NO REAL STRENGTH OR JOY FROM SERVICE EXCEPT IN THE LORD'S PRESENCE

^[p. 124] NO REAL STRENGTH OR JOY FROM SERVICE EXCEPT IN THE LORD’S PRESENCE

How does the vine flourish? Neither wine nor oil can be obtained but through a process of bruising or beating. The finest fruit will not yield wine or oil without this severe process, though many a one, knowing that oil comes from olive berries, and wine from grapes, may think that he has both oil and wine because he has the fruits from which they are obtained. It is quite true that neither oil nor wine could be obtained without the olive fruit and the vine fruit, but after the fruit is gathered there is need of great skill to make it into oil or wine, and not only skill, but patience and attention. Fruit is the result of life, the outward expression of it, but the best acts in themselves will not make the face to shine as oil only does, nor will they gladden the heart as wine does. The acts cannot be done without grace, any more than grapes can grow without health and vigour in the vine; but as grapes are subjected to pressure, after being fully ripe, in order to produce wine, so the best acts - the fruits of grace - must be judged and sifted in the sanctuary, before there is real gladness of heart. Saints often expect the gladness to come from the work. The work is in the field. There Ruth gleaned, but it was at Naomi’s home that she really enjoyed the fruit of her toil. It was all handed up to Naomi, and her acceptance of it was the cheer to Ruth. If she was pleased with her gleaning, as doubtless she might be, she was pleased with the grapes, and not the wine. The wine is not found until, as I may say, the grapes have been bruised into my Lord’s cup. Grapes, that is acts, please while we are occupied with them, but they do not gladden the heart; they have nothing of the power of wine - of the joy the heart has while subjecting all its works and ways to Christ, and sharing in that which He extracts.

There is great difference between the kind of pleasure ^[p. 125] one has in doing things for the Lord, and the enjoyment the same one may have with Him consequent on, or subsequent to, the doing of the work. Many are satisfied with the grapes, and hence know little of the wine. There is more of grapes than of wine, and you can never store grapes unless you dry them, but you can store wine. Thus it is that one may account for the difference one often sees in workers while they are working, and when their work is over; while working there is a suavity about them, they are fragrant with grapes, and find themselves to be beautiful vines; but in private, in the desert, there is no wine. The vintage is over, and there has been no storing, no filling of the cellars with the joys which are made known after labour in His presence, and they are dull or barren till the grapes come again; whereas the great cheer is, or ought to be, in the wine which is extracted from the grapes. I do not disparage work. It is plain that if there are no grapes there can be no wine, but I fear often there are grapes without wine. The work is the grapes, but the real strength and joy of the heart as to it, is in the wine extracted from it when I get before the Lord, and see all that is of grace separated from the husk and pulp of nature; then I rejoice in that in which He shares. I have communion with Him about His own interests, and am gladdened by the wine of His own joy, and not merely by the grapes. I am like the bee that goes forth to gather the honey, but never eats it except in the hive; and to the bee there is no place like the hive. I wish there was more work, but I very much wish there was more real enjoyment in the Lord in connection with His interests here on earth. Work should be regarded less with reference to its immediate results, or as to how it may affect this or that person; the great question is will it, when sifted in His presence, be acceptable to Him, and this acceptability to Him is my reward: “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5: 9). One does not enough go ^[p. 126] forth to work in the joy and strength of one who comes out from his home to run his course. Many seem to droop because there are no grapes and are not happy unless they are doing. Doing is right enough in itself, but the order ought to be from happiness to work, and not to work for happiness. It is from the inner circle, the hive, the heart where Christ reigns, the only green spot, the fond enclosure - the sanctuary, that one should come forth to work like a giant refreshed with wine. I should not like to stop working because I had not great enjoyment in the Lord: but the quality of one’s service depends on the nature of one’s rest - and that rest should be like His own, known and enjoyed with Him. I think that we have but small ideas of how our outward bears the colour of our inward, and if our inward is not restful, there cannot be a rest-imparting service, however it may be attempted. If I do not make wine, I can have no wine for others. He that makes wine first tastes of it himself.