course of these little songs, I discern the way of the Lord toward a
repentant, recovered soul. See chap. vi. 4-13. She had just refused to
open her door to Him, but, through discipline, had been brought to
fervent communion with Him again. v. 2-vi. 3. And now His eye and His
heart are full of her again. He looks on her as beautiful as ever. She
is His "undefiled," and nothing less; no upbraidings pass His lips. Her
motion towards Him is comely and graceful in His esteem. And He lets her
know that her repentance had given Him pleasant and wondrous
refreshment. As soon as she was made willing (Psalm cx. 2), He got into
a chariot to bear Him away speedily and joyously to her. vi. 12, margin.
She may be a wonder to herself, she may take a place unworthy of any
notice (v. 13); but the Lord and angels rejoice over her. As we know in
the Gospels, the ninety and nine just ones can be left for the one
prodigal; the angels in heaven rejoice; the house makes merry; the
friends of the beloved triumph over the returned Shulamite. She is like
the returned Jacob: the Mahanaim, the hosts of God, salute them both,
wait at the threshold of the land or of the house, to do their Lord's
pleasure toward them, and express His welcome and concern for them. Gen.
xxxii. 1; Cant. vi. 13.[36]
[36] Another once observed to me, that in the Canticles, the Beloved
expresses _directly to herself_ the beauties He discerns in her;
the betrothed one never does this, but recites His beauties _in
the ears of others_; and further observed, that there was great
moral propriety in this, something quite according to the dictate
of a delicate affection.
And what is the longing here but that the day should break? And what is
the longing of the same soul in the words of the Gospel? "Come, Lord
Jesus, come quickly,"--so largely and so exactly do the teachings and
the breathings of the New Testament, in these and kindred ways, measure
the affections of the heart in this book? Christ dwells in the heart by
faith. Christ lies all night between the breasts. Eph. iii. 17; Cant. i.
13. And has not the saint attuned his heart over Jesus in language of
like fervour, such as we all use without shame?
"How tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus no longer I see,
Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers,
Have lost all their sweetness for me;
The midsummer sun shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay,
But when I am happy in Him,
December's as pleasant as May.
"His name yields the richest perfume,
And sweeter than music His voice,
His presence disperses my gloom,
And makes all within me rejoice:
I should, were He always so nigh,
Have nothing to wish or to fear,
No mortal so happy as I,
My summer would last the whole year."
These are among the seals set upon this beautiful portion of God's Word
by the spiritual mind of the believer, and also by kindred truths and
principles found in other scriptures. And it has been happily said, that
"if there be no express allusion to this book in the New Testament, the
same allegory, as portraying the same truth, evidently appears to have
been familiar to the minds of the writers of it, and to the minds also
of the people whom they addressed. Not more abruptly does John the
Baptist, for instance, refer to our Lord as 'the Lamb of God who taketh
away the sin of the world,' as being the character of the Messiah which
all would know and understand, than he does to the same blessed Person
in the character of the Bridegroom of the Church--'he that hath the
Bride is the Bridegroom.'"
And is it not seasonable, in these days of growing irreligiousness and
worldliness, to warn one another, beloved, to keep our minds incorrupt
in the simplicity that is in Christ? In the preparation-season, which
the present age is, and which the Canticles contemplate, Eve was getting
ready, under the forming hand of God, for Adam, and for Adam _only_.
Adam slept for Eve, and Eve was made for Adam. So with Christ and the
Church. He slept in death for us, and we are preparing, under the Holy
Ghost, for Him. "I have espoused you to _one_ husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." As he says also in another
place, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again till
_Christ_ be formed in you," Christ, and Christ only, Christ in His
precious sufficiency for a sinner, in answer to the Hagar or Galatian
thought of "days, and months, and times, and years," that other gospel
which yet is not another.
But this is assailed. The Gospel, in its claim on the sinner to give his
undivided confidence to Christ, has been abroad on the lips of a
thousand witnesses, to the gladdening of thousands of souls. The enemy
has watched and hated this. Working in the scene in which he goes "to
and fro" and "up and down" (Job i. 7), he is busy to seduce the heart
from this Gospel. And is not his success far beyond the measure of the
fears of any of us? The religion of fleshly confidences or of ordinances
is to this hour among us. It admits of worldliness; and worldliness is,
at this same hour, flourishing in company with it. There is the erection
of temples for worship, and of palaces for the worshippers; stricter
care to observe, in its season, due attendance in the sanctuary,
together with unparalleled skill and energy and enterprise in advancing
the indulgence and elegance of human life, so as to make the world a
_desirable_ and _safe_ place to live in--a place where religion may now
be seen to be observed and honoured.
