coming kingdom. As prophets sing, the wilderness "shall rejoice and
blossom as the rose"--the lame shall leap as the hart, the tongue of the
dumb shall sing, the cow and the bear shall feed together, and the wolf
shall lie down with the kid. Nature in all its order shall own the
presence of the Lord. The floods shall clap their hands, the trees of
the wood shall rejoice, before Him. As creation has already felt the
bondage of corruption, it shall then feel the liberty of glory.
It will be as though dormant sensibilities had all been suddenly
awakened. It will be as the sweeping of an exquisite instrument with a
master hand. It will be the _same_ creation, but under new authority,
new influences. Let but the sons of God be manifested, and the whole
system shall spring into new conditions and consciousness.
And so _man_, when the powers of that coming age take him up as their
subject. Let but the passage be made from this present evil world into
the world to come, and new principles will at once gild and furnish the
scene, and give _moral_ enjoyments (which are the richest of all) to all
personal and social life.
This will be the touching of an instrument of still finer workmanship.
The system around the vegetable and animal world is susceptible of such
forms of beauty and of order as may make it all the vivid, happy
reflection of divine goodness and wisdom; but in the renewed mind of man
there lie latent powers and affections of nothing less than the divinest
texture. In its present condition it has to struggle with nature, and to
suffer sore let and hindrance from the flesh. It is oppressed and
encumbered by a gross atmosphere. But it has capabilities of acting,
judging, and feeling of the highest order. And let but the due
influences reach it in power, those sensibilities and faculties will be
all awakened, and forms of moral beauty throughout all personal and
social life will show themselves. What a hope for the spirit tried in
conflict with the flesh! It will be the same "new creature" that now is:
only in other conditions. Not oppressed and clouded, but, as it were,
breathing its native air.
Scripture gives us many a witness of such moral virtue and enjoyment in
the millennial age. It is one of the most delightful occupations of the
mind of Christ in us, to hear these witnesses, in their mystic language,
deliver their testimony.
The Father of Israel and the Gentiles are seen together, for a moment,
in Genesis xxi. And their communion was a sample of the holy, happy
intercourse of Israel and the nations, in the coming days of the
kingdom. Questions which before had divided and disturbed them are now
all settled. The well of water, which had been the occasion of strife,
is now a witness of the oath or covenant. All pure social affections
adorn this communion of Abraham and Abimelech; and they part under
pledged and plighted friendship. Abraham's grove, in principle, makes
the desert to bloom, and his altar makes the earth a sanctuary; but his
way with Abimelech, and Abimelech's with him, give that bright moment
its dearest and highest character. For there are no enjoyments like
_moral_ enjoyments, no pleasures like those of the _heart_.
So in Exodus xviii. The heavenly and the earthly families are seen
together, under the type of Jethro and the ransomed tribes, at the mount
of God. And all is full of moral beauty. And yet the materials which
make up the scene had been, in other and earlier days, very differently
minded towards each other. Moses and Zipporah had parted in anger, the
last time they had met, and the congregation had been murmuring again
and again. But now the mount of God has influences for them, and from
the highest to the least, from Jethro down to the most distant parts of
the camp, all is in the power of godly order, subjection, and
fellowship.
Then again, that generation that lived in the closing days of David and
in the early days of Solomon exhibit the same. They had been numbering
each other to the sword, in the wood of Ephraim, but the sword is turned
into a ploughshare now. The days of Solomon were, typically or in
spirit, millennial days, and sweet and surprising virtue attends them.
Instead of going forth again to the field of battle, they sit, every man
with his neighbour, under the vine and under the fig-tree. "Judah and
Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating
and drinking, and making merry."
Are not these _moral_ transfigurations? And how blessed they are! Pass
but the border. Leave man's day for the Lord's day. Breathe the air of
the Mount of God--and all this moral renovation, with its countless
springs and streams of social felicity, shall be tasted, ever fresh and
ever pure. 'Tis but a little while and all this shall be. The _same_
brethren, who may now be a trial to one another, like our Job and his
friends, shall then heighten and enlarge each other's joy. And in the
earthly places, "Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim."
