Abiding in Christ depicts the believer's continuous, vital connection to Jesus, essential for spiritual life and growth (John 15:4). Illustrations often use natural images like plants turning to the sun or birds soaring, symbolizing dependence, protection, and the soul’s fixed orientation on Christ as the source of nourishment and strength.
Christ's presence brings redemption and trust when He identifies with our lives.
When the first missionaries went to St. Thomas, they could not get near the suffering and degraded slaves until they took part in their bondage and asked the masters to make them slaves also. Then they were received with perfect confidence and were able to bring multitudes of the poor suffering ones to Christ. They trusted them when they saw that they had become identified with their very own lives and lot. "Praise be to the Lord the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people" (Luke 1:68).
But He comes closer. These missionaries could work by the side of the slave, but they could not come into their hearts.
Christians abiding in Christ are protected from danger as by an unseen barrier of God's presence.
An English woman illustrated what it means to have Christ between us and danger. She said she was wakened by a very strange noise of pecking. When she went to the window, she saw a butterfly flying inside the window pane in great fright; outside a sparrow was pecking at the pane and trying to reach the butterfly. The butterfly did not see the glass pane and expected every minute to be caught; the sparrow did not see the glass and expected every minute to catch the butterfly. All the while the butterfly was safe because the glass was between it and the sparrow.
So it is with the Christian who is abiding in Christ. God's presence is between His child and every danger.
Without abiding in Christ, Christians are like dry faucets without water.
When Lawrence of Arabia was in Paris after World War I with some of his Arab friends, he showed them the sights of the city: the Arch of Triumph, the Louvre, Napoleon's tomb, the Champs Elysees, but none of these things impressed them. The thing that really interested them the most was the faucet in the bathtub of the hotel room. They spent much time in turning it on and off. They found it amazing that one could turn a handle and get all the water he wanted.
Later, when they were ready to leave Paris and return to the East, Lawrence found them in the bathroom with wrenches trying to disconnect the faucet. "You see," they said, "it is very dry in Arabia. What we need are faucets. If we have them, we will have all the water we want." Lawrence had to explain that the effectiveness of the faucets did not lie in themselves but in the immense reservoirs of water to which they were attached, and he had to point out that behind this lay the rain and snowfalls of the Alps.
What a tremendous application to our Christian lives. Like the faucet by itself, so as individual Christians by ourselves, without Christ we are useless (John 15:5), "...apart from me you can do nothing." The lives of many Christians are as dry as the Arabian desert. They have their faucets, but there is no connection to the Living Water. May we trust God by faith so that our lives may be abundantly fruitful. Don't be a fruitless faucet.
Christians always need God's sustaining care to grow and live spiritually.
Some people have the idea that once the relationship is established between God and man, nothing more is needed. This is a mistake. When a child is born it has the general nature and characteristics of its parents, but does it not continue to need their loving care? It could not live without it. So it is with us and God. He gives us of His nature, His fullness; we become His children, but we need Him constantly and uninterruptedly if we are to go on living spiritually. Our lives as Christians cannot be maintained at all unless it is He who maintains them. This is unlike our earthly parent-child relationship in one sense, however. In our relationship with God we never outgrow our need to be dependent on Him. And though, in the New Testament, Christian maturity is enjoined on all believers, this process of spiritual growth never brings us to a point where we may become independent of God. We are given to understand that our relationship to Him is always that of children. Woe unto anyone who ceases to be a child of God in his own estimation and thinks he has grown up sufficiently to be independent of God! The Young Christian
"The young Christian is still carnal," says Andrew Murray. "Regeneration is a birth: the center and root of the personality, the spirit, has been renewed and taken possession of by the Spirit of God. But time is needed for its power from that center to extend through all the circumference of his being. The kingdom of God is like unto a seed; the life in Christ is a growth, and it would be against the laws of nature and grace alike if we expected from the babe in Christ the strength that can only be found in the young men, or the rich experience of the fathers."
Christian life fruitfulness depends on full submission and cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
In his observations on 1 Corinthians 2:1, J. Stuart Holden gives a beautiful illustration. He says, "I have around my home a garden. In that garden and its possibilities I have the mind of nature. For instance, I know what soil and what seed should produce this, that, and all the other kinds of flowers and fruit; I see set forth in the seedsmen's catalogues the wonderful things that the garden should bring forth.... But mark you, the flowers and the fruit are only produced by labor, by obedience to the laws of nature. When the garden has been made beautiful and fruitful, it has been made so only by intelligent cooperation with nature. Similarly, we Christians have the mind of Christ. We know full well what a Christian life should be." The fruits of the Spirit are only made evident in our lives as we wholeheartedly cooperate with the Lord in full submission and obedience to Him by letting His Spirit have full control of us-body, soul and spirit.
Clinging to Christ, the Rock, shelters believers safely through life's storms and dangers.
