“Spare it this Year Also”
135
With what unwearied love did Christ minister to Israel during
the period of added probation. Upon the cross He prayed, “Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Luke 23:24
. After
His ascension the gospel was preached first at Jerusalem. There the
Holy Spirit was poured out. There the first gospel church revealed the
power of the risen Saviour. There Stephen—“his face as it had been
the face of an angel” (
Acts 6:15
)—bore his testimony and laid down
his life. All that heaven itself could give was bestowed. “What could
have been done more to My vineyard,” Christ said, “that I have not
done in it?”
Isaiah 5:4
. So His care and labor for you are not lessened,
but increased. Still He says, “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every
moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.”
Isaiah 27:3
.
“If it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that”—
The heart that does not respond to divine agencies becomes hard-
ened until it is no longer susceptible to the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Then it is that the word is spoken, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the
ground?”
Today He invites you: “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.... I
will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.... I will be as the
dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as
Lebanon.... They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall
revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.... From Me is thy fruit found.”
Hosea 14:1-8
.
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