Pride and selfishness shall have ceased to depreciate, as they do now,
with all their companion lusts and wickednesses, the pleasures of the
heart.
This patriarchal story, on which we have now been meditating, more
ancient than, and as illustrious as, any of these inspired records,
gives us a like sample of millennial days. Job and his three friends,
Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, are
the same Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, the same _persons_. And they
are no longer contending, but united brethren. They have ascended the
mount at the end; and there lies all the difference. And barren indeed
our hearts must be of every gracious affection, and dead to all godly
emotions, if we hail not such a prospect.
He who by His blood did long ago break down all partition walls, and who
is now, by His Spirit, giving believers common access to the Father,
will by-and-by, with His own hand, join the stick of Ephraim and the
stick of Judah, and make them one there. Ezekiel xxxvii. 16. His Israel
on the earth shall see "eye to eye," for the light and the joy of Zion's
salvation shall be passed, with holy speed, from the messengers on the
mountains to the watchmen of the city, and from them to the people, and
from the people to the nations (Isaiah lii. 7-9)--and, among the
heavenly people, the children of the resurrection, like Job and his
friends, "that which is in part shall be done away, and that which is
perfect shall come."
THE CANTICLES.
"Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and
the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee."
This was the devout breathing of the king of Israel (the penman, too, of
this little book to which we are now proposing, in the Lord's grace, to
introduce ourselves), when the glory had come to fill the house which he
had builded.
But so it was. The Son of God, Jehovah's Fellow, He that was with God
and was God, was manifest in flesh, and conversed with us here. He dwelt
with men on the earth. He tabernacled among us. He was Jesus. We knew
Him as such. He was a _Man_, and a Friend, and a Master, and a
Companion. He invited confidence. He sought sympathy and imparted it.
And, as a _Man_, we know Him still--as truly a Man amid the brightest
glories of heaven now, as once He was a Man amid the ruins and sorrows
of earth--as able, through sympathy, to understand the sufferings of His
saints still, as when He walked the streets and highways here, bearing
our griefs and carrying our sicknesses.
And what will He be even for ever? Still _Jesus Christ_. Dominion of all
things will be His as a _Man_. The scene may change the second time,
from the present temple in heaven to the kingdom of glory, as at first
it changed from the cities and villages here to the temple on high, but
it is "the _Man_ Christ Jesus" who passes from scene to scene. Precious
mystery! Manhood having been once taken up, will never be given up. A
temple has been found for the glory, a vessel for the blessing, a person
for the manifestation, an instrument for the exercise of power and
government, suited to the counsels of divine wisdom and to the purposes
of divine goodness.
From the beginning of His ways, and throughout them, the Lord God has
been evidencing His purpose to bring His creature _man_ very near to
Him. The expression of this has been different, but still constant.
In patriarchal days the intimacy was _personal_. He walked in the midst
of the human family, personally appearing to His elect; not so much
employing either prophets or angels, but having to do with the action
Himself.
In the times of Israel, He was not so much in "the human guise" as
before. He was rather in mystic dress. But still He was _near_ them. The
Lord in the burning bush, the glory in the cloud, the armed captain by
Jericho, speak this nearness. The God of Israel seen on the sapphire
throne, the glory filling the temple courts, or seated between the
cherubim, tell the same. And the promises, "I will set My tabernacle
among you ... and I will walk among you," and "Mine eyes and Mine heart
shall be there perpetually," alike witness this desired and purposed
fellowship.
Then, in the progress of the ages, the assumption of manhood is a
witness, I may say, that speaks for itself; and the _ways_ of God
manifest in the flesh agree therewith. Jesus "came eating and drinking."
And still the same, after He had become the _risen Man_. He had not
then, it is true, one lodging and repast with His disciples, as once He
had. He did not then, as before, go in and out among them. They were not
to know Him "after the flesh," as in earlier days. But still there was
full intimacy. There was many a note of conscious authority about Him,
it is most true. He speaks of all power in heaven and in earth being
His. He opens their understandings. He pronounces peace upon them on new
and authoritative grounds, He imparts the Holy Ghost, as the Head of the
new creation. He blessed, as Priest of the temple, the only Priest. All
this He does, as risen from the dead, with conscious power; but, with
all this, He owns intimacy, loving, personal intimacy, as near and dear
as ever, if not more so. He eats and drinks with them, as once He did.