Little Johnny and his sister were one day going through a long, narrow railroad tunnel. The railroad company had built small clefts here and there through the tunnel, so that if any one got caught in the tunnel when the train was passing, they could save themselves. After this little boy and girl had gone some distance in the tunnel they heard a train coming. They were frightened at first, but the sister just put her little brother in one cleft and she hurried and hid in another. The train came thundering along, and as it passed, the sister cried out: "Johnny, cling close to the rock! Johnny, cling close to the rock!" and they were safe. The "Rock of Ages" may be beaten by the storms and waves of adversity, but "cling close to the rock, Christians, and all will be well." The waves don't touch the Christian; he is sheltered by the Rock "that is higher than I," by the One who is the strong arm, and the Saviour who is mighty and willing to save.
A heart truly drawn to Christ finds no rest except turning continually toward Him.
"The needle that hath been touched with the loadstone may be shaken and agitated, but it never rests until it turns towards the pole." Thus our heart's affections when once magnetized by the love of Christ find no rest except they turn to him. The cares and labours of the day may carry the thoughts to other objects, even as a finger may turn the needle to the east or west, but no sooner is the pressure removed than the thoughts fly to the Well-beloved just as the needle moves to its place. We are unable to rest anywhere but in Jesus. The new birth has disqualified us for contentment with the world, and hence we have no choice but to find our all in Christ. Blessed necessity! Driven to Jesus by an unrest which finds no remedy elsewhere! Drawn to Jesus by an impulse which we have no desire to resist! It is our life's business and our heart's delight to point to him so plainly that if any would see Jesus they have only to look in the direction in which our whole being is always pointing. We are subject to many deflections and disturbances, but thou knowest, O Lord, that our inmost soul seeks after thyself.
The soul must stay fixed on Christ as the center amidst all life's wanderings.
"As in a pair of compasses, one part is fixed in the centre, whilst the other foot wandereth about in the circumference, so whatever subjects we may think upon, the soul must stay on Christ, and be fixed on him." Whilst we search after evidences and additional comforts we must not leave our simple trust in Jesus. Whatever sweep our knowledge may take as we advance in years we must retain most fixedly the one and only centre which is worthy of a regenerated soul, namely, our Lord Jesus. If the circle of our energies should encompass all the world, still must the heart stay with delightful continuance with the Well-Beloved. Immovable and steadfast must we be, our willing soul unswervingly loyal to its sole object of trust and love, the one and only Lord of our whole being, the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely. To whom else can we go? Where else is there rest for us? Let us then abide in Christ Jesus. Fix the centre with the whole force of a resolute heart, nay, more, with the whole power of divine grace. Never tolerate the idea of novelty in this matter. Here there can be no advance; we are in him rooted and grounded. Only so can we strike out the true circle of life: without a fixed centre the sphere can never be true. O thou who art the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, hold me fast for ever, and bid me sing, "O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed!"
Believers naturally follow and long for God as sunflowers turn toward the sun.
" As the flower of the sun doth follow the sun, and openeth and shutleth according to the absence of that luminary, so doth the heart of a Christian move after God. The divine nature within us followeth hard after the divine nature, and longeth to drink in its warmth and light. Everything acteth according to its nature. "We say, 'Aqua in tantum ascendit'; and it is true that neither water nor nature riseth higher than its spring-head and centre." So when self is our principle and end, we rise no higher than ourselves; but when God becometh the life of our soul we follow after him, and rise far above the highest point to which nature could conduct us. His grace in us strives to rise to the point from which it came, and it will never rest till it does so. This argues a high destiny for the believer, and is the foretaste of it. Hence the need to have a good and true beginning, and to draw our life from the eternal fountains above; for, apart from this, there will be no rising up to heaven. How sweet it is to find our mind and heart turning Godward, as the heliotrope seeks the sun! To find our joys begin and end with manifestations of Jesus' love! It is well to pine till the Lord's face be revealed, and only to flourish when he imparts his gracious influences. It is wise to turn away from all things in which God is not evidently present, but carefully to follow each movement of his shining face that we may always front his love, and bask in the beams of his favour. Whatever partakes largely of the light of Jesus should be prized by us, whether it be fashioned after our own favourite model or no: the sun is there, and we must turn to it. "Anything of Jesus" should be a sufficient attraction to us. A gleam of his sunlight should be prized, for it is far more than we deserve; and we should joyously receive it as the crocus drinks in the rich gold of the spring sun, and brims its cup therewith. What will it be to dwell above where the light no more goeth down, and the flowers feel no cold drops of the night?
Believers are inseparably united to Christ, guaranteeing their eternal preservation.
