Are we any swifter scholars than these first ones were? Have we
absorbed into our own thinking this truth so thoroughly and
constantly, and wrought it out in our lives so completely, that we do
not need to be reminded of it any more? Shall we not be wise if we
faithfully listen to His repeated teachings?

The verses which I have read give us four aspects of this great truth
of union with Jesus Christ; or of its converse, separation from Him.
There is, first, the fruitfulness of union; second, the withering and
destruction of separation; third, the satisfaction of desire which
comes from abiding in Christ; and, lastly, the great, noble issue of
fruitfulness, in God's glory, and our own increasing discipleship.
Now let me touch upon these briefly.

I. First, then, our Lord sets forth, with no mere repetition, the
same broad idea which He has already been insisting upon--viz., that
union with Him is sure to issue in fruitfulness. He repeats the
theme, 'I am the Vine'; but He points its application by the next
clause, 'Ye are the branches.' That had been implied before, but it
needed to be said more definitely. For are we not all too apt to
think of religious truth as swinging _in vacuo_ as it were, with no
personal application to ourselves, and is not the one thing needful
in regard to the truths which are most familiar to us, to bring them
into close connection with our own personal life and experience?

'I am the Vine' is a general truth, with no clear personal
application. 'Ye are the branches' brings each individual listener
into connection with it. How many of us there are, as there are in
every so-called Christian communion, that listen pleasedly, and, in a