Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 24 (1909)

Ms 119, 1909

Sermon/Thoughts on John 15

Nashua, New Hampshire

June 29, 1909

Previously unpublished.

John 15:1-4. Shall we heed these words? They are of vital consequence to every one of us, whether we receive this truth or go away and forget all about it. Would He ask you to abide in Him unless it was a possibility? No. “As the branch cannot—in Me.” 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 1

Verse 5. “Much fruit.” Isn’t that encouraging? If we depend upon God, if we make Him our trust and confidence, then we are abiding in Him. “And the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 2

Verse 7. “Ye shall ask what ye will.” Now mark the conditions. Now why cannot we come to God on these promises just as they are, and tell Him, Here Lord, we are determined to bear fruit, and we must have Thy Spirit or we cannot bear fruit, and we want Thy grace. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 3

Verse 8. “Glorified.” Now how? “That ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 4

Verse 9. Now this is Christ Himself that is speaking just before His crucifixion, just before the great test and trials came to His people He gives these words. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 5

Verses 10, 11. It is the right quality of joy. It is joy that triumphs as an overcomer in overcoming temptations of the enemy, and of hanging their helpless souls upon Jesus Christ. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 6

Verse 12. That is wonderful. Do you think if we believed this there would be so many little difficulties arising between one and another? No. We do not want these difficulties, we do not need them at all, but we do want to have the peace of Christ in our hearts, that peace that passeth understanding. It is a peace that we can hardly comprehend; it is a restfulness in following the rich promises of God to ourselves. Working upon the plan of salvation, we may have an abiding Christ. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 7

Verse 12. Is that possible? Would He have said it if it was impossible? Now this means that we have an overcoming work to do, and every day we want that help that cometh alone from God. We want that grace that Christ can bestow upon us. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 8

Verse 12. Shall we carry it out, so that when we shall meet in the city of our God, we shall greet one another and unhappy differences that we have had will be all gone. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 9

Now what we want is to learn like little children. Verse 13. Shall we not try? Shall we not make a covenant with God at this meeting, and when we return to our homes shall we not begin to practice that life? 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 10

Verses 14-16. Because you walk to carry out the very principles that are laid down in the Word. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 11

Verses 17, 18, 19. Because you do not fall in with all their schemes, and with all the purposes, and you take an opposite course that rebukes them. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 12

Verses 19-21, 22-27. Now all these things we want to remember, and we want to keep the idea: I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Verses 1-3. Now it is the abiding Christ. If we will only keep our seasons of prayer; if we will only, when tempted of the enemy, hold our peace; if we will bring ourselves into right relation to God, we shall see of the salvation of God. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 13

I am so thankful that we have a Saviour, and that that Saviour is working constantly in our behalf, that we shall follow on to know the Lord that we may know Him whose going forth is prepared as the morning. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 14

Verses 1, 2. Now, “I am the true vine—taketh away.” He has no use for it. “And every branch that—purgeth it.” What for? “That it—more fruit.” Verses 3, 4. “Abide in Me.” Will you? Will we every one abide in Christ? “And I in you.” Verses 4, 5. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 15

Now, there is a world to save, and I have thought whether we realize the fact that we have a work to do with unbelievers, that we are not to shut ourselves right up to our own families, and we are not to have so many household cares that we spend so much time keeping our house just as we want it kept that the house of souls is neglected. Now shall we not bear fruit? Shall we not keep this soul in the love of God? Shall we not work right to the point? We ask every one of you for Christ’s sake to do honor to God. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 16

Now when He sent His disciples out, He told them, I send you forth as sheep among wolves; but they are to keep their hearts in the love of Christ, so that whatever may be brought to bear against them, they will say something that will honor God, that they can win souls. We want every one of us to be in right relation to God. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 17

I came through the cities on my way, and saw large places that looked as though they have never been worked, and I thought, Who is looking after that? Who is having a decided, determined interest for these souls? A city here, a city there, and somewhere else. Who is it that is looking after that? Men and women, in Christ’s name, work together harmoniously. He speaks of the women that were with Him in the gospel and that were working with Him in the gospel. If we dedicate ourselves unreservedly to God, we shall have a message to bear. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 18

