But you must not suppose that Jack’s happiness and peace, and confidence in God, came from any thing that he had done, or any thing that he had refrained from doing.  No, it was all from believing with his whole heart that God loved him for the sake of his dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now, if Jack has said, or fancied, that he loved God, and had at the same time been cruel, or lived in any other sin, it would have proved that he was mistaken, and he would have had no real peace.  If you pass by a garden and see clusters of fine ripe grapes hanging from the boughs of a tree, and anybody should say to you, “That’s a fine vine,” you would agree with him at once; but if he pointed to a tree where horse-chestnuts were growing, and called it a vine, you would laugh at him; you know the difference between a sweet juicy grape, and a hard, bitter, uneatable horse-chestnut.  Yet you would not say that the grapes made the vine, would you?  No, they did not make it a vine, but they proved it to be one.  If a boy were to tie bunches of grapes to a horse-chestnut tree, and tell you it was a vine, you would say no, it is not a real vine—­the fruit did not grow upon it.

In this way, I may say that I knew Jack to be a true child of God:  because the fruit of good works grew upon him.  It was not in look only, but really and indeed, that he was the character I have described; and if you read carefully, very carefully, the fifteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, you will see what I mean.  In that beautiful chapter, our Lord Jesus Christ compares himself to a vine, his people to the branches, and the good works that they do to the grapes; and he shows us that if we do not really belong to him, and keep close to him, (which we can only do by believing and praying,) then we are like the branches cut off from the vine, which cannot possibly bring forth any grapes.  You may think little of this now; but you must think of it, whether you will or no, when you come to die.  Perhaps you say to yourself, “Ay, but when I come to die, I will pray, and make my peace with God.”  Do not deceive yourself with such a vain hope:  there is a very terrible warning given in the first chapter of Proverbs, which you must not forget.  The Lord is addressing such as mean to put off repenting and praying, and serving him, to another time, when sickness or some other calamity shall frighten them into calling on him for pardon and help.  These are the words:  “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:  for that they hate knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:  they would