the very work He would have us do? Let us take courage then, and learn of the vine. God is but strengthening you, maybe by temporarily retarding the rate of growth, that you may grow stronger and better fitted for service. "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform": so let us praise Him for these distresses, and pray earnestly that we may learn the lesson He seeks to teach us, and emerge to bear much fruit that He may be glorified (verse 8).

Horne, A. C. | Jun 1936
General