十一月十三日
自己就不能結果子。（約15：4）
你怎樣開頭結果子呢？乃是當你來到耶穌面前，投靠他的救贖，信賴他所成就的義。
那時你結了什麽果子呢？你還記得開頭時的情形嗎？那時葡萄樹很茂盛，果子累累，石榴開花結果，香花畦放香。從那時起你曾墮落嗎？若你曾墮落過，我們勸你回想當初的愛，幷要悔改，行起初所行的。惟有這樣才能使你親近基督，因爲你一切的果子都是從他來的。凡能把你帶到他面前的方法就能幫助你結果子。果樹結果子少不了太陽，恩園中的樹木更少不了耶穌。
你什麽時候最不能結果子呢？不是當你遠離主耶穌基督，當你懶于禱告，當你偏離純正的信仰，當你注重你的德行過于主，當你說“我的山堅立，我必不至動搖”而忘記你的力量從何而來的時候，便停止結果了嗎？我們有人因爲在主面前極力抑壓自己的心，就知道我們若沒有基督便一無所有；當我們看到一切世人的能力都是貧乏無力，必至死亡時，我們就痛苦地說：“我一切的果子都從他而得，因我幷不能結出果子來。”我們從過去的經驗知道，我們若專心在基督裏倚靠神的恩典，幷等候聖靈，我們就能爲神結出更多的果子來。我們的結果，和生活一樣都要倚靠耶穌。
“向下扎根，向上結果。”
November
13
“The
branch cannot bear fruit of itself.”–John 15:4
How did you begin to bear fruit? It was when you came to Jesus and cast
yourselves on his great atonement, and rested on his finished righteousness.
Ah! what fruit you had then! Do you remember those early days? Then indeed the
vine flourished, the tender grape appeared, the pomegranates budded forth, and
the beds of spices gave forth their smell. Have you declined since then? If you
have, we charge you to remember that time of love, and repent, and do thy first
works. Be most in those engagements which you have experimentally proved to
draw you nearest to Christ, because it is from him that all your fruits
proceed. Any holy exercise which will bring you to him will help you to bear
fruit. The sun is, no doubt, a great worker in fruit-creating among the trees
of the orchard: and Jesus is still more so among the trees of his garden of
grace. When have you been the most fruitless? Has not it been when you have
lived farthest from the Lord Jesus Christ, when you have slackened in prayer,
when you have departed from the simplicity of your faith, when your graces have
engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have said, “My
mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved”; and have forgotten where
your strength dwells–has not it been then that your fruit has ceased? Some of
us have been taught that we have nothing out of Christ, by terrible abasements
of heart before the Lord; and when we have seen the utter barrenness and death
of all creature power, we have cried in anguish, “From him all my fruit must
be found, for no fruit can ever come from me.” We are taught, by past
experience, that the more simply we depend upon the grace of God in Christ, and
wait upon the Holy Spirit, the more we shall bring forth fruit unto God. Oh! to
trust Jesus for fruit as well as for life.
