Not long after the publication of Abide in Christ, I received a request to prepare an edition, shorter and simpler, for the use of children who know and love the Lord Jesus. I was never able to do this. Since that time the wonderful parable which was the text of that book, with its Divine simplicity and its inexhaustible riches, has been becoming more precious than ever. I feel as if there is not a passage in God’s Word in which our union to Christ Jesus, with its call to entire consecration, its privilege of unbounded confidence, its power of abounding joy, much fruitfulness, and prevailing prayer, is put with equal clearness or force. And I have felt drawn to try and write what young Christians might easily apprehend, as a help to them to take up that position in which the Christian life must be a success. It is as if there is not one of the principal temptations and failures of the Christian life that is not met here. The nearness, the all-sufficiency, the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus, the naturalness, the fruitfulness of a life of faith, are so revealed, that it is as if one could with confidence say—Let the parable enter into the heart, and all will be right.
May the blessed Lord give the blessing. May He teach us to study the mystery of the Vine in the spirit of worship, waiting for God’s own teaching.
18th November 1897.