Love's Vigilance Rewarded

Next Part Love's Vigilance Rewarded 2

"It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loves: 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." -- Song of Solomon 3:4.

OUTLINE

I. THREE PRELIMINARY STEPS--
"I LOVE him."
"I SOUGHT him."
"I DID NOT FIND him."
II. THREE FURTHER STEPS--
"I FOUND him."
"I HELD him."
"I BROUGHT him..."

When I look upon this great assembly of people, I think to myself, -- there will be many here to whom these chapters that we have read out of Solomon's Song will seem very strange. Of course they will; for they are meant for the inner circle of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This sacred Canticle is almost the central Book of the Bible; it seems to stand like the tree of life in the midst of the garden of Eden, in the very center of the Paradise of God. You must know Christ, and love Christ, or else many of the expressions in this Book will seem to you but as an idle tale.

The subject on which I am about to speak will be very much of the same character. Outsiders will not be able to follow me; but then we are coming to the communion table, so I must for a while forget the unsaved among my hearers, and think only of those who do know the secret of the Lord which is with them that fear him.

To my mind, it is a very melancholy thought that there should be any who do not know the sweetest thing in all the world, the best and happiest thing beneath the stars- the joy of having Christ in their heart as the hope of glory. While I may seem to forget you, dear friends, for a while, I cannot really help remembering you all the time; and it is the earnest desire of my heart that while I am speaking of some of those delights which are enjoyed only by the people of God, you may begin to long for them; and I remind you that, when you truly long for them, you may rest assured that you may have them. Around the garden of the Lord there is no wall so high as to keep out one real seeking and trusting soul; and in the wall itself there is a gate that ever stands ajar, nay, that is ever wide open to the earnest seeker.

I am not going to try so much to preach a sermon as to talk out freely from my heart of some of those delightful experiences which belong to the children of God. I want this service to be a time, not of carving meat, but of eating it; not of spreading tables, but of sitting at them, and feasting to the full on the bounteous provisions that our Lord has prepared for us.

I. First, before we actually come to our text, we may notice THREE PRELIMINARY STEPS IN THE SPOUSE'S PROGRESS.

The first one is implied in the words, "I LOVE him." She refers to her Beloved under the title of "Him whom my soul loves." Can you, dear friend, give the Lord Jesus that title? If he were to come here just now as he came to the Lake of Galilee, and pass along these crowded ranks, and say to each one of us, "Do you love you me?" what would be your answer? I am glad that I speak to many whose answer would be, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."

I can at this moment think of many reasons why I should love the Christ of Calvary, but I cannot think of one reason why I should not love him. If I turn to what I read about him in this blessed Book, it all makes me love him. If I recall what I have experienced of his grace in my heart, it all makes me love him. When I think of what he is, and what he did, and what he is doing, and what he will yet do, it all makes me love him. I am inclined to say to my heart, "Never beat again if you do not beat true to him." It were better for me that I had never been born, than that I should not love one who is in himself so inconceivably lovely, who is, indeed, perfection's self.

Yet there is one reason that rises above all others why you and I should love the Lord Jesus Christ; it is this- "He loved me, and gave himself for me." It used to be said by the old metaphysicians that it was impossible for love not to be returned, in some measure or other. I do not think that statement is universally true; but I hope it is true concerning our Lord's love to us and our heart's love to him. If he has loved us with an everlasting love, if he loved us even when we were his enemies, and loved us so as to take upon himself our nature, -- if this dear Son of God loved us so that he became man for our sakes, and, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, -- oh! then, we must love him in return.

We should be worse than the beasts that perish if, conscious of such love as this, we did not feel that it melted us, and that, being melted, our soul did not bow out in love to him alone! Can you stand at the cross-foot, and not kiss the feet of him who was wounded for your transgressions? Can you see him dead, and taken down from the cross, and not wish to wrap him in your fine linen, and bring your sweet spices to embalm his precious body? Can you see him risen from the grave, and not call him "Rabboni," and long, as Mary did, to hold him by the feet? Can you, by faith, see him in our assemblies, saying, "Peace be unto you," and not feel that you delight in him in your inmost soul? It cannot be; surely, it cannot be. We must and will say, and we feel that we may appeal to the Searcher of all hearts while we say it, "I love him, I do love him because he first loved me."