“Go ye,” said Christ. [Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15.] After His resurrection, He tells them, Go ye to all the world and preach the gospel. Well, how much of it are we doing? Haven’t we got up so much fussing about ourselves that we forget all about that we have a work to save souls? 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 19

Before I left Washington, city after city was presented before me that have comparatively nothing done in them, and they were not receiving that light, that grace, and that salvation so that they could reach souls. Now, let us humble our hearts before God. Let us study the Word. We hear the talk about the higher education. The impression is brought in that it is to teach the scholars that, after they have had all that the commandment-keeping people of God can give them, then they must go to the world and attach themselves to the world to get the higher, worldly education. Is that essential? When they talk of higher education, I want you to consider the highest education in this world that Christ came to our world to bring. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 20

Don’t put it into your children’s minds that they will not have a perfect education unless they hitch onto the world to get the worldly mold. We do not want it. We will have enough of it without that. What we want is a hold on God. We are preparing for the judgment, and as souls were getting ready a voice was heard. There was a very large assembly, and that voice was heard, saying, Come into line, receive the light of heaven in your hearts, reveal it in your countenance, reveal it in your works, so that the world may take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus and you have learned of Him. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 21

“I am the true vine,” said Christ, “and my Father is the husbandman.” [John 15:1.] The time is short, and what is before us is impossible to tell. We know what is before us, but when will that be? It cometh, Christ said, suddenly, and the He gives them warning. When certain things should take place, don’t go into your house to get anything out of it; make your way to the mountains as fast as you can go. Well, what may break forth upon us we know not, but one thing we know, we should be ready. Humble yourselves day by day, and then seek to impart to others the very light that God gives you. As it has been represented to me on this journey, I have felt an intensity of interest as I have been through the cities in different places. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 22

There was one place, Newark,—there was just as nice a company of people, but very few of them believers. Who is at work there? I thought. Who is going from house to house trying to get the light of truth before the people? How nice they looked. They were not dressed up. They hadn’t their hats on any more that you have, but I thought, O that these people could have a camp right here in this place. They have had great opposition from parties that have been saying everything that they could say to hurt the influence of those that would not unite with them. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 23

But we want to say, There is a world to be saved, and as we came through the city, it draws so upon me that I have not gotten over it yet. I have been sick ever since we got through to South Lancaster. I could not sleep nights. I was in an agony of distress night after night. What shall we do, Lord, to arouse the people? What can we do to have them take up Thy work and to study it and obey it, and to go forth in earnest? 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 24

Now, the commission was from Christ. They were to go to all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples. Well, we are trying to do something of that kind in gathering means, that we may send men to foreign countries. And there my son brought in before me morning after morning people that wanted to be introduced to me. From the impress upon their countenances, they were foreigners. They did not speak our language all of them, some of them did. But here there is an increase of it. They are building their buildings with a purpose of taking these foreigners, these representatives that came to our meeting in Washington. And they wanted to see me in my house, so they were brought in before us to speak a few words. It seemed to gratify them. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 25

The blessing of the Lord seem to keep me up all through that meeting, and took me right out of myself and out of my passiveness, and out of my weakness, and brought me where there was a strength that I could stand before the people, and I could make thousands hear. And the power of the truth was so great upon my soul that I could present it in the language that they needed. God helped me to bear the message to the people in the power of the Spirit of God. And I was glad of the privilege. But the greatest impression that was made upon my mind was that I could never represent the meekness and lowliness of Christ. He met opposing influence in every way, and yet His meekness and His lowliness was a recommendation that others should understand when they saw Him hang upon Calvary’s cross, and the nails driven through His hands and through His feet, suffering for the sins of the world, enduring all the agony possible. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 26

After they had shown Him all the indignity that it is possible for a man to be shown, spitting in His face, beating Him with rods, putting a crown of thorns upon His head, and then He hanging on Calvary’s cross, suffering there, the poor thief prays to Him, Remember me, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. Said Jesus, I will. Here these men that were mocking Him upon the cross when He said that he should be with Him in His kingdom, they were thrilled through and through with the evidence that this was the Son of God. And here He died. When we consider what He endured for us, what are we willing to endure for Him? What are we willing to bear of shame and reproach to endure for Christ? I know there are those here that the light of truth will shine in their hearts, and in their faces, and they will become missionaries for God. But don’t let any one hold back from that. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 27

