I would suggest to everyone here to cry to the Lord to make
us conscious of our natural barrenness. Gracious ones, may
the Lord make us mourn our comparative barrenness, even if
we do bear some fruit. To feel quite satisfied with yourself
is perilous: to feel that you are holy, and indeed that you
are perfect, is to be on the brink of the pit of pride. If
you hold your head so high, I am afraid you will strike it
against the top of the doorway. If you walk on stilts, I
fear you will fall. It is a safer thing to feel, “Lord, I do
serve thee, and I am no deceiver. I do love thee; thou hast
wrought the works of the Spirit in me. But alas! I am not
what I want to be, I am not what I ought to be. I aspire to
holiness: help me to attain it. Lord, I would lie in the
very dust before thee to think that after being digged about
and dunged, as I have been, I should bear such little fruit.
I feel myself less than nothing. My cry is, ‘God be merciful
to me.’ If I had done all, I should still have been an
unprofitable servant; but having done so little, Lord, where
shall I hide my guilty head?”
Lastly, when you have made this confession, and the good
Lord has heard you, there is one emblem in Scripture I
should like you to copy. Suppose this morning you feel so
dry and dead and barren, that you cannot serve God as you
would, nor even pray for more grace, as you wish to do. Then
you are something like these twelve rods. They are very dead
and dry, for they have been held in the hands of twelve
chiefs, who have used them as their official staves. These
twelve rods are to be laid before the Lord. This one is
Aaron’s rod; but it is quite as dead and dry as any of the
rest. The whole twelve are laid in the place where the Lord
dwelleth. We see them next morning. Eleven are dry rods
still; but see this rod of Aaron! What has happened? It was
dry as death. See, it has budded! This is wonderful! But
look, it has blossomed! There are almond flowers upon it.
You know they are rosy pink and white. This is marvelous!
But look again, it has brought forth almonds! Here, you have
them! See these green fruits, which look like peaches. Take
off the flesh, and here is an almond whose shell you may
break and find the kernel. The heavenly power has come upon
the dry stick, and it has budded and blossomed, and even
brought forth almonds. Fruit-bearing is the proof of life
and favour. Lord, take these poor sticks this morning, and
make them bud. Lord, here we are, in a bundle, perform that
ancient miracle in a thousand of us. Make us bud and
blossom, and bear fruit! Come with divine power, and turn
this congregation from a fagot into a grove. Oh, that our
blessed Lord may get a fig from some dry stick this morning!
at least, such a fig as this, “God be merciful to me a
sinner;” there is sweetness in that fig as this, “Lord, I
believe, help thou my unbelief.” Here is another, “Though he
slay me, yet will I trust in him”–that is a whole basketful
of the first ripe figs, and the Lord rejoices in their
sweetness. Come Holy Spirit, produce fruit in us this day,
through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen, and Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
