Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Song of Solomon 1:7

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Song of Solomon 1:7. Tell me - where thou feedest — This is spoken as if the parties were shepherds, or employed in the pastoral life. But how this would apply either to Solomon, or the princes of Egypt, is not easy to ascertain. Probably in the marriage festival there was something like our masks, in which persons of quality assumed rural characters and their employments. See that fine one composed by Milton, called COMUS.

To rest at noon — In hot countries the shepherds and their flocks are obliged to retire to shelter during the burning heats of the noon-day sun. This is common in all countries, in the summer heats, where shelter can be had.

One that turneth aside — As a wanderer; one who, not knowing where to find her companions, wanders fruitlessly in seeking them. It was customary for shepherds to drive their flocks together for the purpose of conversing, playing on the pipe, or having trials of skill in poetry or music. So VIRGIL: -

Forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis

Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum:

Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas;

Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo,

Et cantare pares, et respondere parati.

ECL,. vii. v. 1.

"Beneath a holm repair'd two jolly swains:

Their sheep and goats together grazed the plains;

Both young Arcadians, both alike inspired

To sing and answer as the song required."

DRYDEN.

This does not express the sense of the original: from the different pastures in which they had been accustomed to feed their flocks, they drove their sheep and goats together for the purpose mentioned in the pastoral; and, in course, returned to their respective pasturages, when their business was over.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

1:1-2:7 OPENING EXCHANGES OF PRAISE

The girl longs for her lover (1:1-7)

After an introductory note (1:1), the collection opens with a poem spoken by the girl in praise of her absent lover. At times she imagines she is speaking to him, at times she thinks about him, but always she longs for his love and attention. She thinks that all girls must love such a handsome young man. To her he is king, and she imagines the coming wedding day when he takes her into his room, praises her beauty and makes love to her (2-4).
Aware that men have a liking for lighter skinned girls such as those of Jerusalem, the girl makes excuses for her dark skin. She is a farm girl who has worked in the sun, and she compares the colour of her skin to that of black goat-hair tents. Yet she knows that her lover makes a better comparison when he likens her to the beautiful curtains of Solomon’s palace. The reason for her dark skin is that her hard-hearted brothers have made her look after the family vineyards, with the result that she has not had time to look after the ‘vineyard’ of her own appearance (5-6).
The girl wishes she knew where her lover was feeding his sheep. Then she could go straight to him without having to wander from flock to flock looking for him (7).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE SHULAMITE RESPONDS TO CONTEMPTUOUS CRITICISM

"I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am swarthy, Because the sun hath scorched me. My mother's sons were incensed against me: They made me keeper of the vineyards; But mine own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest thy flock, Where thou makest it to rest at noon; For why should I be as one that is veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions?"

This paragraph tells us the identity of the Shulamite's true love. He is a shepherd, not the king of Israel. No stretch of imagination can make a shepherd out of Solomon. Furthermore, the hostility and cruelty of the harem appear here. "The newcomer is subjected to their contemptuous, jealous looks."Ibid.

"I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem" That the Shulamite here apologizes for her dark sun-tan indicates that the pale, hot-house victims of the harem had heaped their scorn and criticism upon her.

These words have led some to suppose that the Shulamite was a Negro; "But the parallel line tells us plainly the meaning, `I am swarthy'; therefore, she was apologizing for her dark sun-tan."James Waddey, p. 102. The balance of the paragraph explains how the sun-tan came about. Her brothers had compelled her to work outdoors. Thus she could not keep her "own vineyard." What did she mean by that?

"My own vineyard have I not kept" Bunn interpreted this to mean that, "The Shulamite had not kept her own chastity."Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1972), Vol. 5, p. 133. Cook saw it as a reference to, "the care and cultivation of her own beauty."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament, op. cit., Song of Solomon, p. 123. Pope affirmed that, "The reference is to the maiden's body, especially her sexual parts."The Anchor Bible Commentary (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1972), Vol. 7c, p. 326. Cook's opinion is by far the preferable understanding of it. To accept the other views would mean that the Shulamite here confessed her status either as an adulteress or as a prostitute.

"Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest thy flock?" If this text has any meaning at all, it means that the Shulamite's true lover was a shepherd. Only by the abuse of figurative language can this be applied to Solomon. The implication of this is that the absent lover was feeding his flock in some place unknown to the Shulamite. Solomon was not absent; he was not feeding a flock, and his place was well known to everyone in Jerusalem. Solomon is not in this at all.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

This section is made by the Targumist and other Jewish interpreters to adumbrate the condition of Israel in the wilderness; by some Christian expositors, that of the Gentile Church on her first conversion.

Song of Solomon 1:5

I am black ... - Dark-hued, as the tents of Kedar with their black goats’ hair coverings, rough and weather-stained, “but comely (beautiful) as the rich hangings which adorn the pavilion of Solomon. Kedar was the name of an Arab tribe Genesis 25:13; Psalms 120:5. The word itself signifies “dark” or “black.” Possibly “tents of Kedar” stand here poetically for shepherds’ tents in general Isaiah 60:7.

Song of Solomon 1:6

Look not upon me - In wonder or scorn at my swarthy hue. It was acquired in enforced but honest toil: the sun hath scanned me (or “glared upon me”) with his burning eye. The second word rendered “looked” is a word twice found in Job Job 20:9; Job 28:7, and indicates in the latter place the piercing glance of a bird of prey.

My mother’s children, - Or, sons; a more affectionate designation than “brothers,” and implying the most intimate relationship.

Angry - This anger was perhaps but a form of jealous care for their sister’s safety (compare Song of Solomon 8:12). By engaging her in rustic labors they preserved her from idleness and temptation, albeit with a temporary loss of outward comeliness.

Mine own vineyard - A figurative expression for herself or her beauty.

Song of Solomon 1:7

whom my soul loveth - A phrase recurring several times. It expresses great intensity of affection.

Feedest - i. e., “Pursuest thy occupation as a shepherd;” so she speaks figuratively of the Son of David. Compare Song of Solomon 2:16; Song of Solomon 6:3; Psalms 23:1.

Rest - Or, lie down; a term properly used of the couching of four-footed animals: “thy flock” is here therefore easily understood. Compare Ezekiel 34:14-15; Psalms 23:2; Jeremiah 50:6.

As one that turneth aside - Or, goeth astray like an outcast.

Song of Solomon 1:8

The chorus, and not the king, are the speakers here. Their meaning seems to be: If thy beloved be indeed a shepherd, then seek him yonder among other shepherds, but if a king, thou wilt find him here in his royal dwelling.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Tonight we want to look at the Song of Songs which is Solomon's. By the title it indicates that Solomon felt that this was the finest of the one thousand and five songs that he wrote. This is the excellency of the songs that he has written. Of the thousand and five songs, this one is it as far as Solomon is concerned.

In Ecclesiastes, we had a theme: vanity of vanities. In this we have, song of songs. The vanity or the emptiness of the world apart from God. The emptiness of the world in achievement, any achievement that is apart from God. Now he speaks of the song of songs which is Solomon's and the song of songs is a song of love.

Now there are some people who consider the Song of Solomon no more than just an erotic, oriental love song and feel that it has no place in the scriptures. But others have found tremendous inspiration in the Song of Solomon by looking at a spiritual allegory, seeing it as a spiritual allegory. Now to the Jews, it became a spiritual allegory of God's special relationship to the nation Israel. As God is seen in the figure of Solomon the king, and Israel as the favorite choice wife, and as they express their love of each other, so God's expressions of His love for Israel and Israel's expressions of their love for God.

And of course, through a lot of the prophets we find the same theme as God addresses Israel as His wife. And God tells of His love, His deep love for His people. And the espousals of the youth. "When you first discover Me. Where is that love that we had in the beginning?" God said. "Why have you turned away from the love? Who has drawn you away?" And as Israel turned their hearts from God and began to worship Molech and Mammon and Baal and some of the gods of the Canaanites, God spoke out against it as having forsaken Me, your first love, the true love. And you've taken up with these other paramours that are going to leave you desolate. And so to the Jew it became a beautiful spiritual picture of the relationship of the nation Israel, the special relationship the nation Israel experienced with God.

To the church, because the church is often seen in the New Testament as the bride of Christ, it became a picture to the church of the bride of the church, her relationship to Jesus Christ, her bridegroom, her coming King who we look forward to. And so the spiritual allegories are then made applicable to Christ and His love for the church and the church's response to His love.

John Gill, one of the great Puritan preachers, preached to his congregation a hundred and twenty-two sermons out of the Song of Solomon. So for those that are looking for sermon material, seeking to find it in the spiritual allegories, there's just a lot of material here. He preached a hundred and twenty-two sermons out of this book. Bernard of Clairvaux preached sixty-two sermons to his congregation just out of chapter 1. So the book is filled with imagery and possible allegorical applications.

Now, I am not one who really goes into the mystic allegorical applications of the scripture. Though I do see here many beautiful allegories, and you can take the text and spiritualize upon them, that just hasn't been my method of ministry of taking a text and seeking to spiritualize the text. Because different people can see different things in an allegory. And even in the Song of Solomon, there have been various interpretations of the Song of Solomon.

The basic interpretation of the Song of Solomon is that this is a young Shulamite girl that Solomon has fallen deeply in love with. And she is in love with him. And he addresses himself to her declaring his love and declaring her beauty, and she responding to him. While the daughters of Jerusalem are there asking questions of the young girl concerning her love for him, asking Solomon of his love for her, and so the... Actually, again, it's a song, so you see it's set up in a dramatic kind of an opera. You have Solomon standing there singing in his rich baritone voice of his love for his bride. And she with her high soprano answering him and singing, "Come, my beloved into my garden and drink. Taste of its fruits," and so forth. And then you have the chorus over here, the women's chorus, the female chorus. And they every once in a while sing in, "Tell us of thy beloved. Where is he grazing his flocks and so forth at this time?" And they are interjecting.

Now there is another interpretation of the Song of Solomon, basic overall interpretation. And this one is followed in the Amplified Bible and suggested in the Amplified Bible. And that is, that here is the same beautiful young Shulamite girl that Solomon has fallen madly in love with. And he is seeking to make her a part of his harem, for Solomon had a harem second to none. And he is seeking by his wealth, by his grandeur, by all of the gifts and the wealth to cause her to become a part of his vast harem. Seeking to woo her and to seduce her. And she is brought in with the other virgins and she is telling them, they wonder why she isn't responding to his love and she is telling them that she has a true love, a shepherd. And she doesn't respond really to Solomon's love because her heart is after another, her shepherd lover who she longs for, who she seeks after.