Follow your impressions, begin humbly, and meek and lowly, and if you are repulsed, don’t say, I never will go there again, but go right to that very place again and perhaps they will have changed. The angels of God are working with every one that is working. If we could only consider this. And when we come into our meetings, we are not to set the lines just how we are going to move in that meeting, because the Spirit of God has to teach us how to move. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 28

We have to look to God for directions. We must every one of us be in a position so that the humility we possess will extend to those that are around us. We want to be meek and lowly in heart, and we want to be where the angels of God can speak to us. We want to be in that position that we shall know we have a friend at court, an Advocate, Jesus Christ, in heaven. He is our Advocate, in the heavenly courts, and He says, You are to go to all parts of the world, and Lo, I am with you. I am with you, He says. You will see what is written there upon this subject. Well, don’t then shut yourselves within yourselves and think you have nothing to do. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 29

If you have a ray of light find somebody to whom you can express it. And here are our publications that are coming out that you can work with. There is a world to save, and we want to come right to Jesus Christ for help, and you want to take that light, and you want to carry it to other souls, and angels of God will go before you. You will not go alone. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 30

Do you think I would have started out as I have at nearly eighty-two years of age, if I thought that I had not a Saviour that would help me and strengthen me in my necessities? He has done it again and again. He has lifted me out of myself; He has taken me where I had to bear my message, and I know that He had made me His messenger to give that message in Washington, and to give that message since I have been at Washington, and to give that message to you that are here. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 31

I ask you for Christ’s sake, Let every one of us become a branch in the true Vine, that ye may bear much fruit. It is the bearing fruit that shows that you are united with the living Vine. And I would say to every soul of you, Come nigh to God. At times I have thought that I would hardly live till morning when the representation was presented to me three times distinctly in one night of the sufferings of the Son of God in the garden of Gethsemane, when that cup of suffering was in His hands. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 32

Shall He drink it? If it be possible, He says, Let this cup pass from Me. And there was the bloody sweat dropping from His brow on the ground. He got up tremblingly, and went to where He had left His disciples, hoping to find them awake, that they could speak a word of sympathy to Him, they were asleep, asleep for sorrow. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 33

Now, we want every one of us to act our individual part. We have a crown to win. We have a heaven to win. We have eternal life that is offered to us, if you will be a partaker with Christ of His Spirit and sanctification. There is a heaven to win, and I entreat of every soul here today that you will consider for Christ’s sake, consider whether you will take your stand in the right side. I felt that I could not speak one sermon unless I came right to you and asked you if you would not come to Christ. How do you think I felt when they told me the number that were baptized today? I felt that all my anxiety and suffering passed through was nothingness. But I want to say to every one of you what Christ said, “I am the true vine, and my Father—” verses 1, 2. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 34

Now let us every one help each other. Don’t let us speak any words of irritation, whatever may arise. You will have trials, every one of you, but God will give you grace to bear them. Our Saviour went through this world, and there was that cup trembling in His hands, that cup full of suffering. Let this cup pass from Me, He says; if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. If not, why He would drink it. But it was a cup of separation from His God, because He took the sin of the whole world upon Him. That is what it was. He could not endure the thought of the sins of the whole world that He was standing under. If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. But an angel from heaven comes and strengthens the divine Saviour. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 35

And I want to tell you we have every one of us an individual work to do. Work with your children. For Christ’s sake, do to the utmost of your ability, and those that you see are situated in hard places, help them out. If you are in better places, and if you are not in any better place, your effort to help them will bring you into a better place. So the very effort that we make brings angels of God right around us. We may not see them with our individual eyes. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 36

But Christ submitted, and He gave Himself up to take the very bitter suffering of a separation from His God because of sin. But we had the evidence that God was with Him from the beginning to the close. He wants every soul of us to consider that we are to bear the part under God for the salvation of the human soul. And God will help us. We may be overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Revelation 12:11). 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 37

