May 4

From me is thy fruit found. — HOSEA xiv. 8.

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

THE union between Christ and his Church is the closest and tenderest in the universe of God, except the union between the three persons of the Godhead. The world of nature and the most endearing relations of human life are laid under contribution in the Scriptures, and are combined, and thus combined are inadequate to express the intimacy of this union and the deep unutterable love of Christ for his Church. The fundamental idea suggested by the emblem of the vine and its branches is the vital union between Christ the true vine and the members of his mystical body. Without this union there can be no spiritual life and no good fruit. The decisive test of this union is to be Christ-like. Our spiritual growth is organic, like the vine, and not mechanical, like the building of a wall. It is an organic development by the mighty power of faith, which works from within outward, and brings the soul under the operation of the great doctrines of grace, and into the closest sympathy with Christ and his cause. The creator of this union is the Father. He engrafts the branches into the true Vine. As the vine-dresser uses the pruning-knife to increase the fruitfulness of the vine, so our heavenly Father corrects his children, and often makes their hearts bleed to increase their Christian graces.

J. L. Bullock

Lord Christ, we humbly ask Of thee, the power and will, With fear and meekness, every task Of duty to fulfil.

J. MONTGOMERY.