lified in the relation between the vine
and the branches. Christ is the vine, and every individual Christian is
an individual branch; every branch is an individual member of the vine,
and every Christian is an individual member of Christ.

* * * * *

What a clear view of the church, and how plainly we can see that there
is but one. Every regenerate soul is by one Spirit baptized into this
one body. This vine is cared for and kept by God himself, who is the
husbandman. Every branch must be a living, fruit-bearing one. It is
placed into the vine by the hand which will care for it, and give it
every necessary treatment to cause it to bring forth much fruit. If it
bears fruit it will be kept in the vine; if it does not bear fruit it
will be taken away. The same life which flows through the vine also
flows into the branches. It is the branches that bear the fruit. It is
the part of the vine to sustain the branches, and the part of the
branches to bear fruit. The fruit is the production of the vine-life in
the branches. The word of God teaches us that Christ is pure and holy,
and in Rom. 11:16 we are taught that if the root be holy, so are the
branches. The manner of the induction of the branches into the vine is
illustrated by the process of grafting. We are not grown into Christ,
but grafted into him. The natural branches of a vine grow out of the
vine, and accordingly bear the vine-fruit, but by grace we are grafted
into Christ, the vine, and bear the vine-fruit.

A certain writer who advocates the repression theory of sanctification
says: "But if I want a tree wholly made good I take it when young and,
cutting the stem off on the ground, I graft just where it emerges from
the soil; I watch over every bud which the old nature could possibly put
forth until the flow of sap from the old roots into the new stem is so
complete that the old life has, as it were, been entirely conquered and
covered of the new. Now I have a tree entirely renewed--emblem of a
Christian who has learned in entire consecration to surrender everything
for Christ, and in a whole-hearted faith wholly to abide in him. If in
this case the old tree were a reasonable being that could co-operate
with the gardener, what would the gardener's language be to it? Would it
not be this: 'Yield now thyself entirely to this new nature with which I
have invested thee; repress every tendency of the old nature to give
buds or sprouts; le