Grafting: Improved through Joining
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: Grafting: Improved through Joining
Scripture Reference:
- Romans 6 (further images / scripture text)
Description: In a garden, a man is in the process of grafting a branch to a tree; behind him a worker bends over to pick up a tool. In front of him, two men with a dog discuss this process. A man with a wheelbarrow enters the garden through a gate. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem, as well as for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant Scripture text is Romans 6:5.
Motto:
Joining with the Trunk,
From which came all Good.
Poem:
The Wild Sprout from Adam’s Tree,
Became in Christian living,
Pious through the power and sap of Jesus,
So as to give God good fruit.
May each one then turn his progress,
His Growth, and Blossom in Vain being,
And his Heart to the way of Jesus Christ,
Then the wild earth will be cured.
Then his Holy Heavenly blood will
Remain in his Soul and Spirit,
And through the hidden pious Soul,
Drive the fruit from his branches.
Fruit makes Earthly Virtue apparent,
On Man as on the Tree,
Or otherwise the Glory is not true,
And the Praise of Good is taken away.
The branch that does not bear fruit,
But only shows off with leaves,
Is not grafted in Jesus’ nature,
Its gift is words without deeds.
And he who clothes himself with a Name
Of something he does not possess
Will by the hand, that measures everything
Be thrown out of the Garden as useless.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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