if you try in this simple and natural way, you will not fail. Spend the
time you have spent in sighing for fruits in fulfilling the conditions
of their growth. The fruits will come, must come. We have hitherto paid
immense attention to _effects_, to the mere experiences themselves; we
have described them, extolled them, advised them, prayed for them--done
everything but find out what _caused_ them. Henceforth let us deal with
causes. "To be," says Lotze, "is to be in relations." About every other
method of living the Christian life there is an uncertainty. About
every other method of acquiring the Christian experiences there is a
"perhaps." But in so far as this method is the way of nature, it cannot
fail. Its guarantee is the laws of the universe, and these are "the
Hands of the Living God."




THE TRUE VINE


"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in
me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are
the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not
in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in
me, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be