"Jude saith we are 'preserved in Christ Jesus.' There is a close union between Christ and us: we are in him, and because of this union we are eternally preserved. Look! As it is impossible to sever the leaven and the dough when they are once mingled and kneaded together; so Christ and a believer, when they are united together, there is no parting them any more, and while one lasts the other must endure." This is indeed the sure ground of the final preservation of the saints: their union with their Lord is of an indissoluble nature, so that the apostle enquires, "Who shall separate us?" It is as the union of the body with the head, which cannot be sundered without death to both. "'Because I live ye shall live also" is our guarantee of life eternal. What more do we require? If Christ be in us, and we in him, the union is of the most intense kind, and the security which follows from it is of the most certain sort. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit": what closer and more abiding union can be imagined? Lord, let there be no doubt as to my union with thee. Cause my fellowship to be so constant and so sweet that the oneness of soul to thy sacred person may be most evident. So shall I be with thee here, and with thee where thou art forever.
Without abiding in God’s presence, spiritual fruit cannot mature or develop fully.
"Fruit that hath but little sun can never be rife." We have had practical proof of this, for during the year 1879, there being a scant measure of sunshine, the fruit was never properly ripened, and was therefore destitute of flavour and sweetness. Whatever might be its outward appearance, the berry was insipid and altogether unlike what the sun would have made it had he smiled upon the swelling fruit. Thus, without communion with God, no soul can develop its graces, neither can those graces become what they should be. No measure of care or effort can make up for the light of the Father's face; neither can attendance upon means of grace nor the use of religious exercises supply the lack. Fellowship with God we must have, or the essential honey of love will be deficient, the bloom of joy will be wanting, the aroma of zeal and earnestness will be missed. We may have the virtues by name, and we may exhibit some feeble, insipid imitation of them, but the secret savour and mystic richness of grace will not be in us unless we abide in the full light of divine love. Lord, evermore be as the sun unto our souls, that we may be as fruit fully ripe, attaining to all the perfection and maturity of which our nature is capable.
FIRE! FIRE! "When a fire is kindled in a city we do not say coldly, 'Yonder is a great fire, I pray God it do no harm.' In times of public defection we are not to read tame lectures of contemplative divinity, or fight with ghosts and antiquated errors, but to oppose with all earnestness the growing evils of the world, whatever it may cost us." If men valued truth as they do their goods and their houses they would not regard error with such cool contentment. The cant of the present day cries, "Charity, Charity." As if it were not the truest charity to grow indignant with that which ruins souls. It is not uncharitable to warn men against poisonous adulterations of their food, or invasions of their rights; and surely it cannot be more uncharitable to put them upon their guard against that which will poison or rob their souls. Lukewarmness of love to truth is the real evil to be deprecated in these times. We have new doctrines among us, full of practical mischief, and against these there is need to raise an earnest outcry lest they gain so great a head that both church and state should be set on fire. Lord, arouse thy watchmen, and bid them arouse all thy saints, for the times are full of danger.
Rising in heavenly thoughts preserves us from worldly snares and spiritual defeat.
"Birds are seldom taken in their flight; the more we are upon the wing of heavenly thoughts the more we escape snares." O that we would remember this, and never tarry long on the ground lest the fowler ensnare us. We need to be much taken up with divine things, rising in thought above these temporal matters, or else the world will entangle us, and we shall be like birds held with limed twigs, or encompassed in a net. Holy meditation can scarcely be overdone; in this age we fear it never is. We are too worldly, and think too much of the fleeting trifles of time, and so the enemy gets an advantage of us, and takes a shot at us. O for more wing and more use of the flight we have! Communion with Jesus is not only sweet in itself, but it has a preserving power by bearing us aloft, above gun-shot of the enemy. Thoughts of heaven prevent discontent with our present lot, delight in God drives away love to the world, and joy in our Lord Jesus expels pride and carnal pleasure: thus we escape from many evils by rising above them. Up, then, my heart. Up from the weedy ditches and briery hedges of the world into the clear atmosphere of heaven. There where the dews of grace are born, and the sun of righteousness is Lord paramount, and the blessed wind of the Spirit blows from the everlasting hills, thou wilt find rest on the wing, and sing for joy where thine enemies cannot even see thee.
True grace remains in believers, producing a lasting spiritual fragrance after communion.
"After the worship of the Lord's Day, and especially after the Lord's Supper, we should continue in devotion, and make the whole day a post-communion. As civet boxes retain their scent when the civet is taken out, so, when the act of visible communion is over, our thoughts and discourse and actions should still savour of the solemnity. Certainly it is an argument of much weakness to be all for flashes and sudden starts." This retaining of their perfume by boxes and drawers in which sweet scents have been placed is a fragrant figure of the abiding nature of grace in a heart wherein it has once been stored up. If ordinances yield the influence designed by them, their savour
will remain in our lives, and if our conversion be indeed a passing from death unto life, the effect of it will be seen as long as we dwell among men. We cannot come away from real communion with Christ without carrying some of the delightful odour of his good ointments. Grace will reveal itself by its fragrance if it be genuine, and that fragrance will be a perfume of everlasting continuance, a sweetness indestructible. It should be said of every believer, in his measure, even as it is written of his Lord, "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad." The hypocrite has a temporary perfume, with which he takes care to odorize himself when he goes into the outward sanctuary; but the true believer is, by grace, made inherently fragrant, and the heavenly spices have so thoroughly saturated his garments, that they shed their savour abroad even when he is engaged in his worldly calling, yea, as long as he lives, and wherever he goes. Sweet Lord Jesus, do thou so anoint me that I may always bear about with me the fragrance of thine infinite perfections, and be a savour of life unto life among my neighbours."