And in the spiritual allegories to this other way of looking at the Song of Solomon, Solomon in this other allegory represents the world. The Shulamite woman, the Christian, and how the world is seeking to allure the Christian away from her love for her Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And she has this deep fervent commitment to her shepherd, even Jesus Christ, and cannot be allured by all of the wealth and the glory and the grandeur of Solomon as he seeks to seduce her and draw her into his harem and all.

And so this is another possible interpretation. But this is the problem, the basic problem of spiritualizing the text and seeing it in an allegorical sense, because as you go through the book, either one fits. But surely they are diametrically opposed to each other as far as an interpretation goes. And yet, you can see and you can read it so that either way it fits. Solomon is the one she loves and they are expressing their love for each other. Or, she is sort of rejecting the love of Solomon because of her true love for her shepherd lover.

The Song of songs, which is Solomon's ( Song of Solomon 1:1 ).

It begins with the first singer who is this young Shulamite, beautiful girl, and she sings.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savor of your good ointments [or your perfume] thy name is as ointment [or perfume] poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee: the King hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee ( Song of Solomon 1:2-4 ).

Now speaking of herself, she said,

I am black, yet beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, and as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black ( Song of Solomon 1:5-6 ),

It doesn't mean that she was an Ethiopian, but she says,

because the sun hath looked upon me ( Song of Solomon 1:6 ):

She was well tanned.

my mother's children [my step brothers, actually] were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard [or my own complexion and so forth] I have not kept ( Song of Solomon 1:6 ).

I'm ruddy and tan and so forth.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where you make your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? ( Song of Solomon 1:7 )

So her opening declaration of having been brought into the king's chambers. Her addressing the daughters of Jerusalem concerning her own unkept condition because of being outside, keeping vineyards. Sort of a Cinderella kind of a story, the wicked sisters made her do all of the work and she wasn't able to keep up her own cosmetics and all.

Now the king responds to her.

If thou know not, O thou fairest among women ( Song of Solomon 1:8 ),

And the question is where you feed your flocks. "If you know not, O fairest among women,"

go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders ( Song of Solomon 1:8-11 )

Now these are the daughters of Jerusalem, the virgins, the chorus responds. "We will make thee borders,"

of gold with studs of silver ( Song of Solomon 1:11 ).

And the bride responds.

While the King sits at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. My beloved is to me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi ( Song of Solomon 1:12-14 ).

The camphire trees or cypress trees, and just that beautiful smell of the out of doors and trees in blossom there in Engedi.

Behold, thou art fair, [the king answers] my love; behold, thou art fair; you have doves' eyes ( Song of Solomon 1:15 ).

She responds to him.

Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green. The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir ( Song of Solomon 1:16-17 ).

So you have the opening of this love drama, the Song of Songs of Solomon.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

A. The Beginning of Love 1:2-11

In the NASB, NIV, TNIV, NKJV and some other English translations, the translators identified the speakers in the various sections of the book. This is, of course, the interpretation of the translators, not part of the inspired text.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. The girl’s insecurity 1:5-8

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Solomon probably was not a shepherd. Ancient Near Eastern love poems commonly pictured men as shepherds. [Note: Deere, p. 1013.] The girl simply wanted to be alone with Solomon. If she could not, she would be very sad, like a woman who veiled her face in mourning.

"The girl is saying that she does not want to be mistaken for a cult prostitute, a good picture of which is seen in Genesis 38:13-15." [Note: Kinlaw, p. 1218.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,.... With all her heart, cordially and sincerely; for, notwithstanding her sinful compliance with others, and neglect of her own affairs, she had not lost her love to Christ; and, being sensible of her sin and folly, whereby she was deprived of his company, and communion with him, applies to him to guide, direct, and restore her wandering soul; and particularly inform her

where, says she,

thou feedest; that is his flock, like a shepherd: for this phrase supposes him to be a shepherd, as he is, of God's choosing, appointing, and setting up, the chief, the good, the great, and only Shepherd of the sheep; and that he has a flock to feed, which is but one, and a little one, is his property, given him by God, purchased by his blood, called a flock of slaughter, and yet a beautiful one, he has undertook to feed; and feeding it includes the whole business of a shepherd, in leading the sheep into pastures, protecting them from all enemies, restoring them when wandering, healing their diseases, watching over them in the night seasons, and making all necessary provisions for them. Or, "tell me how thou feedest" f; the manner of it, and with what; which he does by his ministers, word, and ordinances; with himself, the bread of life; with the doctrines and promises of the Gospel, and with the discoveries of his love;

where thou makest [thy flocks] to rest at noon, either at the noon of temptation, when Satan's fiery darts fly thick and fast; when Christ is a shadow and shelter in his person, grace, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, Isaiah 25:4; or the noon of affliction, when he makes their bed in it, and gives them rest from adversity; or the noon of persecution, when Christ leads his flocks to cooling shades, and gives them rest in himself, when troubled by others: the allusion, is to shepherds, in hot countries, leading their flocks to some shady place, where they may be sheltered from the scorching heat of the sun; which, as Virgil says g, was at the fourth hour, or ten o'clock, two hours before noon; we read of προβατια μεσημβριαζοντα h, sheep nooning themselves, or lying down at noon, under a shade, by a fountain, asleep;

for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? not real associates with Christ, that keep company with him, and are attached to his word and ordinances; but false friends, hypocrites and heretics i, rivals with him, who set up schemes of worship and doctrine in opposition to his; such as Papists, Socinians, c. now such false teachers have had their flocks in all ages, such as have followed them, and have formed separate societies and therefore the church, sensible of their craftiness, and her own weakness, and liableness to go astray, desires she might not be under, and left to such a temptation, as to apostatize from Christ, and join to such persons and their flocks, or seem to do so: or, "be as one that covereth herself", or "is covered" k; as a harlot; so Tamar,

Genesis 38:14; or as a widow in mourning; she chose not to be, or to be thought to be, either as one that left her husband, an unchaste woman; or had lost her husband, or as if she had none, when neither was the case: or, "as one that spreads the tent" l; by the flocks of such; as if in communion with them, and joining with them in feeding their flocks; and therefore desires she might speedily know where Christ was, and go to him, that such an aspersion or suspicion might at once be wiped from her.

f איבה תרעה "quomodo pascas?" Tigurine version; so the Syriac version and Jarchi; see Ainsworth. g "Inde, ubi quarta sitim coeli collegetit hora", Virgil. Georgic. l. 3. v. 327. h Platonis Phaedrus, p. 1230. i So Stockius, p. 302. k כעטיה "quasi operiens se", Piscator; "ut obnubens", Cocceius; "sicut obvelans se", Marckius; "velut operta", Michaelis. l So Junius & Tremellius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?   8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.   9 I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.   10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.   11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

      Here is, I. The humble petition which the spouse presents to her beloved, the shepherdess to the shepherd, the church and every believer to Christ, for a more free and intimate communion with him. She turns from the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom she had complained both of her sins and of her troubles, and looks up to heaven for relief and succour against both, Song of Solomon 1:7; Song of Solomon 1:7. Here observe, 1. The title she gives to Christ: O thou whom my soul loveth. Note, It is the undoubted character of all true believers that their souls love Jesus Christ, which intimates both the sincerity and the strength of their love; they love him with all their hearts; and those that do so may come to him boldly and may humbly plead it with him. 2. The opinion she has of him as the good shepherd of the sheep; she doubts not but he feeds his flock and makes them rest at noon. Jesus Christ graciously provides both repast and repose for his sheep; they are not starved, but well fed, not scattered upon the mountains, but fed together, fed in green pastures and in the hot time of the day led by the still waters and made to lie down under a cool refreshing shade. Is it with God's people a noon-time of outward troubles, inward conflicts? Christ has rest for them; he carries them in his arms,Isaiah 40:11. 3. Her request to him that she might be admitted into his society: Tell me where thou feedest. Those that would be told, that would be taught, what they are concerned to know and do, must apply to Jesus Christ, and beg of him to teach them, to tell them. "Tell me where to find thee, where I may have conversation with thee, where thou feedest and tendest thy flock, that there I may have some of my company." Observe, by the way, We should not, in love to our friends and their company, tempt them or urge them to neglect their business, but desire such an enjoyment of them as will consist with it, and rather, if we can, to join with them in their business and help to forward it. "Tell me where thou feedest, and there I will sit with thee, walk with thee, feed my flocks with thine, and not hinder thee nor myself, but bring my work with me." Note, Those whose souls love Jesus Christ earnestly desire to have communion with him, by his word in which he speaks to us and by prayer in which we speak to him, and to share in the privileges of his flock; and we may learn from the care he takes of his church, to provide convenient food and rest for it, how to take care of our own souls, which are our charge. 4. The plea she uses for the enforcing of this request: "For why should I be as one that turns aside by (or after) the flocks of thy companions, that pretend to be so, but are really thy competitors, and rivals with thee." Note, Turning aside from Christ after other lovers is that which gracious souls dread, and deprecate, more than any thing else. "Thou wouldst not have me to turn aside, no, nor to be as one that turns aside; tell me then, O tell me, where I may be near thee, and I will never leave thee." (1.) "Why should I lie under suspicion, and look as if I belonged to some other and not to thee? Why should I be thought by the flocks of our companions to be a deserter from thee, and a retainer to some other shepherd?" Good Christians will be afraid of giving any occasion to those about them to question their faith in Christ and their love to him; they would not do any thing that looks like unconcernedness about their souls; or uncharitableness towards their brethren, or that savours of indifference and disaffection to holy ordinances; and we should pray to God to direct us into and keep us in the way of our duty, that we may not so much as seem to come short,Hebrews 4:1. (2.) "Why should I lie in temptation to turn aside, as I do while I am absent from thee?" We should be earnest with God for a settled peace in communion with God through Christ, that we may not be as waifs and strays, ready to be picked up by him that next passes by.

