THE PLACE OF THE BRANCH THE manna came directly from the sky; that manna always does. Our daily bread does not. When our Lord spoke of the branch and the vine, there were three working together for the fruit, the husbandman, the vine, the branch. Or shall we say four, and name another quite as essential, the man who gathered the fruit? If we transfer this to the spiritual interests which He had in mind, we have the Father, the Son whom He gave to the world, the men whom Christ drew about himself, and to whom He gave his life, and, finally, those who listened to the disciples and took from them the gift of God which it was their calling to bestow. It seems a long way from the Eternal in his heaven to the grapes plucked by a man's hand from the vine, but the way is unbroken. It is like a long river whose head-waters, gathered from the springs among the hills, flow down their course till they reach the sea into which men cast their nets and over which they sail their ships. The River of the Water of Life flows from the throne of God, but men drink of it in the valleys of this world. Thus the fruit proceeds from the vine; it is its life, changed into that which shall be refreshing to the world. This is the divine way of blessing the world. Many of the gifts of God are given immediately to men, are bestowed by the spirit of God upon the spirit of men. But in the ordinary gifts of his providence and of his grace, there is, commonly, the intervention of the man who is the branch. This is certainly not our way, for only to a limited extent have we consented to it now that it is appointed for us. It is very difficult for men to feel that by the ordinance of God they are of constant and vital importance in the imparting of his blessings. It pleases God to give his Son. It pleases Christ to give his disciples, whom He has instructed and furnished and inspired for his work in the world. There is but one Incarnation of which it can be said that God is manifest in the flesh, and "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." But there are many indwellings in which the spirit who is God, abiding in the spirit who is man, speaks through his lips, works by his hands, and thus illustrates and conveys his truth and mercy to the world. The method of Christ's life as it has been given in the gospel makes this plain. "Ye have not chosen me," He said, "but I have chosen you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain." He meant that his own life, in order to reach the world, should become the life of men and should be his and theirs, to be received by those to whom men carried it as the life of Christ. In this we are following a method which is entirely simple and reasonable, for man is himself spirit, and has the divine nature; he is furnished with power by his Creator, he is endowed with knowledge and truth and life by Christ, to whom he looks as Master and Lord. He has in his measure the character of Christ, for he is a man forgiven through Him, and renewed by the spirit of truth; he has dwelling in him the same Holy Spirit who descended upon his Lord as He stood in the waters of the Jordan; and so far as it can be done he repeats in the world the life which his Master lived when He was seen of men, and has the same intent and passion to glorify God upon the earth and to accomplish the work which He has given him to do. Very real is the trust which is reposed in him, when He who is the Good Shepherd, and who has given his life for the sheep, intrusts his sheep and his lambs to the care of the man. But much more close is the relation in this similitude of the vine, wherein the vine ordains that the life which He is |