This is all seductive from the principle of faith--this is corruption of
the mind from the simplicity that is in Christ. The Gospel addresses
itself to man, not only as a _guilty_ but as a _religious_ creature. It
finds him under the power of _superstition_ or _religiousness_, as well
as of sin. It is as natural for man to refuse to go into the
judgment-hall lest he should be defiled, as it is, in very enmity to
God, to cry out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." And the Gospel gets as
stern a refusal from the _religious_ man as from the _lustful_ man. As
the Divine Teacher tells us, the harlot goes into the kingdom before the
Pharisee.
Religious vanities are deeply playing their part in our day, and
fascinating many souls. What answer, beloved, do you and I give them? Is
Jesus so precious that no allurement has power? Is the virgin purity of
the mind still kept? and as chaste ones are we still betrothed to Christ
only? Like the newly-formed Eve, are we in our place of earliest,
freshest presentation to our Lord? or have we, apart from His side,
opened our ear to the serpent?
The kingdom of heaven is as a supper, a royal, joyous feast got ready
for sinners, that they might taste and see that the Lord is good, and
that blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. It does not put God in the
place of a _receiver_, for man _to bring Him His due_; but it puts Him
in the place of a _giver_, and man is called _to value His blessing_.
But the question is, Who listens, with desirous heart, to the bidding?
Who wears "the wedding garment"? Who prizes Christ? Who triumphs in His
salvation? Who longs for the day of His espousals? John had this garment
on him, knowing, as he did, the joy of being the Bridegroom's friend. It
was flowing at liberty on Mary's shoulders, as she sat at her Lord's
feet and heard His words. Paul tucked it tight about him when he said,
"God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ." The eunuch had just put it on as "he went his way rejoicing" in
the faith of the name of Jesus. Every sinner adorns himself with it the
moment his heart values Christ. And what joy is it thus to know that
when we put on Christ it is not "sackcloth" we put on, nor is it "the
spirit of heaviness" we enter into, but "a wedding garment" has clothed
us, and with "the garment of praise" we array our spirits!
Have we thus learned "the kingdom of heaven"? Have we, in spirit,
entered it as a banqueting-hall where both magnificence and joy welcome
us? Are we, consciously, guests at the marriage of a King's Son? Have we
learnt the mysteries of the faith? Have we gazed at them? Has the musing
over them kindled a fire in the heart to burn up the chaff of worldly
rudiments? Paul had this element in his soul as he travelled through
Greece. And how did the glow of these mysteries address itself to "the
princes of the world" there? It consumed them all. "Where is the wise?
where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?" Precious
ardour of the Spirit! What a pile was thus fired in the famed cities of
the learned and the wise! and how were all the thoughts of men thrown as
rubbish into it!
And how did he treat the rudiments of the _religious_ world? He bore the
same fervent sense of Christ with him into their regions, to test what
chaff and dross were there. In Galatia he found much of it; but he
spared none of it. Though an angel from heaven gather such rubbish;
though Peter himself help in the work; though the Galatians, who once
would have plucked out their eyes for him, be enticed, nothing should
stand before the heat of the Spirit that bore him onward. "O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you?... Ye observe days, and months, and
times, and years. I am afraid of you."
Could he do less? Could he carry Jesus in his heart, and calmly stand
and measure his light with the lights of Greece, or God's great
ordinance with man's traditions?
It is to make much of Christ we want, beloved--much of Himself, and His
glorious achievements for sinners. We want simplicity in that sense of
the word--the breathings of a soul content with Him, and the peace of a
conscience for ever at rest in His sufficiency. "What think ye of
Christ?" is the test, as a dear hymn well known among us has it--
"Some call Him a Saviour, in word,
But mix their own works with His plan,
And hope He His help will afford,
When they have done all that they can:
If doing prove rather too light
(A little they own they may fail),
They purpose to make up full weight
By casting His name in the scale.