      II. The gracious answer which the bridegroom gives to this request, Song of Solomon 1:8; Song of Solomon 1:8. See how ready God is to answer prayer, especially prayers for instruction; even while she is yet speaking, he hears. Observe, 1. How affectionately he speaks to her: O thou fairest among women! Note, Believing souls are fair, in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, above any other. Christ sees a beauty in holiness, whether we do or no. The spouse has called herself black, but Christ calls her fair. Those that are low in their own eyes are so much the more amiable in the eyes of Jesus Christ. Blushing at their own deformity (says Mr. Durham) is a chief part of their beauty. 2. How mildly he checks her for her ignorance, in these words, If thou know not, intimating that she might have known it if it had not been her own fault. What! dost thou not know where to find me and my flock? Compare Christ's answer to a like address of Philip's (John 14:9), Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? But, 3. With what tenderness he acquaints her where she might find him. If men say, Lo, here is Christ, or, Lo, he is there, believe them not, go not after them,Matthew 24:23; Matthew 24:26. But, (1.) Walk in the way of good men (Proverbs 2:20), follow the track, ask for the good old way, observe the footsteps of the flock, and go forth by them. It will not serve to sit still and cry, "Lord, show me the way," but we must bestir ourselves to enquire out the way; and we may find it by looking which way the footsteps of the flock lead, what has been the practice of godly people all along; let that practice be ours, Hebrews 6:12; 1 Corinthians 11:1. (2.) Sit under the direction of good ministers: "Feed thyself and thy kids besides the tents of the under-shepherds. Bring thy charge with thee" (it is probable that the custom was to commit the lambs and kids to the custody of the women, the shepherdesses); "they shall all be welcome; the shepherds will be no hindrance to thee, as they were to Reuel's daughters (Exodus 2:17), but helpers rather, and therefore abide by their tents." Note, Those that would have acquaintance and communion with Christ must closely and conscientiously adhere to holy ordinances, must join themselves to his people and attend his ministers. Those that have the charge of families must bring them with them to religious assemblies; let their kids, their children, their servants, have the benefit of the shepherds' tents.

      III. The high encomiums which the bridegroom gives of his spouse. To be given in marriage, in the Hebrew dialect, is to be praised (Psalms 78:63, margin), so this spouse is here; her husband praises this virtuous woman (Proverbs 31:28); he praises her, as is usual in poems, by similitudes. 1. He calls her his love (Song of Solomon 1:9; Song of Solomon 1:9); it is an endearing compellation often used in this book: "My friend, my companion, my familiar." 2. He compares her to a set of strong and stately horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Egypt was famous for the best horses. Solomon had his thence; and Pharaoh, no doubt, had the choicest the country afforded for his own chariots. The church had complained of her own weakness, and the danger she was in of being made a prey of by her enemies: "Fear not," says Christ; "I have made thee like a company of horses; I have put strength into thee as I have done into the horse (Job 39:19), so that thou shalt with a gracious boldness mock at fear, and not be affrighted, like the lion,Proverbs 28:1. The Lord has made thee as his goodly horse in the day of battle,Zechariah 10:3. I have compared thee to my company of horses which triumphed over Pharaoh's chariots, the holy angels, horses of fire." Habakkuk 3:15, Thou didst walk through the sea with thy horses; and see Isaiah 63:13. We are weak in ourselves, but if Christ make us as horses, strong and bold, we need not fear what all the powers of darkness can do against us. 3. He admires the beauty and ornaments of her countenance (Song of Solomon 1:10; Song of Solomon 1:10): Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, the attire of the head, curls of hair, or favourites (so some), or knots of ribbons; thy neck also with chains, such as persons of the first rank wear, chains of gold. The ordinances of Christ are the ornaments of the church. The graces, gifts, and comforts of the Spirit, are the adorning of every believing soul, and beautify it; these render it, in the sight of God, of great price. The ornaments of the saints are many, but all orderly disposed in rows and chains, in which there is a mutual connexion with and dependence upon each other. The beauty is not from any thing in themselves, from the neck or from the cheeks, but from ornaments with which they are set off. It was comeliness which I put upon thee, said the Lord God; for we were born not only naked, but polluted, Ezekiel 16:14.

      IV. His gracious purpose to add to her ornaments; for where God has given true grace he will give more grace; to him that has shall be given. Is the church courageous in her resistance of sin, as the horses in Pharaoh's chariots? Is she comely in the exercise of grace, as with rows of jewels and chains of gold? She shall be yet further beautified (Song of Solomon 1:11; Song of Solomon 1:11): We will make thee borders of gold, inlaid, or enamelled, with studs of silver. Whatever is wanting shall be made up, till the church and every true believer come to be perfect in beauty; see Ezekiel 16:14. This is here undertaken to be done by the concurring power of the three persons in the Godhead: We will do it; like that (Genesis 1:26), "Let us make man; so let us new-make him, and perfect his beauty." The same that is the author will be the finisher of the good work; and it cannot miscarry.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

Love to Jesus

September 30, 1860 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"You whom my soul loves." Song of Song of Solomon 1:7 .

OUTLINE I. THE RHETORIC OF THE LIP- its reality its assurance its unity its constancy its vehemence of affection II. THE LOGIC OF THE HEART- we love him for his infinite loveliness we love him for his love to us we love him for his suffering for us III. A POSITIVE DEMONSTRATION- in your daily lives in your giving in more extravagant love to Christ

If the life of a Christian may be compared to a sacrifice, then humility digs the foundation for the altar, prayer brings the unhewn stones and piles them one upon the other; penitence fills the trench round about the altar with water; obedience lays the wood in order; faith pleads the Jehovah-jireh, and places the victim upon the altar; but the sacrifice even then is incomplete, for where is the, fire? LOVE, love alone can consummate the sacrifice by supplying the needful fire from heaven. Whatever we lack in our piety, as it is indispensable that we should have faith in Christ, so is it absolutely necessary that we should have love to him. That heart which is devoid of an earnest love to Jesus, is surely still dead in trespasses and sins. And if any man should venture to affirm that he had faith in Christ, but had no love to him, we would at once also venture to affirm as positively, that his religion was vain. Perhaps the great lack of the religion of the times is love. Sometimes as I look upon the world at large, and the Church which lies too much in its bosom, I am apt to think that the Church has 'light', but lacks 'fire'; that she has some degree of true faith, clear knowledge, and much beside which is precious, but that she lacks to a great extent, that flaming love with which she once, as a chaste virgin, walked with Christ through the fires of martyrdom, when she showed to him her undefiled, unquenchable love in the catacombs of the city, and the caves of the rock; when the snows of the Alps might testify to the virgin purity of the love of the saints, by the purple stain which marked the shedding of blood in defense of our bleeding Lord, blood which had been shed in defense of him whom, though they had not seen his face, "unceasing they adore." It is my pleasant task this morning to stir up your pure minds, that you, as part of Christ's Church, may feel somewhat in your hearts today of love to him, and may be able to address him not only under the title, "You in whom my soul trusts," but "You whom my soul loves." Last Sabbath day, if you remember, we devoted to simple faith, and tried to preach the gospel to the ungodly; the present hour we devote to the pure, Spirit-born, godlike, flame of love. On looking at my text, I shall come to regard it thus: First, we shall listen to the rhetoric of the lip as we here read it in these words, "O you whom my soul loves." We shall then observe the logic of the heart, which would justify us in giving such a title as this to Christ, and then come in the third place, to something which even surpasses rhetoric or logic, the absolute demonstration of the daily life; and I pray that we may be able to prove constantly by our acts, that Jesus Christ is He whom our soul loves.

