The Lord Jesus, in teaching his disciples, says, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John xv. 5.) What could the shoots do without the stock in which they are ingrafted? and what could man do without Him whose Life is the life in all? "In God (the true Vine), we live, move, and have our being." As we are the branches, so each branch draws from God, the one Life, the nourishment he requires, and as he uses or abuses this gift, he becomes a living or a withered branch. Each man is a distinct identity, and differs, on account of human freedom, somewhat from every other: hence no two are exactly alike; and although we all draw our spiritual nourishment from the same Divine Source,—yet each, receiving what is adapted to his own state or condition of mind, moulds it, by a process of spiritual digestion, into his own quality. The most ardent love of God produces the richest and noblest fruits in the life; the less ardent, somewhat inferior; and this forms all varieties in life and character. Those who pervert their Father's blessings, bear no fruit, and become withered branches, and, cut asunder from the holy Vine, perish in their iniquity. The Divine Love is gloriously displayed in our bearing fruit: "Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit." (John xv. 8.) Jesus, our God, is the Word—the Truth; and man will be blessed indeed, if he "receive with meekness the ingrafted Word." (James i. 21.) It is Jesus, the Tree of Life, who generates every good.
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