Chapter 51—United With the Living Vine
[
This article appeared in
The Signs of the Times, December 26, 1892
.]
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new” (
2 Corinthians 5:17
).
Nothing but divine power can regenerate the human heart and imbue
souls with the love of Christ, which will ever manifest itself with love
for those for whom He died. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. When a man
is converted to God, a new moral taste is supplied, a new motive power
is given, and he loves the things that God loves; for his life is bound
up by the golden chain of the immutable promises to the life of Jesus.
Love, joy, peace, and inexpressible gratitude will pervade the soul,
and the language of him who is blessed will be, “Thy gentleness hath
made me great” (
Psalm 18:35
).
But those who are waiting to behold a magical change in their
characters without determined effort on their part to overcome sin, will
be disappointed. We have no reason to fear while looking to Jesus,
no reason to doubt but that He is able to save to the uttermost all that
come unto Him; but we may constantly fear lest our old nature will
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again obtain the supremacy, that the enemy shall devise some snare
whereby we shall again become his captives. We are to work out our
own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in
you to will and to do of His good pleasure. With our limited powers
we are to be as holy in our sphere as God is holy in His sphere. To
the extent of our ability, we are to make manifest the truth and love
and excellence of the divine character. As wax takes the impression of
the seal, so the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God and
retain the image of Christ.
We are to grow daily in spiritual loveliness. We shall fail often
in our efforts to copy the divine pattern. We shall often have to bow
down to weep at the feet of Jesus, because of our shortcomings and
mistakes; but we are not to be discouraged; we are to pray more
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