Vine and the Branches — Leonard Ravenhill

The Uneducated Apostles and the Power of God

John the Plato of the New Testament. His thinking is so profound. Now that's giving you the verdict of a scholar, a Bible scholar. Now there's always another side of the coin. This man, remember, is an uneducated man, a fisherman.

And he was one of two men that went to a minister, at least they went up to the temple at the hour of prayer. I don't know why they went. Because nobody in the temple believed what they believed, and they didn't believe what the temple folk believed, but they still went to the prayer meeting.

And you remember they saw this twisted man at the gate of the temple, and immediately they, they had compassion, and they stretched forth their hands. At least Peter did. And John with him, and remember Peter said, look on us.

Now it's very nice when you're walking so close to God, you can say to somebody, well look on me. You say, no, no, no, we say don't look at me, because you don't look at me. Paul said you did. Paul says, what things you have seen and heard in me do, and the God of peace be with you.

He was living so close to God, he said, if you follow me you'll be all right, because I'm following so close to the Lord anyhow. So Peter said, look on us. Well that was all right. After the miracle, when the whole city was stirred, he said, look not on us, as though by our power of holiness we had done this.

I like that. He didn't want any credit for anything that was done. We talked about Samson the other night, you know when he slew that lion. That was wonderful. The second half of the verse is more wonderful.

It says he said nothing about it. We'd have written a book on it wouldn't we? How I slew the greatest lion on earth. No, no, no. He slew a lion and he said nothing about it. And I'm looking for a revival, a real Holy Ghost revival, where no men steal the glory.

When it's all given just to God himself. All right, Peter and John there, they see this man and Peter says, look on us. Peter and John. And that caused them, as you remember, to get punished and go to prison.

They upset the hierarchy of the church, they upset the, the town. And they were in real serious trouble. So they were, they were brought up before the celebrities. It tells you who were there. They made a kind of Roman carnival of this.

And the distinguished people, the socialites and others were there. Alexander and Carapace and all the rest of them. And then they brought Peter and John in and they could not give any explanation for the miracle.

You never can for anything supernatural. You try to rationalize it, well it's a foolish thing to try to do. So finally they thought they would insult them. Like people today, preachers get insulted if you say they're ignorant.

And they're all ignorant. But anyhow, who knows all the mystery of godliness? Nobody. The book itself says great is the mystery of godliness. And the older I get, the more I, I'm mystified by it. I understand more than I did 30 years or 40 or 50 years back, but I'm still mystified by many things.

Do you have that trouble? The pastor does. So where two agree it says it's okay. So we're mystified by certain things. And they, they looked on Peter and John and said, well the whole town's disturbed.

A notable, not just a miracle, a notable miracle has been done. But we want to warn you about this fellow Peter and John. Do you know what? They're unlearned and ignorant men. Now that was the view of the world.

Who were they? Peter and John, unlearned and ignorant. What did they do? Well Peter wrote two epistles that I find very, very refreshing. And John wrote again this version of the Gospels which has been called, he's been called the Plato of the New Testament.

92 of what is said in the Gospel of John is his own. He does not repeat and overlap like Matthew, Mark and Luke. He's got 92 of new information. And yet they looked down their noses and they said, well these men are ignorant.

They're ignorant. And yet the ignorant man wrote the most profound interpretation of the Gospel. And then to add to his ignorance, he wrote the first epistle, the second epistle, the third epistle of John.

And then really to put the cherry on top of the whole icing, to prove he was ignorant, he wrote the book of the Revelation. Which still mystifies all the great men of the world. Now if that's ignorance, I put, raise hands and say Lord give me a baptism of ignorance like that.

I'm a candidate for it. Are you with me? Two of us, thank you. So we're heading the right way. We're concerned that we get a baptism of this ignorance which is so amazing. Now that 15th chapter is wonderful.

John's Gospel as a Revelation of Christ's Deity

Before we come to it, I think the whole of the Gospel of John is telescoped in the first verse. Can you remember it without looking at it? In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. All right, in the beginning is eternity, the Word was with God is equality, and the Word was God is deity. Now again this, this gospel as we call it, it has many notable omissions in it.

The other evangelists are very keen to record, for instance, the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now John was there, but he never records it. He has no elaboration on it. Usually if you're at a great function you say, well you know I've not only read it, I was there.

