Thanks to Thy sovereign grace, 0 God, if I Am graffed in that true vine a living shoot. Whose arms embrace the world, and in whose root,
Planted by faith, our life must hidden lie.
But Thou beholdest how I fade and dry !
Choked with a waste of leaf, and void of fruit, Unless Thy spring perennial shall recruit
My sapless branch, still wanting fresh supply. ' R. M. Benson, T?u Final Passover, ii. (pt. ii.) 15.
ST. JOHN XV. I, 2 197
O clccanse me, then, and make me to abide Wholly in Thee, to drink Thy heavenly dew, And, watered daily with my tears to grow !
Thou art the truth, Thy promise is my guide; Prepare me when Thou comest, Lord, to show Fruits answering to the stock on which I grow.
^ In deep dejection of spirit, Mr. Cecil was pacing to and fro in the Botanic Garden at Oxford, when he observed a fine specimen of the pomegranate almost cut through the stem. On asking the gardener the reason, he got an answer which explained the wounds of his own bleeding spirit. "Sir, this tree used to shoot so strong that it bore, nothing but leaves. I was, therefore, obliged to cut it in this manner, and when it was almost cut through, then it began to bear plenty of fruit." ^
^ A teacher of music, speaking of his most promising pupil, said, " She has full control of her voice, but she lacks soul. If only something would break her heart, she would be the greatest singer in Europe." ^
* J. Hamilton, Works, ii. 186. " J. Smith, Short Studies, 178.
An Expedient Departurf.
Literature.
Abbott (L.), Signs of Promise, 41. Allon (H.), The Indwelliiuj CJirist, 187. Bernard (J. H.), Via Domini, 199. Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, 3rd Ser., 163. Clark (H. W.), Laws of the Inner Kingdom, 57. Dale (R. W.), Christian Doctrine, 124. Davies (J. P.), The Same Things, 12G. Drummond (H.), The Ideal Life, 61. Eyton (R.), The Glory of the Lord, 3G.
„ „ The True Life, 61. Holdsworth (W. W.), The Life of Faith, 71. Jerdan (C), For the Lord's Table, 323, 333. Kelman (J.), Ephemera Eternitatis, 138, Liddon (H. P.), Sermons on Some Words of Christ, 325. Maclaren (A,), The Holy of Holies, 267. Manning (H. E.), The Teaching of Clmst, 181. Murph)'^ (J. B, C), The Journey of the Soul, 100. Telford (J.), The Story of the Upper Room, 181. Thorn (J. H.), Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 2nd Ser., 3S0. Tipple (S. A.), Sunday Mornings at Norwood, 284. Westcott (B. F.), Lessons from Work, 96.
„ „ Peterborough Sermons, 85.
Wilmot-Buxton (H. J.), Mission, Sermons for a Year, 235.
An Expedient Departure.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I go, I will send him unto you.— John xvi. 7.
One of the most distinctive things in the story of Christ's earthly ministry is the perfect calmness which He manifested in regard to the future course and fate of the disciples He had gathered round Him and of the work He had begun. He has a clear gaze forward: no weight of disappointment for His own career cut short is permitted to dull His apprehension of what lies beyond the time of His departure : no overwhelming heavi- ness or consuming fever of regret possesses Him so strongly as to cloud His vision of what would happen when the Cross had brought His earthly labours to a close; and His thought leaps over Calvary's torture and the sepulchre's darkness to the wondrous processes of spiritual development which would begin with His death.
So untroubled are the clear depths of Christ's soul, so unruffled is His sacred quietude — even here as He is almost entering upon the last experience of pain and lifting the cup of bitterness to His lips — that He can discern the actual relation between His departure from His disciples and the future Divine visitations which His disciples would know ; and He can see that for their perfecting in grace it is expedient that He should go away. Truly, this was the Son of God ; for man's thought grows feeble and his face grows pale and his heart beats so loudly as to drown all whispers of hope, when he stands before the great crisis of his life : only to the Christ was it given to preserve the perfect serenity of His soul when the supreme moment came and the last dark shadows stretched themselves across His way.
1. " I tell you the truth." — One does not wonder that our
202 AN EXPEDIENT DEPARTURE
Lord should feel it needful, for the second time, to assure His bewildered and astounded disciples that He is telling them the simple truth. He had told them of the many mansions of the Father's house, that He might still the trouble of their hearts at His departure. " If it were not so, I would have told you." They would feel the force of His appeal to what they knew of His veracity, exactness, and love. And now again : " I tell you the truth. Notwithstanding the sorrow with which My going away has filled your hearts, it is better for you that I should go " — an assertion more difficult to believe than even that about the many mansions.