in India called the mango-trick. A seed is put in the ground and covered
up, and after divers incantations a full-blown mango-bush appears within
five minutes. I never met any one who knew how the thing was done, but
I never met any one who believed it to be anything else than a
conjuring-trick. The world is pretty unanimous now in its belief in the
orderliness of Nature. Men may not know how fruits grow, but they do
know that they cannot grow in five minutes. Some lives have not even a
stalk on which fruits could hang, even if they did grow in five minutes.
Some have never planted one sound seed of Joy in all their lives; and
others who may have planted a germ or two have lived so little in
sunshine that they never could come to maturity.

Whence, then, is joy? Christ put His teaching upon this subject into one
of the most exquisite of His parables. I should in any instance have
appealed to His teaching here, as in the case of Rest, for I do not wish
you to think I am speaking words of my own. But it so happens that He
has dealt with it in words of unusual fulness.

I need not recall the whole illustration. It is the parable of the Vine.
Did you ever think why Christ spoke that parable? He did not merely
throw it into space as a fine illustration of general truths. It was
not simply a statement of the mystical union, and the doctrine of an
indwelling Christ. It was that; but it was more. After He had said it,
He did what was not an unusual thing when He was teaching His greatest
lessons. He turned to the disciples and said He would tell them why He
had spoken it. It was to tell them how to get Joy. "These things have
I spoken unto you," He said, "that My Joy might remain in you and that
your Joy might be full." It was a purposed and deliberate communication
of His secret of Happiness.