I mean you want your place in the sun, you want everybody to know I was there. I mean that's why they had the thing. You know I improved the atmosphere, I was there. That's why everybody was so happy, I was there.

He doesn't bother that, with that. Read right through the, the gospel carefully, you'll find notable omissions. I remember preaching in, um, one of the strongholds of preaching. I was preaching at the church of a famous Baptist doctor there in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

And a man wrote a letter to me. He said I was in to hear you preach three times, I didn't like what he said one night. I said well that's fine. I don't always like what I say. I say what the Lord tells me, and I don't always like it myself.

But he said the one thing I took objection to was that you, every night you emphasized repentance. Now you should know the gospel of John, he said, was the last gospel written, and there's no repentance in it.

It was already outdated. Well if you go to Luke, Luke says that John the Baptist began to preach. What did he say first? Oh that's in the third chapter. In the fourth chapter Jesus began to preach. What did he say?

On the day of Pentecost Peter began to preach. What did he say? Right, I'll give you full marks for that afterwards. He knew all the answers. Well that's right. Because that's the foundation, that's the gateway.

If you're going to, I think a lawyer would call that the argument of silence. It isn't mentioned, repentance is not mentioned in the book. Well faith isn't mentioned in the book. I mean it isn't mentioned here in the gospel as we call it, the gospel of John.

There's no list of the twelve disciples. He doesn't mention the virgin birth. He doesn't mention the first thirty years in the life of Jesus. He doesn't mention the Sermon on the Mount. He doesn't list the twelve disciples.

There are a lot of tremendous omissions in this chapter. He doesn't mention faith. Is faith outmoded? He doesn't mention lepers. He doesn't mention hell. He speaks about eight different characters, pardon me, there are eight miracles mentioned in John.

There are six new characters he introduces us to. You see he's got so much to say. He only has so much space and so he's not going to bother with what's already been said in Matthew, Mark and Luke. He's going to get over what he has to say.

And again surely it's, it's very obvious that I can support that argument very easily, that he's saying new things. Because Matthew, Mark and Luke have never say anything like this wonderful chapter of the vine.

The Depth of John's Gospel and Christ's Dependence on the Father

If you start reading into Matthew, pardon me, into John, it reminds me of the, what is it, 46 chapter in Ezekiel where you have a river. And it says as you go in the river there's water to the ankles and then water to the knees.

It gets deeper and deeper and deeper. Water to the loins, waters to swim in. Well as you read the Gospel of John, we'll call it that anyhow for convenience, the Gospel of John. Pardon me, when you get to the 14th chapter, which you remember begins with, let not your heart be troubled.

Well it's a good thing he said that because they were heading for trouble. He was heading for trouble, they were heading for trouble. But you see the great fire leader, the Lord Jesus Christ is an example in everything.

I love a hymn and part of it that says, it is the way the master went should not the servant tread it still. You can be sure of this, anything that comes into your life or almost anything was in his life first.

In all points he was tempted like as we are and yet without sin. And so the 14th chapter is deep, the 15th gets deeper, the 16th deeper, 17th a chapter I love very much, won't have time to talk to you about it.

One of the greatest chapters, the chapter you feel you want to kick your shoes off, it's holy ground. A famous broadcaster was offering in a TV series recently a picture, he said here look here's a picture of a book I want you all to have it, it's on the Lord's Prayer.

It's the best thing I've ever read and it wasn't on the Lord's Prayer at all. It was on the disciples prayer. We say let's pray the Lord's Prayer, our Father which art in heaven. That's not the Lord's Prayer, that's the disciples prayer.

It's the prayer he taught them to say. The Lord's Prayer is John 17. Jesus could not pray the Lord's Prayer, the disciples could not pray John 17. This is his own property. It's a very beautiful, very profound thing.

But I'm saying again that John 17 I have no comparison, there's nothing comparable in Matthew, Mark and Luke to John 17 or John 16 or John 15 or John 14. He's breaking new territory here, he's introducing us to some very wonderful, beautiful new things.

Jesus the True Vine and the Necessity of Pruning

Now the figure here is the figure of the vine. Don't do it right now but when you get home, remember this is John 15. Go back to Ezekiel 15 and when you get there read it and it says this. I'll read it to you very briefly.

