“He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit” (John xv. 2).
Recently we passed a garden. The gardener had just finished his pruning,
and the wounds of the knife and saw were just beginning to heal, while the
warm April sun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life
and energy. We thought as we looked at that plant how cruel it would be to
begin next week and cut it down. Now, the gardener’s business is to revive
and nourish it into life. Its business is not to die, but to live. So, we
thought, it is with the discipline of the soul. It, too, has its dying
hour; but it must not be always dying: Rather reckon ourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death
is but a moment. Live, then, ye children of the resurrection, on His
glorious life more and more abundantly, and the fulness of your life will
repel the intrusion of self and sin, and overcome evil with good, and your
existence will be, not the dreary repression of your own struggling, but
the springing tide of Christ’s spontaneous overcoming and everlasting
life.