I. First, then, the loving title of our text is to be considered as expressing RHETORIC OF THE LIP. The text calls Christ, "You whom my soul loves." Let us take this title and dissect it a little. One of the first things which will strike us when we come to look upon it, is the reality of the love which is here expressed. Reality, I say; understanding the term "real," not in contradistinction to that which is lying and fictitious, but in contrast to that which is shadowy and indistinct. Do you not notice that the spouse here speaks of Christ as of one whom she knew actually to exist; not as an abstraction, but as a person. She speaks of him as a real person, "You whom my soul loves." Why, these seem to be the words of one who is pressing him to her bosom, who sees him with her eyes, who tracks him with her feet, who knows that he is, and that he will reward the love which diligently seeks him. Brethren and sisters, there often is a great deficiency in our love to Jesus. We do not realize the person of Christ. We think about Christ, and then we love the conception that we have formed of him. But O, how few Christians view their Lord as being as real a person as we are ourselves, very man a man that could suffer, a man that could die, substantial flesh and blood very God as real as if he were not invisible, and as truly existent as though we could compass him in our minds. We need to have a real Christ more fully preached, and more fully loved by the church. We fail in our love, because Christ is not as real to us as he was to the early Church. The early Church did not preach much doctrine; they preached Christ. They had little to say of truths about Christ; it was Christ himself, his hands, his feet, his side, his eyes, his head, his crown of thorns, the sponge, the vinegar, the nails. O for the Christ of Mary Magdalene, rather than the Christ of the critical theologian; give me the wounded body of divinity, rather than the soundest system of theology. Let me show you what I mean. Suppose an infant taken away from its mother, and you should seek to foster in it a love to the parent by constantly picturing before it the idea of a mother, and attempting to give it the thought of a mother's relation to the child. Indeed, my friends, I think you would have a difficult task to fix in that child the true and real love which it ought to bear towards her who bore it. But give that child a mother; let it hang upon that mother's real breast, let it derive its nourishment from her very heart: let it see that mother, feel that mother, put its little arms about that mother's real neck and you have no hard task to make it love its mother. So is it with the Christian. We need Christ not an abstract, doctrinal, pictured Christ but a real Christ. I may preach to you many a year, and try to infuse into your souls a love of Christ; but until you can feel that he is a real man and a real person, really present with you, and that you may speak to him, talk to him, and tell him of your needs, you will not readily attain to a love like that of the text, so that you can call him, "You whom my soul loves." I want you to feel, Christian, that your love to Christ is not a mere pious affection; but that as you love your wife, as you love your child, as you love your parent, so you should love Christ; that though your love to him is of a finer cast, and a higher mold, yet it is just as real as the more earthly passion. Let me suggest another figure. A war is raging in Italy for liberty. The very thought of liberty nerves a soldier. The thought of a hero makes a man a hero. Let me go and stand in the midst of the army and preach to them what heroes should be, and what brave men they should be who fight for liberty. My dear friends, the most earnest eloquence might have but little power. But put into the midst of these men Garibaldi heroism incarnate; place before their eyes that dignified man who seems like some old Roman newly arisen from his tomb, they see before them what liberty means, and what daring is, what courage can attempt, and what heroism can perform; for there he is, and firmed by his actual presence, their arms are strong, their swords are sharp and they dash to the battle at once; his presence ensuring victory, because they realize in his presence the thought which makes men brave and strong. So the Church needs to feel and see a real Christ in her midst. It is not the idea of disinterestedness; it is not the idea of devotion; it is not the idea of self-consecration that will ever make the Church mighty: it must be that idea incarnate, consolidated, personified in the actual existence of a realized Christ in the camp of the Lord's host. I do pray for you, and pray you for me, that we may each one of us have a love which realizes Christ, and which can address him as "You whom my soul loves." But again, look at the text and you will perceive another thing very clearly. The Church, in the expression which she uses concerning Christ, speaks not only with a realization of his presence, but with a firm assurance of her own love. Many of you, who do really love Christ, can seldom get further than to say, "O you whom my soul desires to love! O you whom I hope I love!" But this sentence says not so at all. This title has not the shadow of a doubt or a fear upon it: "O you whom my soul loves!" Is it not a happy thing for a child of God when he knows that he loves Christ? when he can speak of it as a matter of consciousness? a thing out of which he is not to be argued by all the reasonings of Satan a thing concerning which he can put his hand upon his heart, and appeal to Jesus and say, "Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you?" I say, is not this a delightful frame of mind? or, rather, I reverse the question- Is not that a sad miserable state of heart in which we have to speak of Jesus otherwise than with assured affection? Ah, my brethren and sisters, there may be times when the most loving heart may, from the very fact that it loves intensely and loves sincerely, doubt whether it does love at all. But then such times will be times seasons of great soul-searching, nights of anguish. He who truly loves Christ will never give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelids, when he is in doubt about his heart belonging to Jesus. "No," says he, "this is a matter too precious for me to question as to whether I am the possessor of it or not, this is a thing so vital that I cannot let it be with a 'perhaps,' as a matter of hap-hazard. No, I must know whether I love my Lord or not, whether I am his or not." If I am addressing any this morning who fear they do not love Christ, and yet hope they do, let me beg you, my dear friend, not to rest contented in your present state of mind; never be satisfied until you know that you are standing on the rock, and until you are quite certain that you really do love Christ. Imagine for a moment, one of the apostles telling Christ that he thought he loved him. Fancy for a moment your own spouse telling you that she hoped she loved you. Fancy your child upon your knee saying, "Father, I sometimes trust I love you." What a stinging thing to say to you! You would almost as soon he said, "I hate you." Because, what is this? Shall he, over whom I watch with care, merely thinks he loves me? Shall she who lies in my bosom, doubt, and make it a matter of conjecture, as to whether her heart is mine or not? O God forbid we should ever dream of such a thing in our ordinary relations of life! Then how is it that we indulge in it in our piety? Is it not sickly and maudlin piety? is it not a diseased state of heart that ever puts us in such a place at all? is it not even a deadly state of heart that would let us rest contented there? No, let us not be satisfied until, by the full work of the Holy Spirit, we are made sure and certain, and can say with unstammering tongue, "O you whom my soul loves." Now, notice something else equally worthy of our attention. The Church, the spouse, in thus speaking of her Lord, thus directs our thoughts not merely to her confidence of love, but to the unity of her affections with regard to Christ. She has not two lovers, she has but one. She does not say, "O the many of you on whom my heart is set!" but "O you!" She has but one after whom her heart is panting. She has gathered her affections into one bundle, she has made them but one affection, and then she has cast that bundle of myrrh and spices upon the breast of Christ. He is to her the "Altogether Lovely," the gathering up of all the loves which once strayed abroad. She has put before the sun of her heart a burning-glass, which has brought all her love to a focus, and it is all concentrated with all its heat and vehemence upon Christ Jesus himself. Her heart, which once seemed like a fountain sending forth many streams, has now become as a fountain which has but one channel for its waters. She has stopped up all the other issues, she has cut away the other pipes, and now the whole stream in one strong current runs toward him, and him alone. The Church, in the text here, is not a worshiper of God and of Baal too; she is no time-server, who has a heart for all comers. She is not as the harlot, whose door is open for every wayfarer; but she is a chaste one, and she sees none but Christ, and she knows none whom her soul desires, except her crucified Lord. The wife of a noble Persian having been invited to be present at the wedding feast of King Cyrus, her husband asked her merrily upon her return whether she did not think the bridegroom-monarch a most noble man. Her answer was, "I know not whether he be noble or not; my husband was so before my eye that I saw none beside him, I have seen no beauty but in him." So if you ask the Christian in our text, "Is not Such-an- one fair and lovely?" "No," she replies, "my eyes are fully fixed on Christ, my heart is so taken up with him that I cannot tell if there be beauty anywhere else, I know that all beauty and all loveliness is summed up in him." Sir Walter Raleigh used to say, "That if all the histories of tyrants, the cruelty, the blood, the lust, the infamy, were all forgotten, yet all these histories might be re-written out of the life of Henry VIII." And I may say by way of contrast, "If all the goodness, all the love, all the gentleness, all the faithfulness that ever existed could all be blotted out, they could all be re-written out of the history of Christ." To the Christian, Christ is the only one she loves, she has no divided aims, no two adored ones, but she speaks of him as of one to whom she has given her whole heart, and none have anything beside. "Oh you whom my soul loves." Come, brethren and sisters, do we love Christ after this fashion? Do we love him so that we can say, "Compared with our love to Jesus, all other loves are but as nothing." We have those sweet loves which make earth dear to us; we do love those who are our kindred according to the flesh, we were indeed beneath the beasts if we did not. But some of us can say, "We do love Christ better than husband or wife, or brother or sister." Sometimes we think we could say with Jerome, "If Christ should bid me go this way, and my mother did hang about my neck to draw me another, and my father were in my way, bowing at my knees with tears entreating me not to go; and my children plucking at my shirt should seek to pull me the other way, I must unclasp my mother, I must push to the very ground my father, and put aside my children, for I must follow Christ." We cannot tell which we love the most until they have come into collision. But when we come to see that the love of mortals requires us to do this, and the love of Christ to do the reverse, then shall we see which we love best. Oh, those were hard times with the martyrs; with that good man for instance, Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, who was the father of some twelve children, all of them but little ones. On the road to the stake his enemies had contrived that his wife should meet him with all the little ones, and she had set them in a row kneeling down by the roadside. His enemies expected that surely now he would recant, and for the sake of those dear babes would certainly seek to save his life. But no! no! He had given them all up to God, and he could trust them with his heavenly Father; but he could not do a wrong thing even for the felicity of covering these little birds with his wings and cherishing them beneath his feathers. He took them one by one to his bosom, and looked, and looked again; and it pleased God to put into the mouth of his wife and of his children words which encouraged him instead of discouraging him, and before he went from them his very babes had bidden the father play the man and die boldly for Christ Jesus. Ay, soul, we must have a love like this which cannot be rivaled, which cannot be shared; which is like a flood tide other tides may come up very high upon the shore, but this comes up to the very rocks and beats there, filling our soul to the very brim. I pray God we may know what such a love to Christ as this may mean. Furthermore, I want to pluck one more flower for you. If you will look at the title before us, you will have to learn not only its reality, its assurance, its unity; but you will have to notice its constancy, "O you whom my soul loves." Not "did love" yesterday;" or, "may begin to love tomorrow ,"but "you whom my soul loves," "you whom I have loved ever since I knew you, and to love whom has become as necessary to me as my vital breath or my native air." The true Christian is one who loves Christ for evermore. He does not play fast and loose with Jesus; pressing him today to his bosom, and then turning aside and seeking after any Delilah who may with her witcheries pollute him. No, he feels that he is a Nazarite unto the Lord; he cannot and he will not pollute himself with sin at any time or in any place. Love to Christ in the faithful heart is as the love of the dove to its mate; she, if her mate should die, can never be tempted to be married unto another, but she sits still upon her perch and sighs out her mournful soul until she dies too. So is it with the Christian; if he had no Christ to love he must even die, for his heart has become Christ's. And so if Christ were gone, love could not be; then his heart would be gone, too, and a man without a heart would be dead. The heart, is it not the vital principle of the body? and love, is it not the vital principle of the soul? Yet, there are some who profess to love the Master, but only walk with him by fits, and then go abroad like Dinah into the tents of the Shechemites. Oh, take heed, you professors, who seek to have two husbands; my Master will never be a part-husband. He is not such a one as to have half of your heart. My Master, though he be full of compassion and very tender, has too noble a spirit to allow himself to be half-proprietor of any kingdom. Canute, the Danish king, might divide England with Edmund the Ironside, because he could not win the whole country, but my Lord will have every inch of you, or none. He will reign in you from one end of the isle of man to the other, or else he will not put a foot upon the soil of your heart. He was never part-proprietor in a heart, and he will not stoop to such a thing now. What says the old Puritan? "A heart is so little a thing, that it is scarce enough for a kite's breakfast, and you say it be too great a thing for Christ to have it all." No, give him the whole. It is but little when you weighs his merit, and very small when measured with his loveliness. Give him all. Let your united heart, your undivided affection be constantly, every hour, given up to him. May it be your lot, constantly, still to abide in him who has loved you. I will make but one more remark, lest I weary you in thus trying to anatomize the rhetoric of love. In our text you will clearly perceive a vehemence of affection. The spouse says of Christ, "O you whom my soul loves." She means not that she loves him a little, or that she loves him with an ordinary passion, but that she loves him in all the deep sense of that word. Oh, Christian men and women, I do protest unto you I fear there are thousands of professors who never knew the meaning of this word "love," as it relates to Christ. They have known it when it referred to mortals; they have felt its flame, they have seen how every power of the body and of the soul are carried away with it; but they have not felt it with regard to Christ. I know you can preach about him, but do you love him? I know you can pray to him, but do you love him? I know you trust him you do you think do but do you love him? Oh! is there a love to Jesus in your heart like that of the spouse when she could say, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his lips, for his love is better than wine." "No," say you, "that is too intimate for me." Then I do not fear do not love him, for love is always intimate. Faith may stand at a distance, for her look is saving; but Love comes near, for she must kiss, she must embrace. Why, beloved, sometimes the Christian so loves his Lord, that his language becomes unmeaning to the ears of others who have never been in his state. Love has a celestial tongue of her own, and I have sometimes heard her speak so that the lips of worldlings have mocked, and men have said, "That man rants and raves he knows not what he says." Hence it is that Love often becomes a Mystic, and speaks in mystic language, into which the stranger intrudes not. Oh! you should see Love when she has her heart full of her Savior's presence, when she comes out of her chamber! Indeed she is like a giant refreshed with new wine. I have seen her dash down difficulties, tread upon hot irons of affliction and her feet have not been scorched; I have seen her lift up her spear against ten thousand, and she has slain them at one time. I have known her give up all she had, even to the stripping of herself, for Christ, and yet she seemed to grow richer, and to be decked with ornaments as she unarrayed herself, that she might cast her all upon her Lord, and give up all to him. Do you know this love, Christian brethren and sisters? Some of you do I know, for I have seen you demonstrate it in your lives. As for the rest of you, may you learn it, and get above the low standing of the mass of Christ's Church at the present day. Get up out of the bogs and swamps and damp morasses of lukewarm Laodiceanism, and come up, come up higher, up to the mountain top, where you shall stand bathing your foreheads in the sunlight, seeing earth beneath you, its very tempests under your feet, its clouds and darkness rolling down below in the valley, while you talking with Christ, who speaks to you out of the cloud, are almost caught up into the third heaven to dwell there with him. Thus have I tried to explain the rhetoric of my text, "You whom my soul loves."

