1.04. The Branch and the Branches

“In that day shall the Branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.”—Isaiah 4:2. “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.

CHAPTER IV. THE BRANCH AND THE BRANCHES; OR, A SYMBOL OF CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH.

Having in the preceding chapter spoken of the Messiah in four different aspects as the “Branch,” I will here endeavour, briefly, to set forth a few reasons for the appropriateness of this title as applied to Messiah, and then, also briefly, to present Him to our view in an entirely different aspect of His character, which is more particularly given of Him in the New Testament, namely, as the Vine, I beg permission to present my thoughts in this short chapter in a somewhat parabolical, or rather illustrative manner, and trust that I shall not be misunderstood as advocating speculation on sacred things which belong only to the Lord our God. If my figure is not quite sound, I trust the lessons drawn from it are sound enough; and if the former is necessary to the mind’s eye, I trust the latter only will be engraven on our hearts. But to commence.

Walking with a friend through a private park near Brighton not long ago, he directed my attention to what he called “one of the sights of this country.” It seemed to me at first sight a group of trees, one large one in the midst being most prominent, but, to my surprise, my friend informed me that all the group which I saw was in reality only one tree, and went on to explain thus:—“The young trees which you see all around are all branches of the central tree, but, as the branches grew to a certain length and touched the ground, they took root, and grew semi-independently, and developed into trees, and then sent forth their branches to do likewise, and so here behold the phenomenon of a plurality in unity.”¹

¹ The tree mentioned above was most probably a banyan tree, common in the East. “The vegetation of the banyan tree seldom begins on the ground. The seeds are deposited by birds in the crowns of palms, and send down roots, which embrace and eventually kill the palm. The wood of the banyan is light, porous, and of no value, but the bark is regarded by the Hindoo physicians as a powerful tonic, and is administered in dietetics. Its white, glutinous juice is used to relieve toothache, and also as an application to the soles of the feet when inflamed. The branches send shoots downwards, which, when they have rooted, become stems, the tree in this manner spreading over a great surface and enduring for many ages. One has been described as having no fewer than three hundred and fifty stems equal to large oaks and more than three thousand smaller ones, covering a space sufficient to contain seven thousand persons.”—CHAMBERS’S “Cyclopædia.” My mind at once recurred to the above passage in the Word of God (Isaiah 4:2), where Messiah is called the “Branch of Jehovah,” and I was reminded of a still greater marvel, of which the one before me may serve as an imperfect illustration.

Out of the infinite, eternally self-existent God, the Tree of Life and Knowledge and Wisdom and Power and Love and Holiness, shot forth a Branch “Whose goings forth have been from of old, even from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2), Which was the admiration of Heaven, upon Whose fruit angels fed with thanksgiving, and under Whose shade all the celestial beings sang their praises. This Branch, however, instead of rising upwards in the regions of light and blessedness, stooped downward until He reached our earth, where He took root, and thus united heaven and earth and restored the intercourse between the two regions by Himself becoming the bridge—a far more glorious and safe bridge than the one which existed before, and which man was himself able to break. Behold, my soul, Jacob’s wonderful dream literally fulfilled! (Genesis 28:12-13).

What was the object of this Divine Branch in stooping down until it reached the earth? In the case of the branch of the banyan tree, the first object it has in seeking contact with the earth is, no doubt, to accomplish its innate law of self-development and aggrandisement; and, if it be lawful to compare natural things with spiritual, I should say that this, too, was the first purpose of the Divine Branch in seeking contact with man, namely, “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10). So that He may be “glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe” (2 Thessalonians 1:10)—in other words, it was to glorify Himself. We are treading on sacred ground, and are face to face with a fact which in its fulness is unutterable; but can it be that, in some mysterious sense, the human can minister to the Divine? Even so, it would seem. Anyhow, this much we know for certain, that in God’s dealings with men, His relative perfections are made manifest. Thus God, in order to show that He is Light, requires man upon whom He might shine, in order that he might reflect His light, and in order to show that He is Love, He requires man to love; for we can only think of love as existing relatively and in proportion as it is expressed, positively or negatively, for the salvation of others. In order also to make manifest that He is the Fountain of life, He takes hold of man, who is spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins,” and quickens him, and so demonstrates to all who will but see, that He lives, and that there is a spiritual and Divine.