Our capacity to receive Christ's fullness is limited by our own spiritual narrowness.
"Our communion with Christ is not now full. There is a defect both in the pipe and in the vessel; we cannot contain all that he is able to give out, nor can the means convey it all to us. The means are as narrow conduits from the fountain, or as creeks from the sea. The fountain could send forth more water, but the pipe or conduit can convey no more." Yet the means of grace could convey much more than we are usually ready to receive, and Dr. Manton must not blame the pipe so much as the poor, cracked earthen vessel, so narrow at the mouth, and so stinted in every direction. Ministries and ordinances would be far more profitable if we were prepared to be profited. At the same time, if we dwell where outward privileges are scanty, we need not therefore be famished. Our Lord can pour his grace into us altogether apart from the means: we are not straitened in him—the straitness is in ourselves alone. We are shallow and narrow creeks, and how can the great sea of divine love pour its fulness into us? O Lord, enlarge our hearts till we shall be "filled with all the fulness of God."
Believers long for fuller holiness and freedom beyond their current spiritual limitations.
"We are now imperfect, and straitened, like a fish in a pail, or small vessel of water, which cannot keep it alive: it would fain be in the ocean, or swimming in the broad and large rivers. So we are pent up, and cannot do what we would, but we long for a larger estate, namely, to be filled with all the fulness of God. That holiness which we have now, maketh us look and long for more, and, surely, this desire after holiness was never designed for our torment; there must be something to answer to the desire excited." It is even so; we are now cribbed, cabined, and confined, and our renewed spirit feels itself in bondage. The fish cannot half so much desire the river as we desire a nobler sphere wherein the better life may have due scope and range. As a lion goeth to and fro in his den, impatient of restraint, so doth our spirit move restlessly after better things. We are not content with the measure of our liberty, the tether of our range. We are like the young chick which is pecking at the shell which shuts it in; we perceive that there is very much outside of our prison-wall, and we are anxious to break forth. Is not this the testimony of all saintly men? Are not the bonds felt? Are we not groaning under them? The argument of our author is well drawn, and incontrovertible. God does not create desires without also providing corresponding objects: for thirst there is drink, for hunger there is food, for the eye there is light. So also for the soul which hungers and thirsts after righteousness there is a filling. The renewed heart shall yet see the perfection for which it pines, and the holy mind shall enjoy the communion with God for which it pants. Be glad, O my heart, because of thine own pangs! If thou wert now content, there would be in thee no ensigns and evidences of better things yet to be revealed. Thy groanings and yearnings are prophecies of guaranteed perfection. If thou wert of the earth, thou wouldst be satisfied with earth; but because thou hast a higher nature, thou art not at home amid these lower things. 'There remaineth therefore a rest for thee, a home for thee, a heaven for thee.'"
Sinners can safely hide in Christ, the unmovable Rock, amid life's dangers.
A train of cars was passing swiftly down the steep grade of the Alleghany Mountains, when the engineer discovered a little girl and her baby brother playing on the track just ahead. At this crisis, the girl discovered a niche in the side of the rock, into which she thrust the baby, and pressed herself; saying, as she did so, "Cling close to the rock, Johnny; cling close to the rock." The train thundered by, and they escaped unharmed. So amid the perils of life may the sinner hide in the "Rock of Ages."
Christ's grace fills every empty longing and need in our hearts.
You have stood by the seashore, and have noticed in some parts the deep holes in the sand and rock; but, when the tide has come up, it has filled up all those crevices and holes. There are wants in our hearts,—unsatisfied longings; look to Christ, in him there is a tide of grace to fill up every hollow and crevice in your nature. Rec. Thomas Jones.
A disciple's spirit clings to Christ by a life-stream, sustaining spiritual connection and strength.
I have seen a heavy piece of solid iron hanging on another, not welded, not linked, not glued to the spot; and yet it cleaved with such tenacity as to bear not only its own weight, but mine too, if I chose to seize and hang upon it. A wire charged with an electric current is in contact with its mass, and hence its adhesion. Cut that wire through, or remove it by a hair's-breadth, and the piece drops dead to the ground, like any other unsupported weight. A stream of life from the Lord, brought into contact with a human spirit, keeps the spirit cleaving to the Lord so firmly, that no power on earth or hell can wrench the two asunder. From Christ the mysterious life-stream flows, through the being of a disciple it spreads, and to the Lord it returns again. In that circle, the feeblest Christian is held safely; but, if the circle be broken, the dependent spirit instantly drops off.