II. Now let me come to THE LOGIC OF THE HEART, which lies at the bottom of the text. My heart, why should you love Christ? With what argument will you justify yourself? Strangers stand and hear me tell of Christ, and they say "Why should you love your Savior so? My heart, you can not answer them so as to make them see his loveliness, for they are blind, but you can at least be justified in the ears of those who have understanding; for doubtless the virgins will love him, if you will tell to them why you love him. Our hearts give for their reason why they love him, first, this: We love him for his infinite loveliness. If there were no other reason, if Christ had not bought us with his blood, yet sometimes we feel if we had renewed hearts, we must love him for having died for others. I have sometimes felt in my own soul, that setting aside the benefit I received from his dear cross, and his most precious passion, which, of course, must ever be the deepest motive of love, "for we love him because he first loved us;" yet setting aside that, there is such beauty in Christ's character such loveliness in his passion such a glory in that self-sacrifice, that one must love him. Can I look into your eyes and not be smitten with your love? Can I gaze upon your thorn-crowned head, and shall not my heart feel the thorn within it? Can I see you in the fever of death, and shall not my soul be in a fever of passionate love to you. It is impossible to see Christ and not to love him; you cannot be in his company without at once feeling that you are wedded to him. Go and kneel by his side in Gethsemane's garden, and I am persuaded that the drops of gore as they fall upon the ground, shall each one of them be irresistible reasons why you should love him. Hear him as he cries "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Remember that he endures this out of love to you, and you must love him. If you ever read the history of Moses you believe him to be the grandest of men, and you admire him, and look up to him as to some huge colossus, some mighty giant of the olden times. But you never feel a particle of love in your hearts towards Moses; you could not- his is an unlovable character; there is something to admire, but nothing to win affection. When you see Christ you look up, but you do more, you feel drawn up, you do not admire so much as love, you do not adore so much as embrace; his character enchants, subdues, overwhelms, and with the irresistible impulse of its own sacred attraction it draws your heart to himself. Well did Dr. Watts say,

"His worth, if all the nations knew, Sure the whole earth would love him too."

But still, love has another argument why she loves Christ, namely, Christ's love to her. Did you love me Jesus, King of heaven, Lord of angels, Master of all worlds, did you set your heart on me? What, did you love me from of old, and in eternity choose me to yourself? Did you continue to love me as the ages rolled on? Did you come from heaven to earth that you might win me to be your spouse, and do you love me so that you do not leave me alone in this poor desert world; and are you this very day preparing a house for me where I shall dwell with you forever? A very wretch Lord I should prove had I no love to you. I must love you, it is impossible for me to resist it, that thought that you love me has compelled my soul to love you. Me! me! what was there in me, could you see beauties in me? I see none in myself; my eyes are red with weeping, because of my blackness and deformity; I have said even to the sons of men, "Look not upon me, for I am black, because I am darkened by the sun." And do you see beauties in me? What a quick eye must you have, no, rather it must be that you have made my eyes to be your mirror, and so you see yourself in me, and it is your image that you love; surely you could not love me. Remember that ravishing text in the Canticles, where Jesus says to the spouse, "You are all fair my love, there is no spot in you." Can you imagine Christ saying that to you; and yet he has said it, "You are all fair my love, there is no spot in you, "he has put away your blackness, and you stand in his sight as perfect as though you had never sinned, and as full of loveliness as though you were what you shall be, when made like unto him at last. Oh brothers and sisters, some of you can say with emphasis, "Did he love me, then I must love him." I run my eye along your ranks, there sits a brother who loves Christ who not many months ago cursed him. There sits a drunkard there another who was in prison for crimes, and he loved you, even you, and you could abuse the wife of your bosom, because she loved the dear name, you were never happier than when you were violating his day, and showing your disrespect to his ministers, and your hatred to his cause, yet he loved you. And me! even me! forgetful of a mother's prayers, regardless of a father's tears, having much light, and yet sinning much; yet he loved me, and has proved his love. I charge you, oh my heart, by the roes and by the hinds of the field that you give yourself wholly up to my Beloved, and that you spend and be spent for him. Is that your charge to your heart this morning? Oh! it must be if you know Jesus, and then know that Jesus loves you. One more reason does love give us yet more powerful still. Love feels that she must give herself to Christ, because of Christ's suffering for her.

"Can I Gethsemane forget?" Or there your conflict see, Your agony and bloody sweat, And not remember you?" "When to the cross I turn mine eyes, And rest on Calvary O Lamb of God! my sacrifice! I must remember you."

My life when it shall ebb out may cause me to lose many mental powers, but memory will love no other name than is recorded in it. The agonies of Christ have burned his name into our hearts- you cannot stand and see him mocked by Herod's men of war, you cannot behold him made nothing of, and spit upon by menial lips, you cannot see him with the nails pierced through his hands and through his feet, you cannot mark him in the extreme agonies of his awful passion without saying, "And did you suffer all this for me? then I must love you, Jesus. My heart feels that no other can have such a claim upon it as you have, for no other has spent themselves for me as you have done. Others may have sought to buy my love with the silver of earthly affection, and with the gold of a zealous and affectionate character, but you have bought it with your precious blood, and you have the richest claim to it- yours shall it be, and that forever." This is love's logic. I may well stand here and defend the believer's love to his Lord. I wish I had more to defend than I have. I dare stand here and defend the utmost extravagancies of speech, and the wildest fanaticisms of action, when they have been done for love to Christ. I say again, I only wish I had more to defend in these degenerate times. Has a man given up all for Christ? I will prove him wise if he has given up for such an one as Christ is. Has a man died for Christ? I write over his epitaph that he surely was no fool who had but the wisdom to give up his heart for one who had his heart pierced for him. Let the Church try to be extravagant in her love for Christ for once, let her break the narrow bounds of her conventional prudence, and for once arise and dare to do wonders let the age of miracles return to us let the Church make bare her arm, and roll up from her the sleeves of her formality, let her go forth with some mighty thought within her, at which the worldling shall laugh and scoff; and I will stand here, and before the bar of a scoffing world, dare to defend her. Oh Church of God, you can do no extravagance for Christ. You may bring out your Marys, and they may break their alabaster boxes, but he well deserves the breaking. You may shed your perfume, and give to him rivers of oil, and ten thousands of the fat of fed beasts, but he deserves it well. I see the Church as she was in the first centuries, like an army storming a city a city that was surrounded with a vast moat, and there was no means of reaching the ramparts except by filling up the moat with the dead bodies of the Church's own martyrs and confessors. Do you see them? A martyr has just now fallen in, his head has been smitten off with the sword. The next day at the tribunal there are twenty wishing to die that they may follow him; and on the next day twenty more; and the stream pours on until the huge moat is filled. Then, those who follow after, scale the walls and plant the blood-red standard of the cross, the trophy of their victory upon the top thereof. Should the world say, "Why this expense of blood?" I answer- he is worthy for whom it was shed. The world says, "Why this waste of suffering? why this pouring out of an energy in a cause that at best is but fanatical?" I reply, "He is worthy, he is worthy, though the whole world were put into the censer, and all men's blood were the frankincense, he is worthy to have it all sacrificed before him. Though the whole Church should be slaughtered, he is worthy upon whose altar it should be sacrificed. Though every one of us should lie and rot in a dungeon, though the moss should grow upon our eyelids, though our bodies should be given to the kites and the carrion crows, he is worthy to claim the sacrifice; and it were all too mean a gift for such an one as he is." Oh Master, restore unto the Church the strength of love which can hear such language, and feel it to be true.

III. Now I come to my last point, upon which I must dwell but briefly. Rhetoric is good, logic is better, but A POSITIVE DEMONSTRATION is the best.

