| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 7 |
Page 5 |
It would be vain and absurd for the branches to hang empty through the summer, praying the vine, meanwhile, to feed the hungry people who will come by and by, looking for fruit. The vine is dependent on the branches for the fruit which it is eager to bear. It bears no clusters itself – they all grow on the branches. No less unreasonable is it for the followers of Christ to pray their Master to send blessing to the world while they themselves, with their empty and unfruitful lives, do nothing to make others happier or better.
It is the will of Christ that each individual Christian shall be a branch full of fruit. If people turn to us in their need, sorrow, and despair, hoping to get from us a little help, and find nothing, we have not only disappointed them, but we have also disappointed Christ, for if we were indeed living branches in full union with him we should bear fruit which would satisfy the cravings of those who turn to us.
We should see to it therefore that we are not only Christians by profession, but that we are really attached to Christ in close union, as branches are to the vine. Then Christ himself will live in us – we shall be literally and truly branches of Christ. Then our lives will abound in the fruits of righteousness and of love, and all who turn to us for sympathy, for comfort, for strength, for guidance, will find what their hearts seek.
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