The River Restonica’s whitening waters symbolize Christ’s life that purifies and transforms.
The little River Restonica in Corsica has the wonderful property of whitening every thing thrown into it. Its waters are clear as crystal, and the small stones which are seen in its bed are as white as chalk. Any kind of metal, but particularly iron, when dipped into it, has the appearance of being plated with silver. The quality of its waters, also, is esteemed highly salubrious.
Christian life requires roots and support adapted to withstand spiritual challenges and trials.
The trees are adapted to the demand of their position. The fir of the northern hills defies the wintry blast by reason of its strong roots, which penetrate the crevices of the soil, or grasp the rocks in their arms. The oak is a match for the tempest till decay has undermined its strength. The tall palms send their roots down three feet into the earth, and then spread out, securing a firm anchorage, and are able to stand the sweep of the desert winds. The roots of the pine are spread over the surface; but it grows in less exposed situations, and is shielded by the social life of the forest. The tropical forests are held in place by the climbing plants, which bind the trees together like the rigging of a ship. Frequently, tall trees, uprooted by the winds, or mined by the streams, are still held up by these wonderful natural cables. They are thus enabled to root anew, and prolong their life. The roots of the tree must always be equal to its support. The mangrove which fringes the estuaries and lagoons of the tropics, exposed to the tides, on a shifting soil, supports itself by sending roots from its trunk and lower branches down into the muddy ground; so that the whole has the appearance of a tree propped up by artificial stakes. We may infer, that a like wise adjustment pervades the moral world.
Christ’s control over our lives guides and empowers us despite our own weakness.
I have fancied myself sitting in a carriage drawn by wild, furious horses; myself holding the reins. The steeds are young and full of mettle; and, taking the bits in their teeth, they bear me on, and I have not power to control them. But just as I am in my extremity, and about to be run away with, I feel a sensation as though a strong man had come into the chariot behind me, and, encircling me in his strong arms, had stretched out his hands, and taken the lines, and was controlling my impetuous steeds. He does not take the fire out of them, but guides them, and makes them go; and I am safe, though flying like the wind, while this mighty charioteer is with me. Lp. Simpson.
Being 'in Jesus' provides safety from Satan and spiritual progress.
Ah! when we find him, and while we will not let him go, there is safety, progress, happiness, usefulness, for us. Satan cannot lay hold on us. A little child, who was told by her mother that the Tempter could not get her because Jesus would be with her, answered, "Why, mother, I am in Jesus."
— W. E. Boardman
Christian life grows stronger and deeper over time, unlike worldly life that diminishes.
Ordinarily, rivers run small at the beginning, grow broader and broader as they proceed, and become widest and deepest at the point where they enter the sea. It is such rivers that the Christian's life is like. But the life of the mere worldly man is like those rivers in Southern Africa, which, proceeding from mountain freshets, are broad and deep at the beginning, and grow narrower and more shallow as they advance. They waste themselves by soaking into the sands; and at last they die out entirely. The farther they run, the less there is of them.
— Beecher
A quiet soul is best prepared to receive God's blessings and promises.
The still and quiet soul is like a ship that lies quiet in the harbor: you may take in what goods you please whilst the ship lies still. So, when the soul lies quiet under the hand of God, it is most fitted to take in much of God, of Christ, of heaven, of the promises, and of ordinances; but, when souls are unquiet, they are like a ship in a storm: they can take in nothing.
— Brooks
True believers live in religion naturally, unlike those who practice it reluctantly.
The religion of some people is constrained: they are like people who use the cold bath, not for pleasure, but necessity and their health; they go in with reluctance, and are glad when they get out. But religion to a true believer is like water to a fish: it is his element, he lives in it, and he could not live out of it. J. Newton.
A Christian's deep spiritual life keeps them stable amid life's storms like an iceberg.
An established experienced, hopeful Christian is, in the world, like an iceberg in a swelling sea. The waves rise and fall. Ships strain and shiver, and nod on the agitated waters. But the iceberg may be seen from far, receiving the breakers on its snow-white sides, casting them off unmoved, and, where all else is rocking to and fro, standing stable like the everlasting hills. The cause of its steadiness is its depth. Its bulk is bedded in calm water beneath the tumult that rages on the surface. Although, like the ships, it is floating in the water, it receives and throws off the angry waves like the rocks that gird the shore. Behold the condition and attitude of Christians! They float in the same sea of life with other men, and bear the same buffetings; but they are not driven hither and thither, the sport of wind and water. The wave strikes them, breaks over them, and hisses past in foam; but they remain unmoved. They were not caught by surprise while they had a slight hold of the surface. The chief part of their being lies deep beyond the reach of these superficial commotions. Their life, "hid with Christ in God," bears without breaking all the strain of the storm. Dr. Arnot.
