102 THE TRANSPLANTED LIME. slew Him upon the cross. The favorite season for gathering and drying plants is when they are in fullest vigor and fairest blossom; and it seems to me as if the heavenly Father had destined for the death of His well-beloved Son the time at which the love of the Son had attained its utmost fervor. And as Jesus then died in love, so in love did He also rise again from the dead, and ascend into heaven, and now and through all eternity, can do nothing but dearly love the children of men. Oh that we had no eyes and no heart but for such a love as this! Oh that it kindled in our bosoms an ever-fresh and ever-fervent love in return! LVI. The Transplanted Lime. Y the passage of a hostile army through the country, an afflicted man complained that he had lost his all,—his house having been plundered and burnt to ashes, and he himself driven from it with nothing but the staff in his hand. Gotthold, heartily sympathizing with him, spoke, for his comfort, as follows: Be of good cheer; we have a God who can make us happy even in adversity. He THE TRANSPLANTED LIME. 103 then pointed to a young lime, which had shortly before been removed from the open field, and planted for ornament and shade in front of his house, and said: Mark that tree. By my command it was lately planted there. Its boughs have all been lopped, the stock polled, and now it stands disfigured and without a leaf. But no other treatment would have done it good. Had the branches been spared, the roots, so recently disturbed, and, as yet, imperfectly established in the foreign soil, could not have supplied them with sap, and, as an inevitable consequence, both they and the stock must have died. There, however, the stock now stands, naked indeed, but still alive, and distributing whatever sap it receives from below into a few little buds, which by degrees will burst, and grow, and flourish. In the same way does a faithful God often deal with those Christians whom He intends to transplant from the soil of the world into the kingdom of His Son. He suffers them to be reduced to poverty and want, causes the boughs of their temporal prosperity to be hewn off by robbery, injustice, war, or conflagrations, in order that they may serve Him with a readier will; and with lighter burdens and fewer impediments, proceed along the narrow way that leadeth unto life. If you have lost your all, count yourself happy that in this respect you have attained to conformity with your Saviour, who had not so much as where to lay His head.' At 1 Matt. viii. 20. 104 THE PLANT IN THE CELLAR. His birth, His bed was a manger, but it was not His own. He taught the people from a ship, but that was Simon Peter's. Into the city of Jerusalem He rode upon an ass, but it was borrowed for the purpose. The little clothing which He possessed, the soldiers divided among them, and cast lots for His seamless coat. The only thing He could call His own, was the cross on which He shed His precious blood. Be thankful, therefore, that although you have lost all else, you have still a cross which you can take up and bear in the footsteps of your Master Jesus. LVII. The Plant in the Cellar. AVING occasion to go into the cellar, Gotthold found a turnip, which had been left by accident, and had vegetated and sent forth long and slender shoots. These, however, were unnaturally of a pale yellow color, and therefore unfit for use. Here, thought he, I have the type of a human undertaking from which God withholds His blessing, and which must, therefore, necessarily miscarry. This plant wants sunshine and open air, with out which it cannot thrive, and so it grows in weakness for a little, and then withers and dies. It is the same with all our acts and enterprises, which are not irradiated by the grace of God, nor fostered by His blessing. According to the words of the Saviour, Every plant which my Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.1 LVIII. Che Rose. ERCEIVING, in the month of May, the pomp and beauty of the roses, a person remarked: This is the flower which the Holy Spirit Himself has selected as the emblem of the believing soul, be cause, as the rose is environed with thorns, so likewise is such a soul with tribulation. Gotthold replied: You say well, and no doubt you have also sometimes experienced the thorns which wound and vex the Christian's heart. We are told that the fragrance of the rose is greatly increased by planting a bunch of foetid garlic beside it. If this be true, it serves to illustrate the benefit which may accrue to an upright and godly man from a wicked and shameless slanderer. In fact, the fame of many would be circumscribed by nar 1 Matt. xv. 13. row limits, if their slanderers did not help, even against their will, to sound it far and wide. The reason is, that the more a man is calumniated and traduced, the more do the honorable-minded, who prefer their own good name above all the treasures of the world, and are, consequently, reluctant to believe discreditable things of others, feel bound to take into account the person, look, gestures, and dispositions of him who utters the calumny, and so are led to feel a deeper interest than they otherwise would in the party against whom it is levelled. The ultimate consequence is, that the rose remains, after all, a fragrant and beautiful flower, and the garlic an offensive weed; I mean that the virtuous man continues to be honored and beloved, while the slanderer is disgraced and hated. Besides, the slanderer exercises the good man's patience, shows him the maliciousness of the devil, weans him from the world, exercises him in humility, acquaints him with his sins, and incites him to fly from the vices with which he is charged, and to cultivate the opposite virtues. In short, every calumny thrown at him is a pearl that will one day beautify his celestial crown. This is what King David affirms when he says: Lord, in humbling me (by shame and persecution), Thou hast made me great.1 My God, Thou makest all things work together for good to them that love Thee. That I do love Thee, is 1 Psalm xviii. 35. Luth, vers. 2 2 Rom. viii. 28. |