EACH A PECULIAR PLANT IN A PECULIAR SPOT

^[p. 46] EACH A PECULIAR PLANT IN A PECULIAR SPOT

When we consider that each of us is a plant of the Lord, and not one like another as to leaf or flower, the plantation is most interesting; and though there is no similarity in the circumstances or in the duties of any one, yet the health and vigour of each is hindered or promoted by the state of any of the rest, for we are members one of another. You are a plant of the Lord, set by Him in His plantation on earth, to have a certain leaf and blossom and fruit. He knows where He has set you, and He takes into account all the adverse influences which bear on you, He puts the plant where it can best set forth the beauty He has given it, which is His own. He knows the amount of frost and wind and sun which is needful. We in the new nature are exotics, but we are placed in circumstances the best suited for us to grow, to neutralise the adverse influences of the old nature to which we are so susceptible. As a plant of the Lord you are an exotic, and there is no other plant like you. He has only the one specimen of each, but while this is so, and this new plant is not in its own climate and home, and your old nature is at home here, and is fostered and promoted according as it uses and enjoys the things here, yet the circumstances you are placed in are the most favourable and the best adapted for spiritual growth. For the plant there is really nothing here, everything hinders it; and yet the place and trials which form your circumstances, however painful, are the most suited to promote growth, because the Lord knows the only spot in His plantation where you can or could grow according to His intention, and places you there. I think it is a great thing to be assured that I am not only a peculiar plant but that I am planted in a peculiar spot; and if I do not express the virtues and qualities of the exotic there, that I could do so less in any other circumstances.

^[p. 47] Bad health, for instance, is a very rough wind; but this the gardener sees necessary, in order to remove some of the vapours which would hang about the valley of the old nature, and thus retard and obscure the expressions of the exotic.

But there is another good from rough winds, even - that the plant, according to its vitality, really increases in strength on the very side on which it is most assailed. The vapours go, and the plant, taking advantage of the relief, declares its energy; I mean that it is not only the wind from the outside, but the power from the inside; so that when the wind tears away the ivy from the tree, the tree insists that it must not be embarrassed by the ivy again. The wind is as the cannon to make the breach, but then the soldier, sword in hand, enters it and is victor. You will at once see that there must be concert with the wind (the trial and pressure of circumstances, all to break down the flesh) and the power within. When any breach is made, then self-denial is required to turn to good account that which God has effected by chastening. This I feel the most difficult, and also the most deeply interesting action in our histories. There are the rough winds and the frost without; and there is the energy of the Spirit within, seeking to claim for Christ the place which the flesh had occupied. But besides this, the very scene in which I am set becomes an opportunity for me to refuse it, by the strength of the power within, and I receive an hundred-fold more for what I surrender. Thus, whatever our circumstances may be, dark or bright, they are really the most favourable and the most adapted for growth; and this is an immense comfort. If they be sorrowful circumstances which break down the flesh, the field is claimed by the Spirit. If bright ones, seductive to the flesh, as Egypt was to Moses, they are to be surrendered, that Christ may be the full joy of the heart.

If I say it delights my heart to see you growing as one of His plants (of which there is not another, and ^[p. 48] therefore commanding and insuring a special interest), how much more is it to Him who has chosen you. How beautiful in the eyes of the angels to see one singular and rare plant resisting the wind and every adverse influence, and setting forth the beauties of Christ in your appointed spot on earth.