The Gospel According to St. John [antikvár]

THE TRUE VINE '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. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.'—John xv. 1-4. What suggested this lovely parable of the vine and the branches is equally unimportant and undiscover-able. Many guesses have been made, and, no doubt, as was the case with almost all our Lord's parables, some external object gave occasion for it. It is a significant token of our Lord's calm collectedness, even at that supreme and heart - shaking moment, that He should have been at leisure to observe, and to use for His purposes of teaching, something that was present at the instant. The deep and solemn lessons which He draws, perhaps from some vine by the wayside, are the richest and sweetest clusters that the vine has ever grown. The great truth in this chapter, applied in manifold directions, and viewed in many aspects, is that of the living union between Christ and those who believe on Him, and the parable of the vine and the branches affords the foundation for all which follows. We take the first half of that parable now. It is somewhat difficult to trace the course of thought in it, but there seems to be, first of ail, the similitude set forth, without explanation or interprétation, in its most général terms, and then various aspects in which its applications to Christian duty are taken up and vol. iii, , a