Acres of peach trees spread over the hillsides of a fertile valley through which we were speeding in the Sydney-Melbourne express. They were clothed in pink and white blossom, standing as a fair bride to receive the smiles and kisses of the sun which looked upon them from a cloudless sky like a radiant bridegroom. Full of promise were those acres of delicious fruit trees for the multitudes in the crowded cities in the months yet to be. It was kindly nature, under God’s supervision, preparing her stores of refreshment against the day when the summertime would test the strength and mettle of the people with heat and drought and dust.
As my eyes feasted on that lovely valley I held communion with it. “Tell me,” said my heart, “tell me, peach trees, your secret. Why are you able to stretch out your charms before the sun today, and to promise arms laden with fruit for the hot months ahead?”
And I got my answer definite and clear. “We should have neither beauty today nor usefulness tomorrow were it not for a process and power that the eye of man does not see. Our roots strike downwards, and bidden away from all interference we draw from the soil continually the nourishment that gives and maintains the vigor of our inward life. Our life within, sustained in secret, shows itself in its season as you see it. If this secret life of ours failed, or if it were interrupted by any intrusion from without, we should wither and die.”
As our train sped on, I took my Bible and read, “Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Mt. 6:6). Are any of us mourning our lack of fruitfulness? Do we feel how little we manifest the divine life which is in us, resulting in blessing to others? We may be sure that the whole cause of it is the neglect–more or less–of the secret life with God. We know that it is so.
This parable enforced its lesson on me from another side. I thought again of the testing time of the year for this southern land, when the sun blazes from the heavens in its summer strength, scorching and withering almost everything of lesser growth. Yet that same sun only serves to bring the fruit of those trees to perfection, imparting to them a sweetness they could not possess without it.
So it is with every trial of life; they all have their sure effect on us. We are either scorched and withered by them, or they bring our Christian life and fruit to maturity. Which of these two effects is realized in our case is determined by our secret life with God. If we strike our roots downward in the knowledge of the Lord, and draw refreshment and strength from the hidden springs in Him, we need not dread the trials that may come. We may glory in tribulation, for it will but serve the will of God and work for our good, enabling us to stretch forth hands laden with sweeter fruit to the weary and distressed all around us.