2.01.10. Trees of reighteousness, Part 2

TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. PART II.

"Make the tree good, and his fruit good.” — Matthew 12:33.

ALTHOUGH an evil tree ought to be made good by engrafting while it is young, it may be made good by engrafting after it has grown old.

Such also is the law of the kingdom in regard to spiritual life. A man may indeed be born into God’s family when he is old; but it is in all respects better if he enters the childhood of grace before he has emerged from the childhood of nature. In fruit-trees fully grown you may sometimes observe a ring round the stem, midway between the ground and the branches, resembling somewhat the mark of a healed wound on a living man. This indicates the p ace where the natural stem was cut off and a new branch inserted.

You perceive at a glance that this tree has been engrafted, and that it was well grown ere it was made good. In the same garden another tree may grow which exhibits no such mark; yet the owner does not value it less on that account. These two trees are equally good and equally prolific They differ not in their present character but in the period of life at which they -Were severally renewed. This latter tree must have been engrafted when it was very young: the cut was made close to the ground when the stem was very slender; and thus the mark has been obliterated by the subsequent growth of the tree. The cockatrice is concealed under the grass, or perhaps under the ground. The renewing has certainly taken place, but when or where no man can tell. The date of its new birth is no longer legible.

Such similarities and such differences obtain also among converted men. Some who were born when they were old bear the mark of their regeneration all their days. When the old nature was matured and developed before the change, the memory of the fact is more distinctly retained, and the contrast more vividly displayed. It was thus in the experience of the Apostle Paul. The spiritual man did not in his case obtain the sway while the natural was yet young and tender and easily moulded. Paul was a man, every inch of him, before he was a Christian. "I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; which thing I also did” (Acts 26:9-10). His principles and his conduct were strong and consistent, while both were contrary to God and man. When such a character was changed, the change was manifest, and the mark of it permanent. That fall and rising again on the way to Damascus stood out a well-marked girdle round the mighty stem of his life, even to its close. He frequently pointed to that healed wound as evidence both of his enmity against God and God’s marvellous mercy to him. But Paul’s son Timothy was not less surely in the Lord, although no such great landmark towered in the heart of his history. This tree was made good while it was yet young, and ere its native badness had got full room to reveal itself. The healed wound in this disciple’s life lay so near the root that in maturity it could not’ be seen. In heaven these two may lovingly contend with each other, either striving to show that himself is the more deeply indebted to sovereign, redeeming love. God showed a peculiar mercy to me, says Timothy, in that he made the tree good while it was young, ere yet it had begun to bear visible fruit. But God showed greater mercy to me, the apostle rejoins, in that he made the tree good, although it had grown old in evil, and spread much bitter fruit over the whole land. Those who, by a great rending, have been converted in mature age, bear the fact in memory, and weave it into their songs of praise; but, on the other hand, let not those who have been earlier and more insensibly won to Christ complain that the mark of their engrafting is not visible as a girdle round the middle of their life. There are diversities of operation, but the same Spirit.

All’s well that ends well: God’s way is best; all his people will see this truth, and sing it yet. But if you ask me what choice I should make, if choice in the matter were given to me, I would rather be one of the converted who could not tell the time or manner of his conversion, than one of those who were born when they were old, and bear many scars as monuments of the agony. The aged are not shut out from hope, but the earliest time is the best time.

It is a peculiar glory of the gospel that it holds out free pardon and immediate peace to the chief of sinners, whether that chiefdom ia evil may have been won by quantity of work or length of service. The blood of Jesus Christ eleanseth us from all sin.

You may see this glory of grace reflected from the field of nature, if perhaps you have looked over the hedge and seen, in a garden by the wayside, a sight that attracted your eye and excited your curiosity. A tree, old, thick, and rusty, has been cut off, not by the ground, but about the height of a man, and the bare stump left standing. On a closer inspection you see one or more small fresh twigs fastened to the bark on the top of the desolate trunk. They are budding and putting out green leaves.

