kind, but inward and of the spirit. In other words, _it is a
unity of purpose and of resources for attaining that purpose_. The
branch is one with the tree because it draws its life from the tree and
bears the fruit proper to the tree. We are one with Christ when we adopt
His purpose in the world as the real governing aim of our life, and when
we renew our strength for the fulfilment of that purpose by fellowship
with His love for mankind and His eternal purpose to bless men.

We must be content, then, to be branches. We must be content not to
stand isolated and grow from a private root of our own. We must utterly
renounce selfishness. Successful selfishness is absolutely impossible.
The greater the apparent success of selfishness is, the more gigantic
will the failure one day appear. An arm severed from the body, a branch
lopped off the tree, is the true symbol of the selfish man. He will be
left behind as the true progress of mankind proceeds, with no part in
the common joy, stranded and dying in cold isolation. We must learn that
our true life can only be lived when we recognise that we are parts of a
great whole, that we are here not to prosecute any private interest of
our own and win a private good for ourselves, but to forward the good
that others share in and the cause that is common.

How this unity is formed received no explanation on this occasion. The
manner in which men become branches of the true Vine was not touched
upon in the allegory. Already the disciples were branches, and no
explanation was called for. It may, however, be legitimate to gather a
hint from the allegory itself regarding the formation of the living bond
between Christ and His people. However ignorant we may be of the
propagation of fruit trees and the processes of grafting we can at any
rate understand that no mere tying of a branch to a tree, bark to bark,
would effect anything save the withering of the branch. The branch, if
it is to be fruitful, must form a solid part of the tree, must be
grafted so as to become of one structure and life with the stem. It must
be cut through, so as to lay bare the whole interior structure of it,
and so as to leave open all the vessels that carry the sap; and a
similar incision must be made in the stock upon which the branch is to
be grafted, so that the cut sap-vessels of the branch may be in contact
with the cut sap-vessels of the stock. Such must be our grafting into
Christ. It must be a laying bar