Son of man what is the vine more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken from it to do any work thereof? Will men take a pin to hang a vessel thereof?

You cast it into the fire for fuel and the flames devour it and it's burned. Is it meat? Is it any good for anything? Now is it? You go buy furniture and somebody says well this is, this is cherry wood or this is mahogany or something.

Did you ever see furniture made of the wood of the vine? You sure didn't. What good is it? He said you can't, you know how the vine is, it comes up an inch and twists that way and twists the other. The only thing you can make out of it will be corkscrews anyhow.

It's so twisted you can't use it. They don't use it to make the handles of knives. The wood is useless. I was in a conference a few years ago and there was a man there, an oldish man and he had been in the Middle East for more than 40 years as a missionary.

And he had the most amazing collection of souvenirs. I used to gather them when I went around the world. I quit on that but I used to like to bring things for the boys for instance. This man had an amazing collection of treasures.

He had a gold scabbard to it, to a dagger given to him by the king of Saudi Arabia. He had a camel about this high. It was, it was exquisite. The wood was just as though it was covered with glass. There were veins of black and so forth in the wood.

And I said well that's a marvelous thing. What is it? Oh I know it's a camel but what kind of wood is it? Well this is what he said. He found it near the garden of Gethsemane, a stump of a tree and he gave it to a man who is one of the great carvers in the East.

And he said he produced this camel out of it. So I said oh I see now that that is wood of, what is it? He said it was an olive tree. Well that wood there is red. Is that from a redwood tree? No that's from a cedar of Lebanon.

Well this over here, now this is a beautiful plate. They were all different in shape. This is, this is lovely. This is myrtle. And he said, now I said what is it? He said it's myrtle. And you know myrtle trees only grow in two countries I understand.

Palestine or Israel as we say now, and America. Which must prove you're one of the last tribes. But anyhow, there you've got that beautiful wood. And I said to him well now you've got this wood and that wood and that wood, myrtle wood, a beautiful camel made out of olive wood, something else has been made out of the branch of cedar.

Did you ever see anything made of the wood of the vine? He said no I didn't. And what's more he said I never thought of it in my life. I never thought that I'd never seen. But I said no it could not be because the Word of God says that.

Now God uses a figure so often of Israel being a vine. Vine is a very rebellious tree. If you don't keep it in shape it'll get all over the place. Typical of us, it was typical of Israel. God says I planted thee a noble vine.

Why, why become a degenerate plant. In the 8th of psalm, the psalmist says God took a vine out of Egypt and he planted it and it spread and spread and spread. He uses a figure so often of the vine. But notice what the apostle here says, that Jesus says I am the true vine.

In the 6th chapter he said he was the true light. Pardon me, in the 6th chapter he said he was the true bread. And then in the, is it the 8th chapter where he says I am the true light? No it's the first chapter where he says he is the light, the true.

He always puts that qualification there. He is the true vine. This is a rebellious vine. He is the true bread. He is the true light. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it.

Now wouldn't you think he'd leave the branch alone that's bearing the fruit? You say sometimes well I don't know what the Lord's after me for, but he he corrected me in this, he did something in that, he did that.

Well it's the branch that's bearing the fruit that gets the knife. He doesn't bother with the sterile branch. And he has many ways of applying that knife. It lets me use it sometimes. But teaching is corrective.

Teaching hurts sometimes. You see it's so easy to get out of line, it's so easy to assume. Well I'm saved, my name's in heaven and everything's all right. And maybe all the time we're not bearing the fruit we should bear.

Holiness as the Fruit of Spiritual Life

Now we hear a lot today about gifts of the Spirit. We do not hear as much about fruits of the Spirit. We have far less about a Roman fix where it says that we are to bear our fruit unto holiness. We hear less about bringing forth fruit, meat for repentance.

But the word says you have your fruit unto holiness. You see we kind of figure that holiness is an option. No it isn't. Holiness is essential. I didn't write the Bible, you know that. But the Word of God says without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

He says that ultimately there's going to be a time when holiness unto the Lord will be on the very bridles of the horses. Moses had a helmet, then he had a band of gold. And on that band of gold it said that the priest had to have on it holiness unto the Lord.

