And still more strong are the Bridegroom's words in chap. iv. 7:--

Thou art all fair, My love; And there is no spot in thee.

We shall find the solution of this difficulty in 2 Cor. iii. Moses in contemplation of the Divine glory became so transformed that the Israelites were not able to look on the glory of his countenance. "We all, with unveiled face [beholding and] reflecting as a mirror the glory of the LORD, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory [_i.e._ the brightness caught from His glory transforms us to glory], even as from the _Lord_ the SPIRIT." Every mirror has two surfaces; the one is dull and unreflecting, and is all spots; but when the reflecting surface is turned fully towards us we see no spot, we see our own image.

So while the bride is delighting in the beauty of the Bridegroom He beholds His own image in her; there is no spot in that: it is all fair.

May we ever present this reflection to His gaze, and to the world in which we live for the very purpose of reflecting Him.

Note again His words:--

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.

The reason why David was not permitted to build the Temple was a very significant one. His life was far from perfect; and his mistakes and sins have been faithfully recorded by the HOLY SPIRIT. They brought upon him G.o.d'S chastenings, yet it was not any of these that disqualified him from building the Temple, but rather his warlike spirit; and this though many of his battles, if not all, were for the establishment of G.o.d'S Kingdom and the fulfilment of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Solomon, the Prince of Peace, alone could build the Temple. If we would be soul-winners and build up the Church, which is His Temple, let us note this: not by discussion nor by argument, but by lifting up CHRIST shall we draw men unto Him.

We now come to the reply of the bride. He has called her fair; wisely and well does she reply:--

Behold Thou art fair, my Beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our couch is green.

The beams of our house are cedars, And our rafters are firs.

I am (but) a rose of Sharon, A lily of the valleys.

The last words are often quoted as though they were the utterance of the Bridegroom, but we believe erroneously. The bride says in effect, Thou callest me fair and pleasant, the fairness and pleasantness are Thine; I am but a wild flower, a lowly, scentless rose of Sharon (_i.e._ the autumn crocus), or a lily of the valley.

To this the Bridegroom responds: "Be it so; but if a wild flower, yet

As a lily among thorns, So is My love among the daughters.

Again the bride replies:--

As the apple-tree (the citron) among the trees of the wood, So is my Beloved among the sons.

I sat down under His shadow with great delight, And His fruit was sweet to my taste.

The citron is a beautiful evergreen, affording delightful shade as well as refreshing fruit. A humble wild flower herself, she recognizes her Bridegroom as a n.o.ble tree, alike ornamental and fruitful. Shade from the burning sun, refreshment and rest she finds in Him. What a contrast her present position and feelings to those with which this section commenced! He knew full well the cause of all her fears; her distrust sprang from her ignorance of Himself, so He took her aside, and in the sweet intimacies of mutual love her fears and distrust have vanished, like the mists of the morning before the rising sun.

But now that she has learned to know Him, she has a further experience of His love. He is not ashamed to acknowledge her publicly.

He brought me to the banqueting house, And His banner over me was love.

The house of wine is now as appropriate as the King's chambers were.

Fearlessly and without shame she can sit at His side, His acknowledged spouse, the bride of His choice. Overwhelmed with His love she exclaims:--

Stay ye me with raisins, comfort me with apples: For I am sick of love.

His left hand is under my head, And His right hand doth embrace me.

Now she finds the blessedness of being possessed. No longer her own, heart-rest is alike her right and her enjoyment; and so the Bridegroom would have it.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up nor awake My love, Until she[2] please.

It is never by His will that our rest in Him is disturbed.

You may always be abiding, If you will, at JESUS' side; In the secret of His presence You may every moment hide.

There is no change in His love; He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. To us He promises, "I will never leave thee, never fail thee, nor forsake thee"; and His earnest exhortation and command is, "Abide in Me, and I in you."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Loves = endearments, caresses.

[2] The p.r.o.noun here and in chapter iii. 5, and viii. 4, should not be "he" as A.V., nor "it" as R.V., but "she."

SECTION II

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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sages in the Word of G.o.d 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 G.o.d? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of G.o.d."

"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.