I. If there is any lesson which experience forces on the heart, which lays a deeper hold on the soul, as the soul gets a better knowledge of itself, which sinks into us in proportion to our endeavour to rise above ourselves, it is that the source of all spiritual life and health is in the thought of God, and that without that thought we cannot really live. We look back at last and feel that cur progress is really nothing, that we have to do all over again, that we have not yet even begun, that what we fancied was generosity was but high spirits and good humour, that what we thought was unselfishness was but the surrender of what we did not greatly value, that what we thought was our sweetness and kindness was but a love of popularity, that we have only been successful when we have never really been tried. And we come back at last to the love of God as the one thing that can keep the soul alive, the one thing that saves us from falling back into utter hardness, the one power that still renews us when our own strength fails, that love of God which we read in the Cross of Christ.
II. If God's patience be infinite, so is His forgiveness absolute. There is no question of great or of little sins when we clasp the Cross. It is this fulness of patience, this fulness of forgiveness, which brings the Christian back to the Cross of Christ at last, as the one spring and source of all Christian life. All else is proved to be, however useful, yet still insufficient; all else, whatever good it may do, yet seems somehow to fall short of that one thing that the soul cannot spare, the smile on the face of God. Somehow, when we fail elsewhere, we seem to know that it was natural that we should fail. We are not much surprised, however much we may be pained, by finding that our own strength of will has proved too weak, or by finding that long maintained habits have given way to the presence of new temptation, or by seeing that clearer knowledge by no means implies greater purity or more spiritual life. But when we come to the Cross of Christ, to the love which stands unparalleled by anything else that we know, we feel that it cannot fail, for the fountain is supplied by the inexhaustible waters of heaven itself.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons,2nd series, p. 146.
Union with God
The root of all true spiritual life must be in God Himself. Isolated, independent life in each individual man is conceivable in thought, but revelation and experience concur in teaching us that it is never found, and in fact cannot exist. There is but one real source of good. And if there be any good in us, it must have come and must continue to come from that source. In being united to God through Christ consists, according to the revelation of the New Testament, the true life of man.
I. If we leave out of our lives all that is wrong in them, and think only of what is unreproved by our conscience, we see in the first place that a large proportion of all that we do is in a sense mechanical, and has no conscious principle or purpose. If this part of a man's life is on the whole good, and such as becomes a true man and a servant of God, it would be absurd to say that this was not a great blessing to himself and to those with whom he lives. But, on the other hand, this taken by itself does not imply true spiritual life. It may probably be the result of careful discipline and of nothing more.
II. If we rise a step higher, we find a good deal of what our consciences would not only not censure, but positively approve, due to good impulses and instincts. Though good gifts in themselves these do not constitute the Christian character. This is proved by the fact that very often these gifts are found in men who are not living or trying to live good lives. We cannot call these impulses, however useful, however attractive, however beautiful spiritual life.
III. We rise one step higher, and we come to what must be called the life, not of impulse, but of principle. I do not think there can be any doubt that the conscientious life, even if it be nothing more, is, as far as it is conscientious, true spiritual life. But yet it is not the highest. I do not say that men are never branches of the True Vine without being themselves aware of it. But far, far more blessed are those who not only derive from God the true strength of their life, but who know from whom that strength comes. How much fuller is his blessing, how much greater his strength, who not only is upheld by God's Almighty hand, but knows the hand which upholds him and knows that it can never fail.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons,3rd series, p. 244.
References: John 15:4. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 318; Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 69; A. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit,p. 190. John 15:4; John 15:5. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 65; E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion,p. 19; G. Salmon, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 133.