It is a tree that had grown old, either barren or bearing bad fruit. Its owner would not longer permit it to occupy uselessly the precious ground. But it is not necessary that he should cut it down and cast it away, in order to make room for another tree. Even this tree, grown old in evil, may be made good. It is not cut down, but cut off, and a new nature engrafted on its stem. Even in old age it will yet be fresh, and flourishing, and fruitful The owner of the garden counts that he will sooner get a large retimi by engrafting the old tree than by rooting it out and planting another. The tree was full grown and in vigorous health. The owner will utilize all these powers by sending the sap through a new and better head. It is thus that our Father, the husbandman, takes full-grown vigorous natures, charged with gifts of understanding, and eloquence, and zeal, that have been hitherto occupied with evil, and makes them new creatures by his power. Forthwith they are fit for able-bodied service in the work of the Lord.

It is a very gladsome truth for an evil world — that a man may be born when he is old. Blessed be God, it is possible that he who has long been accustomed to do evil niay by union to Christ become a new creature. Certain places, much desired under the government of the country, are open only to the young. If you do not enter before you attain a certain specified age you can never enter. The rule there is not, Him that cometh, but. Him that cometh while he is young. This is not the rule in the kingdom of God. There is no alien on earth too old for being admitted into the family of God. The truth which I have stated is too precious to be held back or only spoken in a whisper, lest some should abuse it. It is true, self -deceivers will abuse it to encourage themselves in sin; but if this truth were concealed, they would find some other pretext.

Let the warning be distinctly, fully given on the other side. If the tree is permitted to grow up and grow old in evil, there is danger lest, by storm or fire, it should be destroyed, and so never be made good. But even although it were insured against all accidents, there is no reason why another, and yet another year an evil tree should cumber the ground, merely to put off the time of its change. Who would say, Permit it to bear bitter fruit all the time of its youth, and make it good only when it has grown old? If any one should make this proposal, the fact would prove that he was not sincere, that he did not wish the tree made good. The plea that there is time enough, when advanced by way of deferring the period of decision, is not only delusive and dangerous, it is positively false and dishonest. Men postpone only what they dislike. You will not decisively follow the Lord now, but you will some day. But if you have no desire to be good and do good to-day, you have no desire to be good and do good any day. There is no such thing as putting off for a time: it is simply, We will not have this man to reign over us. You want to waste the broad sunny surface of life in pursuing your own pleasures, and you promise to throw a narrow strip of the outmost edge of life, withered and tasteless, as an offering to the Lord. Be not deceived; he who is weary of sin wants to be quit of it now. He who hungers wants the bread of life to-day, not to-morrow. Blessed are they that hunger.

IV. A tree that has been made good does not again become evil; but evil latent in its roots may, if it be not watched and crushed, spring up and bear bad fruit, and mingle with the good, and to a great extent outgrow and choke the good. The same law obtains in the spiritual sphere. The old man is more or less active in every Christian. Thoughts and desires are continually springing up from the old stock — thoughts and desires that do not belong to the new creature. If these are not in good time crucified, they will bear fruit in actual wickedness; and when, they are permitted to bear, the fruit of the better nature will disappear for the time, or become very small in quantity.

One clear example of this tendency I knew well in my youth. I think it remains to this day, and I could point to the spot. A grove given over, by the time I knew it, for the purpose of affording shady pleasure-walks, had originally been a fruit-garden. Some of the old fruit trees had been left standing as ornaments, when the owner no longer looked for a profitable return. These trees were left growing for the sake of their beauty merely, not for the sake of their fruit. They were allowed, accordingly, to run wild, that their appearance might be more picturesque. An aged pear-tree stood there, with a tall, bare, straight stem and round bushy head like an Eastern palm. But while not a single branch grew on the naked trunk, from where it emerged out of the moss to where its head began to spread at three times the height of a man, a number of lively vigorous shoots sprang from its roots, or rather from its stem where it touched the ground. Thus the long bare stem had a bushy head of branches on either extremity. These lower branches had been permitted to grow freely till they reached maturity on their own account, and bore fruit of their own kind. I have seen fruit growing on these suckers, and fruit hanging at the same time high over them on the tree’s towering head, with a large portion of the bare stem between. I have compared them, and found that which grew from the old root hard and bitter, while that which grew on the head that had been made new, although somewhat deteriorated, retained still the sweet flavour of its best days.

Here were two kinds of fruit growing at the same time on one tree — evil fruit growing on the original root, and good fruit growing on that which had been made new. If the tree had been rightly cultivated for the sake of its fruit, those suckers would have been without pity torn off in the bud as soon as they showed themselves, and never have been permitted to open their blossoms or bring forth their fruit. You do not ordinarily see these outgrowths from the old stock growing to the size of bearing, on fruit-trees. This, however, is not because they do not manifest a tendency to throw out these shoots, but because the shoots are, in ordinary cases, wrenched off by the husbandman as soon as they appear.