God is holy, heaven is holy. In the Old Testament it says that King Saul had an evil spirit. What did he do? Well he did all, the only thing you can do with an evil spirit, he has an evil spirit. And because he had an evil spirit he did evil things.

Jesus says a man has an unclean spirit therefore he does unclean things. So if a man with an evil spirit does evil things, a man with an unclean spirit does unclean things, then surely the man who is filled with the Holy Spirit produces fruit unto holiness.

Now again this is not, you see when you talk about having victory over sin you get smeared always with one thing. Let me step back a minute. You know it troubles me that people get more upset when you talk about holiness than they do when you talk about sinfulness.

We accommodate ourselves to sinfulness and we get all prickly when you talk about holiness. And if you talk about living without sin somebody smears you and says that's sinless perfection. I was talking with Ben Haden, you know Ben Haden is.

And I said well brother do you, do you tell your young people what sins they can commit and what they can't commit? Jesus caught a woman in adultery. What did he say? Go and sin less. What did he say?

Go and sin no more. Is that a yolkies? Is that an impossibility? Are you gonna tell me Jesus is a tyrant? What sin can you commit that glorifies the Lord? Now you say well we'll never be faultless. No, no, no we may not be faultless.

That's not the point. He's going to present us faultless before his father's throne one day. But you see in between we have a lot of faults we can correct and the Lord will prune us. He'll use circumstances because he doesn't want us blemished.

He wants us pure. He wants us to be the work, he wants us to be the vessels that he puts on exhibition in a wicked crooked perverse dirty filthy world that loves the devil and will go to hell and pay all it can to get there.

And he wants to put some objects on display and say look this is what I can do in the life of an individual. I can redeem him, I can cleanse him, I can indwell him with my spirit. What's the difference between faultless and blameless?

Well I think of Thomas Cook, a very wonderful man. When I, I spent a few weeks in college and from my desk there was Thomas Cook's picture shining down on me. And a remarkable looking face. He went to Africa to preach to South Africa and there were no planes in those days.

He went on board ship. And one night he needed something and he walked through the saloon where men were drinking and cursing and playing cards, smoking, doing everything. And he went through the swing swing doors and they said as he went through men pushed their pipes away and hid their cards and sat still like this.

And somebody said that by the time he got through the saloon it was a still as eternity, smoke was going out, cigarettes had been removed, liquor had been hidden. And somebody said well he never said a word.

What, why did we do it? And somebody said you couldn't do wrong when when a man had a face like that. See the ladies think they have all the beauty. But they said a face like that. One day a little girl was in the butcher's shop and getting some meat.

She was a maid at the pastor's house in town. And she was restless and the butcher said now do you mind if I serve Mary? Mary you're so fidgety what's happened? She said sir we're having a very special guest this weekend.

Do you know they've pulled all the furniture out of the room and they've cleaned it up. And she said you know they're making such a fuss you'd think Jesus was coming himself. And he smiled. The week after she went for some meat and he said well did you enjoy your guest?

She said sir, she was 14, sir do you remember what I said last week that they were making such a fuss and commotion getting the best china out, fixing the house up, that you'd think Jesus was coming? He said yes I remember I mentioned that to my wife after.

She said well sir he came, he came. There was something about his presence. Let me quote one other thing here. A fellow in India got a set, wanted a set of my books. And he said I have been publishing the books of Sadhu Sandarsingh, the great saint there.

I said well I'll exchange a set of my books for your books. So I got this set of books of the Sadhu Sandarsingh. And the remarkable man, a man that preached in a town one day and they got mad and hostile.

And they opened up an old dry well and they lured him down in this well about 20 odd feet, 30 feet. They put the lid on and the mayor of the town carried the key of the lock on, on that pit. A great big covered hole you know, with a door in it.

And he sealed it himself and he locked it up. He said we'll leave him there for days and we'll dry him out. We won't feed him, we won't give him water, he'll be in misery. Next morning when the mayor was in his office, a fellow came in and said well the Sadhu has a bigger crowd today than ever.

He said he has no crowd at all, he's down at the bottom of the pit. He said no sir he's preaching. He said no it's not the Sadhu it's somebody else, they all wear robes and beards. It's not the Sadhu.

