Only a Branch

I am the vine, ye are the branches...
—John 15:5

Tis only a little branch,
A thing so helpless and weak,
But that little branch hath a message true
To give, could it only speak.

"I’m only a little branch,
I live by a life not mine,
For the sap that flows through my tendrils small
Is the life-blood of the vine.

No power indeed have I
The fruit of myself to bear,
But since I am part of the living vine,
Its fruitfulness I share.

Dost thou ask how I abide,
How this life I can maintain?
I am bound to the vine by life’s strong bond,
And I only need remain.

Where first my life was given,
In the spot where I am set,
Upborne and upheld as the days go by—
By the stem which bears me yet.

I fear not the days to come,
I dwell not upon the past,
As moment by moment I draw a life,
Which my need shall long outlast.

I bask in the sun’s bright beams,
Which with sweetness fill my fruit,
Yet I own not the clusters hanging there
They come from the living root."

A life which is not my own
But Another’s life in me
This, this is the message the branch would speak,
A message to me and thee.

Oh! struggle not to "abide,"
Nor labour to "bring forth fruit,"
But let Jesus unite thee to Himself
As the vine-branch to the root.

So simple, so deep, so strong,
That union with Him shall be,
His life shall for ever replace thine own,
And His love shall flow through thee.

For His Spirit’s fruit is love,
And love shall thy life become,
And for evermore in His heart of love
Thy spirit shall have her home.