I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley.
The Church, the garden of the Lord
I. The Church is a garden. There are four gardens which may furnish us with ample materials for meditation.
1. The garden of Eden, where man was formed, and where man fell.
2. The garden of Gethsemane, where the Saviour often resorted with His disciples.
3. The garden of Calvary, belonging to Joseph of Arimathca.
4. The Church. Now the three former gardens were real gardens; the latter is a garden metaphorically considered only; a spiritual garden, a garden for the soul, and for eternity. A garden requires much careful attention. A garden is a place of pleasure and delight. In a word, it is also a place of profit too. It yields not only flowers, but fruits. The Church is always “filled with all the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Some gardens yield the owner his chief income. -God derives His principal revenue of honour from His Church.
II. In this garden there is a variety of trees. There are three kinds of trees spoken of here. Now I am not going to make a comparison between Christians, comparing some of them to nut trees, and some to vines, and some to pomegranates. But as you find all these, however they differ, in the same garden, so it is with the subjects of Divine grace. They are all, however they differ from each other, “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And however distinguished from each other, they stand in the very same state, and are in the same relation to Him and to each other. What do we learn from hence? Why, that you should never oppose Christians to each other, crying up one, and crying down another, because they are not the same, but valuing them all, loving them all, praying, for them all Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. What do we learn from hence? Why, that you should not look for everything from the same individual. Do not go to the nut-bush for the grapes, and do not go to the vine for the pomegranate. You cannot expect all these fruits upon the same tree.
III. He enters this garden for the purpose of inspecting it. He enters His garden indeed for other purposes, too. He enters it to walk there; He enters it to enjoy His pleasant fruits them, and He loves to hold intercourse and communion with His saints. But here He speaks of entering it, you see, for another purpose; for as the garden is His own, it is so valuable that He will not treat it with neglect or overlook it. No; “I went down,” says He, “to see the fruits of the valley: for the garden is low, and the Church is lowly.” “I went down to see the fruits of the valley.” He is continually inspecting His Church; and how qualified is He for this! “His eyes are as a flame of fire:” distance is nothing to Him; darkness is nothing to Him. And what is His aim when He comes to examine? Not to ascertain whether you are learned, but whether you are “wise unto salvation”; not whether you are rich, but whether you are “rich towards God”; not whether your bodies are inhealth, but whether “your souls prosper”; and so of the rest.
IV. When He comes to examine His garden, He looks after even the first beginnings of grace. “I went down to see whether the vines flourished, and the pomegranates budded.” Observe, not only to look after the flourishing of the vine, but the budding of the pomegranates. Oh I that is a fine bud when a man no longer restrains prayer before God, but cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” When his tear drops upon his Bible, and he says, “Lord, save, or I perish.” One of the earliest buddings of religion, I am persuaded, is love to the Lord’s people, and tenderness towards them, and delight in them. But why does the Saviour look after the very buddings of grace, and value these? We answer, because they are His own producing, the work of His own Spirit in the heart. And because they are necessary: for though there may be buds without fruit, there can be no fruit without buds; though there may be a beginning without advancing or finishing, there can be no advancing or finishing without a beginning. These things, therefore, are essentially necessary. And because also they are sure pledges of something more. He sees in them the peace of God--sees in them pardon--sees in them the comforts of the Holy Ghost. Oh! there is heaven in that bud! Oh! there is an immensity, an eternity of glory and blessed Hess in that bud! It will bring forth fruit unto life eternal. (W. Jay.)
Fruits of the valley
What do we mean by the valley? There are two things to which I think the figure is fairly applicable, viz. outward estate and inward condition, both yielding fruit.
1. The former is often experienced, and is requisite for us all.
(1) I speak to some who are young. You, in reference to age, are in the valley, not yet ascended to the higher levels of mature life, of paternity and seniority. There are fruits to be borne in this valley, fruits in their season, and in this condition--obedience, diligence, docility, consecration to Christ.
(2) I speak to some who are poor; you are in the valley in reference to social position. There are fruits in this condition; and beautiful it is to see how by many patience, submission, contentment, thankful ness, practical generosity, are borne here.
(3) I speak to some who are in affliction. This is a valley through which all pass, young, old, rich and poor alike. Need I say it has fruit? “Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, experience hope.”
(4) There is yet a valley before us all, and through which all must pass--“the valley of the shadow of death” There will be fruit to be borne there. Grace will not cease its exercise with the activities of life.