He said sir it's the Sadhu I've heard him many times. Preaching? He said it's funny he's got a bigger crowd than ever. The mayor said look I've got the key for that lock on my belt and I kept it under my pillow in the night.

Nobody ever gets the key to that prison. Well sir he said he's there. So that the mayor marched down and there was a Sadhu, he kind of waved to him. Afterwards he said well how did you get out? He said well I don't know but about four o 'clock this morning I heard something go like this and I looked and I could see daylight and there was a rope there and I got hold of it and I was pulled out.

And when I got out there was a rope but there's nobody there. I just got out. And more than once he said he had angels visiting. All right he came to England. And Mishra said when you get off the boat in Liverpool you just take this card of mine and the lady there has a beautiful home all gorgeous Victorian style.

Wealthy people they will give you a home. So he presented his card and the lady opened the door. Oh she, you know he dressed like Jesus one of these white robes and his long beard and she thought it was a personal rapture or something I don't know.

She thought the Lord had come for her specifically or something. And she stepped back and she looked at him and he said your friend gave me this. Oh please come in. And she showed him into this Victorian room that used to be reserved in English homes there what they called some call it the lounge otherwise the sitting room.

And she tiptoed back to her children and she said children now that's the worst thing you can do for children you challenge them when you do that. Don't go near the front room. There's one of the greatest men that has ever lived in that front.

Now don't go near that front room. And she had asked him did he drink tea and of course what Indian people do. And she got a silver service out and the tea and the cookies and everything. And and she polished it all and then she was coming down the corridor she said to her maid I'll take it myself.

And she was going down there and she had these peals of laughter and shouting. Oh goodness goodness goodness. They just went round the other side of the house and they wanted to see this strange man from India.

And they were howling with laughter and she thought oh goodness he'll think I can't control my children she was so upset. And she put the tray down and opened the door and here was a Sadhu on his hands and knees the baby on his back the other one leading him by the beard round the floor.

And she nearly collapsed she said oh sir children please please. He turned his big eyes up he said don't you think Jesus would ride a little boy on his back. What's wrong with it? See we think Saints live in stained-glass windows or they're perched up halfway between earth and heaven.

Well he was very down-to-earth anyhow and the children sure enjoyed it. They see there's a simplicity there's a beauty. All right Thomas Cook said this that one day one of his friends in his church actually was due at a church meeting.

He came home he wasn't very well off he had just one two pairs of shoes one was being repaired he came in his shoes were soaking his clothes were soaking. And in a hurry he shouted to his wife I have to be in church in about 40 minutes.

He said all right darling you go bathe and shave and I'll have your supper ready and you can go. And he thought my shoes my other shoes are being repaired what will I do? So he slipped these off and he put them by the open fire.

And he went upstairs and he shaved and he came down and he said Mary yeah did you move my shoes? No dear I've never been out of the kitchen. I put them by the fire. Well they're not there. Well what happened?

Well Mary jr. came along and she said daddy you put your shoes there they were very wet. They wouldn't dry for you to go to church. Well darling what did you do? Well mummy's been baking I just slipped them in the oven so they'd really dry.

And he opened the door and they were dry. Just a case of who they fit. The toe was turning that way the heel was turning that way and he couldn't get his feet in the thing. So Thomas Cook said now was that girl faultless?

No she wasn't but she was blameless. She had no motive in doing it. Now whether people accuse you or the devil accuses you about a certain thing don't sit down and cry. Because every time you sit down and cry the devil laughs anyhow.

Just say wait a minute what was my motive in that thing? That girl didn't intentionally say I'm gonna keep daddy at home he's been working all day he's not going to judge he's gonna stay and play with me.

She did not say that. And in doing something she thought was very kind she did something he thought was very cruel. But again her motive was pure. You see. No we're not faultless but we may be blameless.

We're told to be that. We're told to be blameless and harmless the sons of God. The thing we do should be pure. The pure in heart see God. They want to work like him be like him. All right every branch that beareth fruit he taketh away.

Beareth not fruit he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit. Now there are three things in this chapter. Verse two there is a promise of fruit. Verse eight plenty of fruit. Twice eight sixteen and verse sixteen permanence in fruit bearing.

