I have felt drawn to try to write what young
Christians might easily apprehend, as a help to them to take up that
position in which the Christian life must be a success. It is as if
there is not one of the principal temptations and failures of the
Christian life that is not met here. The nearness, the
all-sufficiency, the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus, the
naturalness, the fruitfulness of a life of faith, are so revealed,
that it is as if one could with confidence say, Let the parable
enter into the heart, and all will be right.
May the blessed Lord give the blessing. May He teach us to study the
mystery of the Vine in the spirit of worship, waiting for God’s own
teaching.
ONLY A BRANCH
“I am the
vine, ye are the branches.”—John
15.5
“Tis only a little
Branch,
A thing so fragile and weak,
But that little Branch hath
a message true
To give, could it only
speak.
“I’m only a little
Branch,
I live by a life not mine,
For the sap that flows
through my tendrils small
Is the life-blood of the
Vine.
“No power indeed have I
The fruit of myself to bear,
But since I’m part of the
living Vine,
Its fruitfulness I share.
“Dost thou ask how I
abide?
How this life I can
maintain?—
I am bound to the Vine by
life’s strong band,
And I only need remain.
“Where first my life was
given,
In the spot where I am set,
Upborne and upheld as the
days go by,
By the stem which bears me
yet.
“I fear not the days to
come,
I dwell not upon the past,
As moment by moment I draw a
life,
Which for evermore shall
last.
“I bask in the sun’s
bright beams,
Which with sweetness fills
my fruit,
Yet I own not the clusters
hanging there,
For they all come from the
root.”
A life which is not my
own,
But another’s life in me:
This, this is the message
the Branch would speak,
A message to thee and me.
Oh, struggle not to
“abide,”
Nor labor to “bring forth
fruit,”
But let Jesus unite thee to
Himself,
As the Vine Branch to the
root.
So simple, so deep, so
strong
That union with Him shall
be:
His life shall forever
replace thine own,
And His love shall flow
through thee.
For His Spirit’s fruit
is love,
And love shall thy life
become,
And for evermore on His
heart of love
Thy spirit shall have her
home.