Look now at the response He gets from the bride. In chapter 1 she is heard to say, “Thy love is better than wine.” She knows His love, and it is better to her than all beside; but His language exceeds hers. Hear what the Bridegroom says to her: “How much better is thy love than wine!” (Song of Sol. 4:1010How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! (Song of Solomon 4:10)). What grace in Christ to say this of such poor heartless ones as you and me! Yet this is the estimate Christ forms of any little love he now finds in our souls to Him. “Thy lips,” He continues, “O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue.” Every word that falls from the lip, all that is the fruit of grace in the soul, is to Him like the droppings from the honeycomb. In Scripture honey indicates that which is food as well as refreshment. How such a Scripture as this judges us! What has our conversation been? Has it been that which could feed as well as refresh the heart of the blessed Lord? “A garden enclosed,” He says, “is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” All this means she is entirely for Him, only for the Bridegroom. Ah, beloved, it is blessed when the soul gets to this! All that I am, and all that I have, belong to Him, to Jesus only. I am to be for Him here, and He says I am His own. He wants me for Himself. Is not His desire enough to make each soul surrender fully to Him? “He died... that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:1515And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)).
But the Bridegroom enlarges on what the bride is to Him. “Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates. With pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.” Such is Christ’s appreciation of “His own,” and we should have the sense of all this in our souls, of what He sees His people to be. If we carried in our souls more the thought of what we are to Christ, He would be more to us. The eye would then be more off ourselves, and off one another. Then would our gaze on Him be more steady, and the joy of our souls be more calm and holy. Then we should be more jealous of that which would cause any distance between our souls and Christ. We would watch with eagerness its approach, and be able to shun it.
But He cares for His glory, and does preserve us for Himself; so we read, “Awake, O north wind.” He sends His north wind, bearing its wave of trouble to rouse the careless one. We do not like this; but it is good and wholesome for the spices in His garden. It shakes them out. The wind gets through the branches, and the fragrance is poured forth. Trouble checks us. It casts us on God, and presses out that which is of Christ in us. Thus we learn what He would teach us. Then He can vary His dealings; the wind is changed. He says, “Come thou south wind, and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” He gives deep enjoyment of Himself. He makes the sun of His presence shine in upon our souls, and the heart turns to Him, and says, “Let my Beloved come into His garden.” The joy of communion is then known and enjoyed. Then the heart says, “I am all for my Beloved. I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is towards me. Let Him eat His pleasant fruits.” The soul enters into His thought as to His bride. And how does He respond to her desire to have Him near her? “I am come,” He says, “into my garden, my sister, my spouse.” He appreciates that which is devoted to Him. He says, as it were, “It is all mine;” or “I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk.” As the soul enters into communion, and is conscious that He draws near, the heart goes out more and more to Him, “Drink yea, drink abundantly, O Beloved.”