"Some style Him the pearl of great price,
And say He's the fountain of joys,
Yet feed upon folly and vice,
And cleave to the world and its toys--
Like Judas, the Saviour they kiss,
And, while they salute Him, betray--
Ah, what will profession like this
Avail in His terrible day!
"If asked what of Jesus I think,
Though all my best thoughts are but poor,
I say, He's my meat and my drink,
My life, and my strength, and my store;
My Shepherd, my Husband, my Friend,
My Saviour from sin and from thrall,
My hope from beginning to end,
My portion, my Lord, and my all."
May these thoughts and affections be ours. They are the sweet witness of
the one faith, the one Lord, the one Spirit (Eph. iv.), for they express
the leading, ruling mind of the Canticles. There the soul in kindred
affection has but one object, but that one is enough. It is satisfied,
and never for a moment looks for a second. It has the "Beloved," and
cares for nothing else. If it grieve, it is over the want of capacity to
enjoy Him. It seeks for nothing but Jesus, lamenting only that it is not
more fully and altogether with Him. And this is the experience we have
to desire--to find in the Lord a satisfying object, a cure for the
wanderings of the poor heart, which, till it fix on Him, will go about
and still say, "Who will show us any good?" "The labour of the foolish
wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the
city."
"That unsatisfiedness with transitory fruitions which men deplore as the
_unhappiness_ of their nature is indeed the _privilege_ of it." Just
indeed, and truly to be prized, is such a sentiment. For this thirsting
again, this spending of "labour for that which satisfieth not," casts
the heart on Jesus, As this has ever been, so is it now. The building of
palaces, the planting of vineyards, the getting of singing-men and
singing-women, the multiplying of the delights of the children of men,
all these efforts and travails of the heart take their course and have
their way still. Eccles. ii. But Jesus revealed to the heart, as in this
book, commands these thoughts and purposes away. It speaks the language
of the blessed Lord Himself; and the experience in it is the experience
of the poor woman who was able to leave her pitcher at the
well--"Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life."
"I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning
Star.... Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
HEAVEN AND EARTH.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The scene of
the divine handiwork was twofold; and, accordingly, "in the dispensation
of the fulness of times," God will display Himself again, both in
_heaven_ and on _earth_.
I would begin my meditation on this divine subject with Genesis
i-xlvii., which presents, I judge, a beautiful view of the Lord acting,
by turns, as in heaven and on earth, till, at the close, we find them
together in a way typical of what their connection and yet distinctness
will be in that coming dispensation of the fulness of times. May our
meditations be always submitted to His truth and Spirit, and conducted
in the temper of worshippers.
_Genesis I. II._---It was only of the _earth_ that Adam was made lord.
The garden was his residence, and he was to replenish and subdue the
earth. This was the limitation of his inheritance and of his enjoyments.
He knew of heaven only as he saw it above him, and by its lights
dividing his day and his night. But he had no thoughts which linked him,
personally, with it.
III.---But Adam transgressed and lost the garden, and became a drudge in
the earth, instead of being the happy lord of it. Gen. iii. 17-19. He
was now to get a bare existence out of it, till he was laid down in
death upon it.
IV. V.---Such was his changed condition. To cling to the earth now as
one's delight and portion was to act in bold defiance of the Lord of
judgment. And such was the spirit of Cain and his family. He thought the
earth good enough for God, and desired nothing better for himself. He
gave God the fruit of it, and built a city for himself on the face of
it, furnishing it with desirable things of all sorts, unmoved by the
thought of the blood with which his own hand had stained it, and of the
presence of the Lord, on whom he had turned his back. But such was not
Adam, or Abel, or Seth, or that line of worshippers who "call on the
name of the Lord." They have in the earth only a burying-place. But
grace having provided a remedy for them as sinners, and righteousness
having separated them from a cursed earth, they believe in the remedy,
and seek no place or memorial in the earth, and the Lord gives them a
higher and a richer inheritance, even in _heaven_ with Himself, as
signified in the translation of Enoch.
VI.-IX.---But though the Lord is thus removing the scene of His counsels
and the hopes of His elect from earth to heaven, yet the earth is not
given up. It is, we know, destined to rejoice, by-and-by, in the liberty
of the glory; or, as I have already quoted, in "the dispensation of the
fulness of times." Eph. i. 9, 10. And, accordingly, this purpose the
Lord will at times rehearse and illustrate, as He does now, in due
season, in the history of Noah.
