Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 25 (1910 - 1915)

Ms 77, 1910

Talk/Thoughts on John 15

Los Angeles, California

March 26, 1910

Previously unpublished.

(John 15:1) and onward. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.” [Verse 2.] Bear that in mind. The fruit, the fruit, the fruit manifests what we are. It is not our word, it is not our profession, but the fruit we bear. Let every one of us consider that it is a most precious opportunity we have that we may become acquainted with Jesus Christ by a personal profession, and the carrying out of that profession in our lives. He is intently watching to see how many are bearing fruit to His name’s glory. We are not to glorify ourselves, but be just as submissive to God as a child is to his parent. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 1

Christ came to our world and gave us an example of what we should be. “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it.” [Verse 2.] So if you have trials, do not think that you are cast away and are not children of God because you have trials. We are to give proof by bearing these trials and pressing close to Jesus Christ in prayer, in submission, in giving our will to the will of Christ, that His will shall be manifest in us. It means everything to us. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 2

“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.” [Verse 2.] Do any of you want to be taken away? Do you want it to be so that you shall have no living connection with Jesus Christ? Not one of you can afford this. What we want is that living connection with Jesus Christ and every day to learn of Him. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 3

“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.” [Verse 5.] There will not be complaining, nor faultfinding because you have trials. Go right on your knees to Christ and tell Him, I am not worthy to be Your child, but if You will bless me and give me strength, I will walk humbly before You step by step. We are here preparing for the future, immortal life; and if you gain that, what do you gain? You gain a crown of glory; you gain an entrance into the city of our God. You will have a life that measures with the life of God, and therefore you want to fulfill every requirement that God has given. Come out from the world and be separate. That is what we are to do. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 4

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” That is, they are clean in their understanding. “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.” [Verses 3, 4.] 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 5

There is a large company here, and I want to say to you that Christ has given His life to save you. What a sacrifice! What abuse He suffered even in His crucifixion, [made by His enemies] as humiliating as possible. He bore all this that He might bear our sins, your sins, and that He might take away your sins if you will let Him. He cannot take them away unless you are willing to give up these sins and to be converted daily to God. Now let us make a business of this matter. If you have never given yourself fully, soul, body, and spirit, to God, let not another day pass until you do honor to Jesus Christ who gave His precious life that we might not perish, but have everlasting life. This we can obtain if we lay hold of Him by a living faith and live in accordance with His Word, working the works of Christ, being patient, kind, and tender, true fathers and mothers, working out the plan of salvation that is given to us. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 6

You must become acquainted with Him, that you may when in trial lay your perplexities before Him. Go right by yourself and tell Him all about it, as a child would go to his parents. Go to our Saviour, and just tell Him your necessities. What we need is to be in harmony with Him. Ask Him to lay His fashioning hand upon you, that you may have His image in your life. “Ask what ye will, and it shall be done.” [Verse 7.] 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 7

You will ask in the right spirit; you will pray in the right spirit; your actions will be in accordance, and the fruit of the vine will be produced. It is the fruit that Christ wants. Why? Because you are abiding in Christ. You will not ask things that are unreasonable if you abide in Him and He in you. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” [Verse 7.] Thank the Lord. If I had not had this promise given to me when I was twelve years old and onward for several years when I was trying to get an experience, I should have been in despair, and I think my life would have gone out. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 8

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” [Verses 8, 9.] He wants every one of you. He does not want a single soul of you to be lost. He wants the fathers and mothers to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He wants these fathers and mothers to educated their children to be children of God. You cannot give them up to the world and yet bring a good report unto God. What you want is to be in submission to the will and way of God. That I want to be, that I mean to be, if I know what it is. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 9

Christ tell us how His Father is glorified. He gave His only begotten Son that through the gift of His Son we should become His disciples through faith. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 10

“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” [Verses 9, 10.] 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 11

It is no make-believe business to be a child of God, for Satan will dispute every step that you take. But if you live your life in Christ Jesus, He covers you, He protects you, He gives you the power to become sons of God, children of the Most High. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 12