Then, in the spouse's progress, there came another step, "I SOUGHT him." Notice how the chapter begins: "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves," for love cannot bear to be at a distance from the loved one, love longs for communion, love will do anything to get at the object of its affection. Where there is true love to Jesus Christ, we cannot bear to be away from him; and since we must be so in personal presence for a while, till the day break, and the shadows flee away, we long to be with him in heart, and to feel that he also is with us in spirit according to his promise, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

"I sought him." Can you put your finger on that sentence, and say, "That is true, too"? Have you been seeking him this Sabbath day? Are you coming to his table tonight seeking him? Were you at the Saturday night prayer-meeting, or at this morning's early gathering, seeking him with his people? Or, in your private devotions, did you make a point of crying, "Lord, let me meet with you, let me find you"? If not, begin now; seek him with your whole heart, let your soul breathe out its burning desires after him.

"I sought him." He is not far from any one of us. You sought him once, when you were burdened with your sin, and then you found him. He cast that sin of yours into the depths of the sea; come and seek him again, and your fears, your doubts, your distresses of mind, shall be buried in the same deep grave. So the spouse sings of her Beloved, "I sought him."

Then comes in a little minor or mournful music, for the next clause is, "I sought him, BUT I FOUND HIM NOT." The spouse is so sad about it that she tells out her woe twice, "I sought him, but I found him not." Do you know that experience? I hope you are not realizing it at this time; but many of us have known what it is. If we have been indulging in any sin, of course we could not find him then. If we have been gold-hearted, like the spouse who sought him on her bed, like her we have not found him. We have had to rise, we have had to stir up ourselves to lay hold of him, or else we not have found him.

You have known what it is to go to the public service of the sanctuary, where others have been fed, yet you have had to come away, and say, "There has not been a morsel for me." Have you not even turned to the Bible, and to private prayer, and still you have had to say, "I sought him, but I found him not"? This is a very sad experience; but if it makes you sad, it will be good for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ would not have us think little of his company; and, sometimes, it is only as we miss it that we begin to appreciate the sweetness of it.

If we always had high days and holidays, we might not be so thankful when our gala days come round. I have even known some of Christ's people get so pleased with the joy of his company that they have almost forgotten himself in the joy. If a husband gave his wife gold rings and ornaments, and she was so gratified with the presents that she took but little note of him, but only prized the jewels that he gave her, I can well understand what would be the jealousy of his heart. It may be that this is why your Lord hides his face, for you never know his value so much as when the darkness deepens, and the Star of Bethlehem shines not.

When real soul-hunger comes on, and the Bread of heaven is not there, when you feel the pangs of the thirst of the spirit, and you are like Hagar in the wilderness, and cannot find the well of water, then will your Lord teach you his true value; and when you really know him, and know him better than you formerly knew him, then you shall no longer have to sigh, "I sought him, but I found him not," but you shall change your dolorous ditty for the cheerful language of the text, "It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loves." So I have brought you back to the text; these are the three steps by which we have ascended to the holy gate, -- first, "I love him;" next, "I sought him:" and then, "I found him not."

II. Secondly, inside the text, there are THREE FURTHER STEPS: "I found him," "I held him," "I brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me."

This is the first of the second series of steps, "I FOUND him." I do not wish to stand here, and speak for myself alone; but I want, beloved, that you should each one of you also say, "I love him," "I sought him," and now, "I have found him." Notice what the spouse said, "I found him." She was not satisfied with finding anything else: "I found HIM." If she had found her nearest and dearest friend, if the mother of whom she speaks had met her, it would not have sufficed. She had said, "I love him, I sought him," and she must be able to add, "I found him." Nothing but Christ consciously enjoyed can satisfy the craving of a loving heart which once sets out to seek the King in his beauty.