The heavenly family, as we have just seen, only died both to and in the
earth. They could speak, it is true, both of its coming judgment and
blessing. Enoch foretold of the one, and Lamech of the other. Jude 14;
Gen. v. 29. But they were, neither of them, _in_ the scenes they thus
talked about. But Noah, who comes after them, is a man of _the earth_
again. In his day the earth re-appears as the scene of divine care and
delight. God has communion with man upon it again. It has passed through
the judgment of the water, and God makes a covenant with it, has the
prophet, priest, and king upon it, providing for its continuance and
godly government. Noah's connection with it was quite unlike that of
either Cain or Seth. He did not, like the former, fill it and enjoy it
in defiance of God; nor did he, like the latter, take merely a
burying-place in it; but he enjoyed the whole of it under the Lord. The
Lord sanctioned his inheritance of it, his dominion over it, and his
delight in it.
X. XI.---Thus the earth, in its turn, again takes up the wondrous tale,
and is the care and object of the Lord. But again it becomes corrupt
before Him. Noah himself, like Adam, begins this sad history, and the
builders of Babel, like another family of Cain, perfect the apostasy,
seeking to fill the earth with themselves independently of God. They
were mighty hunters before the Lord. They scoured the face of the earth,
as though they asked, in infidel pride, "Where is the God of judgment?"
XII.-XXXVI.---This, however, was not allowed. Another judgment comes
upon them. They are scattered, and the whole human social order is
awfully broken up. But Abram is called out to find his fellowship with
God, apart from the world. His family dwelt in Mesopotamia beyond the
Euphrates. He came from the stock of Shem, but was a worshipper of
idols, as all the nations were. But sovereign grace distinguishes him,
and the God of glory calls him forth from kindred, from home, and from
country.
It is a call, however, that does not interfere with the order of the
earth, or government among the nations. He is called to be a _stranger_,
and not a rival of "the powers," or a new-modelled governor of any
people. He walks with God as the God of glory--a higher character than
that of the one by whom "the powers that be are ordained." He is a
pilgrim and stranger on earth, and walks as a _heavenly man_. He has
promise that _his seed_ and _inheritance in the earth_ shall become
linked together by-and-by; but he, with Isaac and Jacob, dwell in tents
all their days, and a tent life is that of a stranger here, of one that
is not at home and at rest.
Here, then, we have a heavenly people again--heavenly in the character
of their walk, and heavenly, like Enoch or Lamech, in their intelligence
about the earth's future history, and the promise to their seed of
inheritance in it in due season. But we have still deeper and fuller
mysteries in the history of him who comes after them.
XXXVII.-XLVII.--Through the wickedness of his brethren, as we all know,
for it is a favourite story, Joseph is estranged from the scene of the
promised and covenanted inheritance, and becomes first a sufferer, and
then a husband, a father, and a governor, in the midst of a distant
people; till at last his brethren, who once hated him, and the
inhabitants of the earth, are fed and ruled by him in grace and wisdom.
Nothing can be more expressive than all this. It is a striking
exhibition of the great result purposed of God "in the dispensation of
the fulness of times." Joseph is cast among the Gentiles; and there,
after sorrow and bondage, becomes the exalted one, and the head and
father of a family with such joy, that his heart for a season can afford
to forget his kindred in the flesh. This surely is Christ in heaven now,
exalted after His sorrows, and with Him the Church taken from among the
Gentiles, made His companion and joy during the season of His
estrangement from Israel. But in process of time Joseph is made the
depositary and the dispenser of the world's resources; his brethren, as
well as all beside, become dependent on him; he feeds them and rules
them according to his pleasure. And this as surely is Christ, as He will
be in the earth by-and-by, with Israel brought to repentance and seated
in the fairest portion of the earth, and with all the nations under His
sceptre, when He will order them according to His wisdom, feed them out
of His stores, and re-settle them in their inheritance in peace and
righteousness.
Surely the heavens and the earth are, in type, here seen, as they will
really be in "the dispensation of the fulness of times," when all
things, both in heaven and on earth, shall be gathered together in
Christ. Surely this is a rehearsal of the great result, and the heavens
and the earth tell out together the mystery of God!
