James Hudson Taylor

“ We have already found the explanation of the fairness of the bride in her reflecting like a mirror the beauty of the Bridegroom. Well may He with satisfaction describe her beauty while she is thus occupied with Himself! The lips that speak only of Him are like a thread of scarlet; the mouth or speech which has no word of self, or for self, is comely in His sight. [41]
How sweet His words of appreciation and commendation were to the bride we can well imagine; but her joy was too deep for expression; she was silent in her love. ”

“ She is not ashamed of her lowly origin, for she fears no shame: perfect love has cast out fear. The royal state of the King, with its pomp and grandeur, may be enjoyed by-and-by: now, more sweet with Him at her side to make the garden fruitful; to give to Him all manner of precious fruits, new and old, which she has laid up in store for Him; and best of all to satisfy Him with her own love. Not only is she contented with this fellowship of service, but she could fain wish that there were no honours and duties to claim His attention, and for the moment to lessen the joy of His presence. ”

“ Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.
Thou art a fountain of gardens,
A well of living waters,
And flowing streams from Lebanon.
Engaged with the Bridegroom in seeking to rescue the perishing, the utterances of her lips are to Him as honey and the honeycomb; and figure is piled upon figure to express His satisfaction and joy. She is a garden full of precious fruits and delightful perfumes, but a garden enclosed; the fruit she bears may bring blessing to many, but the garden is for Himself alone; she is a fountain, but a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. ”

“ She would fain claim him fully, without giving up herself fully to him; but it can never be: while she retains her own name, she can never claim his. She may not promise to love and honour if she will not also promise to obey: and till her love reaches that point of surrender she must remain an unsatisfied lover—she cannot, as a satisfied bride, find rest in the home of her husband. While she retains her own will, and the control of her own possessions, she must be content to live on her own resources; she cannot claim his. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Much she needs the culture of the Husbandman, and well does she repay it. Abiding in Christ, the true source of fruitfulness, she brings forth clusters of grapes, luscious and refreshing, as well as sustaining, like the fruit of the palm—luscious and refreshing to Himself, the owner of the vineyard, as well as to the weary, thirsty world in which He has placed it. ”

“ Separation never comes from His side. He is always ready for communion with a prepared heart, and in this happy communion the bride becomes ever fairer, and more like to her Lord. She is being progressively changed into His image, from one degree of glory to another, through the wondrous working of the Holy Spirit, until the Bridegroom can declare:—
Thou art all fair, My love;
And there is no spot on thee.
And now she is fit for service, and to it the Bridegroom woos her; she will not now misrepresent Him: [42] —
Come with Me from Lebanon, My bride,
With Me from Lebanon; ”

“ There are those whom the Father has given to Him who are wandering on the dark mountains of sin: many, oh, how many, have never heard the Shepherd's voice; many, too, who were once in the fold have wandered away—far away from its safe shelter. The heart that never can [50] forget, the love that never can fail, must seek the wandering sheep until the lost one has been found: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." And will she, who so recently was at His side, who joyfully braved the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards, will she leave Him to seek alone the wandering and the lost? ”

“ It is through the bride that attention is drawn to the Bridegroom; their union and communion are now open and manifest. For the last time the wilderness is mentioned; but sweetly solaced by the presence of the Bridegroom, it is no wilderness to the bride. In all the trustfulness of confiding love she is seen leaning upon her Beloved. ”

“ We do not admire selfish children who only think of what they can get from their parents, and are unmindful of the pleasure that they may give or the service that they may render. But are not we in danger of forgetting that pleasing God means giving Him pleasure? Some of us look back to the time when the words "To please God" meant no more than not to sin against Him, not to grieve Him; but would the love of earthly parents [15] be satisfied with the mere absence of disobedience? Or a bridegroom, if his bride only sought him for the supply of her own need? ”

“ Thine eyes are as dove's,
or
Thou hast dove's eyes.
The hawk is a beautiful bird, and has beautiful eyes, quick and penetrating; but the Bridegroom desires not hawk's eyes in His bride. The tender eyes of the innocent dove are those which He admires. It was as a dove that the Holy Spirit came upon Him at His baptism, and the dove-like character is that which He seeks for in each of His people. ”

“ We have, then, in this beautiful section, as we have seen, a picture of unbroken communion and its delightful issues. May our lives correspond! First, one with the King, then speaking of the King; the joy of communion leading to fellowship in service, to a being all for Jesus, ready for any experience that will fit for further service, surrendering all to Him, and willing to minister all for Him. There is no room for love of the world here, for union with Christ has filled the heart; there is nothing for the gratification of the world, for all has been sealed and is kept for the Master's use. ”

