Remember, in the first place, that the Vine was the Eastern symbol
of Joy. It was its fruit that made glad the heart of man. Yet,
however innocent that gladness--for the expressed juice of the
grape was the common drink at every peasant's board--the gladness
was only a gross and passing thing. This was not true happiness,
and the vine of the Palestine vineyards was not the true vine.
"CHRIST was the TRUE Vine." Here, then, is the ultimate source
of Joy. Through whatever media it reaches us, all true Joy and
Gladness find their source in Christ.
By this, of course, is not meant that the actual Joy experienced
is transferred from Christ's nature, or is something passed on from
Him to us. What is passed on is His method of getting it. There
is, indeed, a sense in which we can share another's joy or another's
sorrow. But that is another matter. Christ is the source of Joy
to men in the sense in which He is the source of Rest. His people
share His life, and therefore share its consequences, and one of
these is Joy. His method of living is one that in the nature of
things produces Joy. When He spoke of His Joy remaining with us
He meant in part that the causes which produced it should continue
to act. His followers, (that is to say), by REPEATING His life
would experience its accompaniments. His Joy, His kind of Joy,
would remain with them.
The medium through which this Joy comes is next explained: "He that
abideth in Me, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Fruit first,
Joy next; the one the cause or medium of the other. Fruit-bearing
is the necessary antecedent; Joy both the necessary consequent and
the necessary accompaniment. It lay partly in the bearing fruit,
partly in the fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that
is to say, Joy lay in mere constant living in Christ's presence,
with all that that implied of peace, of shelter, and of love;
partly in the influence of that Life upon mind and character and
will; and partly in the inspiration to live and work for others,
with all that that brought of self-riddance and joy in others'
gain. All these, in different ways and at different times, are
Sources of pure happiness.
Even the simplest of them--to do good to other people--is an instant
and infallible specific. There is no mystery about Happiness
whatever. Put in the right ingredients and it must come out. He
that abideth in Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing forth
much fruit is Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness,
then, is to do good; and the infallible receipt for doing good
is to abide in Christ. The surest proof that all this is a plain
matter of Cause and Effect is that men may try every other conceivable
way of finding happiness, and they will fail. Only the right cause
in each case can produce the right effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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