I had almost said, if you do not give us your daily prayers give up your
membership, for it is no good to yourselves, and cannot be of any use to
us. The very least thing that a church member can do is to plead with
God that the blessing may descend. It is the King’s garden, and will you
not pray for it? It is the King’s own garden wherein he loves to walk, and
which he has purchased with his blood; shall not your prayers go up that
his church may flourish, and that his kingdom may come?
And now, lastly, on this point. This King’s garden, what does it produce?
If there had been time, I meant to have waited while you answered the
question as to how much you produced. Sometimes in our garden we
have a tree which is so loaded with fruit that we have to put props under
it to keep the branches from trembling; there are one or two in this
church of that sort, who bear much fruit for God, and are so weak in
body that their very fruitfulness of zeal and earnestness seems as though
it would break them. I pray God that with his gracious promise he may
prop them up. I am afraid that this is not the picture of most of us. You
say to the gardener sometimes, “Will there be any fruit on that tree this
season? It is time that it should show.” He looks, and looks, and looks
again, and at last the good man says, “I think I can see one little one up
at the top sir, but I do not know whether it will come to much” That, I
am afraid, is the photograph of many professors. There is fruit, or else
they would not be saved ones, but it is “a little one.” Herein is my Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” May your
prayer be, not for fruit only, but for much fruit, and may God send it.
Remember, if there be any fruit at all, it all belongs to the King. If a soul
be saved, he shall have the glory of it. If there be any advance made in
the great cause of truth and righteousness, the crown shall be put upon
his head. The keepers of the vineyard shall have their hundreds, but the
King himself shall have his ten thousand times ten thousand, for he
deserves it all.
VI. And now, dear friends, before I send you away, there is one more
garden I must mention, but the time is so far past that I shall not keep
you to say much about it; it is The Garden of the Paradise Above.
I shall let God’s word speak to you about that garden, and then I have
done.
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the
street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life,
which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month:
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there
shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in
it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his
name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and
they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth
them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
In that garden of the paradise above may we all be found at the last.
Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