Weak and trembling Christian, you who see no reason in yourself why the infinite and all-glorious God should have revealed Himself to and in you, in you God will be admired by all the universe. Are you very sinful? Then in you He can make His grace more apparent. Are you very weak? Then in you can the perfectness of His strength be more seen. In short, are you altogether empty? Then you can contain more of the “fulness of Him Who filleth all in all,” to the admiration of principalities and powers and all things that are. Be silent before Him, then, and hear Him with wonder and adoration saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”!

But, in the second place, natural scientists would tell us that in the case of the branch of the banyan tree stooping down to the earth, that part of earth which comes into vital contact with the branch is quickened by it, and is thereby transferred into a higher kingdom; for, by the process of assimilation which goes on, the branch makes the earth a part of itself. The accuracy of this statement, as far as the vegetable and mineral kingdoms are concerned, may be questioned, but there is certainly no question but that the first thing which the visitation of the Divine Branch has brought to us is life. “He” (the second Adam) “was a quickening Spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). “I came,” He said Himself, “to bring life;” and again, “Even so the Son quickeneth whom He will;” and again, “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 10:10; John 5:21; John 5:24; 1 John 5:12); “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). And that He brought the only chance for man’s restoration into the higher state is equally clear. Since the fall there has been as impenetrable a gulf between the human and Divine as there is between the inorganic and organic. Two or three years before Strauss died, we are told, a gelatinous substance was dredged up from the sea depths, which certain English naturalists pronounced to be an organic plasm, from which life was being gradually developed. This vaunted discovery, of which infidelity failed not to make the most, freed Strauss from the belief in God which he had hitherto been constrained to avow, as otherwise he could not account for the origin of life. Since his death, however, the so-called organic plasm has been proved to be produced by a chemical blunder, and disavowed even by its discoverers; but poor Strauss did not live long enough to discover the fatal error he made and to find out that the bridge between the lifeless and the living is still wanting. There are many now who think that they have discovered something in the heart of man quite apart from the agency of the Spirit of God, which, when developed, will bridge over the gap between the human and Divine. All that I can say is, that I wish them at least to live long enough to find out their mistake, so that they may be brought to seek entrance into the kingdom of heaven by another door. With all improvements, and civilisation, and progress, it is impossible for man to progress beyond the boundary of the human. He may come up to the very edge of the boundary, but then he will only see the clearer the infinity of that gulf which separates him from the Divine. The mineral may as well try by its own powers to jump into the vegetable kingdom as man into the Divine. In both cases the door of progress into the higher kingdom is scaled by the awful seal of death, and in both cases that seal can only be broken by supernatural power. I might appeal to the experience of man, and it will also testify to the truth of this solemn fact. Has man ever by his own exertions come nearer to God? Has not, alas! man’s so-called progress been a progress of retrogression? There is a very touching Arabian story of a certain wicked city which was punished by God with continuous drought. At length the inhabitants of the place, pressed by famine, sent seventy of their number to the prophet of God that he might supplicate rain for them, but all the time the city and deputation remained impenitent in their hearts. At length they arrived in the place where the prophet lived, and begged him to consult God on their behalf. The prophet did so, when three clouds of different colours, white, red, and black, appeared above the horizon, and a voice pronounced, “Choose which ye will.” They chose the black cloud, which followed them on their homeward journey. When they approached their city the inhabitants came out to meet them, and, on beholding the dark cloud, they shouted and danced for joy, crying, “Rain and plenty!” But lo! as the cloud came just over the city, it burst into a raging pestilential wind, and, instead of rain and plenty, there was desolation and death! Let us not be too sanguine as to the influence of our so-called “progress” and “civilisation” as a means to bring man nearer to God. That which appears at first sight as a cloud of healthful showers may burst upon us as a whirlwind of destruction. Alas! has not the study of “science falsely so called” only confirmed man in his proud defiance of God? The world may become ever so polished, but its beauty will be an artificial and dead one. It needs quickening, not polishing. But let us go a step farther. The purpose which “the Branch of Jehovah” had in visiting man was not only to quicken him and thus to restore to him the life he had lost, but by stooping down and taking root, as it were, in human soil, He thereby united Himself for ever with man. Thus we are told in the New Testament that those who have come into vital contact with Him have actually become “members of His body.” They have no more a separate existence, for “their life is hid with Christ in God.” They live, but it is no longer they who live, but “Christ Who liveth in them;” and it is this which distinguishes the Christian Church from every other religious body. Islamism, for instance, can exist without Mahomet, because it is Mohammedanism which makes a Mohammedan, and not Mahomet; but the Christian Church without Christ—never! for in this case the relation is not to a doctrine, but to a Person, “from Whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God” (Colossians 2:19). But take away the fountain of nourishment, and it not only ceases to increase, but to exist. It withers; it dies. This glorious relationship between Christ and His people is beautifully described by Himself in the fifteenth of John, where He says, “I am the Vine, and ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.” Notice here, He is no longer the Branch, but the Vine. The Branch has already taken root in the earth, and as He did so He developed into a Tree with branches, “the fruit of which shall be for the healing of the nations.” It is true, that just as is the case with the branch of the banyan tree, which, even after it is developed into a tree, is still vitally united to the father stem, and rightly spoken of as a branch of the old tree, so Christ was one with the Father, and was never separated from Him; yet, in another sense, it is equally true, that He became a Tree, from Whose roots emanated innumerable fresh branches. In relation to God the Messiah is the Branch, because He is the Revealer of God, and it is by the fruit which the branch bears that we know the tree from which it grows. Here let me say, that, if the world knows not God, it is because it has not come and tasted of the fruit from off this Branch. Men, for the most part, stand afar off, and admire the glorious fruits of self-sacrificing love, gentleness, patience, longsuffering, graciousness, holiness, goodness, and truth, all hanging in resplendent beauty on this Branch; but oh! when will they learn that which the A B C of the science of botany teaches, viz., that the fruit is a revelation of the root, and, in a sense, identical with the seed, and take to heart, first, that the phenomenon of the more than human fruit which was on this Branch can only be explained by the fact that it developed from more than human roots, and, secondly, that this Divine, fruitful Branch must be “the effulgence of the glory and the very image of the substance” of the Divine Tree from Which it sprang? Let the world, then, heed the gracious words that “proceeded out of the mouth of Christ,” and learn that God is gracious; let it look upon Him Whom it must acknowledge to be the very embodiment of love and compassion, and learn that God, from Whom He proceeded, is love, and full of compassion; let it behold the moral light with which this Branch has illumined as many as have come under His shadow, and the new life with which He quickened them, and learn that God is light and life; but let it also learn from the spectacle of Gethsemane and Calvary that God is holy and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and that, if He spared not Him, Whom the world must pronounce perfectly innocent, as soon as He came into contact with sin by voluntarily taking it all upon Himself as our Substitute, how dreadful and sharp will be the vials of His wrath which He will pour upon a guilty, godless, Christ-denying, Christ-rejecting world!

