WHAT suggested this lovely parable of the vine and the branches is
equally unimportant and undiscoverable. Many guesses have been made,
and, no doubt, as was the case with almost all our Lord's parables,
some external object gave occasion for it. It is a significant token
of our Lord's calm collectedness, even at that supreme and heart-
shaking moment, that He should have been at leisure to observe, and
to use for His purposes of teaching, something that was present at
the instant. The deep and solemn lessons which He draws, perhaps from
some vine by the wayside, are the richest and sweetest clusters that
the vine has ever grown. The great truth in this chapter, applied in
manifold directions, and viewed in many aspects, is that of the
living union between Christ and those who believe on Him, and the
parable of the vine and the branches affords the foundation for all
which follows.

We take the first half of that parable now. It is somewhat difficult
to trace the course of thought in it, but there seems to be, first of
all, the similitude set forth, without explanation or interpretation,
in its most general terms, and then various aspects in which its
applications to Christian duty are taken up and reiterated, I simply
follow the words which I have read for my text.

I. We have then, first, the Vine in the vital unity of all its parts.

'I am the True Vine,' of which the material one to which He perhaps
points, is but a shadow and an emblem. The reality lies in Him. We
shall best understand the deep significance and beauty of this
thought if we recur in imagination to some of those great vines which
we sometimes see in royal conservatories, where for hundred of yards