There is a perpetual proneness to seek our fruitfulness from anything save a close, spiritual, and constant dealing with the cross of Jesus: but as well might we expect the earth to clothe itself with verdure, or the tree to blossom, and the blossom to ripen into fruit, without the sun’s genial warmth, as to look for fruitfulness in a regenerate soul, without a constant dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ; for, just what the sun is to the kingdom of nature, Jesus the Sun of righteousness is to the kingdom of grace – the blessed source of all its verdure, fragrance, and fruitfulness….Live upon the atoning blood of Jesus. Here is the fatness of thy soul found; this is that heals the wound, wins the heart, and hushes to repose every fear of condemnation…And when the spiritual seasons change – for it is not always spring-time with the soul of a child of God – when the summer’s sun withers, or the autumnal blast scatters the leave, and winter’s fiercer storm beats upon the smitten bough, the blood and righteousness of Christ, lived upon, loved, and cherished, will yet sustain the Divine life in the soul, and in due season the spring blossom and summer fruit shall again appear… (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension, pp. 164-165).
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