Fruitfulness

Fruit is the final effort of the tree. It is the witness to life, health, growth, and development, as antecedent conditions. In perfection and abundance fruit is the evidence of the unhindered flow of the sap from the root to the branch — of an adequate supply of nourishment — of a sufficiency of nioisture and sunshine. Without these conditions fruit would not be possible.

So when we read of the fruit** of the Spirit let us understand what is meant. There are the offices and work of the Holy Ghost — but this is the result of His operation. There is the indwelling of the Spirit — but this is the outcome of His indwelling. Not so much that which He introduces, as that which He produces.

The world lays the greatest stress upon fruit

—tangible practical results. But it is not there that we must begin. If we would “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,” we must go farther down, we must penetrate deeper, even to the root, the source and condition of all fruitfulness. There must be life, and union, and communion. “Without Me” — said Christ, apart from Me, that is out of fellowship with Me — “ye can do nothing.” You may be a child of God, and yet not be living in fellowship with Him who is the source of all fruit. “From Me is thy fruit found.** “Being filled with the fruit of righteousness which is by Jesus Christ.” Righteousness-fruit is the result of abiding in the Righteousness of One, and having Him formed within.

How much is there in our service which we call fruit which is not fruit at all! External results are not necessarily fruit. A Judas may carry the Gospel and proclaim it, and souls may be saved in consequence. But this would not be fruit in the messenger. On the

other hand, let the heart be true, let the soul be in unhindered fellowship with Christ, and although no outward results in the way of conversion may be seeriy God will be glorified because there will be the fruit of godliness in the labourer. So the Apostle thanked God on behalf of the Colossians, not because the Gospel brought forth fruit through them, but because, as he said, it “bringeth forth fruit in you (Col. i. 6). Fruit in the life cannot but be accompanied by fruit through the life. The mightiest power for usefulness, is the quiet influence of a life that abides habitually in the secret place of the Most High — right in the centre of all fulness. This is to be “made mighty in all mighty according to the power of His glory.’* Not the least of that fruit which will then be found in us will be the “all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness,” of which the Apostle speaks in the same passage.

It is the fruit that is the glory of the vine. It was by the fruit of His holy consecrated io6 Jftnitlulmii.

life that our blessed Redeemer glorified His Father. The perfect response of His spotless soul to the will of His Heavenly Father was the glory that belonged to Him who was God’s Vine. But it is not Christ alone we now see; but Christ and His people. Nor is it Christ with them merely — but Christ in union with them. He does not say I am the true vine, and ye also are other vines planted in the same vineyard; “but He says “I am the vine, ye are the branches.*’ Their life should not be a life like His merely, and running parallel to His life, but both He and they should be sharers of one and the same life. And so His fruit is now to be found on them. “The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them” — I have given, and continue to give them.

But there are practical hindrances to our fruitfulness, against which we need to be on our guard. Such as

Want of nourishment. This may be the result of worldliness of spirit. As it was with

the “thorny ground “hearers in the parable of the Sower.” The evil here is neither a hard nor a shallow soil — there is softness enough, and depth enough; but it is the existence in it of that which draws all the moisture and richness of the soil away to itself and so starves the plant” Are there not many of God’s children who are thus, through the ‘* cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of this life, or the lusts of other things,” starving their souls? How can they be fruitful?

Or it may be they are in the habit of feeding upon food which is positively injurious to their spiritual well-being. The solemn consideration that the seed we sow in our hearts and mind produces fruit after its kind, should make us very jealous as to the character of the literature, for instance, we are in the habit of reading.

There must be the dsiily fe’eding upon the word of God. We may read it and yet not feed on it. To feed on it the soul must be ib8 ;fxuittulntii.

hungry and faith must be in exercise. The tree to which the child of God is compared {in Jer. xvii. 8) is not only placed in favourable circumstances, “planted by the waters;” it has to fulfil its own functions by appropriating the nourishment thus provided for it. She spreadeth out her roots by the river;’* and so among other characteristics that should mark this tree this was one — she shall not cease from yielding fruit.**

May we know more in our experience of the truth of the text: Thy words were found, and I did eat them: and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart “! -(Jer. XV. 1 6.)

Want of sunshine. There are some Christians who seem to be afraid of enjoying all the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. They are afraid of being too happy. They are like trees on the cold north wall of a garden. The soil is good and the trees are good, but the fruit is scanty and never ripens, because it lacks the warm genial .rays of the sun.

Perhaps some of us have not really considered that “joy” is itself a part of that fruit by which we have to glorify God. There is nothing to be gained by despondency. Doubts are no marks of humility; unbelief is really an evidence of pride. And there is no cloud that so effectually shuts out the glad sunshine of our gracious Father’s face as the thick cloud of unbelief. May we never forget the words of the Psalmist, “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.”