Three times in one night, when I was in Washington, the agony of my soul was so great when I passed through this scene, as it was represented, of Christ’s suffering, what He had endured for us all, and what an ungrateful set we are. But He wants every one of us to humble our hearts before Him, so that He can make us fruit-bearing branches in the Vine, and we shall not have to be cut off. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 38

While I was in this agony three times, I became unconscious, this agony of seeing Christ, and the bloody sweat that was dropping, moistening the sod of Gethsemane, and He saying, Not My will, but Thine, O God, be done. [Luke 22:42.] That is what He said, and He bore that intense agony, and when stretched on the cross, the poor sinner says, Remember me, etc. And He assured him that He would. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 39

Such scenes as this ought to wake us up. We are not half awake. We do not see what value Christ placed upon souls. We do not realize that He would have every soul convinced and come to Him, but we let them pass by as though they had no souls to save. We want to wake up, wake up. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 40

And when that agony went before me at Washington, I thought I was dying. But I came out of it again, weak and trembling, and then went right into it again. For three times I bore that through, but when I came before the people I had a message. You may depend I had a message. It did not come from me, but the Lord used me as His instrument to give that message to the people. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 41

Now, there is a world to save. There are sinners perishing all around us. Are we going to wake up? Are we going to try to bring them to the knowledge of the truth? To see what the truth means? Will we circulate our pamphlets, and our papers, and will we get them before the people? 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 42

Before a member of my family is up, I am up tracing the lines that shall come to the people, and the warnings and the entreaties and the message that God gives. For years, when others were asleep, I have been three or four hours with my pen in my hand writing before my breakfast. I want to tell you that we have every one of us a work to do. He has spared my life. The Lord has spared my life to give the very message I am giving to you, and He is sparing your lives, that you may have an influence over other lives. There are souls to be saved in every city. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 43

As I went to New Jersey, and there looked at the company, with new believers among them, I thought how pleasant it would be for these who were listening, and eager to catch every word, if they could only have the impression of the Spirit of God, and I believed it did come to them. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 44

Now, I want every soul saved. I know that with the commandments of God, the test is in keeping them. They are to keep His commandments and love His law as the apple of their eye. “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ... of me.” [John 5:39.] This is the work that we have before us, and I was taken right out of myself, as it were, when I was at Washington and there, day after day, the message, powerful message was given to me for the people. Why, I could no more have done it unless angels of God had been around about me. I take no credit. It is the Lord God of Israel who put His power upon me, that I was taken right out of myself to present to the people the essential things for their salvation. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 45

I ask every one of you to search the Scriptures. The commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ are for every one of us. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 46

I am the true vine—[John 15] verses 1, 2. The purging may be severe, but you may be thankful that you are pruned. But now let every one of us consider a little longer, and we shall see the King in His beauty. A little longer, and He will come to us and prepare us for translation, and we shall be caught up to meet Him in the air, and we shall see the King in His beauty. O, I want you to be there. I do not want a soul lost. I want you to serve the Lord with meekness and humility of mind. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 47

And now I want to ask, Are there any others? We know that there was a manifestation of some that took their stand, and they have been baptized. I want to know who here are willing to stand on the Lord’s side. This is the last time I can speak to you. I now ask you if there are any who will then take their stand to keep the commandments of God, to be converted daily. Will you rise right upon your feet, will you do this? Will you take your stand that you will serve God, and keep His commandments, and love His law as the apple of your eye? Whoever will, rise now, if you want the position as commandment-keepers on the Lord’s side. Will you stand right up? Mothers, will you give your children the example? Fathers, will you take your position, that you will work on the Lord’s side? We want to know who will add to the names of those that were baptized today and take their position on the Lord’s side. May the Lord give grace. May the Lord give strength. We will wait a few moments. Sing a verse, “Jesus Lover of My Soul.” 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 48

I made up my mind that whenever I was in a meeting again, I never would leave that meeting without giving an invitation. If there are any here who want to take a position on the Lord’s side, I would give them an opportunity now and clear the way. 24LtMs, Ms 119, 1909, par. 49