Believers abiding in Christ receive continual, effortless spiritual nourishment like a mountain spring.
He that has joined himself to the mountain-spring has its voice continually in his dwelling, night and day, summer and winter, without work or stroke of laboring pump, clear, sweet, and cheerful; running of its own accord, and singing at its work; more musical than any lute, and bringing in its song suggestions of its home, — the dark recess, the rock which was its father, the cloud which was its mother, and the teeming heaven bright and broad above both rock and cloud. Beecher.
Right thinking fills solitude with joyful, holy companionship even in suffering.
The man who has learnt to think well and rightly never need be alone; for he can people solitude, and cheer the dreariness of night, with bright and pure thoughts. He may languish innocently in the dungeon, whither the tyrant's hand has thrust him, or he may be stretched on his restless couch in the hospital, or he may lie emaciated on his pallet of straw in his lonely garret: but alone he cannot be; for holy and happy thoughts, like angels of mercy, fit too and fro before his mental vision, and become his joyful companions. R. Roberts.
Rejecting God's protection leads to feeble, unfruitful spiritual life and no true shelter.
We have known men, upon whose grounds were old, magnificent trees of centuries' growth, lifted up into the air with vast breadth, and full of twilight at mid-day, who cut down all these mighty monarchs, and cleared the ground bare; and then, when the desolation was completed, and the fierce summer gazed full into their faces with its fire, they bethought themselves of shade, and forthwith set out a generation of thin, shadowless sticks, and pined and waited till they should stretch out their boughs with protection, and darken the ground with grateful shadow. Such folly is theirs who refuse the tree of life, the shadow of the Almighty, and sit, instead, under feeble trees of their own planting, whose tops will never be broad enough to shield them, and whose boughs will never discourse to them the music of the air. Beecher.
Spiritual life flows only through close, open union with Christ like sap through a vine branch.
If a vine-branch is to sprout, and throw out new suckers and shoots, the tube by which it communicates with the stock of the tree must adhere tightly to the stem, and be well open for the passage of the sap. If you desire to see the colors of furniture in this room, whose shutters are closed, throw open the shutters, and admit the full flood of sunlight. And if you desire to see the dead heart put forth the energies of spiritual life, and the dark heart illumined by the fair colors of spiritual grace, throw wide open the passage of communication between Christ and it. Dr. Goulburn.
Branches must abide in the vine to live and bear fruit, illustrating dependence on Christ.
In a Sunday-school class, the other day, a teacher was trying to show the dependence of the branches upon the vine, — for, if the vine dies, the branch dies also, — and said earnestly, “Jesus is the vine; we are the branches of the vine, and derive all our comfort and happiness from him.” — “Yes,” said a bright little fellow of eight years, “Jesus is the vine, the grown-up people are the branches, and we (the children) are the little buds;” showing that he clearly understood the parable, and giving to the great truth a simplicity which the minds of the smaller children could hardly fail to comprehend.
The Spirit’s inner witness remains with believers through all trials and losses.
Believers have a double testimony, one without, and one within; and this witness within us will go with us, which way soever we go: it will accompany us through all straits and difficulties. The external testimony may be
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taken from us, our Bibles, our teachers, our friends; or they may imprison us where we cannot enjoy them: but they cannot take from us the Spirit of Christ. This witness within is a permanent, settled, habituate, standing witness. Ambrose.
Believers draw life and strength continually from Christ, the true vine.
Vine and branches. We are branches in true vine from which we draw hourly the divine life. Draw all wisdom and strength from Him
Believers need daily spiritual nourishment from Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Believer must gather fresh spiritual food every day, letting the Holy Spirit minister it to our hearts (v. 19). Spiritual food cannot be hoarded. Must feed on Christ for daily needs. Cannot be sustained on past appropriations of Christ
True Christians shine by abiding in Christ, not just carrying empty religion.
We see very few illuminated Christians now. If every one of us was illuminated by the Spirit of God, how we could light up the churches! But to have a lantern without any light, that would be a nuisance. Many Christians carry along lanterns and say, “I wouldn’t give up my religion for yours.” They talk about religion. The religion that has no fire is like painted fire. They are artificial Christians. Do you belong to that class? You can tell. If you can’t, your friends can.
There is a fable of an old lantern in a shed, which began to boast because it had heard its master say he didn’t know what he would ever do without it. But the little candle within spoke up and said: “Yes, you’d be a great comfort if it wasn’t for me! You are nothing; I’m the one that gives the light.” We are nothing, but Christ is everything, and what we want is to keep in communion with Him and let Christ dwell in us richly and shine forth through us.
I have a match box with a phosphorescent front. It draws in the rays of the sun during the day and then throws them out in the dead hours of the night, so that I can always see it in the dark. Now, that is what we ought to be, constantly drawing in the rays of the Sun of Righteousness and then giving them out. Someone said to some young converts, “It is all moonshine being converted.” They replied, “Thank you for the compliment. The moon borrows light from the sun, and so we borrow ours from the Sun of Righteousness.” That is what takes place when we have this illumination.
