III.

LOVE.

(6 THAT ye bear much fruit." What then are the fruits which are natural to the living Vine? What are the grapes which are to grow on the living branches grafted into Him by the Spirit of God? In his Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul sums them all up in one comprehensive and expressive trinity of words, "The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth:" and this to an enlightened conscience is an abundant and allinclusive answer. But in his Epistle to the Galatian Church, the apostle expands that description and presents to our view the whole cluster of the fruits of holiness, fruits which are emphatically good fruit, rich and fair and fragrant exceedingly, fruit that may well be described as fruit that "cheereth the heart of God and man."

He first produces a catalogue of the works of the flesh, the evil and pernicious outcomes of the

natural depravity of the human heart; those wild grapes which are so emphatically denounced by the prophet Isaiah. Then he proceeds to say,-" But the fruits of the Spirit," in direct opposition to "the works of the flesh," the fruits of the Spirit, that is of the new life of the believer in Christ Jesus, of the new graffed branch of the living Vine, "are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law," no condemnation; for these there is nothing but the divine approval and all the high rewards that accompany and follow such duty well accomplished, such fruit well and bountifully borne.

What thinkest thou, O reader! of fruits like unto these hanging in Eshcol clusters on the branches of the living Vine? bending each living and prosperous bough in humble wealth and lowly beauty. Yet this is nothing other, and nothing less, than that which should be the result of the spiritual life alike in the individual and the church. We are to covet earnestly the best gifts. Surely this, after the gift of life in the soul, is the best of all, including all-to "bring forth good fruit to the honour and the praise of God. With the quaint old puritan poet, we may well be ambitious to be fruit-bearers' and pray for sufficient grace,

A brief review of the "basket of summer fruit," mentioned by the apostle as the fruits of the Spirit, will give us the opportunity of trying ourselves by this standard, and by this sure test to know whether we have any true and vital union with Christ the living Vine. By their fruits ye shall know them.".

Love is the first fruit on the list, and may be said to be the worthiest, inasmuch as if it grows in full and genuine development, it necessitates the growth of the rest to keep it pleasant and harmonious company. It is intended here to represent that all-embracing charity and brotherly affection which desires, seeks, and is deeply interested in the utmost well-being of our brother man. Its inspiration is the love of God shed abroad in the believer's soul, which, first begetting love to God, makes its constant manifestations by "love and charity" to our fellow-men. "I am a man,” said the old Roman, "and hence, nothing that refers to humanity can be indifferent to me." This is a noble sentiment, and was well worth handing down

through all the years. But the "living branch" in the true Vine takes a higher and diviner stand. "I am a Christian, and hence every soul for whom my Saviour died, is to me an object of brotherly sympathy and love." "Good will to man" was announced from heaven, as the cause and consequence of the advent of Christ Jesus, and "good will to man,” in its best and profoundest and most inclusive meaning, is a certain and vital outcome of all real spiritual life. Where that is absent, the soul is no more grafted into Christ than is the loose dead faggot on the ground a branch of a living tree; he hath neither part nor lot in the living Vine. The true spirit of love, as Paul intended it to be understood, is contained in these lines:

"It were a happy lot, if, every day,

One had the power some act of grace to do—

Some pious hope or effort to renew,

Where hope had swooned or strength been swept away

By suffering or grief! Oh, who can say

That he is wretched who hath still the power

To soothe one sorrow or to make one hour

Of pain or poverty seem briefer? They

Who pass through life, nor wish to shed the flower
They pluck upon a brother's path, be sure
Have not the blessed privilege to feel
The very chiefest bliss in life's great dower!
He who one sore doth salve, one hurt doth heal,
Hath founts of joy no world can make impure.'

This is the way the Master trod. This was the loving, tender, helpful, sympathetic spirit which sighed over the dumb man, wept over Jerusalem and the grave of Lazarus, and was "moved with compassion," with an overflowing love and sympathy that streamed in bounteous gifts and deeds of rare benevolence all the time. As He was, so must His servants be.

"By this we know

We live and grow

In Christ that noble vine;

This love to man

In us began

When we knew love divine.

"From then till now,

Our souls o'erflow
With love to all our race;

To all we would

Be kind and good,

Like Christ the Lord of grace.

"Love is the root,

Love is the fruit,
Love is the living vine,

And every bough

Must live and grow

In love, its life divine."