Again, Messiah is the Branch, because on Him is the fruit to satisfy the hunger and thirst prevalent in the heart of every man after the unseen and the perfect, or, more properly, after God. That there is such a hunger, or, in other words, that man has a soul—a capacity to know God—a capacity which remains empty and unsatisfied until it knows Him and is filled with Him, I need not stay to prove. We, indeed, hear sometimes of individuals who declare that they have never experienced such hunger and thirst; but their individual experience no more proves that it is the experience of mankind, than would one scorched leaf on an oak in May prove that all the leaves on that oak are scorched and dead. Some catastrophe may have befallen that one leaf, but its deadness only the more forcibly proves the others to be alive. Such an assertion can only be made on two grounds, viz., experience and observation. As to the first, my experience must as much be taken into account as that of the one who declares the absence of this hunger. Now, as for me, I have quite a different tale to tell. In my heart there was, and is, a something which will not be satisfied with anything finite, because in some mysterious way it is an offspring of the Infinite—a void place which cried to be filled and yet would not be filled with anything of this world. And thus this chamber remained in emptiness and desolation until He came, even He, Who had fitted it up, and took up His abode there. Then it at once recognised its Owner and Maker, and at once the yearning ceased, and it is satisfied. Against the experience of the few moral sleepers I place my experience and the experience of the generality of mankind. Then as to observation. Come and let us use all the ages since man has been on the stage as an observatory, and what do we find? It matters not whither our glance is cast; the same answer comes to us, whether written upon an altar which has crumbled to dust with age, or mysteriously chanted by Druids in groves in the solemn stillness of the night, or whether even in shrieks of poor men and women as they cast themselves before the chariot of juggernaut. The words are the same, and they are these, “There is a God upon Whom we are dependent, and we want to know Him.”