He calls them "brethren," as He had not done before His resurrection. He
speaks of having one God and Father with them, as He had not done then.
Though with all authority He sends them forth to work, yet does He still
work with them. Mark xvi.; Luke xxiv.; John xx. And though He was at
that time paying them only an occasional visit, a visit now and then, as
He pleased, during forty days (Acts i. 3), yet He intimates, by a little
action, that, by-and-by, all such distance and separation will be over,
and they should "follow" Him to His place, risen and glorified with
Himself. John xxi. 19-23.
Is not all this intimacy still? desired and enjoyed intimacy on the part
of our "everlasting Lover"? And as to this present dispensation, the
same is provided for and maintained, though in a different way. The Holy
Ghost is come. The Spirit of truth is in us. Our bodies are nothing less
than His living temples or dwelling-places, while the Son has,
mystically, borne us to heaven in and with Himself. Eph. ii. 6. Surely
no form of fellowship which we have contemplated is more deep and
intimate than this. If, personally, the Lord God was with the
patriarchs, and would take a calf and a cake in the love of
hospitality--if, in the sight of the whole congregation, He would let
the glory fill the temple courts in the joy of its new-found
habitation--if, in "the Man Christ Jesus," the Lord God would walk with
us, and share our seasons of rest and labour and refreshment, talking at
a well with one elect sinner, or letting another press His bosom at
supper, and ask Him about the secrets that were in that bosom--in this
present day He has us, in the thoughts and affections of His own heart,
up in heaven with Himself, and the Holy Ghost is here with us, in the
midst of the thoughts and affections of our hearts.
Is this, I ask, intimacy of a feebler nature? Is this a retracing of His
way back into His own perfections and sufficiency, or amid the glories
and principalities of angels? Is this _reserve_, as men speak? Is this
withdrawing Himself, or repenting of former intimacy with man, as though
He had been disappointed and put off? "Adam, where art thou?" was His
voice. But has Adam's retreat forced the Lord back? Let this one
Witness, this Witness of our times, this indwelling Spirit, leading us
in company with Himself after this manner, tell us. All His present way
is only a richer pursuit of that purpose which broke forth, in infant
form, in the days of Genesis.
And what shall we say of this intimacy in still future days? Redeemed
men take the place of cherubic nearness to the throne. The living
creatures and the crowned elders are there, and the angels do but
surround them as well as the throne. The Lamb's wife, the holy
Jerusalem, bears the glory in her bosom. The Tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them.
But if all this be so, as it surely is, a holy inquiry arises, How are
we to entertain this? In what spirit, and after what manner, are we to
act on the truth of this gracious purpose of God? _We are to admit and
believe it in all the simplicity in which it is revealed._ This is our
first duty. We are by no means to refuse the thought of this divine
nearness. Did John, I ask, refuse to lie on His Lord's bosom, or excuse
himself for doing so? No. Neither are we, through mistaken humility, to
question whether we have rightly interpreted the many scriptures which
declare this truth. We are to use the privileges it confers.
But with this use of its privileges we are to honour its claims. For
this presence of God is a _pure_ as well as a _cheerful_ element. Of
old, the shoes were to be taken from the feet, when that presence was
entered, to express the sense of holiness which became it. But that was
all. Neither Moses nor Joshua were required to withdraw; only to tread
softly. They were welcomed and encouraged, while instructed in the
holiness of such intimacy.
So in the Canticles. The soul makes its boast of its Lord's love. It
does not refuse to listen to the tenderest expressions of it, nor to
recite His well-known desire towards her; but withal, there is owned and
felt unworthiness. There is the breathing of the purest though most
intimate thoughts--an affection quickly sensitive of the putting slight
on such wondrous condescensions of divine love, and diligence in
nourishing in the soul the answer due to them. And, thus, this little
book gives very clear witness to the truth of God's intimacy with man,
and to the manner in which it should be entertained by us. And in doing
this it introduces us to a great divine mystery, which, in like manner,
gets its early and constant illustration in the Book of God--a mystery
which must now hold our thoughts for a little. I mean that of the Bride
and the Bridegroom.
