Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/352

 You will observe that his branches neither stretch to the ground like the weeping ash, nor push toward the sky like the Lombardy poplar. They are trained horizontally, midway betwixt heaven and earth, as if to partake equally of the dew of the one, and of the fat of the other. That judicious training has thrown his shoots into numerous fruit buds; and, you see, there is a fine promise of fruit, which has been regularly and skilfully thinned for the improvement of the whole crop. You there behold a real Christian, who, having submitted to the discipline and cross of the great Husbandman and Captain of his salvation, and having undergone much self-denial, is yielding a copious supply of delicious and wholesome food, for the use of the neighbourhood."

Yes! our Father is indeed the Husbandman; and how correctly He instructs us, and how perfectly He produces fruit from us, if we do but submit ourselves to His Divine superintendence. Let us look within. Evil, in many instances, is in the ascendant, and it seeks for gratification by dark and crooked purposes; while the pride of self-conceit would penetrate the sky, and look with contempt on all, as though it would exclaim, "Come not near!" But good from the Lord seeks perpetually to subdue this evil—keeps the middle path, the strait and the narrow way—shews that a life of love to God is best exemplified by a life of love, and charity, and usefulness to man. Good from the Lord restrains the lofty and towering spirit, and keeps it humble and in the sphere of use; prunes away all that is likely to retard it in the course towards perfection, and so trains it, that the fruit it produces is of the most perfect quality, and, hence, of