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalms 42:1-2). But where is the bread to satisfy this hunger? and where can we find the living water to quench this burning thirst? Not by the study of God in nature; for nature is only a revelation of His almighty power and wisdom, but not of His being. It is, as it were, His garment, but not Himself; and although we may infer by the glory of those skirts of His garments that are visible to us in creation that He must be glorious and full of majesty, yet Himself we see not, for the Creator and creation are not the same. The Messiah alone can give us such a soul-satisfying knowledge of God; for not only is He Himself as much a revelation of the very being of God as the branch is of the tree, but He came as the Sent One for the very purpose of satisfying this hunger and thirst in the heart of man. God sent forth His Branch, in Whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead as really as in the branch dwells the fulness of the tree, in order that those who seek Him may find Him there; for, in a sense, the Messiah and God are identical, the same as the branch of a tree may be said to be identical with the tree. Thus God answered the universal prayer of man, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (John 14:8), by saying, “The only-begotten Son, Which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18).

Hither then gather all ye who hunger, and eat of the fruit from off this Branch, and let your souls be satisfied. Do you want to know God? Come and see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, “Who is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). But if, in relation to God, Christ is the Branch, it is equally true, that, in relation to the Church, He is the Vine. The Christian Church literally sprang forth from the side of Christ, and each individual member is a branch “begotten of God in Him.” Deny this, and the birth and growth of the Christian Church is inexplicable. Christ is, as it were, the germ from which the Church developed, and as truly as Christ was the revelation of God, so truly is the Church the revelation of Christ. This is a truth we would scarcely dare enunciate as we look around and behold the awful caricature of Christ which is presented by those who call themselves by His Name; but we remember with gratitude that professed Christendom is not the Church, and that there is as sharp a line of distinction between the two as there is between the field and the tree that grows in it; in both cases the difference is that between life and death. With this figure before me, if I were to be asked, “What is it that constitutes a member of the Christian Church?” I should answer that the principal condition is being born again by the Spirit of God. Every branch of a tree is born, not made. As truly as the real Christ was begotten of God, so must the real Christian be begotten of Him, else he has not the life of God in him, nor is he at all one with Christ in the sense that the hand is one with the head, or the branch one with the tree, both of which relationships to Christ are assigned to the believer in the New Testament. “Verily, verily,” be it known to you on the authority of the Son of God Himself, that, “except a man be born again,² he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Let not men delude themselves in these days by thinking that they can make themselves Christians by some process of devotional exercise. Christians are not made: they are born. And let them not think that because they do what they are pleased to call “good works” they are Christians. The fruit which hangs on them is made, not grown, and although it may be beautiful to look upon, there is no taste of God in them, and they want the scent of heaven.

² If any one ask, “How can I tell if I am born again?” I can easily answer him by another question: “Do you believe in and love the Lord Jesus Christ?” “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him” (1 John 5:1).

Then if I were asked, What is it which characterises a Christian? I should answer, Fruitfulness. The proof that Christ was really the Branch of Jehovah was the fruit He bore; and this is exactly the test which the world will apply to us, and be it said that it is a fair test, for as sure as every good seed must bear fruit, so sure is it that everyone who has Christ in his heart, everyone who is a branch of the Vine, will bear fruit which will at once reveal whether the Divine life be in him or not. Fruitfulness, abundant fruitfulness, is the only thing which will demonstrate to the world that we are the disciples of Christ (John 15:8), but remember also that it is the only thing which will reveal Christ to the world; for just as sunlight is not seen except as it is reflected from some object, so the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ is not visible to the outside world except as it is reflected by His Church.

