YEAR or two ago I planted in the autumn some slips of Barberry, a flowering shrub having bright, dark-green leaves, and bearing small clusters of tiny yellow flowers.
All through the long winter the slips retained their bright green leaves, and looked very promising, having apparently taken root well. In the early spring each plant bore its little cluster of yellow flowers; some were very poor, while others were even finer than those on the original shrub.
As the spring wore on, however, and the sun became stronger, the plants began to droop, and soon withered away. I pulled them up to see if it had been slugs or wireworms that had destroyed the roots, but I found out there was no root at all!—no more trace of root than when I put them in the ground seven months before!
What a striking illustration of the rootless plants described by the Lord in the parable of the sower: "And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had NO ROOT, they withered away." (Matt. 13:6.)
What an exact description, too, of the class of person they represent, as given by the Lord Jesus in verse 20: " The same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for awhile: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.”
Alas! how many such are to be found! They hear from God's word that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15); that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin "(1 John 1:7) ;that" through this Man [Christ Jesus] is preached the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts 13:38, 39.)
Apparently that' receive the forgiveness thus freely offered by God to repenting sinners, in virtue of Christ's atoning death and blood-shedding on their behalf. For a time they seem to go on well; then someone offends them, or some reproach for Christ's sake has to be borne; their seeming spirituality flags and withers away; they drop out of rank, and we see them no more.
They had no root! Their souls had never been plowed up by a sense of sin. They had never realized that they were lost sinners, and had never come to Christ as such.
My reader, a mere mental acceptance of God's salvation avails nothing. We cannot too often assert that religion, without the personal knowledge of Christ as Savior, is but a blinding delusion. It is the Lamp without the Oil—profession without possession. How fatal! See to it that it is not so in your case.
F. A.