5. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

by such relationships as hunger and bread, thirst and water, and the intimacy of their united lives is unveiled in the figures of the vine and its branches, the head and its members, the bridegroom and the bride." Rev. J. H. Jowett, D.D.

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5. I am the vine, ye are the branches. "Christ can only express himself through union with man. He wants to reveal to your family what gracious fruit is matured in the life that abides in him. But he has no branch! He longs to express himself in civic life. But does he always find the branch ?" - Jowett. Without me (R. V., apart from me," separated from me) ye can do nothing — nothing, that is, which is worthy to be called fruit-bearing, nothing pleasing to the Father. "Without him what is called success is a shadow. We may gather riches, reputation, power, but standing alone, apart from him, we cannot turn these into eternal blessings for ourselves or for others." Bishop Westcott. But with Christ strengthening us, as Paul

said (Phil. 4 13), we can do all things.

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Illustrations. Once a mother had her little daughter pick a beautiful lily and bring it to her. Now," she said, "lay it on the step in the sun for a few minutes." Later she sent the little girl for the lily, and she came back, grieved, bringing the lily all withered and spoiled. "That, my dear," said the mother, "is what you would be if God were not with you every minute." Condensed from Bibbs's "Polished Stones." "In the Hebrew allegory, the fallen angels of Love regained the celestial light, because they confessed their weakness, and crept back through the dark, dependently begging to find again what they had lost. But the fallen angels of Knowledge, confident in their vain boast of self-emanating lustre, plunged obstinately on, till they sunk, obscure and lost forever, into the pit.' Bishop Huntington.

6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch cast out of the vineyard, hopelessly rejected. See Isa. 27: 11; Ezek. 15:5. And is withered, so that it cannot possibly bear any fruit. And men (R. V.," they ") gather them and cast them into the fire. Some commentators think that Jesus, leading his disciples through the Kedron vineyards to Gethsemane, saw men burning heaps of dead branches cut from the vines. And they are burned. By a wonderful succession of terrible verbs Christ pictures the fate of those that are separated from him: taken away (v. 2), cast forth, withered, gathered, cast into the fire, burned. What a warning for the disciples and for us! The barren branch" is cast forth in order to preserve the integrity of the vine. It is withered in order to show the judgment of barrenness in its very self. It is gathered, as the judgment of society upon fruitlessness. It is cast into the fire, which is the judgment of the husbandman." Foulkes.

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7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you. My words" here are equiva-, lent to "I" of verse 4; Christ identifies himself with his teaching; we are his friends if we do his commandments (v. 14). If we cherish his words lovingly in our hearts, he will not be far away.

Illustration. "There seems to be here a sort of faintly sketched picture of a solemn council-room in the heart of the true Christian, around which sit in beautiful and holy chairs the judges of our lives, the words of Jesus. Every act that the true Christian does he compels to pass upon its way from conception to execution through that council-room, and every word of Jesus sitting in its place must give its sanction to every act.". Phillips Brooks.

Ye shall ask what ye will (R. V., " ask whatsoever ye will."). It will be Christ's will as well as yours, since Christ is dwelling in you, influencing your desires. And it shall be done unto you. Of course God will answer the prayer, as it will be, virtually, the prayer of his well-beloved Son. "If a man love and serve God perfectly, his prayers will infallibly prevail." Francis Wayland.

The bell

Illustration. A great bell was once made to vibrate by a slender flute. was not influenced by the flute except when a certain note was sounded, and then it at once responded. So when our prayers are in harmony with God's will, they at once elicit a divine response. - From Edward Judson, D.D.

8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

II. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. Our fruit-bearing is to God's glory because it comes through God's grace and power poured out upon us as through his Son, Jesus Christ. Every Christian knows that his good deeds are not to his credit, but to Christ's. So (R. V.," and so ") shall ye be my disciples; literally, "Ye shall become my disciples." "A Christian never 'is,' but always' is becoming' a Christian. And it is by his fruitfulness that he indicates his claim to the name.' Westcott.

Illustration. "Two friends were walking in a garden and one asked the name of a particular tree and was told that it was an apple-tree. But,' said he, 'I see no fruit.' 'No,' was the answer, it never bears any fruit, but it is very ornamental.' There are many so-called Christians like that tree." Rev. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton.

III. PERSEVERANCE IN FRUIT-BEARING, vs. 9-16. 9. As (R. V., " Even as ") the Father hath loved me. God's love alone made it possible for Christ to do what he did for men. So have I loved you (R. V., " I also have loved you"): continue (R. V., " abide ") ye in my love. As Christ was leaving his disciples he had no greater anxiety than that they should persevere in the work he had set for them to do, continuing his own work for men. As God's love was Christ's motive power, so Christ's love was to be their motive power, and was to insure their perseverance if they would only continue to love Christ. My love means both Christ's love for the disciples and their love for him.