Father, mothers, what a responsibility rests upon you to have that living faith that grasps the hand of infinite power. Christ has made all these promises for us and pledged them with His life. We have no reason to question that He means just what He says, and He wants every soul of you to represent Him to the world. If you make a profession and do not live up to it, but bring your children up to grow after the worldly fashion and order, then you are responsible for their characters. We want, fathers and mothers, every one of us to be converted daily to Jesus Christ, and then what will we do? Verses 3 and 4. Do you think that He tells us the truth? It is an abiding Christ that we must have, and in having an abiding Christ, you will have the comfort of the grace of God in your hearts. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 13

Now you are in this city. What confusion there is in the streets of Los Angeles, and in every city. In many of the large cities, as we have gone through them, we have tried to bear our testimonies. And I want to tell you that God will sympathize with you in every trial that you have if you will let Him. But if you shut yourself right up to yourself, if you will do just as you please, thinking you will come out all right, you will find that you will come out all wrong. Our precious Saviour gave His life for us, and the question is, Who appreciates it? Who will work out their own salvation with fear and with trembling? Such ones will grasp the hand of infinite power and say, I will be saved through the grace of Jesus Christ who gave His life for me. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 14

Fathers, mothers, never in the world will you convert your children by working counter to the work of Christ. You want to be children of God, and bow your will to the will of God. You want the light of heaven to be with you as you go into the closet, as you plead with God to give you a parent’s heart that is sanctified to Jesus Christ. There is to be no scolding, no fretting. Take these children and kneel before God and plead with Him in their behalf. Let them know that it is everything to them and to you whether they will yield their hearts to be sanctified through the grace of Christ. If you get angry with them, and in impatience cause them pain, do you think you will convert them in that way? 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 15

Mothers, I plead with you, do not let yourselves be drawn away from a mother’s duty. Do not, I beg of you, think, Oh, they will come out all right; it is no use to restrain children so much. The devil wants you to think that. That is just the idea that he wants to get into your minds. You must fight every step of the way. When I have seen children mismanaged I have said, Give them to me. And I have taken child after child, and I tried to fashion them after Christ’s order. I never found it did much good to pound them. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 16

Once I thought I would have to punish the child, but I took her in the room with me, and I said, We will pray. After I had prayed, I asked her if she would like to say a few words to the Lord. I told her that it was the first time that I had brought anything in my hand with which to correct her, and that I did not want to use it this time. I said, Can you just ask the Lord to forgive you for what you have done? The lips were opened, and the moment the lips were opened the heart was broken, and there she wept and wept. Could I have struck a blow to that child? I told her, I am so thankful that I did not have to correct you. It hurts me worse than it does you. If you will try to do right, we will take you out in the fields where you can pick the flowers, and we will kneel down there and pray all together. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 17

I want to tell you that there are many children who go to ruin because the parents do not know how to handle them. They get out of patience with them, and then they lose the battle. They hate their fathers and mothers. But we will work in a different way. We will talk with them and pray with them and try to help them. You want to enter in through the pearly gates into the city, and when those gates are thrown open, you want to go in with your children, saying, “Here am I and the children whom Thou hast given me.” You want to see these children receive the crown and the harp, saved, eternally saved in the kingdom of glory. Is it not worthwhile to overcome your own passion? You create a warfare when you might have peace. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 18

How long does Christ bear with us! 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 19

It is the fruit that you bear in your family that creates an influence to reach other souls in the same line. We are each to help each other. Where there is a useless branch, it is to be taken away. When there are evil traits in your children’s characters, you are to talk with them and pray with them and seek to soften their dispositions, and you will in doing this soften your own dispositions. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 20

Verses 8 to 12. Love those with whom you associate in church capacity. Love the members of your family. The husband and wife should never scold and fret in the presence of the children. It is a terrible example. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 21

Verses 13 and 14. He had just come to the point where He was going to lay down His life. “Ye are my friends.” Here is a point that every one of us needs to understand. We are to walk in the direction of these words. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 22

