Communion Broken--Restoration
Cant. ii. 8-iii.5
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 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. xiv:--
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
mountain, 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 woes 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 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 in
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!
[3] See note on page 26.