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: — "Joseph is a fruitful bough, whose branches run over the wall" (Genesis 49:22). These words remind us of our Lord saying, "I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." And they take our thoughts to an eastern vineyard, where the trellis bends with clusters, and a few strong shoots are left by the kindly husbandman to overhang the enclosure for the passer-by.

I. In the first place, consider THE BRANCH THAT BEARS FRUIT OVER THE WALL. It is one thing to bear fruit in the vineyard, and another to have such vigour that we also bear fruit beyond; and we speak now of the latter.

1. Fruitfulness to more than have claim upon us. Some have such claim; their relationship, their desert, their needs, appeal to us so forcibly and reasonably, that we wrong them if we refuse our sympathy and help; these are they who have right to the vintage — the children of the husbandmen, as it were, for whom the vine exists, and who are somewhat free to the grapes. But others have no such right, or have forfeited the right they had, the unloving and unlovable, those who abuse your kindness, those who bring their troubles on themselves, those who again fall when they have many times been raised, those who seem hopelessly bad and to have no redeeming trait. And there are those, of whom all this cannot be said, who are deserving, and yet have no claim on us — whose rights extend to some other vineyard, but not to ours. Now we take our text as symbolically speaking of usefulness to all these, the branch breaking away from its support, and reaching, with its grateful fruit, to those outside. And do we not need, my friends, to consider that? The good Samaritan in his kindness to the Jew that had fallen among thieves, was a branch that ran over the wall. Our Lord's deed of mercy to the Syro-Phoenician woman was a branch that ran over the wall. Anal whilst it is right to give the bin-Jest of our life to those who have claim on the vine, it must be right to let some shoots trail to the larger world outside, and to the very grating of the prisoner's cell.

2. Ministry to those outside our particular vineyard. Into every department of life Christianity casts some healing influence. There is much, indeed, for it to do yet; but it has been the originator or beneficent ally of all onward movements in the history of the race. See how its branches run over the wall; how contrary it is to the spirit of exclusiveness! Its blessings are for the Church, but, in a less degree, it blesses the world as well. And that warns us Christian people against exclusiveness in religious sympathy; exclusiveness is not Christianity. It were a bad day for any church when its thought, and effort, and means are spent only on its own work and wants, and it ceases to care with brotherly interest for other churches, God's vast world-wide work. Let the main clusters, if you will, be for those for whom God planted the vine, but see to it that strong fruitful branches run over the wall.

3. Refreshment to the casual passer-by. The text was suggested in passing a vineyard on the south side of the Alps, as outside the enclosure some unpruned shoots, with their just-formed grapes, were waving in the wind, to be perhaps a refreshment to some traveller in the summer's heat. It is the picture of a Christian whose abundant inner life comes out unawares, as it were, for the benediction of any who may pass that way. Tired pilgrims pass us every hour, some oppressed with their burden, some parched with the world's dust, some who have lost their strength in conflict, and some who thirst but for a tender look, a friendly utterance, a sympathetic grasp, and with these would go their way revived. Think of such finding this reviving in us!

II. Consider, secondly, THAT THIS IS THE MARK OF THE BRANCH OF THE TRUE VINE.

1. Christianity tends to the enlarging of our sympathies. It brings us into contact with Christ, and makes us partakers in His Spirit. Nothing is more striking or blessed in Scripture than the absence of exclusiveness in our Lord's love and readiness to bless. Christianity is the being joined to Him, "and he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." In His people, then, this spirit of unexclusive sympathy exists in germ; and as they commune with Him it grows, and they spontaneously care for those He cares for.

2. Beside this, Christianity claims a deliberate consideration of others' wants. "We, then, that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves"; "let every one of us please his neighbour for his good, for even Christ pleased not Himself"; "bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ."

3. And Christianity results in unconscious, unchecked fruitfulness. Christianity is not so much a doing as a being. We are not Christians because we do this or that. "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them: I never knew you; depart from Me ye that work iniquity." Christianity is a new nature taking the place of ours, by which heart and mind, and character and life become Divine. Now our nature cannot appoint set times in which to express itself, nor fence off a few to whom alone it shall make itself known. Every branch of the Vine which Jesus is, necessarily runs over the wall somewhere, bearing unconscious fruit not only for the vineyard it is expected to enrich, but also for the passer-by outside to pluck.

III. Then CONSIDER HOW THIS OVER-THE-WALL FRUITFULNESS MAY RE SECURED. The very word "fruit " teaches us. Distinguish between "works" and "fruit." "Works," says one, "may be the actings of a legal spirit; they are done in obedience to laws; they may be performed perfunctorily, and are no part of one's nature." But fruit is the sign of life; it is not due to commands, nor even to effort; it is life spontaneously, naturally, sweetly giving itself forth. Now it is fruit of which we speak, fruit that Christ wants. "Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be My disciples." Then what is needed for this over-the-wall fruitfulness is the earnest culture of our spirituality. Culture the life, and the fruit comes of its own accord; branches running over the wall are but the exuberance of life. Let me give these three brief rules:

1. It depends on the measure in which we receive the life of Christ. "Joseph is a fruitful bough." Only a bough. We are "boughs," that is all; therefore we have no life in ourselves, and God does not require us to have any; the life is in the Vine — "our life is hid with Christ"; "as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in Me... severed from Me, ye can do nothing."

2. And it depends on our fruitfulness to those nearest to us. For the strong shoots that trail outside will spring from the strong wood in the vineyard itself, and the dresser of the vines, we may be sure, will only permit the branch that does its duty first within to carry strength elsewhere. To bear fruit over the wall only, or chiefly, is to rob the Husbandman, for where He has planted us He means our richest grapes to grow. We must love our own best — our own family, our own church; our deepest sympathies and best energies are for those to whom God has given most claim upon them; and only when we have done that, He would have us not forget them that are without. "Learn first to show piety at home"; "do good unto all men, but specially to them that are of the household of faith." And that is the successful order. It is by putting strength into our nearest duties, and fulfilling Christian love to those nearest to us, that we get the power for the ministry beyond. Bear ripe good fruit within the wall, then — for then it will be possible, and the Husbandman will permit it — let some branches run over.

3. And it depends on our submission to the Divine culture of our piety. For Joseph was the fruitful bough — Joseph, of whom it was said "God made him fruitful in the land of his affliction." "Every branch in Me that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. "The fruitful branch is pruned closest, and if the shoots that stray over the enclosure are to bear grapes, some others must be nipped. Is not that blessed compensation (even were it all) for Christian suffering — more fruit to God and man? That is a price that must be paid for fruitfulness. "The vine that bears much fruit is proud to stoop with it; the palm stands upright in a realm of sand."

(C. New.)

The archers shot at him, but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. —

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KJV: Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

WEB: "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall.