December 30

Isaiah v.—1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

2. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

3. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah! judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

4. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

5. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

6. And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

John xv.—1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit: so shall ye be my disciples.

9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

This beautiful allegory of the vine has gathered about it. The clusters of grapes, the best thoughts of the best men. The theme is the inner unity of Christ and his disciples. "The vine and branches," says Alford, "stand in a much nearer connection than the shepherd and the sheep, or the lord of the vineyard and the vines: they are linked together by a common organization, and informed by one and the same life." Yet, as saith Augustine, "the branches are in the vine, not so as to impart any thing to it, but so as to derive their life from it; the vine is in the branches in such a way as to minister to them the vital ailment, not in such a way as to receive it from them."

The evidence of being in Christ, and the condition of remaining upon the vine, is find-bearing. No dead-wood of

formalism, no leafy but fruitless branches of ceremony, can be suffered to hinder the true spiritual growth and vitality of the Church. The unfruitful are cut off as worthless; and, being dissevered from Christ, they betray their worthlessness, and are despised and destroyed. The fruit bearing of the true branches is improved with care: hence, as Luther says, "the pruning-away of the suckers,—the bastard or false shoots, which bring no fruit, and do nothing but waste the sap which the good fruitful branches should have." And these branches are represented as having a conscious union one with another by virtue of their common derivation and common life. As Jesus has poured into his Church his own blood as its life, its members should love one another with the martyr-spirit of devotion.

APPROPRIATE ITEMS.]

Prayer.

[Nos. 62, 76, 91.

We come to thee this morning, heavenly Father, with hearts full of thankfulness for the mercies of the night. We have rested in safety and in peace under the shadow of thy wing. Thou hast kept us quiet from the fear of evil: nor sickness, nor death, nor tempest, nor fire, nor any calamity, hath overtaken us or our dwelling. How sure are the mercies of thy covenant, O Lord! All thy promises in Christ Jesus are Yea and Amen. Fulfil unto us, we beseech thee, these thy mercies and promises, and cause that this day we may rejoice in thy salvation. May we be joined to Christ the living Vine, and grow by the power of his life within us! [Oh, may these children grow in grace as they grow in years and in knowledge!

May they shun evil companions and evil ways, and walk in the way of thy commandments!] Keep all dear to us even as the apple of thine eye. Bless our neighbors, and send thy Spirit upon this whole community. Bless our rulers, and the schools and churches in our land. May all who rule, and all who teach, be led and taught by thee! Have pity upon the poor and the sorrowing; upon homes made desolate by famine, pestilence, or war. Stay thy judgments, O Lord! and send peace and salvation to all people. Mercifully forgive our sins, and bring us unto the perfection of knowledge, of holiness, and of blessedness, in Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom be glory forever. Amen.