these four words grows out of the other as fruit
out of blossom, and blossom out of the new branch and that out of the
old stock of the vine: believe, love, obey, abide; vine, new branches,
tiny blossom, fruit. The fruit grows out of the vine; yet it is the very
life of the vine. _Abide_ grows out of _believe_, yet it is the very
heart and inner life of believe.

So He goes on ringing the changes back and forth, now here, now there.
_Pruning_--that insures fruit, and more and better. _Praying_--that _is_
the fruit, some of it; that naturally grows out of the abiding. "_My
words_"--that is part of the abiding, the life-juice of the vine coming
into branch and blossom and fruit. "Joy"--that is the rich red juice of
the grape in your mouth. "_Friends_"--that is the other word for abide.
That's what abiding makes and reveals. _Abiding_--that is what friends
do: that's what friendship is, the real thing. _Obey_--that is the swing
of step with our great Friend as we go along the road together. So these
clusters of rich ripe fruit hang thick on the vine of this simple
teaching-talk as they walk along in the moonlight.

And now they're passing through some of the narrower streets as they
make their way east towards the city gate.[118] And these narrow streets
are shadowed. And you feel the shadows creeping into His talk. The world
will _hate_ them. Of course. This is a natural result of the abiding.
The outer crowd can no more put up with the Jesus-swayed man than with
Jesus Himself. And the hate would be aggressive.

But if they would clearly understand ahead what to expect it would help
them keep their feet when the worst storm came. And by staying steady
and true through the worst that came, they would be of the greatest
service. The Holy Spirit in them would reach out and talk to that outer
crowd. He would make clear to them their awful sin in killing Jesus, the
spotless purity and rightness of the absent Jesus, and the terrific fact
that the prince of the world whom they rally to so faithfully is
actually judged, doomed and damned. Then He adds, "now in a little bit
I'll be gone from you. Then a little later, I'll be with you again."

So He goes on ringing the changes back and forth on this in simple
conversational style. And now they are silent. The narrow street is
quite shadowed. He lets them think a bit over His words. And the
personal part takes hold most. And they talk softly together of what
this means,--a littl