October 28

God expects fruit

“Behold . . . I come seeking fruit” (Luke 13:7).
“For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer. 17:8).

A farmer goes to the agricultural fairs, and he says, “I have a farm that I want to put in competition. It has not a weed on it—not one; it has not a Canada thistle; it has no purslain; it has not a dock; it has no plantain; it has not any mullein. There is not a weed on it, absolutely.”
“Well,” it is asked him, “what are your crops?”
“Oh, I—I—.”
“Have you any wheat?”
“No.”
“Any corn?”
“No.”
“Any grafts in the orchard?”
“No; I have nothing of that kind—but I’ve got no weeds.” And that is all!
There are a great many people who seem to think that religion is not doing wrong. As if a knitting machine that never knit any stockings would be considered good because it never “misknit”!
—Henry Ward Beecher.

God has no more use for a fruitless Christian than a farmer for a stalk of corn without an ear, a flock of hens without eggs or a herd of cows without milk. It is by fruits we verify our faith.—F. H. Sparks.

DO YOU BEAR FRUIT? Without holy fruit all evidences are vain. How vain would it be to prove to a farmer that his fields were good and productive, if they produced no corn! You might say to him, “Neighbor, your land is good; the soil is dry and well trenched.” “Oh! but,” he would say, “where is the yellow grain—where are the full ears falling before the sickle of the reaper?”
—Robert Murray McCheyne.

If I were fruitless, it mattered not who commended me, but if I were fruitful, I cared not who did condemn.
—John Bunyan.

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