Before examining the basis and essence and the effects of the 
union of Christ with believers, let us see whether this union is 
necessary, whether it is determined by the nature of man, whether 
man cannot by himself achieve the purpose for which God 
brought him into being out of nothing. 

If we turn our attention to history, the great teacher of 
mankind, we shall find engraved there that every people, even 
when it had attained the highest level of civilisation, when the 
greatest men had sprung from its womb, when the arts had 
blossomed within it in their full radiance, when the sciences had 
solved the most difficult problems, was nevertheless unable to cast 
off the fetters of superstition, that it had not conceived worthy 
and true ideas either of itself or of the Deity, that even its morality 
and ethics were never seen to be free from foreign admixture, 
from ignoble limitations, and that even its virtues owed their 
origin more to a crude greatness, an unbridled egoism, a passion 
for fame and audacious deeds than to striving for true perfection. 

And the ancient peoples, the savages, who have not yet heard 
the teaching of Christ, betray an inner unrest, a fear of the anger 
of their gods, an inner conviction of their own iniquity, by making 
sacrifices to their gods, imagining they can atone for their sins by 
sacrifices. 

Indeed, the greatest sage of antiquity, the divine Plato, expresses 
in more than one passage a profound longing for a higher being, 
whose appearance would fulfil the unsatisfied striving for truth 
and light. 

Thus the history of peoples teaches us the necessity of union 
with Christ. 


Appendices 637 


When we consider also the history of individuals, when we 
consider the nature of man, it is true that we always see a spark of 
divinity in his breast, a passion for what is good, a striving for 
knowledge, a yearning for truth. But the sparks of the eternal are 
extinguished by the flames of desire; enthusiasm for virtue is 
drowned by the tempting voice of sin, it is scorned as soon as life 
has made us feel its full power; the striving for knowledge is 
supplanted by a base striving for worldly goods, the longing for 
truth is extinguished by the sweetly flattering power of lies; and so 
there stands man, the only being in nature which does not fulfil its 
purpose, the only member of the totality of creation which is not 
worthy of the God who created it. But that benign Creator could 
not hate His work; He wanted to raise it up to Him and He sent 
His Son, through whom He proclaimed to us: 

: oe ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 
15:3). 
re in me, and I in you” (John 15:4). 


Having thus seen how the history of peoples and a consideration 
of individuals prove the necessity of union with Christ, let us 
examine the last and surest proof, the word of Christ Himself. 

Nowhere does He express more clearly the necessity of union 
with Himself than in the beautiful parable of the vine and the 
branches, in which He calls Himself the vine and us the branches. 
The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, and so, Christ says, without 
me you can do nothing. He expresses this still more strongly by 
saying: 

“If a man abide not in me”, etc. (John 15: 4, 5, 6). 


One must, however, understand this as applying only to those 
who have been able to learn the word of Christ; for we cannot 
judge of God’s decision in regard to such peoples and individuals, 
since we are not capable even of grasping it. 

Our hearts, reason, history, the word of Christ, therefore, tell us 
loudly and convincingly that union with Him is absolutely essen- 
tial, that without Him we cannot fulfil our goal, that without Him 
we would be rejected by God, that only He can redeem us. 

Thus, penetrated with the conviction that this union is absolute- 
ly essential, we are desirous of finding out in what this lofty gift 
consists, this ray of light which descends from higher worlds to 
animate our hearts, and bears us purified aloft to heaven, what 
its inner nature and basis is. 

Once we have grasped the necessity of this union, the basis for 
it—our need for redemption, our sinfully inclined nature, our 


638 Appendices 


wavering reason, our corrupted heart, our iniquity in the sight of 
God —is clearly visible to us and we have no need to investigate 
further what it is. 

But who could express the nature of this union more beautifully 
than Christ did in the parable of the vine and the branches? Who 
in lengthy treatises could lay bare before our eyes in all its parts 
the innermost basis of this union as comprehensively as Christ did 
in the words: 


“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman” (John 15: 1). 
“J am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15: 5). 


If the branch could feel, how joyfully it would look at the 
husbandman who tends it, who carefully frees it from weeds and 
binds it firmly to the vine from which it draws the nourishment 
and sap to form more beautiful blossoms. 

In union with Christ, therefore, we turn above all our loving 
eyes to God, feel the most ardent thankfulness towards Him, sink 
joyfully on our knees before Him. 

Then, when by union with Christ a more beautiful sun has risen 
for us, when we feel all our iniquity but at the same time rejoice 
over our redemption, we can for the first time love God, who 
previously appeared to us as an offended ruler but now appears as 
a forgiving father, as a kindly teacher. 

But, if it could feel, the branch would not only look upwards to the 
husbandman, it would fondly snuggle uptothe vine, it would feel 
itself most closely linked with it and with the branches which have 
sprung from it; it would love the other branches if only because 
the husbandman tendsthem and thevine givesthem strength. 

Thus, union with Christ consists in the most intimate, most vital 
communion with Him, in having Him before our eyes and in our 
hearts, and being so imbued with the highest love for Him, at the 
same time we turn our hearts to our brothers whom He has 
closely bound to us, and for whom also He sacrificed Himself. 

But this love for Christ is not barren, it not only fills us with the 
purest reverence and respect for Him, it also causes us to keep His 
commandments by sacrificing ourselves for one another, by being 
virtuous, but virtuous solely out of love for Him. (John 15: 9, 10, 
12, 13, 14.) 

This is the great abyss which separates Christian virtue from any 
other and raises it above any other: this is one of the greatest 
effects that union with Christ has on man. 

Virtue is no longer a dark distorted image, as it was depicted by 
the philosophy of the Stoics; it is not the offspring of a harsh 


Appendices 639 


theory of duty, as we find it among all heathen peoples, but what 
it achieves it accomplishes through love for Christ, through love 
for a divine Being, and when it springs from this pure source it is 
seen to be free from all that is earthly and to be truly divine. All 
repulsive aspects disappear, all that is earthly is suppressed, all 
coarseness is removed, and virtue is more brilliant by having 
become at once milder and more human. 

Never could it have been depicted in this way by human reason, 
its virtue would always remain a limited, earthly virtue. 

Once man has attained this virtue, this union with Christ, he will 
await the blows of fate with calm composure, courageously oppose 
the storms of passion, and endure undaunted the wrath of the 
iniquitous, for who can oppress him, who could rob him of his 
Redeemer? 

What he asks, he knows will be fulfilled, for he asks only in 
union with Christ, hence only what is divine, and who could fail to 
be uplifted and comforted by this assurance which the Saviour 
Himself proclaims? (John 15: 7.) 

Who would not bear suffering gladly, knowing that by his 
abiding in Christ, by his works, God Himself is glorified, that by 
his perfection the Lord of creation is exalted? (John 15: 8.) 

Therefore union with Christ bestows inner exaltation, consola- 
tion in suffering, calm assurance, and a heart which is open to 
love of mankind, to all that is noble, to all that is great, not out of 
ambition, not through a desire for fame, but only because of 
Christ. Therefore union with Christ bestows a joy which the 
Epicurean strives vainly to derive from his frivolous philosophy or 
the deeper thinker from the most hidden depths of knowledge, a 
joy known only by the ingenuous, childlike mind which is linked 
with Christ and through Him with God, a joy which makes life 
higher and more beautiful. (John 15: 11.) 

Marx