2. But I would more especially urge the thought that there is a valley in inward experience, and that this is especially fruitful. Humility. I need not attempt to define this grace, nor yet to extol it. Both will best be done, perhaps, in exhibiting some of its fruits.
(1) There are many that relate to God. True humility is a grace of God’s Spirit. It thus comes from God, and it has many bearings towards God. It best qualifies us for knowing God. Nothing, however, so hides God from us as pride, which is like a vapour concealing the sun. The humble spirit, low in its own estimation, looking up to God, sees excellences, beauties in Him, which to others are concealed. As knowledge of God, so repentance towards God springs from humility. Nor less is it the source of faith. To trust wholly in the merits of another, to forego all claim to personal merit or righteousness, is a plan of salvation which staggers and offends many. The same spirit is equally valuable in producing submission, contentment under affliction. And so in many ways bearing on the nature and government of God, humility is most fruitful Thus we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And thus it secures God’s favour. As the springs flow down from the mountain, leaving it bare, but into the valleys, making them fertile, so do God’s choicest influences avoid the proud spirit, but descend on the humble and the meek. “Unto that man will I look, and with him will I dwell,” says the High and Lofty One, “who is humble, and of a contrite spirit.”
(2) Nor are the fruits borne by this lowly grace less important in relation to man. We are bound together in life by indissoluble ties, domestic, social and civil. Christianity claims to regulate all these, and it does so by regulating and rectifying the spirit which underlies them all. And it will be found that of all the dispositions most likely to remedy whatever is wrong in social life, and to confirm all that is good, is this spirit of humility. The more you look into yourself and observe others, the more I think you will find that the cause of nearly all that affects our social life, injuriously taints it, casts a shadow over it, makes it a jarring, distasteful, unattractive thing, when it ought to be only transparent, noble and pure, is the spirit of pride. It is this, unconsciously often, but really, which gives censoriousness to judgment, asperity to feeling, bitterness to expression, unkindness to act. We think so much of ourselves, that we despise and offend others. The Lord help us all, for the sake of each other, to walk more in this valley.
(3) While this spirit, this valley-like grace, bears such blessed fruit towards God and towards man, it does so equally to its possessor. We cannot have a “conscience void of offence” in these two ways Without having the comfort of it ourselves. It often secures material advantages. Seest thou a proud man, a boaster, or “one wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him.” Seest thou a truly humble man, one willing to stoop to do anything, go anywhere, serve any one, that man is on the road to preferment. Far more important than any material benefit is the spiritual blessing it secures. What peace it brings! While the proud spirit, like the lofty mountain-top, is exposed to constant storms, the humble spirit, like the valley, escapes them, and its peace flows like the river, of which it is the bed. What leisure it gives, too! While pride is ever busy on the watch for the appropriate tokens of respect, and like the swelling Haman, has all else embittered if these are withheld, humility cares little for these things, and, like Mordecai, has leisure to think about others, to care for a loved Esther, and to save a nation besides. What influence, too! When Moses descended from the mountain, subdued, overwhelmed by a sense of God’s greatness and his own littleness, he “wist not that the skin of his face shone,” but it did so, and his power over the people was never greater than then. These, however, are only moral results, though as such they indicate God’s approval of the spirit He thus causes to be honoured. There are more directly spiritual ones. “God giveth grace to the humble,” and that in a most signal manner. He does not give it except to the humble. Only the empty vessel is receptive, and only in proportion as it is so. Faith is the glance of humility, prayer its sigh; this sweet grace underlies all graces, and is the soil in which all grow; and it secures more, “grace for grace.” As by the law of nature, water, with all the virtue it holds in solution, seeks the lowest level, fertilizing the valley and making it “bring forth and bud”; so grace from Christ in all its various forms descends to the humblest spirit, causing it to bear “much fruit.” If we would learn of Christ, receive from Christ, be filled with the fulness of Christ, be qualified for the service of Christ, receive commission from Christ, be imbued with the spirit of Christ, we must be humble; like Mary, must sit at the Master’s feet; like the beloved disciple, must fall down before Him; like Isaiah, must be awed by a sense of His glory, and say, “Woe is me”; like Paul, must in a sense, suffer the loss of all things, be weak in order to be strong. There are laws in the spiritual universe as in the natural, a Christian philosophy as We]l as a secular; and one of the principles of the former, as of the latter, is that the lowest level is the most receptive, and that which seeks and obtains most of all that is fertilizing and good. “Though the Lord be high, He hath respect unto the lowly.” (J. Viney, D. D.)