COMMUNION BROKEN--RESTORATION
Cant. ii. 8-iii. 5
_"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed
to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift
away from them."_--Heb. ii. 1 (R.V.).
AT the close of the first section we left the bride satisfied and at
rest in the arms of her Beloved, who had charged the daughters of
Jerusalem not to stir up nor awaken His love until she please. We might
well suppose that a union so complete, a satisfaction so full, would
never be interrupted by failure on the part of the happy bride. But,
alas, the experience of most of us shows how easily communion with
CHRIST may be broken, and how needful are the exhortations of our LORD
to those who are indeed branches of the true Vine, and cleansed by the
Word which He has spoken, to abide in Him. The failure is never on His
side. "Lo, I am with you alway." But, alas, the bride often forgets the
exhortation addressed to her in Ps. xlv.:--
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;
Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;
So shall the KING greatly desire thy beauty:
For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.
In this section the bride has drifted back from her position of
blessing into a state of worldliness. Perhaps the very restfulness of
her new-found joy made her feel too secure: perhaps she thought that, so
far as she was concerned, there was no need for the exhortation, "Little
children, keep yourselves from idols." Or she may have thought that the
love of the world was so thoroughly taken away that she might safely go
back, and, by a little compromise on her part, she might win her friends
to follow her LORD too. Perhaps she scarcely thought at all: glad that
she was saved and free, she forgot that the current--the course of this
world--was against her; and insensibly glided, drifted back to that
position out of which she was called, unaware all the time of
backsliding. It is not necessary, when the current is against us, to
turn the boat's head down the stream in order to drift: or for a runner
in a race to turn back in order to miss the prize.
Ah, how often the enemy succeeds, by one device or another, in tempting
the believer away from that position of entire consecration to CHRIST in
which alone the fulness of His power and of His love can be experienced.
We say the fulness of His power and of His love; for he may not have
ceased to love his LORD. In the passage before us the bride still loves
Him truly, though not wholly; there is still a power in His Word which
is not unfelt, though she no longer renders instant obedience. She
little realizes how she is wronging her LORD, and how real is the wall
of separation between them. To her, worldliness seems as but a little
thing: she has not realized the solemn truth of many passages in the
Word of GOD that speak in no measured terms of the folly, the danger,
the sin of friendship with the world.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him."
"Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity
with GOD? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh
himself an enemy of GOD."
"Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have
righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath CHRIST with Belial? or what portion hath a
believer with an unbeliever? . . . Wherefore:--
Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the LORD,
And touch no unclean thing;
And I will receive you,
And will be to you a FATHER,
And ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the
LORD ALMIGHTY.
We have to take our choice: we cannot enjoy both the world and CHRIST.
The bride had not learned this: she would fain enjoy both, with no
thought of their incompatibility. She observes with joy the approach of
the Bridegroom.
The voice of my Beloved: Behold He cometh
Leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.
My Beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart;
Behold He standeth behind our wall,
He looketh in at the windows,
He glanceth through the lattice.
The heart of the bride leaps on hearing the voice of her Beloved, as He
comes in search of her. He has crossed the hills; He draws near to her;
He stands behind the wall; He even looks in at the windows; with tender
and touching words He woos her to come forth to Him. He utters no
reproach, and His loving entreaties sink deep in her memory.
My Beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs,
And the vines are in blossom,
They give forth their fragrance.
Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.
All nature is responsive to the return of the summer, wilt thou, My
bride, be irresponsive to My love?
Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.
Can such pleading be in vain? Alas, it can, it was!
In yet more touching words the Bridegroom continues:--
O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the
covert of the steep place,
Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice:
For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Wonderful thought! that God should desire fellowship with us; and that
He whose love once made Him the Man of Sorrows may now be made the Man
of Joys by the loving devotion of human hearts.
But strong as is His love, and His desire for His bride, He can come no
further. Where she now is He can never come. But surely she will go
forth to Him. Has He not a claim upon her? She feels and enjoys His
love, will she let His desire count for nothing? For, let us notice, it
is not here the bride longing in vain for her LORD, but the Bridegroom
who is seeking for her. Alas that He should seek in vain!
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
vineyards;
For our vineyards are in blossom,
He continues. The enemies may be small, but the mischief done great. A
little spray of blossom, so tiny as to be scarcely perceived, is easily
spoiled, but thereby the fruitfulness of a whole branch may be for ever
destroyed. And how numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises
with the world; disobedience to the still small voice in little things;
little indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes
of policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the
beauty and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed!
We have a sad illustration of the deceitfulness of sin in the response
of the bride. Instead of bounding forth to meet Him, she first comforts
her own heart by the remembrance of His faithfulness, and of her union
with Him:--
My Beloved is mine, and I am His:
He feedeth _His flock_ among the lilies.
My position is one of security, I have no need to be concerned about
it. He is mine, and I am His; and nought can alter that relationship. I
can find Him now at any time, He feedeth His flock among the lilies.
While the sun of prosperity shines upon me I may safely enjoy myself
here without Him. Should trial and darkness come He will be sure not to
fail me.
Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,
Turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a gazelle or a
young hart
Upon the mountains of Bether.
Careless of His desire, she thus lightly dismisses Him, with the
thought: A little later I may enjoy His love; and the grieved Bridegroom
departs!
Poor foolish bride! she will soon find that the things that once
satisfied her can satisfy no longer; and that it is easier to turn a
deaf ear to His tender call than to recall or find her absent LORD.
The day became cool, and the shadows did flee away; but He returned not.
Then in the solemn night she discovered her mistake: It was dark, and
she was alone. Retiring to rest she still hoped for His return--the
lesson that worldliness is an absolute bar to full communion still
unlearned.
By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth:
I sought Him, but I found Him not!
She waits and wearies: His absence becomes insupportable:--
_I said_, I will rise now, and go about the city,
In the streets and in the broad ways,
I will seek Him whom my soul loveth:
I sought Him, but I found Him not!
How different her position from what it might have been! Instead of
seeking Him alone, desolate and in the dark, she might have gone forth
with Him in the sunshine, leaning upon His arm. She might have exchanged
the partial view of her Beloved through the lattice, when she could no
longer say "Nothing between," for the joy of His embrace, and His public
confession of her as His chosen bride!
The watchmen that go about the city found me:
_To whom I said_, Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?
It was but a little that I passed from them,
When I found Him whom my soul loveth.
She had already obeyed His command, "Arise, and come away." Fearless of
reproach, she was seeking Him in the dark; and when she began to confess
her LORD, she soon found Him and was restored to His favour:--
I held Him, and would not let Him go,
Until I had brought Him into my mother's house,
And into the chamber of her that conceived me.
Jerusalem above is the mother of us all. There it is that communion is
enjoyed, not in worldly ways or self-willed indulgence.
Communion fully restored, the section closes, as did the first, with the
loving charge of the Bridegroom that none should disturb His bride:--
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,
(By all that is loving and beautiful and constant),
That ye stir not up, nor awake My love,
Until she[3] please.
May we all, while living down here, in the world, but not of it, find
our home in the heavenly places to which we have been raised, and in
which we are seated together with CHRIST. Sent into the world to witness
for our MASTER, may we ever be strangers there, ready to confess Him the
true object of our soul's devotion.
How amiable are Thy tabernacles,
O LORD of hosts!
My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of
the LORD;
My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living GOD.
Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house:
They will be still praising Thee. . . .
A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my GOD
Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD GOD is a Sun and Shield:
The LORD will give grace and glory:
No good thing will He withhold from them that walk
uprightly.
O LORD of hosts,
Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee!
FOOTNOTE:
[3] See note on p. 26.