Love Joying In Love
A SHORT ADDRESS TO A FEW FRIENDS AT MENTONE,
AT THE BREAKING OF BREAD,
ON LORD'S-DAY AFTERNOON, JANUARY 9, 1887, BY C. H. SPURGEON.
"I am come into My garden, My Sister, My Spouse: I have gathered My
myrrh with My spice; Ihave eaten Myhoneycomb with Myhoney; Ihave drunk
My wine with My milk: eat, O friends; drink, yes, drink abundantly, O
Beloved." Song of Solomon 5:1.
No sooner does the spouse say, "Let my Beloved come into His garden,"
than her Lord answers, "I am come into My garden." "Before they call, I
will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." When we
desire our Lord Jesus to come to us, He has already come, in a
measure–our desire is the result of His coming! He meets us in all our
desires, for He waits to be gracious. Our, "Come," is no sooner uttered
than it is lost in His, "Behold, I come quickly!"
When we perceive that the Bridegroom has come, we perceive, also, that
He has done exactly what He was asked to do. How cheering to find that
our mind is in harmony with His mind! Our heart says, "Let my Beloved
come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits." His heart replies,
"I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with
My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk." "Delight yourself also in
the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart." The Lord
Jesus makes the desires of His saints to be the foreshadowing of His
own actions–"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." His
secret counsel is made known in the believing soul by desires inspired
by the Holy Spirit.
Note well that the Bridegroom kindly takes to Himself as His own all
that is in the garden. His spouse spoke of, "His pleasant fruits," and
He acknowledges the least and most homely of them to be His own. He
repeats the possessive particle–"My." "My myrrh, My spice, My
honeycomb, My honey, My wine, My milk." He disdains nothing which the
garden of His bride produces. He is fond of the notion of
joint-heirship, even as in another place He said, "My Father, and your
Father, My God, and your God." Let us also value the personal
possessive pronouns–the sweetness of the promises lies in them. These
are our arms with which we embrace the promises.
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, is it not charming to see
our Lord appropriating us–all that we are, all that we have, all that
grows within us–and all the varied forms of His Grace which are the
outcome of His own work within our hearts? Within us, certain things
are bitter, but wholesome–and He says, "My myrrh." Some things are
sweet, though homely–and He says, "My honey." Some things are of a
rarer sort and He says, "My spice"–while others are commonplace
enough–and He says, "My milk." Our Lord takes no exception to any one
of the true growths of the garden, whether it is myrrh or milk. And He
asks for nothing more than the garden may be expected to yield. He is
content without the butter of cows, or flesh of fed beasts–satisfying
Himself with honey fresh from the hive.
I note, with much delight, that matters which seem inconsistent with
perfection are not refused by the heavenly Bridegroom. As the Lord did
not refuse for an offering the leavened cakes of the first fruits, so
in this instance He says, "I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey."
The honey would be purer without the comb, but as it is incident
thereto, He takes the one with the other. He graciously accepts not
only our heart's desire, but the very mode in which our weakness works
towards that desire! It is as if He delighted in the words of our
prayers as well as in the essence of our prayers and prized the notes
of our songs as well as the meaning of them. Yes, I believe our Lord
puts our tears as well as our sorrows into His bottle and hears our
groans as well as our desires! The honeycomb which contains the honey
is precious to Him! After He had risen from the grave, He ate a piece
of a honeycomb and I doubt not that He had a reason for choosing that
food–sweet gathered from sweets, yet not without wax. Our Lord accepts
our services without nicely noting and critically rejecting the
infirmity which goes with them.
I note, also, that He, Himself, gathers what He enjoys–"I have
gathered My myrrh with My spice." Many a holy thing which we have not
in detail offered to Him in set form, He knows to have been given in
the gross and so He takes with His own hands what He knows we have, by
a comprehensive covenant, made over to Him. How sweetly does He fill up
our blanks and believe in our consecration, even when we do not repeat
the form of it!
Moreover, He makes mixtures out of our fruits, for He gathers myrrh
with balsam and drinks wine with milk, thus taking the rarer with the
more common. He knows how to make holy compounds out of the Graces of
His people, thus increasing their excellence. He is the best judge of
what is admirable and He is the best fashioner and mixer of
character–He is using His skill upon us. Often by our mingled
experiences He accomplishes an increase of virtue in us. Some Graces
are the result of work and wisdom, as wine which must be trod from the
grapes. Others are natural, like milk which flows from living fountains
without art of man. But the Lord accepts them both and so combines them
that they are pleasant to Him to a high degree. Simple faith and
experimental prudence make up a sacred milk and wine–and the like may
be seen in rapturous love and calm patience which blend most
deliciously! The Lord loves us and makes the most of us. He is pleased
with all that is the true produce of His Grace and finds no faults with
it–on the contrary, He says, "I have eaten My honeycomb with My
honey."
Having made these observations upon the Lord's fulfilling the prayer of
the spouse, I should like to deliver the following remarks upon the
text–
It is evident that the Lord Jesus is made happy by us. These poetical
sentences must mean that He values the Graces and works of His people.