Here is a parable. I saw that tree with its two kinds of fruit, and got it insensibly photographed on my memory as a curiosity, before I learned the lesson which it taught.

It remains before my imagination to-day, the same object; but it has now become a glass in which I see reflected myself and my fellows. The lesson contains both reproof and encouragement.

Reproof. — There remains in a Christian something of the old carnal mind This corruption in the root is continually sending out thoughts and purposes of its own.

These, if neglected, will soon ripen into manifold sins.

Forewarned, forearmed. Watch and pray. Crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. Kill those suckers that spring from the carnal root. Kill them day by day as they appear: beware of permitting them to make head.

Encouragement. — When acts appear in a Christian — yourself or your neighbour — acts unlike his place and his name, you should not thereby be driven into despair. An unchristian act done by a man does not prove that the man is not a Christian. Perhaps some may think this is a dangerous doctrine. No; it is a true doctrine, and truth is sate in the long run. The contrary doctrine would extinguish hope; and wanting hope, what would become of holiness? If a sinful act done is held to prove that the doer is not in Christ, the nerve that sustains effort is cut, and the soul sinks soon in absolute despair. In the man, as in the tree, two natures meet. The old man has been made new; and yet the old man, in a sense, remains. From this remaining original evil the evil thoughts and words spring; while from the new man spring thoughts and words that are good. He cannot sin because he is born of God (1 John 3:9). Two natures struggle in the man, as two nations in the womb of the Hebrew mother. In his perplexity and amazement, the distracted spirit cries out, Why am I thus? The true solution is that which brave Paul reached after a sharp conflict, “ It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” That tree, with its two natures, and its two kinds of fruit, which I knew so well in my youth, was the shadow and the symbol of David the king. In his busy working days his fruit was good. The tendencies of the old corrupt nature were kept down. But when he sat upon a luxurious throne, and thought only of his pleasure, the old corruptor’s sprung up in strength, and vile fruit ripened on the lower, baser part of his being. But even this, vile though it was, did not cast the king out of the covenant.

Even this rank outgrowth from a bitter root did not wrench the king’s head from its place on high. It wasted his faculties for a time in carnal indulgence, and left his better being shrivelled and barren; but when the Husbandman, displeased yet loving, visited his tree, and by terrible things in righteousness hewed off the low indulgences, the head revived again, and even in old age was fat and full of sap and flourishing.

V. Although the natural head of the tree either in youth or age is cut off, and the new good branch brought near to touch it, unless the new branch take to the old tree, and the old tree at its wound take to the new branch, so that they become one, no change will be effected in the old tree. The wounding — the cutting off with a view to engrafting — will produce no effect if the process is interrupted before it is completed. The cutting of the tree makes it bleed — makes it languish as in pain, but does not make it good. After that would it will grow again, and its fruit will be evil as before. In this aspect also the law of the spiritual kingdom follows the law of the natural The sword of the Spirit cuts deep into the heart and conscience. The terrors of the Law overwhelm the soul like a flood. The countenance that formerly was radiant is now fixed in gloom. The fountains of the great deep are broken up, and the penitent makes his bed to swim with tears. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? What is this? Is it the godly sorrow that leads to peace in believing? We cannot tell; no man can yet tell what is the nature of this sorrow, or what will be its fruit. As far as man can observe, it is such a grief that goes before the living hope.

They who are now rejoicing in the Lord have passed through such fire and water ere they reached their wealthy place. But not every one who enters this deep gets through it into safety on the other side. The wounds of conviction prepare the way for Christ; but if the wounded do not in the end close with Christ, his wounds will not make him safe or holy. If he has been pierced by conviction, and thrown into alarm about his sin, his pain should give the Saviour, the Healer, a welcome into his heart; but if, notwithstanding his fright, he keep the door shut, the fright will not renew the man. The great outstanding specimen of this process is the experience of Felix. His convictions were terrible, but they did not make his heart new. As the tree, after being cut through, grows up again an evil tree, unless at the wounded place a new branch has been inserted, so a man that has trembled between a sight of his own guilt and the approach of the judgment, grows up as unjust, as unclean, as intemperate as before, unless, while he is in distress, he close in simple faith with Christ the Saviour.