I sought to give you rhetoric when I expounded the words of the text. I have tried to give you logic now that I have given you the reasons for the love in the text. And now I want you to give I cannot give it I want you to give, each for himself, the demonstration of your love for Christ in your daily lives. Let the world see that this is not a mere label to you a label for something that does not exist, but that Christ really is to you "him whom your soul loves." You ask me how you shall do it, and I reply thus: I do not ask you to shave your head and become a monk, or to cloister yourself, my sister, alone, and become a nun. Such a thing might even show your love to yourself rather than your love to Christ. But I ask you to go home now, and during the days of the week engage in your ordinary business; go with the men of the world as you are called to do, and take the calling which Christ has given to you, and see if you cannot honor him in your calling. I, as a minister of course, must find it to some degree less honorable work to serve Christ than you do, because my calling does as it were supply me with gold, and for me to make a golden image of Christ out of that is but small work, though God knows I find it more than my poor strength could do apart from his grace. But for you to work out the image of Christ in the iron, or clay, or common metal of your ordinary lives, Oh, this will be glorious indeed! And I think you may honor Christ in your sphere as much as I can in mine; perhaps more, for some of you may know more troubles, you may have more poverty, you may have more temptation, more enemies; and therefore you, by loving Christ under all these trials, may demonstrate more fully than ever I can, how true your love is to him, and how soul-inspiring is his love to you. Away, I say, and look out on the morrow, and the next day, for opportunities of doing something for Christ. Speak up for his dear name if there be any that abuse him; and if you find him wounded in his members, be as Eleanor, Queen of England did for the king- suck the poison out of his wounds. Be ready to have your name abused rather than he should dishonored; stand up always for him, and be his champion. Let him not lack a friend, for he stood your friend when you had none beside. If you meet with any of his poor people, show them love for his sake, as David did to Mephibosheth out of love to Saul. If you know any of them to be hungry, set food before them; you had as good set the dish before Jesus Christ himself! If you see them naked, clothe them; you clothe Christ when you clothe his people. No, do not only seek to do this good temporally to his children, but seek you evermore to be a Christ to those who are not his children as yet. Go among the wicked and among the lost, and the abandoned; tell them the words of Christ; tell them Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, go after his lost sheep, be a shepherd as he was a shepherd, so will you show your love. Give what you can to him; when you die, make him heir of some of your estate. I should not think I loved my friend, if I did not sometimes give him a present; I should not think I love Christ if I did not give him somewhat, some sweet cane with honey, some fat of my burned sacrifices. I heard the other day a question asked concerning an old man who had long professed to be a Christian. They were saying he left so much and so much, and one said, "But did he leave Christ anything in his will?" Some one laughed and thought it ridiculous. Ah! so it would be, because men do not think of Christ as being a person; but if we had this love it would be but natural to us to give to him, to live for him, and perhaps if we had anything at the end, to let him have it, that so even dying we might give our friend in our dying testament a proof that we remembered him, even as he remembered us in his last testament and will. Oh brothers and sisters what we want more of in the Church is, more extravagant love to Christ. I want each of you to show your love to Jesus, sometimes by doing something the like of which you have never done before. I remember saying one Sabbath morning that the Church ought to be the place of invention as much as the world. We do not know what machine is to be discovered yet by the world, but every man's wit is at work to find out something new. So ought the wits of the Church to be at work to find out some new plan of serving Christ. Robert Raikes found out Sabbath-schools, John Pounds the Ragged-school: but are we to be content with carrying on their inventions? No; we need something new. It was in the Surrey Hall, through that sermon, that our brethren first thought of the midnight meetings that were held, an invention suggested by the sermon I preached upon the woman with the alabaster box. But we have not come to the end yet. Is there no man that can invent some new deed for Christ? Is there no brother that can do something more for him than has been done today, or yesterday, or during the last month? Is there no man that will dare to be strange and singular and wild, and in the world's eye to be fanatical for that is no love which is not fanatical in the eye of man. Depend upon it, that is no love that only confines itself to propriety. I wish the Lord would put into your heart some thought of giving an unasked thank-offering to him, or of doing an unusual service, that so Christ might be honored with the best of your lambs, and that the fat of your bullocks might be exceeding glorified by your proof of love to him. God bless you as a congregation. I can only invoke his blessing, for O these lips refuse to speak of love which I trust my heart knows, and which I desire to feel more and more. Sinner, trust Christ before you seek to love him, and trusting Christ you will love him.

The Church's Love to Her Loving Lord

by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you make your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of your companions?" Song of Song of Solomon 1:7 .

We shall need to lift up our hearts to God and ask to be quickened in grace, or the precious truths in our text will not prove to us "as honey out of the rock," nor the "feast of fat things, of wine and marrow, of wine on the lees well refined." We cannot appreciate the spirituality of this book, unless God's Spirit shall help us. Many read these words and only see a proof of the imaginative power of an eastern mind. Some read to scoff and blaspheme, and others, even good people, neglect to read this book altogether, being unable to drink in its spirit because of their lack of that higher life of communion with the Beloved, which is here so beautifully laid open to our view. Now I am persuaded better things of you beloved. I am sure that you believe that every word of God is precious, and most certainly we say of this book, "it is more to he desired than gold, yes than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, or the droppings of the honeycomb." This book of the Canticles is most precious to us, it is the inner court of the temple of truth. It seems to us to belong to the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High. We see our Savior's face in almost every page of the Bible, but here we see his heart and feel his love to us. We shall hope this morning to speak of our own experience, as well as of the Church who is here speaking. You will perceive that she begins with a title, she expresses a desire, she enforces it with an argument: "Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you make your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of your companions?"

I. We commence with the TITLE: "O you whom my soul loves."

It is well to be able to call the Lord Jesus Christ by this name without an "if," or a "but." A very large proportion of Christian people can only say of Christ that they hope they love him; they trust they love him; but this is a very poor and shallow experience which is content to stay here. It seems to me that no one ought to give any rest to his spirit until he feels quite sure about a matter of such vital importance. We are not content to have a hope of the love of our parents, or of our spouse, or of our children; we feel we must be certain there; and we ought not to be satisfied with a hope that Christ loves us, and with a bare trust that we love him. The old saints did not generally speak with buts, and ifs, and hopes, and trusts, but they spoke positively and plainly. "I know whom I have believed," says Paul. "I know that my Redeemer lives," says Job. "He whom my soul loves," says Solomon, in the song as we have it here. Learn, dear friends, to get that positive knowledge of your love to Jesus, and do not be satisfied until you can talk about your interest in him as a reality, which you have made infallibly sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit, and his seal upon your soul by faith, that you are born of God, and belong to Christ.

Speaking then of this title which rings the great bell of love to Jesus, let us notice first the cause, and secondly the effect of that love. If we can look into the face of him who once sweat great drops of blood, and call him, "O you whom my soul loves," it is interesting to consider what is the cause of our love. And here our reply is very quick.

The efficient cause of our love is the Holy Spirit of God. We should never have had a spark of love to Jesus if it had not been bestowed upon us by the divine worker. Well said John, "Love is of God." Certainly it is so. Our love to Christ is one beam from himself, the Sun. Certainly a man can no more naturally love Christ than a horse can fly. I grant you there is no physical disability, but there is a moral and spiritual disability which effectually disqualifies him from the high and lofty emotion of love to Jesus. Into that dead corpse the living spirit must be breathed; for those who are dead in trespasses and sins cannot love Christ. That heart of stone must be transformed into a heart of flesh, for stones may be hurled at the Savior, but they can never love him. That lion must become a lamb, or it can never claim Christ as its Shepherd. That raven must he turned into a dove, or it will never fly to Christ as its ark. "Except a man he born again," we may say, he cannot see this precious sparkling jewel of the kingdom of God- love to Christ. Search yourselves then, brethren, do you love him or not, for if you love him, you have been born again; and if you do not love him, then you are still in darkness, and are not his.

"Can you pronounce his charming name, His acts of kindness tell; And while you dwell upon the theme, No sweet emotion feel?" I think some of us would have to answer- "A very wretch, Lord, I should prove, Had I no love to you; Sooner than not my Savior love, Oh, may I cease to be!"

This, then, is the efficient cause- the Holy Spirit.

The rational cause, the logical reason why we love Jesus lies in himself- in his looks, in his present working, and in his person, besides many other little founts, which all tend to swell the river- the growing, deepening river of our love to him.

Why do we love Jesus? We have the best of answers- because he first loved us. Hearken, you strangers who inquire why we should love the Savior so. We will give you such reasons that we will satisfy you and set your mouths watering to be partakers of the same reasons, that you may come to love him too. Why do we love him? Because before ever this round earth was fashioned between the palms of the great Creator- before he had painted the rainbow, or hung out the lights of the sun and moon, Christ's delights were with us. He foresaw us through the glass of his prescience; he knew what we should be- looked into the book in which all his "members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them;" and as he looked upon us, the glance was love. He delighted to sit upon the throne of glory, and to remember his dear ones who were yet to be born. It was the great prospect which his mighty and infinite Spirit had--a joy that was set before him, that he should see a multitude that no man could number who should be his beloved forever.

"Loved of my Christ, for him again, With love intense I'll burn; Chosen of You before time began, I choose You in return."

Oh, could you know that Jesus had loved you from before all worlds, you must love him. At least you will grant there cannot be a better reason for love than love. Love demands; no, it does not demand- it takes by almighty force, by irresistible energy, that heart captive upon whom it thus sets itself.

This Jesus loved us for no reason whatever in ourselves. We were black as the tents of Kedar; we had much deformity but no beauty, and yet he loved us; and our deformity was of such a kind that it might meritoriously have made him hate us. We kicked against him and despised him. Our language naturally was, "We will not have this man to reign over us," and when we heard of his loving us, we sneered at it. He was despised and rejected of men; we hid as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. We thought his love an empty tale, a paltry trifle, and yet he loved us. No, we were his enemies. We slew him; we confess with sorrow that we were the murderers of the Prince of Life and Glory. Our hands were stained with his gore and our garments dyed with his blood, and yet he saw all this and loved us still. Shall we not love him? Surely our heart is harder than adamant, because we do not love him more. But it were hell-hardened steel if it did not love at all. Our Savior so loved us that he stripped himself of his robes of radiance. Listen, you children of God, it is the old story over again, but it is always new to you. He stripped himself of his bright array, laid aside his scepter and his crown, and became an infant in Bethlehem's manger among the horned oxen. Thirty years of poverty and shame the King of heaven spent among the sons of men, and all out of love to us. Jesus the heavenly lover, panting to redeem his people, was content to abide here without a place whereon to rest his head, that he might rescue you. See him yonder in the garden in his agony, his soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death; his forehead, no his head, his hair, his garments- red with the bloody sweat. See him giving his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to those who pluck off the hair. See him as he hides not his face from shame and spitting, dumb like a sheep before her shearers; and like a lamb that is brought to the slaughter, so he opened not his mouth, but patiently bore it all on our behalf. See him with the cross upon his mangled shoulders, staggering through Jerusalem's streets, unwept, unpitied, except by poor feeble women! See him, you that love him, and love him more as he stretches out his hands to the nail, and gives his feet to the iron. See him, as with power to deliver himself he is made captive. Behold him as they lift up the cross with him upon it and dash it down into its place and dislocate his bones. Hear that cry, "I am poured out like water: all my bones are out of joint, You have brought me into the dust of death." Stand, if you can, and view that face so full of dolor. Look until a sword shall go through your own heart as it went through his virgin mother's very soul. Oh, see him as he thirsts and has that thirst mocked with vinegar. Hear him as he prays and has that prayer parodied, "He cries for Elijah, let Elijah come and take him down." See him, as they who love him come and kiss his feet and bathe them with their tears. Will you not love him who did all that friend could do for friend; who gave his life for us? Beloved, here are a thousand crimson cords that tie us to the Savior, and I hope we feel their constraining power. It is his vast love, the old eternal bond, the love which redeemed, which suffered in our stead, the love which pleaded our cause before the eternal throne: it is this which we give as a sufficient reason why we should love the Savior, if needs be, even unto death. Moreover, we have another reason. I trust many here can say that they love the Savior because of his present dealings towards them. What has he not done for us this very day? Some of you came here this morning heavy and you went away rejoicing; perhaps you have had answers to prayer this very week. You have passed through the furnace and not a smell of fire has passed upon you. You have had many sins this week, but you have felt the efficacy of his blood again and again. Some of us have known what it is during the past six days to have the ravishing delights of private communion with him. He has made us glad; our spirits have leaped for very joy, for he has turned again the captivity of our soul. You have drunk of him as of "the brook by the way," and you have therefore lifted up your head. Beloved, if there were nothing else which Christ had done for my soul, that which I have tasted and handled of him within the last few months would make me love him forever, and I know that you can say the same. Nor is this all. We love the Savior because of the excellency of his person. We are not blind to excellence anywhere, but still we can see no excellence like his.