Fruitfulness, Evangelism, and Reproducing Disciples

The normal condition of the Christian life is to bear fruit. Now some people say well this means soul winning. Well it could be included I'm not sure it's the total thing. You remember the Presbyterians had a fantastic revival in 1905 in in where Korea?

Wasn't it where they swept the country? A condition of membership was a very strong condition. I was preaching once in New Zealand and in the course of talking with a man I said to him well sir you've been a shepherd for 50 years.

Tell me this do the shepherds out here bring lambs to birth? And he said what? I said does the shepherd produce lambs? Well no. Well I said who does? Well are you stupid he said the sheep bears the lambs.

And that's exactly right. Now I could go to a church where the pastor never never asked anybody to come down the aisle and I'll be perfectly content if he preached the truth and fed me. If I never saw a soul converted because that's not his job.

He's the shepherd you're the sheep you should produce your kind. And a condition of membership I'm told in the early Presbyterian Church in Korea was not that you believe in every point of doctrine. But you have to say this person is somebody I personally brought to Jesus Christ.

Not somebody I prayed with at the altar when they came forward. But I personally got a burden for a neighbor or a relative and I prayed them through and I personally call this the fruit of my effort. I have brought forth.

Now supposing everybody did that. Then do you know what they did? When a church got so large they selected so many people out of the church and they started another church. Just before we left Baton Rouge an old man well he wasn't too old less than 70 but he came to see me and somebody said I want you to meet this man in Baton Rouge.

He's a unique man. Man as he talked I knew that man knew God. Now it's a lot better if you have the first church or there's something you know I often say I'd never joined the first church anywhere. Because the book says the first should be last.

But by the same token this man knew very well that if you build a church up to 2 ,000 members I started with 10 members and now we have 2 ,000 3 ,000. Oh boy that makes you look big and swell. You know he said this is his argument he said I don't believe any man can manage more than 200 people.

To really understand them and know them and feel the pulse of their lives and bear the burden with them. So as soon as this church got to 200 he asked about 10 couples to split off and go to another area.

Now around Baton Rouge that man has brought to birth or his church just as the individual produced the sheep the church produces another church. There are 10 churches around Baton Rouge with 200 members that all stemmed out of his one church.

So that's their fruit. All right every branch that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it. Now look if you have a vine here's a stem of a vine it will start sending out its tendrils it will send out little branches.

And if you leave it alone it will just send out leaves and leaves and leaves and then it will produce tiny little grapes. Now maybe my logic I never was trained in logic but I would imagine that Jesus should have said here I am the vine and you're the grapes.

Isn't that the logic of it? But he doesn't say that why not? Well his figure is very different he says ye are the salt of the earth. Now salt's very good in some areas it's very bad if you get it in an open cut it makes you dance a bit.

Not everybody's going to receive you because you're a saved and sanctified person. You'll be a saver of life to some people you'll be a saver of death to other people. Some will say I like that brother some will say boy when I see him I get out of the way or when I see her I get out of the way.

Jesus says you're the salt he does not say I am the vine and you're the grapes. Why not? Well I don't know except my own argument is this. That if you let a vine run wild it will produce grapes just tiny like that.

Or as they've been having trouble out west there hasn't been enough water and therefore lots of the grapes are tiny. But you can still use them when they're immature you can make vinegar out of them anyhow.

And then when they get nice and ripe oh I like grapes they're good for you. You know how to get healthy have one day a week when you don't eat anything except grapes. Have grapes for three meals a day they do you a world of good.

There's no charge for that but they'll charge you enough for the grapes so you better go ahead and get them. And and so if the grapes are immature they'll make vinegar if they're mature they're good and if they get over ripe and dry they make raisins.

So you can't lose. And I figure Jesus doesn't say well you're the grapes because he was some old sour grouch. You'd still say well anyhow I'm a child of God I may be one of the bitter ones but I'm bitter but there it is.

And folk to the bitter you don't usually get better isn't that nice. But let me tell you this that every pressure every circumstance of life you come in will leave you in one of two categories and it's very simple they leave you better or bitter.

And he applies the knife he's not capricious God is never moody. He applies the knife. I remember one day going into the what we call the greenhouse glass house in Cliff College there it was a beautiful beautiful place.