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.)