These chapters are taken from the book, Heroes of the Bible, Joseph, Beloved - Hated - Exalted, by Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A., written probably during the 1890s.

2

"And as it grows it is not free to heaven,
But tied unto a stake; and if its arms stretch out
It is but cross-wise, also forced and bound;
And so it draws out of the hard hill-side,
Fixed in its own place, its own food of life."

Visit the vine in the late autumn, when its treasures have been torn from it. Whilst the land is full of joy it stands stripped and desolate.
Its sap sinks down to the root; its branches are cut back to the stem; its very bark is peeled off; and it is left to the nipping of the merciless frost.
Nothing more desolate and dismal can be conceived in plant-life than the death which reigns supreme over the vine through the long, lone, winter.
And as we contrast the glory of the spring with such desolation, we remember the words of Him who said,

"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit";
and how, outcast and forsaken, He hung upon the Cross, in what may well be said to have been the darkest, saddest, hour of winter through which earth ever passed.

But when the sun leads back the spring, the sap begins to flow again; and beneath its impulse the branches start right and left from the long bare stems, and presently, when there is sun, flowers and the promise of fruit appear.

"The flower of the vine is but a little thing,
The least part of its life. You scarce could tell
It ever had a flower; the fruit begins
Almost before the flower has had its day."