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10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Father's commandments. Christ implies that if he yielded himself to God's commandments, they should not hesitate to yield to Christ's commandments; and if Christ found that the result of obedience to God was that he continued to abide in his love, they might confidently expect the same result to come from obedience to Christ's commandments.

II. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you (R. V., may be in you"). Christ's joy was in doing his Father's will (John 4: 34), obeying God's commandments; and his joy would enter their lives and remain there on the same terms. "The joy of Christ, like the peace of Christ, is something strangely unlike that which commonly bears the name. His peace was maintained in the very shock of conflict; his joy was felt in the very depth of sorrow." - Bishop Westcott. And that your joy might be full (R. V., “ may be fulfilled "). This fulness of joy would be the result of fulness of obedience. Christ's joy was already full, because his obedience was perfect; the joy of Christ's disciples is a growing one, to be perfected some glad day. "Heaven is nothing but the joy of a perfectly harmonized being, filled with God and his love." - Horace Bushnell.

12. This is my commandment. "Perhaps they expected minute, detailed instructions such as they had received when first sent out (Matt. 10). Instead of this, love was to be their sufficient guide.” - Expositor's Greek Testament. That ye love one another. "Like as every lord gives a livery to his servants, whereby they may be known that they pertain unto him, so our Lord would have his servants known by their liveries and badge, which badge is love alone." Bishop Hugh Latimer, martyred in 1555. As (R. V., " even as ") I have loved you. "His love was at once the source and the measure of theirs." Expositor's Greek Testament.

13. Greater love hath no man than this. Christ would have his disciples understand something of his love for them, which was to be the inspiration of their love for him. That a man lay down his life (like a cast-off garment) for his friends. But

Christ's love was greater than man's love, for he laid down his life for his foes (Rom. 5:6-10).

14. Ye are my friends. The disciples had this great assurance to comfort them through all the trials which Christ foresaw were coming upon them. Christ was their Friend, and he would see them through. If ye do whatsoever I command you (R. V., not so strong, "the things which I command you "). Christ said this, not to discourage the disciples, but to hearten them. Their trials would come as they obeyed his commandments, and he assured them that this obedience made his friendship certain. "The measure of your love to Christ will be found in the measure in which you overcome easily besetting sins." Beecher.

15. Henceforth I call you not servants, literally, "slaves." Christ had never called the disciples that, but they had called him their Lord and Master (John 13: 13), which amounted to the same thing. For the servant (slave) knoweth not what his lord doeth. "He receives his allotted task but is not made acquainted with the ends his master wishes to serve by his toil. He is animated by no sympathy with his master's purpose nor by any personal interest in what he is doing.' Expositor's Greek Testament. But I have called you friends, as God called Abraham his friend (Isa. 41: 8), and as Christ bestowed the same loving name upon Lazarus (John 11:11). Illustration. Xenophon tells us that when Cyrus gave Artabazus, one of his courtiers, a cup of gold, he gave Chrysanthus, his favorite, nothing but a kiss, which occasioned this speech from Artabazus to Cyrus: Sir, the cup you gave me was not so good gold as the kiss you gave Chrysanthus.' There is no gift in the universe so rich and precious as the friendship of Jesus Christ." Louis Albert Banks, D.D.

For all things that I have heard of my Father, especially the greatest of all things, Christ's mission to this world for the saving of men. See Matt. II: 27. I have made known unto you. All of Christ's teachings were not his own, as he clearly said (John 8: 28), but were taught him by his Father.

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16. Ye have not chosen me (R. V., "Ye did not choose me"). If they had, they might easily become discouraged, distrusting their own wisdom in the choice, and fearing that after all they had made a mistake. But I have chosen you, knowing all your weakness and failings, foreseeing what tests you will be exposed to, and yet selecting you as followers who can be depended upon. "A sense of being personally chosen of God is the best support of personal courage." - Rev. William R. Richards, D.D. And ordained (R. V., "appointed ") you, as a general selects his soldiers or a President his cabinet. See I Cor. 12: 28; Acts 20: 28, etc. That ye should go (on the missions on which I shall send you) and bring forth fruit. Here Christ returns to the original comparison. "As in adoring faith I see my personal life embraced in God's eternal purpose in Christ, as the heavenly truth possesses me that I have been appointed to bear fruit, not in virtue of my fitness or my having offered myself for it, but because God and Christ saw fit to choose me for it, the call to give myself up to live alone for this comes with irresistible urgency, and the confidence is begotten that I can bear just as much fruit as God would have me do." Andrew Murray. And that your fruit should remain (R. V., abide "). "When trees are not perfectly healthy, or are suffering from drought, they sometimes drop their fruit. Or there may be fruit that, when once ripe, will not keep it does not abide. Or, again, there are trees that bear fruit only for a few years, and then fail. . . . Christ meant that the branch that abides in him should bear fruit that abides, should have permanent results for time and eternity." Andrew Murray. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father," Jesus said 'whatsoever,' and it ill becomes me to tone down his promise." Foulkes. In my name. To pray in Christ's name is not to use his name as a charm or talisman simply, as though the bare repetition of it were all that is required to open the treasures of infinite grace. Let us not degrade this dearest promise of our Lord into such a superstition as that. The Jewish cabalists believed that the pronunciation of certain magical words engraved on the seal of Solomon would perform miracles. That was incantation. And we in like manner make Christian incantation of this sublimest privilege of the gospel if we put such an interpretation as this upon Christ's words. The name of Christ stands for Christ himself. And to pray in the name of Christ is to pray in Christ, in the mind and spirit and will of Christ." -A. J. Gordon. He may give it you, and so their power to bring forth fruit will be assured. Illustration. The Empress Josephine said that the happiest day in her life was when she found a poor woman in tears, and asked how she might help her. "Oh, no one could help me,' the woman answered. "It is impossible. It would require four hundred francs to save our vineyard and our goats." Josephine at once counted