And I cannot but observe the willing, unmurmuring subjection which the
Egyptians yield to Joseph. He moves them hither and thither, and settles
them as he likes, but all is welcome to them; and so, in the days of the
kingdom, the whole world will be ready to say, Jesus has done all things
well. What blessedness! Subjection to Jesus, but willing and glad
subjection! His sceptre getting its approval and its welcome from all
over whom it waves and asserts its power!
And again I observe that all this power of Joseph is held in full
consent of Pharaoh's supremacy. The people, and the cattle, and the
lands, are all bought by Joseph _for_ Pharaoh. It is Pharaoh's kingdom
still, though under Joseph's administration--as in the kingdom of which
this is the type, every tongue shall confess Jesus Lord, to _the glory
of God the Father_.
These features give clear expression and character to the picture. But
there is one other touch (the touch of a master's hand, I would
reverently say) in this picture which is not inferior in meaning or in
beauty to any. I mean, that in all this settlement of the earth, Asenath
and the children get no portion. They are not seen; there is no mention
of them even. Jacob may get Goshen; but Asenath, Ephraim, and Manasseh,
nothing. Is it that the wife and children were loved less, and the
father and brethren more? Nay, that cannot be. But Asenath and the
children are heavenly, and have their portion, the rather in and with
him who is the lord and dispenser of all this, and they cannot mingle in
the interests and arrangements of the earth. Even Goshen, the fairest
and fattest of the land, is unworthy of them. They are the family of the
lord himself. They share the home, and the presence, and the closest
endearments of him who is the happy and honoured head of all this scene
of glory.
Is not this the great result, in miniature or in type? Have we not in
all this that promised "dispensation of the fulness of times," when God
will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven; and which are on earth? Are not the heavens and the earth here
seen and heard together in their millennial order? I surely judge that
they are. "Known unto God are all His works, from the beginning of the
world."
But as we go on in the course of the divine dispensations, earthly and
heavenly scenes and purposes still unfold themselves. Israel, in their
turn, and after these scenes in the hook of Genesis, become the witness
of God, and an _earthly_ people. A portion of the world is sanctified
for God's possession and dwelling-place again. As the deluge had
purified the whole of it for the divine power and presence in Noah's
day, so the sword of Joshua now purifies a portion of it for the same
divine power and presence in Israel. God has His sanctuary and His
throne in the land of Canaan. He is worshipped in Jerusalem, and there
His law is dispensed. The glory is again in the earth. As Lord of the
earth, the God of Israel keeps court and rule on the earth again. But
all is corrupted again. Canaan was defiled by the apostasy of Israel, as
the Noah-earth had been defiled by the tower of Babel. Ezekiel, who was
set as a watchman in the day of this apostasy, sees therefore the glory
on its way from Jerusalem to _heaven_. It does not seek any other spot
on earth, but, being disturbed at Jerusalem by the defilements there, it
retreats to heaven. Ezekiel xi.
Up to this day of Ezekiel the glory had communicated with Israel _in
power_. It was a glory, or divine presence, that had judged Egypt,
guided the camp through the desert, smitten the nations of Canaan,
divided their land among the tribes, and then seated itself in the
temple and on the throne at Jerusalem. All this was the glory _in
power_. But, as we have seen, Israel had now forfeited it, and it
returns to heaven. But it had another character in which to show itself.
This same glory, or the divine presence, God Himself, returns veiled in
the person of Jesus; in whom, as a rejected Galilean, or carpenter's
son, having not where to lay His head, worse off in the world than the
birds or the foxes, it went about in the land of Israel in fullest
grace, healing, preaching, toiling, watching; poor, yet enriching
others; thirsty and hungry, yet feeding thousands, and in every thing as
simply and surely declaring itself to be the glory, as it did when it
divided the waters of Jordan, or threw down the walls of Jericho. Only
it was the glory in its _grace_ now, as it had been the glory in its
_power_ then. In this form, however, Israel, or the earth, forfeited it
also, though it did not leave the earth in the same way. Of old, when
rejected in its power, it left the earth of itself, in righteous anger
resenting the affront done to its majesty, and withdrawing itself in
judgment (Ezek. i.-xi.); but now, being rejected in its grace, it is at
last rather sent away than withdraws itself. But still, whether we see
the glory in power or in grace, the earth has forfeited it, and it is
now hid in the heavens. See Acts vii. 55.