"Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." John 15: 2.
Man commonly inflicts suffering upon unpromising objects; the greatest criminal gets the heaviest sentence. But the penalties which God inflicts are upon the lives of promise, and because their promise gives hope of amendment. Two boys are brought before you, both convicted of lying. The one has been false all his life; the other has never lied before. You will probably decide to punish the first more severely. God's decision is the opposite. Instead of two boys, the passage takes its illustration from two branches. The one bears nothing; the other bears less than it ought to do. You would think the former would be treated more drastically. No, it is the latter. The former is simply removed from contact; the latter is subjected to severe discipline. Why? Because the penalties of God are proportionate not to the sin but to the promise. And, in pursuance of this law, our moral pain is proportionate not to the sin but to the promise. Paul suffers more inward pain than Nero - because he has more goodness in him. I never read of Nero beating on his breast and crying, ''O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death!" He had not love enough; he had not faith enough; he had not light enough. The pain of Paul came from the life higher than his own the life of the tree.
No more, then, my brother, canst thou say with the men of old time, ''He is afflicted; therefore he must be bad." Thou wouldst be nearer the truth by the opposite sentence, "He is afflicted; therefore he must be good." In the moral world it is in fine weather that the glass falls. Be not discouraged that the glass falls; in the sphere of the heart it means not rain but sunshine. Be not dismayed although with each peak thou climbest the mist seems to deepen. Abraham never saw the mist till he began to ascend Mount Moriah. He saw it not in Egypt - where his life was really bad; only in the hour of his obedience did there come to him the call to sacrifice. Dost thou ask why Abraham was afflicted on the mount and Lot left scathless on the plain? Because Abraham was on the mount and Lot was on the plain. It is whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth; it is His light that makes thy shadow. Tremble not at the shadow, fear not when thou enterest into the cloud. It is only in thy transfiguration moments that God prepares a cloud for thee. It is only on the summit of Moriah that He bids thee yield thine offering. It is only on thy road to Canaan that He shows thee a path through the desert. The Father gives hard lessons to His promising son.
