FRUITLESS FIG TREE

Are you, O careless heart, a fruitless
tree in the Lord's vineyard? Shall the words of doom erelong be spoken of you? How long have you
received His gifts? How long has He watched and waited for a return of love? Planted in His vineyard,
under the watchful care of the gardener, what privileges are yours! How often has the tender gospel
message thrilled your heart! You have taken the name of Christ, you are outwardly a member of the
church which is His body, and yet you are conscious of no living connection with the great heart of love.
The tide of His life does not flow through you. The sweet graces of His character, "the fruits of the
Spirit," are not seen in your life.{COL 216.3}
The barren tree receives the rain and the sunshine and the gardener's care. It draws nourishment
from the soil. But its unproductive boughs only darken the ground, so that fruit-bearing plants cannot
flourish in its shadow. So God's gifts, lavished on you, convey no blessing to the world. You are robbing
others of privileges that, but for you, might be theirs. {COL 217.1}
You realize, though it may be but dimly, that you are a cumberer of the ground. Yet in His great
mercy God has not cut you down. He does not look coldly upon you. He does not turn away with
indifference, or leave you to destruction. Looking upon you He cries, as He cried so
218
many centuries ago concerning Israel, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee,
Israel? . . . I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am
God, and not man." Hosea 11:8, 9. The pitying Saviour is saying concerning you, Spare it this year also,
till I shall dig about it and dress it. {COL 217.2}
With what unwearied love did Christ minister to Israel during the period of added probation. Upon
the cross He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:24. After His
ascension the gospel was preached first at Jerusalem. There the Holy Spirit was poured out. There the
first gospel church revealed the power of the risen Saviour. There Stephen--"his face as it had been the
face of an angel" (Acts 6:15)--bore his testimony and laid down his life. All that heaven itself could give
was bestowed. "What could have been done more to My vineyard," Christ said, "that I have not done in
it?" Isa. 5:4. So His care and labor for you are not lessened, but increased. Still He says, "I the Lord do
keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Isa. 27:3. {COL 218.1}
"If it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that"-- {COL 218.2}
The heart that does not respond to divine agencies becomes hardened until it is no longer susceptible
to the influence of the Holy Spirit. Then it is that the word is spoken, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the
ground?" {COL 218.3}


Rebuked but these words comfort and encourage me:

"Today He invites you: "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. . . . I will heal their backsliding, I will
love them freely. . . . I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as
Lebanon. . . . They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as
the vine. . . . From Me is thy fruit found." Hosea 14:1-8. {COL 218.4}