The Church is called "the Lamb's wife." But this title has its meaning.
"The Lamb" is a figure or a description of the Son of God which tells us
of the sorrows He endured for us. The soul well understands this; and
therefore this title, "the Lamb's wife," tells us that it is by _His
sufferings_ the Lord has made her His own; that He valued her so as to
give up all for her. And from the beginning He has been publishing this
precious gospel truth.
Ere Adam received Eve he was cast into a deep sleep, and out of his side
was taken a rib, of which was formed that one that was afterwards
presented to him as his wife. This witnesses the mystery I have
mentioned. Adam was humbled and Adam suffered (I mean, of course, only
in the symbol or mystery), ere he received Eve; all this casting
beforehand the shadow of the humiliation and suffering of the true Adam,
in acquiring His Eve for Himself.
So Jacob afterwards. He had to sustain the burthen and heat of a long
and toilsome day, ere he could possess himself of Rachel. The law of her
people, the law of her country, and the oppressive exactions of the
covetous Laban, had put him on these terms. He had to endure the
constant consuming of sun and moon, to toil night and day, and have his
exile lengthened out, or go without his Rachel.
Joseph, ere he got his Asenath, was separated from his brethren.
The same thing we see in Moses. He too was separated from his brethren.
And still more, he _earned_ Zipporah. He rescued her from oppression,
then opened the well to her and her flock, and then her father owned his
claim to her hand. So with his second wife. He had to take her at the
expense of his good name with his own kindred; she was a black
Ethiopian, and did not suit the thoughts of his brother and sister. But
he bore the reproach, and married the Ethiopian.
In each of these marriages (typical as well as real) we see _the
character_ of the Bridegroom; we see the Lord Jesus Christ possessing
Himself of His Bride _at some personal cost_. Whether it be humiliation
and suffering, as in Adam, toil and weariness and conflict, as in Jacob,
separation and dreary loneliness, as in Joseph, or mere reproach, as
doing a thing unworthy of him, as in Moses, still it is, in principle, a
_suffering_ Bridegroom that we see.
And I might notice Boaz, another type of the same. He was a mighty man
of wealth, but he pleads the cause of a poor gleaner in his fields; he
allows her approaches and her suit, and takes her to him to wife. He is
not ashamed to make a destitute stranger, who but a day before depended
on the bounty of his hand, the companion of his wealth and honour, and
the builder of his house and name among the tribes of Israel. And thus
the marriage of Boaz tells out the same mystery, that the Bridegroom of
the Church is the One who had before been humbled to redeem her, and
make her His own.
Not only, however, in types and illustrations is this great truth set
forth, but in the plain teaching of Scripture also. It is said, that
Christ loved the Church, then gave Himself for it, then sanctified it by
the washing of the Word--and all this, that He might present it worthily
to Himself as His Bride. Eph. v. Here, doctrinally, or in the way of
plain teaching, we have the _Lamb the Bridegroom_; for ere He takes the
Church _He gives Himself for her_. He takes to wife the one whom He had
afore purchased with blood.
In Old Testament Scriptures, the same thing is taught, as between the
Lord and Jerusalem, which is, _in principle_, the same as Christ and the
Church.
Thus, in Isaiah it is said, Thy Maker is thy Husband, thy Redeemer--the
whole passage showing Jerusalem taken up by the Lord in simple
loving-kindness, He owning one that, like the Ethiopian or like Ruth,
might be a reproach to Him. liv.
So Jeremiah represents the Lord in the very same grace, taking Jerusalem
even after she had proved herself unfaithful, and been legally and
judicially put away. iii.
Hosea is made the representative of the same. i.-iii. He buys his wife
(iii. 2), he washes and cleanses her, as well as bears the reproach of
espousing one in herself so worthless and lost.
So in the striking picture of Ezekiel. Jerusalem is looked at in her
loathsome, offensive degradation; but when not one eye pitied, the Lord
not only took compassion on, but quickened, washed, clothed, anointed,
beautified, and endowed her, and did not stop till He had taken her to
Himself. xvi.