"Jesus you fairest, dearest one, What beauties you adorn Far brighter than the noonday sun, Or star that gilds the morn. Here let me fix my wandering eyes, And all your glories trace; Until, in the world of endless joys, I rise to your embrace."

When Tigranes and his wife were both taken prisoners by Cyrus, Cyrus turning to Tigranes said, "What will you give for the liberation of your wife?" and the King answered, "I love my wife so that I would cheerfully give up my life if she might be delivered from servitude;" whereupon Cyrus said, "That if there was such love as that between them they might both go free." So when they were away and many were talking about the beauty and generosity of Cyrus, and especially about the beauty of his person, Tigranes, turning to his wife, asked her what she thought of Cyrus, and she answered that she saw nothing anywhere but in the face of the man who had said that he would die if she might only he released from servitude. "The beauty of that man," she said, "makes me forget all others." And verily we would say the same of Jesus. We would not decry the angels, nor think ill of the saints, but the beauties of that man who gave his life for us are so great that they have eclipsed all others, and our soul only wishes to see him and not another; for, as the stars hide their heads in the presence of the sun, so may you all be gone, you delights, you excellencies, when Christ Jesus, the chief delight, the chief excellency, makes his appearance. Dr. Watts says,

"His worth, if all the nations knew, Sure the whole earth would love him too."

And so it seems to us. Could you see him, you must love him. It was said of Henry VIII., that if all the portraits of tyrants, and murderers, and thieves were out of existence, they might all be painted from the one face of Henry VII.; and turning that round another way, we will say, that if all the excellencies, beauties, and perfections of the human race were blotted out, they might all he painted again from the face of the Lord Jesus

"All over glorious is my Lord; Must be beloved, and yet adored."

These are some of the reasons why our heart loves Jesus. Before I leave those reasons, I should like to put a few questions round among this great crowd. O friends, would you not love Jesus if you knew something of this love as shed abroad in your hearts- something of this love as being yours? Now, remember, there is a very great promise that Christ has made, and it is this, "Him that comes to me I will ill no wise cast out." Now what does that refer to? Why to any "him" in all the world, that comes to Christ. Whoever you may be, if you come to Jesus- and you know that means just trusting him, leaning upon him- if you come to him, he will not cast you out; and when he has received you to his bosom, you will then know (but you cannot know until then) how much he loves you, and then, methinks you will say with us, "Yes, his name is- You whom my soul loves." I shall now for a short time speak on the effects of this love, as we have dwelt on the cause of it. When a man has true love to Christ, it is sure to lead him to dedication. There is a natural desire to give something to the person whom we love, and true love to Jesus compels us to give ourselves to him. One of the earliest acts of the Christian's life is to take ourselves, and lay body, soul, and spirit upon the altar of consecration, saying, "Here I am; I give myself to you." When the pupils of Socrates had nearly all of them given him a present, there was one of the best scholars who was extremely poor, and he said to Socrates, "I have none of these things which the others have presented to you; but, O Socrates, I give you myself;" whereupon Socrates said it was the best present he had had that day. "My son, give me your heart"-this is what Jesus asks for. If you love him, you must give him this. True love next shows itself in obedience. If I love Jesus, I shall do as he bids me. He is my husband, my Lord- I call him "Master." "If you love me," says he, "keep my commandments." This is his chosen proof of my love, and I am sure, if I love him, I shall keep his commandments. And yet there are some who profess to love Christ who very seldom think of keeping some of his commandments. "This do you in remembrance of me," Christ says, and yet some of you never come to his table. May I gently ask you, how you make this disobedience consort with genuine affection for him? "If you love me, keep my commandments."

"IT IS love that makes our willing feet In swift obedience move."

We can do anything for those we love, and, if we love Jesus, no burden will be heavy, no difficulty will be great: we should rather wish to do more than he asks of us, and only desire that he were a little more exacting that we might have a better opportunity of showing forth our affection. True love, again, is always considerate and afraid lest it should give offense. It walks very daintily. If I love Jesus, I shall watch my eye, my heart, my tongue, my hand, being so fearful lest I should wake my beloved, or make him stir until he please; and I shall be sure not to take in those bad guests, those ill-favored guests of pride and sloth, and love of the world. I shall tell them to be packing, for I have a dear one within who will not tarry long if he sees me giving sideling glances to these wicked ones. My heart shall be wholly his. He shall sit at the head of the table, he shall have the best dish thereon, no, I will send all others away that I may have him all to myself, and that he may have my whole heart, all that I am, and all that I have. Again, true love to Christ will make us very jealous of his honor. As Queen Eleanor went down upon her knees to suck the poison from her husband's wound, so we shall put our lips to the wound of Christ when he has been stabbed with the dagger of calumny, or inconsistency, being willing sooner to take the poison ourselves, and to he ourselves diseased and despised than that his name, or his cross should suffer ill. Oh, what does it matters what becomes of us, if the King reigns? I will go home to my bed, and die in peace, if the King sits on the throne. Let me see King David once again installed in Zion's sacred halls; and my soul, in poverty and shame, shall still rejoice if the banished King Jesus shall once again come back, and have his own, and take his scepter, and wear his crown. Beloved, I trust we can say we would not mind if Christ would make a mat of us, if he would wipe his Church's filthy sandals on us, if we might but help to make her pure; we would hold the stirrup for him to mount any day, ay, and he his horsing-block that he might mount his glorious charger, and ride forth conquering and to conquer. Say, what does it matters what we are, or where we are, if the King have his own? If we love Christ, again, we shall be desiring to promote his cause, and we shall be desiring to promote it ourselves. We shall wish to see the strength of the mighty turned at the gate, that King Jesus may return triumphant; we shall not wish to sit still while our brethren go to war, but we shall want to take our portion in the fray, that like soldiers that love their monarch, we may prove by our wounds and by our sufferings that our love is real. The apostle says, "Let us not love in word only but in deed and in truth." Actions speak louder than words, and we shall always he anxious to tell our love in deeds as well as by our lips. The true disciple asks continually, "Lord what will you have me to do?" He esteems it his highest honor to serve the Lord. "I would rather he a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness."

"There's not a lamb in all the flock, I would disdain to feed; There's not a foe before whose face I fear your cause to plead. Would not my ardent spirit vie With angels round your throne, To execute your sacred will And make your glory known?"

Yes, indeed, we thus can sing, and mean, I trust, every word; yes, will go forth into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. We will tell of this love to all, and labor to win for the Master's honor a multitude which no man can number out of every nation, and kindred, and tribe, and tongue and people. I believe in an active love, a love which has hands to labor and feet to run, as well as a heart to feel, eyes to glance, and ears to listen. A mother's love is of the purest and intensest sort in the world, and it is the most practical. It shows itself in deeds of untiring devotion both night and day. So also should it be with us; we should let our affections prompt us to life-long labor. The love of Christ should constrain us to live, and if needs he die to serve him. Heaven is the place of purest, holiest attachment to Christ; then we shall understand most about his love to us, and of all he has done to prove it, and the consequence will be that his servants shall serve him day and night in his holy temple. We are expecting a home in glory not of idleness, but of continual activity. It is written, " His servants shall serve him," and we are taught to pray now that we may do his will on earth as it is done in heaven. Let us, therefore, each one, be busily engaged in the great harvest-field. The harvest is great and the laborers are few. There is room for all, and each man's place is waiting to receive him. If we truly love our Lord, we shall at once press to the front and begin the "work of faith and labor of love." Has not the Master been wont to show his love to us in deeds? Look to Bethlehem, to Gabbatha, to Gethsemane, to Golgotha; yes, look to his whole life as he "went about doing good," and see if all this will not stir you imp to service. Listen to the life-story of the Lord, and you will hear a voice from each one of his deeds of love saying to you, "Go you and do likewise." And, once again, if we love Jesus we shall be willing to suffer for him. Pain will become light; we shall sing with Madame Guyon "To me it is equal whether love ordain my life or death, Appoint me ease, or pain." It is a high attainment to come to, but love can make us think ourselves of so small import that if Christ can serve himself with us, we shall make no choice as to what, or where we may be. We can sing once more-

"Would not my heart pour forth its blood In honor of your name, And challenge the cold hand of death To damp this immortal flame?"

Our hearts are, I trust, so full of real devotion to Christ, that we can give him everything, and endure all things for his sake. Cannot we say-

"For him I count as gain each loss, Disgrace for him renown, Well may I glory in his cross, While he prepares my crown."