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out the money, and the woman's gratitude made that the press's life. "But all God's life is filled with days like that. delights to hear our prayer, to answer it, to relieve and to Burrell, D.D.

"Jesus, immutably the same,

Thou true and living Vine,
Around thy all-supporting stem
My feeble arms I twine.
"Quickened by thee and kept alive
I flourish and bear fruit;
My life I from thy sap derive,
My vigor from thy root."

LESSON VIII. - May 20.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-CONTROL.

TEMPERANCE LESSON.

COMMIT VS. 7.

GOLDEN TEXT. Every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. ·I COR. 9:25.

Drunkards and Their Doom.

[NOTE.- -As this passage is so difficult in the King James Version, and the text of the Revised Version is so much clearer and more accurate, it alone is given in the notes on this lesson.]

THE DRUNKARDS IN THEIR PRIDE, vs. 1-4. Isaiah, son of Amoz (not the prophet Amos), was a great prophet of Jerusalem in the reigns of four kings

WOE to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!

2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

of Judah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Beginning to prophesy during the reign of Uzziah (B.C. 805-755), he continued even after the death of Hezekiah in B.C. 695. He warned his people of the coming of the Assyrians, who actually captured Samaria in B.C. 718, and made unsuccessful attacks on Judah in B.C. 710 and 701. Our lesson is a picture of the Northern Kingdom, whose wickedness Isaiah sets forth in order that his own nation may take warning and avoid their wickedness, that it may escape their destruction. The passage contains many points applicable to modern nations full of drunkards and controlled so largely by saloon men. George Adam Smith calls this chapter one of the greatest of Isaiah's prophecies. It is distinguished by that regal versatility of style which places its author at the head of Hebrew writers."

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1. Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim. "Ephraim" is the common prophetic name for the Northern Kingdom, since the tribe of Ephraim was the leader among the ten tribes which composed it. The people of the Northern Kingdom were both drunken with wine and intoxicated with pride." - Speaker's Commentary. And to the fading flower of his glorious beauty. The glory of the Northern Kingdom was like the withered garland on the head of a besotted reveller, faded and dead. Probably the immediate reference is to the capital city, Samaria, its circling ramparts reminding Isaiah of a chaplet. Which is on the head of the fat valley. This refers to the situation of Samaria, at the head of a broad valley sloping to the west, on " a round, isolated hill over three hundred feet high. Although the mountains surround and overlook it on three sides, Samaria commands a great view to the west." George Adam Smith. Though it would now be commanded from the northern range, it must before the invention of gunpowder have been almost impregnable." Major Conder. The valley was fat, rich, fertile. Of them that are overcome with wine! Literally, "beaten " 66 " or battered " with wine; see Prov. 23:35. On the other hand, Paul tells the tempted to beat, buffet their bodies, and so bring their evil appetites under control (1 Cor. 9:27).

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A BURNING INDICTMENT. Dean Walter T. Sumner, of the Episcopal Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Chicago, chairman of the Vice Commission of Chicago, spoke thus before the Watch and Ward Society of Boston: "The greatest adjunct and the greatest supporter of vice is the saloon interest. I have become firmly convinced in the last two and a half years, through the investigations of the Vice Commission and other things, that there is no institution or organization that is quite so damnable in breaking down the efficiency of the government, the integrity of the home, and the integrity of mankind."

2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one. The King of Assyria, whom Jehovah would use as an instrument to punish Samaria. "When at the height of From an old cast. its power in the seventh century B.C., Assyria held sway over Babylonia, parts of Media, Armenia, Syria, Cyprus, Arabia, and Egypt.' Davis's Bible Dictionary. It was the mightiest nation in the world. As a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, as a tempest of mighty waters overflowing. "The fearfully devasting force of an Assyrian invasion is set forth under three