Thus is it in the teachings or voices of the prophets, as in the early
types and shadows; both and all telling out the mystery, that _the Lamb_
is the _Bridegroom_, that the One who at the end seats her in the
companionship of His glory, had before redeemed her by His blood, washed
and purified her by His Word and Spirit, suffered reproach for her (Luke
xix. 7), and gone down to her in her ruin, ere He could take her up to
His estate and honour.
This is the mystery of the Divine Bridegroom. All human tales or fables
fall short of this, let the imagination that wrought them up be as
fervent as it may. This is the mystery of a love that passes knowledge
between Christ and the Church. She must love Him for the service He has
shown her; He must love her for the cost she has put Him to. She will
find herself for ever by the side of One who so loved her as to die for
her. He will see one by His side who so engaged Him that He was willing
to go through with His affection, though the cost of loving her would
take (to speak after the manner of men) all that He was worth. He cannot
but prize her supremely, and so she Him. This only difference may be
observed--that His love was proved ere she became His, for He had
beforehand counted the cost of loving her--her love, later and more
backward, and only in the second place, began on her knowing His love
for her. For Christ, as the Bridegroom (as in everything else, whether
of grace or glory, Col. i.), is to have "the pre-eminence." In the
character of His love He entirely outshines the love of the bride, and
leaves hers, as it were, no love at all, by reason of the love that
excelleth.
But having thus looked at the Bridegroom, I would, in like manner, see
the Bride for a moment or two. But I must limit myself, and will,
therefore, only trace her as reflected in the Book of Genesis.
_Eve_ is, of course, the earliest type. In her we see the personal
characteristics of the bride: she is formed by the Lord for Adam. Adam's
joy in a helpmeet was what the Lord proposed to Himself when He began to
form Eve. He had respect to Adam's need and joy in this work. And when
Adam receives Eve from the hand of the Lord, his words express his
satisfaction in her, vindicating the Lord's workmanship, that His hand
had accomplished the design which His love had undertaken. Eve was
fitted to Adam. This was her full personal beauty. He owned her bone of
his bone, and flesh of his flesh. _All in her was attractiveness._ She
entirely answered the expectations, and satisfied the heart, of him for
whom she had been formed. He took her and clave to her (Gen. ii.); and
this, we know, is a type of Christ and the Church. Eph. v.
_Sarah_ is the next distinguished female in that book; and she is a
mystic person also. But it is not the Bride whom she expresses, but the
Mother. So that I will not particularly notice her. For Abraham is "the
father of all them that believe"--and Sarah is "the free woman" or, in
an allegory, "the mother of us all" (Gal. iv.), linked with the family
of God in the place of the mother, rather than with the Lord as His
Bride. So that I pass her by.
_Rebecca_ comes next in this holy line, and in her we have the Bride
again, as in Eve. But great and blessed truths connected with the Bride
are told in Rebecca. She is separated from Isaac. He is far away, and
has never seen her. But Rebecca is the father's choice, and Eliezer's
care, till Isaac receives her. Isaac longed for her. That is shown by
his going forth in solitariness to meditate at eventide. But beyond the
sense of this loneliness, we do not see Isaac doing or suffering
anything for her. The council about the wife is taken between Abraham
and Eliezer. They settle the whole plan. And Eliezer, in beautiful,
self-denying service, goes on toil and travel to secure this elect Bride
for Isaac. And he does secure her. And he prepares her for him. He not
only separates her from her kindred and her father's house, but conducts
her across the desert; on the way, doubtless, telling her many a tale of
him whose she was so soon to be--till at length he gives her safely into
Isaac's hand, and Isaac, like Adam, is comforted in his Bride.
This is a beautiful light in which to look at the Bride; the one who is
brought home to her lord from the distant land, having been the object
of the father's choice, and of the servant's care. This is a mystery.
And in it we get the Lord receiving His Bride at the hand of the Father
and of the Holy Ghost, chosen for Him, and given to Him, He having
nothing to do but to take her at their hand, and to find in her, as
Isaac found in Rebecca, the relief of his solitariness, the inmate of
his tent, and the companion of all his joys.