{"id":6680,"date":"2024-05-22T10:10:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T10:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6680"},"modified":"2024-05-22T10:10:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T10:10:33","slug":"square-me-prune-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6680","title":{"rendered":"Square me! Prune me!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Square me! Prune me!<\/strong><br><br>C.H.Spurgeon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is more<em>&nbsp;hewing, and hacking, and squaring&nbsp;<\/em>used on a&nbsp;<strong>stone&nbsp;<\/strong>which is to be set in the wall of a stately palace \u2014 than that which is placed in a rock wall. Just so, the&nbsp;<strong>vine&nbsp;<\/strong>is carefully pruned \u2014 when the&nbsp;<em>bramble&nbsp;<\/em>is untouched.\u201d<br><br>This should reconcile believers to their chastisements. It is a well-worn figure; but it is well put.<br><br><strong>Brambles&nbsp;<\/strong>certainly have a fine time of it, and grow after their own pleasure. We have seen their long shoots reaching far and wide, and no knife has threatened them as they luxuriated upon the wastelands.<br><br>The poor&nbsp;<strong>vine&nbsp;<\/strong>is cut down so closely, that little remains of it but bare stems. Yet, when&nbsp;<em>clearing-time<\/em>&nbsp;comes, and the brambles are heaped together for burning \u2014&nbsp;<em>who would not rather be the vine?<\/em><br><br>Ah, Lord! Let me never sigh for&nbsp;<em>ease<\/em>, but always seek for&nbsp;<em>usefulness<\/em>.<strong><br>Square me<\/strong>&nbsp;until I am fit for a place in Your temple!<strong><br>Prune me<\/strong>&nbsp;until I yield my utmost fruit!<br><br>\u201cEvery branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every&nbsp;<em>branch<\/em>&nbsp;that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.\u201d John 15:2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Square me! Prune me! C.H.Spurgeon \u201cThere is more&nbsp;hewing, and hacking, and squaring&nbsp;used on a&nbsp;stone&nbsp;which is to be set in the wall of a stately palace \u2014 than that which is placed in a rock wall. Just so, the&nbsp;vine&nbsp;is carefully pruned \u2014 when the&nbsp;bramble&nbsp;is untouched.\u201d This should reconcile believers to their chastisements. It is a well-worn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-h-spurgeon","category-pictures-and-types"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6681,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6680\/revisions\/6681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}