Verse 15. Precious Saviour, we thank Thee with heart and soul and voice; we thank Thee that Thou hast given Thy expensive life, such terrible suffering, that we might have a right to the life in the kingdom of glory. Will we strive for it? Will we labor for it? 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 23

Mothers, never scold your children. It will not do them a bit of good. Take some of these words and read them to them, and pray with them. Do not be the one that needs the correction more than the child does, because the child knows so much less than you do, and you ought to study how you can keep the tempter away from your child, that he shall not have the victory over him. Christ wants you to work so that you may save your children. You are to work by overcoming yourself. Overcome your own disposition. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 24

Fathers, will you unite with the mothers to bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? We love the children, and we want to see them as children of the Most High God. We want to see them crowned, entering in through the gates into the city of God. We want to see the children with the parents passing in through the gates into the city, there to go no more out into the wicked world—saved, eternally saved, if they gain the city when their warfare here is accomplished. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 25

Time is closing. We want to be righteous; we want to follow on to know the Lord, that we may know that His going forth is prepared as the morning. Will we do it? Parents and children, I feel such intensity as I consider how many children are growing up with scarcely any care to teach them that they are children of God. They must act as children of God; they must have hearts in unity with Jesus Christ. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 26

When this parable of the vine and the branches was presented to me, I lost consciousness. I did not know where I was. When I regained consciousness, I found that I was in my own chamber. It was presented before me that I was to bring these things before the people. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” [Verse 7.] We thank Thee, heavenly Father, with heart and soul and voice. Help us. Help the parents and the children. Help them to be overcomers by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 27

When I came to myself, I found that I was sitting in my writing chair, and I did not know how long I had been unconscious. Oh, I had such impressions made upon my mind that parents should make to their children! It seemed I could hardly wait. I must go where I could see the children and the parents together, and I must plead with them. You who are older in years should know more, and your children have leniency from you. God grant that every mother that is in this room shall be truly converted, and every father, to stand by the side of the mother. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 28

Do not, I beg of you, have an iron rod in your house, for you will often rule unjustly if this is the case. You want Christ who has borne so much for you. He came into this world as an infant to go through life from infancy to manhood. But He did not commit sin, because the God of salvation protected Him; and when He began to work, it was with all faithfulness that He did everything. And the children would say to Him, Why do you take so much pains? He would begin to sing songs of heaven, and the first thing they knew, all would be singing. Now what we want is to sing the songs of heaven. We want to have pleasurable notes in our voices. What we want is salvation every day. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 29

Verses 1 and 2. Some do not bear the right kind of fruit. How does He purge the branch? He corrects the errors. He shows what their errors are and what they must do to please Jesus, the blessed Saviour who gave His life for them. Shall we begin, as we never have before, to humble ourselves under the hand of God, and He will bind us up. He understands how. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 30

You may profess to be genuine Christians, but if you scold and fret if everything does not go just as you would have it, you are anything but that. Suppose that we begin today to seek to become branches of the true vine. Christ has pledged Himself to glorify God through us if we will make the effort to cling to the Mighty One and to bear fruit to His glory. We can do it because Christ gives us the power, and therefore every one of us can begin the battle. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 31

Here is a large, wicked city, and there are others like it. What are we all doing to bring the light of truth just as it is into these cities? Are we trying to exert every influence possible to sweep back the powers of darkness and to let the sunshine of His glory in? Are you trying, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, to make a covenant with God by sacrifice? This is what our Saviour wants you to do. He came to our world, and you know what He bore. He hung on Calvary’s cross, and the poor thief who was hanging by His side said to Him, Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. Christ said that He would, and He will do just as He has said. There was that thief hanging on the cross, and he showed his faith in the redeeming Saviour right there. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 32

Now let us overcome our passions. Let us be converted. The converting power of God is to be felt in this city. Let those who profess to be converted give themselves fully unto God. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 33