The city watchmen found the spouse, and she spoke to them; she enquired of them, "Did you see him whom my soul loves?" She did not sit down, and say to any one of them, "O watchman of the night, your company cheers me! The streets are lonely and dangerous; but if you are near, I feel perfectly safe, and I will be content to stay awhile with you." Nay, but she leaves the watchmen, and still goes along the streets until she finds 'him whom her soul loves'.

I have known some, who love the Lord, to be very happy while the preacher is proclaiming the truth to them; but they have stopped with the preacher, and have gone no further. This will never do, dear friends; do not be content to abide with us, who are only watchmen, but go beyond us, and seek till you find our Master. I should groan in heart, indeed, if any of you believed simply because of my word, as if it were my word alone that led you to believe, or if you should look merely to me for anything you need for your soul. In myself, I am nothing, and I have nothing; I only watch that, if I can, I may lead you to my Lord, whose shoe-latchets I am not worthy to unloose.

O you who love Christ, go beyond the 'means of grace'! Go beyond ordinances, go beyond preachers, go beyond even the Bible itself, into an actual possession of the living Christ; labor after a conscious enjoyment of Jesus himself, till you can say with the spouse, "I found him whom my soul loves." It is good to find sound doctrine, for it is very scarce nowadays. It is good to learn the practical precepts of the gospel, it is good to be in the society of the saints; but if you put any of these in the place of communion with your Lord himself, you do ill. Never be content till you can say, "I found him." Dear souls, did you ever find him? Have you yet found him? If you have not, keep on seeking, keep on praying, till at last you can say, "Eureka! I have found him whom my soul loves. Jesus is indeed mine."

What is meant by the words, "I found him"? Well, I think a soul may say, "I found him," in the sense employed in the text, when first of all it has a clear view of his person. My Beloved is divine and human, the Son of God and yet the Son of man. My Beloved died, yet he is alive again. My Beloved was on earth, but he is now in heaven, and he will shortly come again. I want thus to find him myself, and I want each one of you to do the same.

Picture him on Calvary, see him risen from the dead. Try, if you can, not so much by imagination as by faith, to behold him as he now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, where harps unnumbered tune his praise. Yet even there he bears the wounds he received for us here below. How resplendent are the nail-prints! The marks of his death on earth are the glory of his person above.

"This is the Man, the exalted Man,
Whom we unseen adore;
But when our eyes behold his face,
Our hearts shall love him more."

Let your soul picture him so plainly that you can seem to see him, for this will be a part of your finding him.

But that will not be enough; you must then get to know that he is present with you. We cannot see him, but yet he who walks amidst the golden candlesticks is, in spirit, in this house of prayer at this moment. My Master, you are here. There is no empty seat at the table left to be filled by you, nor do we expect to see you walking among us, in your calm majesty, clothed with your seamless garment down to your feet; and we do not need to see you with our eyes. Our faith realizes you quite as well as sight could do, and we bless you that you hear us as we speak to you.

You are invisible, yet assuredly present; you are looking into our faces, you are delighting in us as objects of your redeeming love. You do especially remember that you did die for us; and, as a mother gazes upon the babe for whom she has endured so much, or as a shepherd looks upon the sheep that he has brought back from its long wanderings, so are you now looking upon each one of your loved ones. If, dear friends, you can get that thought fully into your minds, that Christ is really here in our midst, you can then each one begin to say, "I have found him."

But you want more than that, namely, to feel that he loves you, loves you as if there were nobody else for him to love, loves you even as the Father loves him. That is a daring thing to say, and I should never have said it if he had not first uttered it; but he says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." Can you comprehend how each one of the blessed Trinity loves each of the others, and especially how the Father loves the Son? Even so does Jesus Christ love you, my believing brother, my believing sister. Note that he now loves you; it is not only that he did love you, and died for you, but he still loves you. He says to you, individually, "I have engraven you upon the palms of my hands." Look at the nail-print, that is his memorial, his forget-me-not, and by it he says to you--

"Forget you I will not, I cannot, your name
Engraved on my heart does for ever remain:
The palms of my hands whilse I look on I see
The wounds I received when suffering for thee."

Now have you not found him? If you have pictured him to your mind's eye, if you are certain of his presence with you, and then, above all, if you are fully assured of his love, you can say, "I have found him."

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