“Every tree is known by his own fruit.” Not only bearing fruit, but fruit that Christ produces should be ours. There is fruit that an upright nature produces, such as that of the young man who came to Jesus, but that was not divine fruit— “its own fruit;” and where Christ is the root and stock, it is Christian fruit,—fruit that will remain (John 15:1616Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)).
Two men may go together up to a certain point, and then some test for Christ comes; one goes on with Him, and the other turns aside. “Its own fruit”—fruit shows itself—springs of itself.
There will not be the question of:
“What harm in this or that? What harm in being rich?” as a person once asked me.
“If it shuts you out of heaven, is there any harm in that?”
“O, I did not think of that.”
But the secret is, you like the things. The evil is not the things themselves, dug out of the earth, but the love in the heart for them.
“Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
An impatient word betrays the heart. A blow I may restrain, yet utter the word.