“ But true love cannot be stationary; it must either decline or grow. Despite all the unworthy fears of our poor hearts, Divine [13] love is destined to conquer. The bride exclaims:—
Thine ointments have a goodly fragrance;
Thy name is as ointment poured forth;
Therefore do the virgins love Thee.
There was no such ointment as that with which the High Priest was anointed: our Bridegroom is a Priest as well as a King. The trembling bride cannot wholly dismiss her fears; but the unrest and the longing become unbearable, and she determines to surrender all, and come what may to follow fully. ”

“ Could we be satisfied to meet a beloved one only in public? No; we want to take such an one aside—to have him all to ourselves. So with our Master: He takes His now fully consecrated bride aside, to taste and enjoy the sacred intimacies of His wondrous love. The Bridegroom of His Church longs for communion with His people more than they long for fellowship with Him, and often has to cry:—
Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice ”

“ He who inhabits the praises of Israel, which rise, like the incense of spices, from His people's hearts, is invited by His bride to make haste, to come quickly, and be like a roe or young hart upon the mountains of spices. ”

“ If we are watchful over the souls of others, and neglect our own—if we are seeking to remove motes from our brother's eye, unmindful of the beam in our own, we shall often be disappointed with our powerlessness to help our brethren, while our Master will not be less disappointed in us. Let us never forget that what we are is more important than what we do; and that all fruit borne when not abiding in Christ must be fruit of the flesh, and not of the Spirit. The sin of neglected communion may be forgiven, and yet the effect remain permanently ”

“ There is a love far [11] stronger than thine waiting, longing for satisfaction. The Bridegroom is waiting for thee all the time; the conditions that debar His approach are all of thine own making. Take the right place before Him, and He will be most ready, most glad, to "Satisfy thy deepest longings, to meet, supply thine every need." What should we think of a betrothed one whose conceit and self-will prevented not only the consummation of her own joy, but of his who had given her his heart? Though never at rest in his absence, she cannot trust him fully ”

“ Union with Christ, and abiding in Christ, what do they not secure? Peace, perfect peace; rest, constant rest; answers to all our prayers; victory over all our foes; pure, holy living; ever-increasing fruitfulness. All, all of these are the glad outcome of abiding in Christ. ”

“ True devotion will rather ask to be allowed to give, and will count as loss all which may not be given up for the Lord's sake—"I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." ”

“ The love which grace has begotten in the heart of the bride is itself divine and persistent; many waters cannot quench it, nor the floods drown it. Suffering and pain, bereavement and loss may test its constancy, but they will not quench it. Its source is not human or natural; like the life, it is hidden with Christ in God. What "shall separate us from the love of Christ? ”

“ Do we not all need to learn a lesson from this? and to pray to be kept from turning to Egypt for help, from trusting in horses and chariots, from putting confidence in princes, or in the son of man, rather than in the living God? How the Kings of Israel, who had won great triumphs by faith, sometimes turned aside to heathen nations in their later years! The Lord keep His people from this snare.
The bride continues: "The flashes of love are flashes of fire, a very flame of the Lord." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Could there be a sadder proof of the extent and reality of the Fall than the deep-seated distrust of our loving Lord and Master which makes us hesitate to give ourselves entirely up to Him, which fears that He might require something beyond our powers, or call for something that we should find it hard to give or to do? ”

“ 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 [30] 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." ”

“ When we bring our questions to GOD, do we not sometimes either go on to offer some other petition, or leave the closet without waiting for replies? Does not this seem to show little expectation of an answer, and little desire for one? Should we like to be treated so? Quiet waiting before God would save from many a mistake and from many a sorrow. ”

“ Are there not many who look back to the delightful times of their first espousals, who, so far from finding richer inheritance in Christ than they then had, are even conscious that they have lost their first love, and might express their experience in the sad lament:—
Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Others, again, who may not have lost their first love, may yet be feeling that the occasional interruptions to communion are becoming more and more unbearable, as the world becomes less and He becomes more. His absence is an ever-increasing distress. ”

“ The midst thereof being paved with love (love-gifts) ,
From the daughters of Jerusalem.
Behold, it is the litter of Solomon;
Threescore mighty men are about it,
Of the mighty men of Israel,
They all handle the sword, and are expert in war:
Every man hath his sword upon his thigh,
Because of fear in the night.
In these verses the bride is not mentioned; she is eclipsed in the grandeur and the state of her royal Bridegroom; nevertheless, she is both enjoying and sharing it. The very air is perfumed by the smoke of the incense that ascends pillar-like to the clouds ”

“ 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. ”

“ The daughters of Jerusalem have no difficulty in replying to her question, and recognizing her as of royal birth—"O Prince's daughter"—as well as of queenly dignity, they describe in true and Oriental language the tenfold beauties of her person; from her feet to her head they see only beauty and perfection. ”