* E. 0. Trench, Justin Martyr.
GAL. V. 22, 23 407
III.
The Culture of the Feuit.
1. The production of this fruit is the end to be aimed at. The " fruit " is the climax of the tree's operations. For this it braves the blasts of many a wild and stormy night ; for this it endures biting frosts of winter, and presents its bare, denuded boughs to snow and sleet ; for this it opens its bud in the spring- time, and spreads its verdant leaves before the summer sun ; for this it sucks up acids from the soil, and labours to provide itself with carbon from the surrounding atmosphere. This is the end of all its labours, the aim of the year's toil, the climax of all its operations.
" By their fruits ye shall know them." ^ Just in the manifesta- tion of these characteristic virtues in their union does the world recognize the supremacy of the Christian religion. Do what it will, it cannot produce the like. The recrudescence of startling spiritual gifts or materialistic miracles, for which so many are sighing, would not greatly impress the present sceptical and cynical age. The modern Egyptian magicians would be able to emulate the wonders of the modern Moses. But genuine Christian character — loving, cheerful, calm, forbearing, consider- ate, genuine, trustworthy, unassuming, self-controlled — they can- not, and know they cannot, produce. " But here is the finger of God, a flash of the will that can " ; and seeing it, they confess that God is of a truth among us.
^ There is always danger of misrepresentation in the attempt to present a view that is not one's own ; but it does seem clear that those who deny the Divinity of Christ must think that the Christian character was introduced and realized and propagated and maintained under strangely incongruous and uncongenial conditions. It certainly does not look like a character that has started up out of an enthusiastic delusion, an exaggerated and misguided devotion, a fanatical misunderstanding of a teacher's meaning, a credulous fostering of irrational hopes and fancies; still less can the thought of it be brought into connexion with any wilful or self-deceiving fraud. For it is not out of such darkness and disorder, by the working of natures so perverse and unhealthy and unreasonable, that such a type of moral excellence as this could spring up and endure — a type in which humanity attains its best harmony and strength, and renders its most
4o8 THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
reasonable service. The sobriety and usefulness of the Christian character ; its quiet and wide attractiveness ; its readiness for adaptation to new demands and opportunities in shifting circum- stances and strange countries ; its peculiar balance and blending of traits which are generally found apart, and thought to stand in contrast; its steady health and freshness; its hidden stores of strength and charm and wisdom and refreshment ; its power to help all men at all times ; — these are distinctive qualities which seem to thrust away the suggestion of an origin in delusion, or misunderstanding, or extravagance, and to claim for the character that bears them a direct line of kindred with some perfect type of manhood, some true idea of what man might and should be, some thought about him in the mind of God.^
2. We ought to manifest this fruit in its most favourable and attractive form, so that others may be tempted to try its sweet taste. The apple seeds are encased in a thick, pleasant- tasting mass of juicy substance ; the pear and the plum, too ; and these fruits are tinted with the most beautiful hues ; while the seeds of the strawberry are raised on to a cone-shaped, richly- coloured mass of delicious and tempting food material, and the individual seeds of the raspberry are clothed in a ruddy coat of luscious matter. What is the reason for all this ? It is simply that birds and animals may be attracted to them — tempted to eat them, and this in order that the seeds may be more widely disseminated. So the fruit of the Spirit should be presented to men in such a form that, so far from being repelled by it as they too often are at present, they would be attracted to it, and tempted to taste it for themselves. Our love, our joy, our peace should be shown to them in such a way that it will win their admiration, and, tasting it, the seed will sink into their own soul, and again bring forth fruit to God's glory.
^ Everything about McCheyne drew men Christward. More than most, he was the living epistle, signed with the King's auto- graph and sealed by His Spirit. It was with him as with young Sir Pelleas ; they who met him wondered after him,
because his face Shone like the countenance of a priest of old Against the flame about a sacrifice Kindled by fire from heaven.^
* Francis Paget, Studies in the Christian Character, ^ A. Sraellie, Robert Murray McCheyne, 204.
GAL. V. 22, 23 409
^ Drummond's sympathy, his leisure from himself, his strength, won the confidence of anxious inquirers at Mr. Moody's evangelistic meetings, as his personal charm on the platform had first stirred their hope ; and he thus became acquainted with the secrets of hundreds of lives. Men felt he was not a voice merely, but a friend, and on his arm they were lifted up. He was always hopeful about the most hopeless, picked out some good points in the worst, and sent a man away feeling that he was trusted once more, not only by this friend, but by Christ, by God. The affection which such treatment aroused was extraordinary. I have seen numbers of letters, commonplace enough but for the intense love and gratitude which they breathe, and which sometimes approaches worship. It was such power as was possessed by some of the greatest of the mediaeval saints — and he was not twenty- four. One man said to me only the other day, " Since Drummond died I have not been able to help praying to him."