before Him. But the Great Husband man, with love and tenderness and skill, will care for our heart- vine yards if we but yield Him control. So many things need to be removed and cut away. The pruning makes for fruitfulness! The Word of God, ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit, is the Christian’s food and source of nour ishment and strength. How precious are His words, “More to be desired are they than gold . . . sweeter also than honey arid the honeycomb” (Psa. 19:10). “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer. 175:16). Linked with the meditation of the Word will be the prayer-time; for through the Word He speaks to us and in prayer we speak to Him. This is communion — the great need in heart-vineyard care. The vineyardist not only gives his time to the cultivation and care of his vineyard but he is constantly on the watch for enemies of the vines. He must frequently inspect the fences and walls lest through a broken- down place animals enter and spoil the tender vines. We as Christians need to be watch ful and alert to any enemy of the vineyard that would spoil the vines and hinder spiritual growth. In the Song of Songs we read of the “ little foxes.” “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines,” the bride beseeches her Beloved, “for our vines have tender grapes.” The little foxes attack a vineyard so' subtilely. They can creep in through a very small, easily un noticed aperture in the wall — but their despoiling is great. The little foxes which would rob us of the full growth and development of the fruit of the Spirit—“ love, joy, peace, long- suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Such little foxes as fretfulness, complaining, ex aggerations, anxiety, worry, pride, and many others stealthily creep in unawares and the Christian, over whelmed, again cries out, “Mine own vineyard have I not kept.” How, then, are these little foxes to be taken, and the tender vines again allowed to flourish? The secret is dis covered in the very verse that de scribes the work of these despoilers of the vines. The one who is called my lover calls upon her Beloved in these words, “Take us the foxes.” She realizes that in her own strength she can never put the foxes, even little ones to rout, but together with Him, in His strength, it is possible. He is able to deliver! END.
Unkept Vineyards
&ir Martha S. Hooker Associate Professor of Christian Education, Biola Bible College
T hey made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vine yard have I not kept.” These are the words of regret and lament of the bride in the Song of Solomon and how well they could be the very words of our lips as we consider our own heart-vineyards before the Great Husbandman, the Lord Jesus! Activity seems to be the fashion of the day in which we live. Many Christians are “ cumbered about with much serving.” “They [have] made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept” might well be the heart-cry of many in the Lord’s service. It is true that our Lord in His Word commands service; but not to the exclusion of those exercises that make for a well-kept heart-vineyard. God’s Word also has much to say about the quiet time with Him alone. “He that goeth aside to sit quietly in the secret place with the most High, will find him coming over so close that this man shall be lodging under the very shadow of the Al mighty” (Psa. 91:1, Free Transla tion). “ Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while,” was our Lord’s invitation to the weary, serving disciples. “Be still, and know that I am God,” the Psalmist ex horted, and of Mary who sat often at Jesus’ feet, we hear His own com mendation in the words, “Mary hath chosen . . . [the better] part.” Our Lord Himself, when here upon earth, was wont to go apart alone for prayer and communion. In Matthew 14:23 we read, “He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when everting was come, he was there alone.” If He, our Lord, needed this “ time apart,” how much more do we. Yes, each one needs to find a place that will become a place of solitude if the heart-vineyard is to be kept. If service is to be rendered in power there must needs be a balance
of the time spent alone with Him in the secret place and the time spent in activity. “They have made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.” Considering again the unkept vine yard of Proverbs, we notice that not only was it void of fruitfulness and beauty, but the “ stone wall was broken down.” This wall had served to protect the vineyard, to separate it from another, to keep it set aside for the owner of the vineyard. How often as we examine our “vineyards,” the vineyard of our own spiritual life, do we find a need for repairs, a wall broken down; perhaps- the wall of prayer, of feeding upon the Word, of some neglect that has robbed our vineyard of beauty, growth and fruit fulness. The world with its allurements calls loudly and sometimes there is a listening, a heeding, and the wall of separation begins to crumble, to break down. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separ ate, saith the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:17). “And be not conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2). These are His clear and definite commands. Yes, our walls often need repairs and there is One who ever stands ready to repair the broken walls, even the Great Repairer of souls, the Lord Jesus Himself. Those who are acquainted with the grape industry know something of the care of the vineyard that is neces sary in order to produce the fruit of the vine. One thing that is very significant in the care of a vineyard is the pruning. Many of us have seen the vines so pruned and cut away that there seemed to be no possibility of growth or fruitfulness; but at the right time these same vines flourish in the beauty of foliage and in an abundant yield of fruit. So in our lives there is to be fruit, and more fruit and much fruit. So many things displeasing to Him, we discover in the vineyard of our souls, as we wait
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