Believers live spiritually by abiding in God's living and incorruptible Word.
As certain insects take their color from the leaves they feed upon, so have we become tinctured to the core of our nature with the living and incorruptible Word, which has proved its own inspiration by inspiring us with its spirit. Now we live in the Word as the fish in the stream; it is the element of our spiritual life.
Christ as spiritual food and light provides endless freshness and delight to believers.
Who ever called the sea monotonous? Even to the mariner, traveling over it as he does, sometimes by the year together, there is always a freshness in the undulation of the waves, the whiteness of the foam of the breaker, the curl of the crested billow, and the frolicsome pursuit of every wave by its long train of brothers. Which of us has ever complained that the sun gave us but little variety? What though at morn he yoke the same steeds and flash from his car the same golden glory, climb with dull uniformity the summit of the skies, then drive his chariot downward and bid his flaming coursers steep their burning fetlocks in the western deep? Or who among us would complain loathingly of the bread which we eat, that it palls upon the sense of taste? We eat it today, tomorrow, the next day; we have eaten it for years which are passed; still the one unvarying food is served upon the table, and bread remains the staff of life. Translate these earthly experiences into heavenly mysteries. If Christ is your food and your spiritual bread; if Christ is the sun, your heavenly light; if Christ is the sea of love in which your passions swim and all your joys are found, it is not possible that you as Christian men should complain of monotony in Him. He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever"; and yet He has the "dew of His youth." He is like the manna in the golden pot which was always the same; but He is also like the manna which came down from heaven every morning new. He is as the rod of Moses,, which was dry and changed not its shape; but He is also to us as the rod of Aaron, which buds, and blossoms, and brings forth almonds.
Spiritual dryness results from lost connection, not lack of God's abundant supply.
You can get no water from your old pump. When you try you get only a painful wheezing. Pumps are not living things, but they, too, suffer exhaustion. Must you give it up, and dig a new well? Oh, no. The well is all right, and has given abundant and sweet water for a generation. You look it over, and find that the old leather valve is dry and worn out. Pour in a pitcher of water to wet it, and the wheezing is cured. Put in a new valve and the old pump is good for years to come. God’s supply of living water is abundant as ever. It is only your connection with it that failed.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”
Christian life is like a life-giving current that sustains and enriches the world.
The waters of the Pacific are tempered for a certain width with a warm current flowing north from the tropics. The temperature of Alaska is affected by it, and the result of its genial influence is increased vegetation and civilization. But for this life-giving stream Alaska would be as destitute and uninhabitable as Labrador.
But for the enriching stream of Christian life the whole world would now be a moral Labrador. (Text.)
Spiritual power comes from drawing near to God, like electrical contact.
From the following illustration of electrical contact, Rev. William Arthur draws the moral that if we would be spiritually electrified we must draw nigh to God.
When a lecturer on electricity wants to show an example of a human body surcharged with his fire, he places a person on a stool with glass legs. The glass serves to isolate him from the earth, because it will not conduct the fire--the electric fluid. Were it not for this, however much might be poured into his frame, it would be carried away by the earth; but, when thus isolated from it, he retains all that enters him. You see no fire, you hear no fire; but you are told that it is pouring into him. Presently, you are challenged to the proof, asked to come near, and hold your hand close to his person; when you do so, a spark of fire shoots out toward you.
Christ fills empty lives with His fullness, transforming barrenness into vibrant life.
The late Charles Cuthbert Hall said:
I recall the wonder and delight with which I saw the ocean tide come up the Bay of Fundy and fill the empty river-bed. Through the hours of the ebb, the Nova Scotian rivers dwindled and shrank within their banks. Broad and barren reaches of sand exposed themselves; ships listed heavily on their sides, deserted by the feeble stream trickling in mid-channel. Then came the tide up the Bay of Fundy, up from the abundance of the unfathomable sea. You could hear it coming with a distant sound of motion and life and unmeasured power. You could see it coming, with a pure white girdle of foam, that looked in sunlight like a zone of fire. It entered the river-bed; it filled the empty channel as one fills a pitcher at the fountain; it covered the barren sands with motion and sparkling life; it lifted the heavy ships, gave back to them their rights of buoyancy, set them free upon the broad water-way of world-wide opportunity; it changed the very face of the land from sadness and apathy and dulness to animation and color and glittering activity. So Christ comes into empty human lives, and fills them with His fulness, which is the very fulness of God. The difference between a life without Christ and a life with Christ is the difference between ebb and flood: the one is growing emptier, the other is growing fuller.
Constant communion with God surrounds and protects us from harmful influences.
