Key Verse: "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 15:5 KJV
Oh, that the Church of Christ, and each individual
member, would but realize this truth; that simpler, closer, more
experimental views of Jesus would essentially strengthen the tone of inward
spirituality and comfort! The great secret of all comfort in seasons of
affliction is to take the affliction, as it comes, simply to Christ; and the
great secret of all holiness is to take the corruption, as it rises, simply
to Christ.
It is this living upon Christ for all he needs, this going to Christ under all circumstances, and at all seasons, which forms the happy and holy life of a child of God. There is no other path for him to walk in. The moment he turns from Christ he becomes like a vessel loosed from its moorings, and driven at the mercy of the winds from billow to billow.
Christ must be all in all to him; friends, domestic comforts, Church privileges, ordinances, means of grace, nothing must suffice for Jesus. And why does the Lord so frequently discipline the soul? Why remove friends, why blight domestic comforts, why rob us of Church privileges, why close up the ordinances, and write death upon the means of grace?
Oh, why? but to open a
way through which He Himself might enter the believer, and convince that
lonely, bereaved, and desolate heart that He is a substitute for everything,
while nothing shall ever be a substitute for Him. He will have the supreme
affection of His saints; they shall find their all in Him; and to this end
He sends afflictions, crosses, and disappointments, but to wean them from
their idols and draw them to Himself.
Are you Saved?
