THE FAMILY ALTAR
July 15.
"I am the true Vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and
every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit." John 15:1-2
"Is He a Vine? His heavenly root supplies the boughs with
life and fruit. 0 let a lasting union join my soul, the branch,
to Christ, the Vine." Thus the poet sings. But it is just for that
reason that the Lord, our God, visits us so often with painful
affliction, that He might cement our union with our blessed Savior.
It may seem pairfful and destructive to the vine when the gardener
comes along with his sharp pruning-knife and cuts away so many
of its luxuriant shoots and branches. But the wise gardener knows
if he left his vines untrimmed, they would soon run wild and
bring forth inferior fruit. So he trims the vine and cuts away all
unnecessary wood. Why? That the sun can shine on the grapes
and ripen and sweeten them. With the same wise purpose in view
our heavenly Father cuts away with His knife of affliction the wild,
sinful shoots in our hearts, purges them from the love of self
and of the world, that the sun of His saving grace might ripen
and sweeten in us more and more the fruits of true righteousness
and piety. It is not punishment for our sins, as we often despond-
ingly think in our affliction, that causes these painful experiences
to befall us, but it is "pruning" by our heavenly Father, who loves
us and therefore cannot mean our hurt, but has our good in view.
And what comfort it is to hear that it is just the "branch that
beareth fruit" which He thus prunes and afflicts. 0 let us not
resist the wise and loving design of our heavenly Father. Let us
humbly submit to His afflictions, and through them draw nearer
and nearer to our Savior and abide in Him; for the branch that
beareth not fruit is finally taken away and cast into the fire. (V. 6.)