Verses 10-14. Now, this is the work that rests upon us. I want to say to you that the wickedness in these cities is increasing continually, and unless we are increasing in spirituality, and unless we can be co-laborers with Jesus Christ to bring these souls to the knowledge of the truth, we shall not be a branch in the true vine. The branch in the true vine bears fruit of the first order. Every one of us needs to be converted to Jesus Christ. Let us this very day make a covenant with God by sacrifice. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 34

Our Saviour left His throne, and He came to this world as a little child. In His work He went from place to place on foot, taking the Word and going through the cities, gathering the people about Him. In one company there were five thousand following Him. He said, These are weary. They must have rest. He had been leading them all the time to a grassy place where He could invite them to sit down and rest. He asked His disciples, How much food have you? Five loaves and two small fishes, they replied. [Mark 6:38.] They brought them on, and that fed the whole company. And after all had had food, they gathered up twelve baskets full of fragments. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 35

What we need is self-sacrifice and self-denial. We want to push the triumphs of the cross of Christ every day, and if we will do this, we shall see the salvation of God in our homes. Do not speak cross words, because that will teach your children to do the same. Kneel down and pray, and tell the Lord that you are grieved because the children have grieved Him. Beating them will not make the heart any more tender. But the Lord can help you and direct you in judgment. May God give the grace that is needed this day to children and to parents, that the converting power of God may come upon every one of them. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 36

As I look upon this company, I wonder how many of us will meet in the kingdom of glory. I want to be there. I shall be there, if I follow on to know the Lord, that His going forth is prepared as the morning. And as we follow on to become acquainted with Christ and His truth, He opens our understanding. The devil tries to close it in every way possible. If every one of you that profess to be Christians will be converted daily, you will see of the salvation of God in this city, as we saw them converted in 1843 and 1844 and onward; and now we have the light God has given as we followed on. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 37

We have our institutions in nearly all sections of America. We must labor in New York City and in all the large cities. And we want workers. We want everyone who will be converted to the truth to bear fruit. Christ will help the branch to bear the right kind of fruit. If you will follow on to know the Lord, you will know that His going forth is prepared as the morning. We want new conversion, we want new sanctification, we want to seek the Lord as we come together in our churches. We want to seek Him with all our hearts, that we may find Him. Then lift your voices in praise to God; that is bearing fruit to His glory. We want to see souls converted. We want converted souls that will come and labor for the salvation of those that are perishing around them. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 38

Will every one of you consider that salvation is worth winning? Will you take hold of the work? Do you want to be transferred to the higher school? Do you want an entrance into the kingdom of glory? If you do, commence your work without delay, and then you may lead other souls into the path of righteousness. I love my Saviour because He first loved me. I love to do His will. When I thought of coming here, I said, I have not the strength, for I still feel the effect of the labor put forth in Mountain View and Lodi. But the Lord gives me strength, and I thank Him. And I want your help, every one of you, mothers and fathers. Christ is coming. We want your help, that you may convert the members of your families. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 39

Fathers, we want you to be overcomers, that you may wear the crown in the city of God and touch the golden harp and fill all heaven with rich music and with songs to the Lamb. Oh, that God would help! Will you be converted? Will you stand up this day, you that will be converted? Is it worth enough to be converted? It is worth everything. I am now in my eighty-third year, and I have been working constantly from one end of the earth to the other, in different cities and among different nationalities. I want women to help. I want the men to take right hold, that the salvation of God may be revealed in our communities. Will you make a covenant that from this time on you will try to serve God with full purpose of heart? Whoever will do this, rise to your feet. Amen and amen. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 40

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we present to Thee this company that have pledged themselves that they will be followers of God, to bear the fruit of the true vine, and You will help them because You have promised. And we ask Thee that Thy blessing shall rest upon all this standing company that have pledged themselves to seek for a higher life, a higher education, that they may be presented to the King of glory. I ask Thy blessing upon them. Give them a heart to know that they are workers, laborers together with God, and that Thou wilt be their Helper if they will follow on to know the Lord. Amen. 25LtMs, Ms 77, 1910, par. 41