“A garden enclosed” (Song of Solomon iv. 12).
The figure here is a garden enclosed, not a wilderness. The garden soil is
a cultivated soil, very different from the roadside or the wilderness. The
idea of a garden is culture. The ground has to be prepared, to be broken
up by ploughing, to be mellowed by harrowing, all the stones removed, the
roots of all natural growth dug up, for the good things we are seeking are
not natural growths and will not grow in our soil. We all start on the old
basis and try to improve the old nature, but that is not God’s way. His
way is to get self out of the way entirely, and let Him create anew out of
nothing, so that all shall be of Him; and we must find Jesus the Alpha and
Omega.
The thing you want to learn here is to die. There can be no real life till
self dies, and don’t try to die yourself, but ask God to slay you, and He
will make a thorough work of it.
This the secret nature hideth,
Summer dies and lives again,
Spring from winter’s grave ariseth,
Harvest grows from buried grain.