Constant communion will surround us with an atmosphere through which none of the many influences which threaten our Christian life and our Christian work can penetrate. As the diver in his bell sits dry at the bottom of the sea, and draws a pure air from the free heavens far above him, and is parted from that murderous waste of green death that clings so closely round the translucent crystal walls which keep him safe, so we, enclosed in God, shall repel from ourselves all that would overflow to destroy us and our work, and may by His grace lay deeper than the waters some courses in the great building that shall one day rise, stately and many-mansioned, from out of the conquered waves. (Text.)
— ALEXANDER MCLAREN
The mind of Christ lifts us to unseen spiritual realities beyond material senses.
The mind of Christ places and keeps us on the heights, lifting our consciousness from the seen to the unseen, and opening all our little restricted nature to the joyous rhythm of the universal life. What cowards we are when dominated by the seen. We dare not affirm anything beyond the reach of the eye, the sound of the ear, the touch of the finger-tips. But the beauties we see are only the reflection of the beauties that are, like Pluto’s artizans in the cave, catching only the reflected light from the realm above, the music we hear, the merest jingle of the melodies divine, the things we touch, the superficial, mechanical, material side of reality. Why can’t we believe that the unseen things which can be detected from the heights are those that are worth while, because the abiding, the eternal? Only on the heights can we dominate bodily conditions.
— ROBERT MACDONALD
Tuning life to Christ’s keynote brings harmony to all aspects of living.
In tuning a piano the artist strikes his tuning-fork on a hard surface and holds it to his ear while at the same time he strikes the A key on the keyboard. Then he tightens or loosens the string until the key and the fork correspond. From this he proceeds to harmonize all the other keys.
For the harmony of human life we have One who furnishes the keynote. When we tune our life up to His all its chords become consonant.
Spiritual life and fruitfulness depend on an unbroken root connection to Christ.
To-day I have been transplanting magnolia-trees. There is one that stands among the earliest I planted, twenty years ago, and now it is a vast ball of white. I suppose five hundred thousand magnificent cups are exhaling thanksgiving to God after the long winter has passed. Now, no man need tell me that the root that nestles in the ground is as handsome or smells as sweet as these vases in the air; but I should like to know what would become of all these white cups in the air if the connection between those dirt-covered roots and the blossoms should be cut to-night. The root is the prime provider, and there can be no life and no blossom where there is no root connection.
— HENRY WARD BEECHER
Being close to Christ makes believers emit a spiritual fragrance that influences others.
A Persian fable says: One day A wanderer found a lump of clay So redolent of sweet perfume Its odors scented all the room. “What are thou?” was his quick demand. “Art thou some gem from Samarcand, Or spikenard in this rude disguise, Or other costly merchandise?” “Nay, I am but a lump of clay.” “Then, whence this wondrous perfume, say!” “Friend, if the secret I disclose-- I have been dwelling with the rose.”
Dear Lord, abide with us, that we May draw our perfume fresh from thee.
It is nothing wonderful that men said of the early disciples that they had been with Jesus. They had in their life the perfume of the rose--the Rose of Sharon.
God supplies and empowers believers like a spring powering a town's water system.
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At Huntsville, Ala., is a spring that supplies the whole town with an abundance of pure, fresh water. But the wonder of it all is that the flow of it is made to operate a wheel that pumps the water into the homes of the people.
The supply of water is the power of the water supply. God, who is the water of life, also sends all we need for the operation of all activities. (Text.)
Life-giving spiritual water comes from deep sources, like springs beneath a hot gulf.
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The sources of the soul’s water of life is in the hill-springs, but one may have to go down into the depths to find it, as these divers bring up fresh water out of the ocean:
The hottest region on earth is on the south western coast of Persia, where Persia borders the gulf of the same name. For forty consecutive days in the months of July and August the thermometer has been known not to fall lower than 100 degrees, night or day, and to often run up as high as 128 degrees in the afternoon. At Bahrin, in the center of the torrid part of the torrid belt, as tho it were nature’s intention to make the region as unbearable as possible, no water can be obtained from digging wells one hundred to two hundred or even five hundred feet deep, yet a comparatively numerous population contrive to live there, thanks to copious springs which break forth from the bottom of the gulf, more than a mile from shore. The water from these springs is obtained by divers, who dive to the bottom and fill goat-skins with the cooling liquid and sell it for a living. The source of these submarine fountains is thought to be in the green hills of Osman, some five or six hundred miles away.--_Public Opinion._
A dying soldier’s peace came from God reigning in his heart long before death.
A soldier lay dying. The lady who watched by his side, said: “If this should be death, are you ready to meet God?” The eyes opened slowly, and a smile passed over his face, as he answered: “I am ready, for this has long been in His Kingdom,” and as he spoke he placed his hand upon his heart. “Do you mean that God rules and reigns in your heart?” she asked. “Yes,” he answered, but his voice sounded far off, as if it came from one already in the “valley and shadow of death.” And he lay there with his hand over his heart even after it had ceased to beat.