Oh! the marvellous; condescending grace of our blessed Lord that He should have made Himself thus dependent upon His people! for as truly as the branches cannot do without the stem, so the stem cannot do without the branches. Without the branches the stem can bear no fruit, and without fruit the perfection of the stem is not attained. In this light how glorious does the position of every follower of Christ, however humble, appear! He contains within him that only light which can dispel the darkness of this world. Within his breast dwells the Infinite One, Whose fulness he shows forth, and in a sense he is the perfection of the Perfect One. It is by observing our good works that men will glorify our Father Who is in heaven. With this figure still before me, if were asked, What is Christian fruitfulness? I should answer that, firstly, it is a doing or being that which will not only be showing forth the perfection or glory of its Divine Stem, but which will be for the refreshment of the weary and hungry and the thirsty. Fruit is not for the branch, nor is it for the stem, but it is for food and refreshment for man; so Christian fruitfulness means giving of ourselves for the good of others, even as Christ gave Himself for us and to us. “The fruit of the Spirit” in the Christian “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). Love to self? Verily, no! Selfishness is the fruitfulness of Satan. Love to God? Yes; but remember that “if a man say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20). Oh, Christian, refresh this hatred-stricken world with the love of God that is in thee! Love thy neighbour as thyself, and upon this is conditioned thy joy and thy peace. Let us examine every one of these Divinely beautiful clusters of fruit, and we shall find them all to possess healing or refreshing qualities for man. To whom, for instance, may we be “longsuffering”? To God? No; verily this would be blasphemous. It is man who, on account of weakness and sin, demands from us a long-suffering spirit. Then “gentleness:” the fact that we are gentle will show that we have the Gentle One in us, but gentleness we can only practise to our fellow-man.

Let us not confound fruitfulness with growth in grace. The two, though going hand in hand, and proportioned one to another, are yet quite distinct. As the tree bears fruit before it is yet fully grown, though of course it is not quite perfect as to quality, nor, compared with the full-grown tree, is it abundant as to quantity, but still it bears fruit while yet it grows, and no one can mistake what kind of fruit it is, so the Christian, although he is yet growing, must at the same time bear fruit. It is true that when he is full-grown, when the germ which is in him shall fully develop into Christ’s own image, then—oh blessed thought!—his fruit shall be perfect and abundant, sweet not only to the taste of heavenly beings, but to God Himself, but still he must begin bearing fruit on earth and refresh man with those fruits, which, when they are perfect, will refresh God’s own heart. But, secondly, in the spiritual world just the same as in the vegetable or animal world, fruitfulness means a producing of the like. Scientifically speaking, fruit is seed; and as seed produces fruit, so fruit produces seed, which in its turn again develops into fruit. “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:20-22), is a law which holds good in the spiritual world as well as in the natural, and in both cases the penalty of disobedience to this law is death. As soon as the plant leaves off to seed it commences to wither and die, and so it is with the animal. Even so is it with the Christian Church. Her own life and health is to some extent dependent upon her fruitfulness; and, as a practical illustration of this truth, I would point to the fact, that those periods of the Church’s history which are characterised by missionary effort are also characterised by abundant spiritual life. Was it not so the first two or three centuries of her existence? And is it not so since the commencement of this century? Hitherto, blessed be God! the Church of Christ has fulfilled the command, “Be fruitful, and multiply,” and many are the sons and daughters whom she has begotten and nursed, so many that they form such a “multitude, which no man can number;” but still there are many for whom she must travail in birth, many from Jews and Gentiles; and still the voice of her God reaches her with the command, “Be fruitful, and multiply.” Do it quickly, for remember that when the days of thy child-bearing are accomplished, when there are no more to be born into the Kingdom of heaven by thee, then the days of thy sojourn on earth will be ended.

I conclude with one other thought, a scriptural truth, which, like the figure of the vine and the branch, also illustrates the mutual relationship and dependence of Christ and His Church.

We are told that Christ is the second Adam, the Progenitor of a new race, to whom He communicates His own Divine life and character (1 Corinthians 15:45-50). But for Adam, in order to accomplish God’s purpose of fruitfulness, Eve was indispensable. Even so is it with the second Adam. The Church, which is His body, is also His bride: “Married to Him Who is raised from the dead, that she should bring forth fruit,” (Romans 7:4).

See then, Christian, how all-important it is that we should abide in Christ if we want to be fruitful. If we live near Him, through His mighty power which shall work in us, we shall be used to bring others into the Kingdom of God.

Again we come back to the parable of the vine and the branches and proclaim the Divine words of Christ, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.”