Darkness is light about us if we can serve him there. The bitter is sweet if the cup is put to our lips in order that we may share in his sufferings, and prove ourselves to he his followers. When Ignatius was led to his martyrdom, as he contemplated the nearness of his death and suffering, he said, "Now I begin to be a Christian;" he felt that all that he had done and suffered before was not enough to entitle him to be called a follower of Christ, but now as the Master's bloody baptism was before him, he realized the truth so dear to every right-minded Christian, that he was to be "like unto his Lord." Here we can all prove our love, we can suffer his will calmly if we are not able to do it publicly.

"Weak as I am, yet through your love, I all things can perform; And, smiling, triumph in your name Amid the raging storm."

I pray God we may have such a love moreover as thirsts after Jesus, which cannot he satisfied without present communion with him.

II. This brings me to the thought, which I shall only touch upon as the swallow skims the brook with his wing, and then up and away, lest I weary you; the second point of consideration is the DESIRE OF THE CHURCH AFTER CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD: having called him by his title, she now expresses her longing to be with him.

"Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you make your flock to rest at noon." The desire of a renewed soul is to find Christ and to be with him. Stale foods left over from yesterday are very well when there is nothing else, but who does not like hot food fresh from the fire? And past communion with Christ is very well. " I remember you from the land of the Hermonites and the hill Mizar;" but these are only stale foods, and a loving soul needs fresh food every day from the table of Christ, and you that have once had the kisses of his mouth, though you remember the past kisses with delight, yet want daily flesh tokens of his love. He that drinks of this water will never thirst again, it is true, except for this water, and he will so thirst for it, that he will be like Samuel Rutherford, who began to be out of heart with the buckets and to want to get right to the well-head that he might lie down and drink, and then, if he could have his fill, he would drink the well quite dry. But there is no hope of that, or rather no fear of it: the well can never be empty, for it rises as we drink. A true loving soul, then, needs present communion with Christ; so the question is, "Tell me where you feed? Where do you get your comfort from, O Jesus? I will go there. Where do your thoughts go? To your cross? Do you look back to that? Then I will go there. Where you feed, there will I feed." Or does this mean actively, instead of being in the passive or the neuter? Where do you feed your flock? in your house? I will go there, if I may find you there. In private prayer? Then I will not be slack in that. In the Word? Then I will read it night and day. Tell me where you feed, for wherever you stand as the shepherd, there will I be, for I need you. I cannot be satisfied to be apart from you. My soul hungers and thirsts to be with you. She puts it again, "Where do you make your flock to rest at noon," for there is only rest in one place, where you cause your flock to rest at noon. That must he a grace-given rest, and only to he found in some one chosen place. Where is the shadow of that rock? It is very hot just now here in the middle of summer, when the sun is pouring down his glorious rays like bright but sharp arrows upon us, and we, that are condemned to live in this great wilderness of brown bricks and mortar, often recollect those glades where the woods grow thick, and where the waters leap from crag to crag down the hill side, and where the birds are singing among the trees. We delight to think of those leafy bowers where the sun cannot dart his rays, where, on some mossy bank, we may stretch ourselves to rest, or have our weary limbs in some limpid stream; and this is just what the spouse is after. She feels the heat of the world's sun, and she longs to be away from its cares and troubles that have furrowed and made brown her face until she looked as if she had been a busy keeper of the vineyards. She needs to get away to hold quiet communion with her Lord, for he is the brook where the weary may lave their wearied limbs; he is that sheltered nook, that shadow of the great rock in the weary land where his people may lie down and be at peace.

"Jesus, the very thought of you, With sweetness fills my breast; But sweeter far your face to see And in your presence rest. For those who find you, find a bliss, Nor tongue, nor pen can show The love of Jesus, what it is, None but his loved ones know."

Now do you not want this tonight? Do not your souls want Christ tonight? My brothers, my sisters, there is something wrong with us if we can do without Christ. If we love him, we must want him. Our hearts ever say,

"Abide with me from morn until eve, For without you I cannot live; Abide with me when night is near, For without you I dare not die."

Yes, we cannot do without Christ; we must have him. "Give me Christ, or else I die," is the cry of our souls. No wonder Mary Magdalene wept when she thought they had taken away her Lord, and she knew not where they had laid him. As the body suffers without food, so should we without Christ. As the fish perish out of water, so should we apart from Christ. I must quote another verse of a hymn, for really the sweet songsters of Israel have lavished all their best poetry, and very rightly so, to tell for us our love-tale concerning our Beloved. I am sure that our heart's inner voice can set to sweetest music the words-

"Oh that I could forever sit With Mary at the Master's feet: Be this my happy choice My only care, delight, and bliss, My joy, my heaven on earth be this, To hear the Bridegroom's voice."

Yes! to be with Jesus is heaven; anywhere on earth, or in the skies- all else is wilderness and desert. It is paradise to be with him; and heaven without Christ would he no heaven to me. My heart cannot rest away from him. To have no Christ would he a punishment greater than I could bear; I should wander, like another Cain, over the earth a fugitive and a vagabond. Verily there would be no peace for my soul. I am sure that the true wife, if her husband is called to go upon a journey, longs ardently for his return. If he is gone to the wars, she dreads lest he should fall. How each letter comes perfumed to her when it tells of his love and constancy, and how she watches for the day when she shall clasp him in her arms once more. Oh, you know that when you were children, if you were sent to school, how you counted until the holidays came on. I had a little almanac, and marked out every day the night before, and so counted one day less until the time I should get home again, and so may you.

"May not a captive long his own dear land to see? May not the prisoner seek release from bondage to be free?"

Of course he may, and so may you, beloved, pant and sigh, as the deer pants for the waterbrooks- for the comfortable enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ's presence.

III. THE ARGUMENT USED BY THE CHURCH. Here is the desire. Now, to close, she backs that up with an argument. She says, "Why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of your companions?" You have plenty of companions- why should I he turned aside? Why should I not be one? Let us talk it over. Why should I lose my Lord's presence? But the devil tells me I am a great sinner. Ah! but it is all washed away, and gone forever. That cannot separate me, for it does not exist. My sin is buried.

"Plunged as in a shoreless sea- Lost as in immensity."

The devil tells me I am unworthy, and that is a reason. But I always was unworthy, and yet it was no reason why he should not love me at first, amid therefore cannot be a reason why I should not have fellowship with him now. Why should I be left out? Now I am going to speak for the poorest here- I do not know where he is. I want to speak for you that have got the least faith; you that think yourselves the smallest in all Israel; you Mephibosheths that are lame in your feet, and yet sit at the king's table; you poor despised Mordecais that sit at the king's gate, yet cannot get inside the palace, I have this to say to you- Why should you be left there? Just try and reason. Why should I, Jesus, be left out in the cold, when the night comes on. No, there is a cot for the little one, as well as a bed for his bigger brother. Why should I be turned aside? I am equally bought with a price. I cost him, in order to save me, as much as the noblest of the saints: he bought them with blood; he could not buy me with less. I must have been loved as much, or else, seeing that I am of so little worth, I should not have been redeemed at all. If there he any difference, perhaps I am loved somewhat better. Is there not greater, better love shown in the choice of me than of some who are more worthy than I am? Why, then, should I be left out? I know if I have a child that is deformed and decrepit, I love it all the more: it seems as if I had a tenderer care for it. Then why should my heavenly Father be less kind to me than I should be to my offspring? Why should I he turned aside? He chose me: he cannot change in his choice. Why, then, should he cast me off. He knew what I was when he chose me; he cannot therefore find out any fresh reason for turning me aside. He foresaw I should misbehave myself, and yet he selected me. Well, then, there cannot he a reason why I should he left to fall away. Again, I ask, Why should I turn aside? I am a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, and though I am less than the least of all his saints, yet he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Why should I turn aside? I have a promise all to myself. Has he not said, "I will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed"? Has he not said, "The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him in those who hope in his mercy"? If I cannot do more, I can do that.' I do hope in his mercy; then why should I be turned aside? If any should think of doing so, it should not be I, for I need to be near him; I am such a poor plant that I ought to he kept in the sun: I shall never do in the shade. My big brother, perhaps, may manage for a little time without comfort, but I cannot, for I am one of the Ready-to-Halts. I recollect how the shepherds of Mount Clear said, "Come in, Mr. Little Faith; Come in, Mr. Feeble Mind; Come in, Mr. Ready-to-Halt; Come in, Mary;" but they did not say, "Come in, Father Faithful; Come in, Matthew; Come in, Valiant-for-Truth." No, they said these might do as they liked; they were quite sure to take their own part; but they looked first to the feeblest. Then why should I he turned aside? I am the feeblest, and need him most. I may use my very feebleness and proneness to fall, as the reason why I should come to him. Why should I he turned aside? I may fall into sin. My heart may grow cold without his glorious presence; and then, what if I should perish! Why, here let me bethink myself. If I am the smallest lamb in his flock I cannot perish without doing the God of heaven a damage. Let me say it again with reverence. If I, the least of his children, perish, I shall do his Son dishonor, for what will the arch-fiend say? "Aha," says he, "you Surety of the Covenant, you could keep the strong, but you could not keep the weak: I have this lamb here in the pit whom you could not preserve. Here is one of your crown-jewels," says he, "and though it be none of the brightest, though it he not the most sparkling ruby in your coronet, yet it is one of your jewels, and I have it here. You have no perfect regalia: I have a part of it here." Shall that ever be, after Christ has said, "They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand"? Shall this be, when the strong arm of God is engaged for my help, and he has said to me, "The Eternal God is your refuge; and underneath are the everlasting arms?" Jesus, turn me not aside, lest by my fall I grieve your Spirit, and lest by my fall I bring disgrace upon your name. Why should I turn aside? There is no reason why I should. Come my soul, there are a thousand reasons why you should not. Jesus beckons you to come. You wounded saints, you that have slipped to your falling, you that are grieved, sorrowing, and distressed, come to his cross, come to his throne again. Backsliders, if you have been such, return! return! return! A husband's heart has no door to keep out his spouse, and Jesus' heart has no power to keep out his people. Return! return! There is no divorce sued out against you, for the Lord, the God of Jacob says," He hates putting away." Return! return! Let us get to our chambers, let us seek renewed fellowship; and, oh, you that have never had it, and have never seen Christ, may you thirst after him to-night, and if you do, remember the text I gave you, "Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out." Whoever you may be, if you will come to Jesus, he will not cast you out. "Come, and welcome sinner, come." God bring you for Jesus' sake. Amen.