He gathers their myrrh and spice because He values them! He eats and
drinks the honey and the milk because they are pleasant to Him. It is a
wonderful thought that the Lord Jesus Christ has joy in us! We cost Him
anguish, even unto death, and now He finds a reward in us. This may
seem a small thing to an unloving mind, but it may well ravish the
heart which adores the Well-Beloved! Can it be true that we afford joy
to the Son of God, the Prince Emmanuel? The King has been held in the
galleries! He has been charmed by us! Our first repentance made Him
call together His friends and His neighbors. The first gleam of faith
He ever saw in us made His heart rejoice and all that He has seen in us
ever since of His own image, worked by His Grace, has caused Him to see
of the travail of His soul! Never has a farmer taken such pleasure in
the growth of his choice plants as our Lord has taken in us! "The Lord
takes pleasure in them that fear Him; in those that hope in His mercy."
That is a thought to be rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel! Yes,
the Lord's Church is His Hephzibah, for, He says, "My delight is in
her."
The second thought is that the Lord Jesus will not and cannot be happy
by Himself–He will have us share with Him. Note how the words run–"I
have eaten." "Eat, O friends!" "I have drunk." "Drink, yes, drink
abundantly, O Beloved." His union with His people is so close that His
joy is in them, that their joy may be full. He cannot be alone in His
joy! That verse of our quaint hymn is always true–
"And this I do find, we two are so joined, He'll not be in Glory and
leave me behind." He will not be happy anywhere without us. He will not
eat without our eating and He will not drink without our drinking. Does
He not say this in other words in the Revelation–"If any man hears My
voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him,
and He with me"? The inter-communion is complete–the enjoyment is for
both. To make our Lord Jesus happy, we must also be happy. How can the
Bridegroom rejoice if His bride is sad? How can the Head be content if
the members pine? At this table of fellowship, His chief concern is
that we eat and drink. "Take, eat," He says. And again, "Drink you, all
of it." I think I hear Him now say–"I have eaten and I have drunk. And
although I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day
that I drink it new in the Kingdom of God; yet eat you, O friends:
drink, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved!" Thus we have seen, first,
that Christ is made happy by us and, secondly, that He insists upon our
sharing His joy with Him.
If we have already enjoyed happy fellowship with Him, the Lord Jesus
calls upon us to be still more happy. Though we may say that we have
eaten, He will again say, "Eat, O friends!" He presses you to renew,
repeat and increase your participation with Him. It is true we have
drunk out of the chalice of His love, but He again invites us, saying,
"Drink, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved!" Of other wines it would be
bad to say, "Drink abundantly," but of this wine the Lord
says, with an emphasis, "Drink abundantly, O Beloved!" Oh, for Grace to
renew all former enjoyments with greater zest and deeper intensity! It
has been sweet even to taste and sip–what must it be to eat and drink
abundantly?
Must it not mean that though we know the Lord Jesus, we should try to
know more of Him, yes, to know all that can be known of that love which
passes knowledge? Should we not labor to realize more of HIM, taking in
the whole Truth of God concerning His Person and love by meditation,
contemplation, understanding and reverent simplicity? Let nothing lie
by–let us eat and drink all the stores of the banquet of love!
As the mouth with which we eat is faith, does not the Savior seem to
cry, "Believe on Me. Trust Me. Confide in Me abundantly"? Eat and drink
with large appetite, by receiving into your heart's belief all that can
be received. Oh, for Grace to appropriate a whole Christ and all the
love, the Grace, the Glory that is laid up in Him!
Does it not also mean have greater enjoyment of Divine things? Partake
of them without stint. Do not restrict yourself as though you could go
too far in feeding upon the Lord Jesus! Do not be afraid of being too
happy in the Lord, or of being too sure of His salvation, or of having
too much assurance, or too much devout emotion! Dread not the
excitements which come from fellowship with Christ! Do not believe that
the love of Jesus can be too powerfully felt in the soul. Permit the
full sweep and current of holy joy in the Lord to carry you away–it
will be safe to yield to it. "Rejoice in the Lord always and again, I
say, Rejoice."
Beloved, let us now take our fill of Christ. Since we believe, let us
believe more unreservedly! If we enjoy, let us enjoy more thoroughly!
If we have life, let us have it more abundantly. In this case we may
eat and our soul shall live! We may drink and not only forget our
misery, but drink again and enter into bliss! Our Lord beckons us from
the shore to the sea. He calls us from the lower seat to come up
higher. He would have us more glad, stronger, fuller, holier! He
presses the provisions of His love upon us, like a host whose joy lies
in seeing all his guests feasting. Do not hold back! Be not satisfied
with little believing, scant enjoying and cool feeling–but let us
enter fully into the joy of our Lord!
True, we are unworthy, but He invites us! We shall be wise to yield to
His loving pressure. We may not have such another feast, just yet, and
possibly we may have to go for 40 days into the wilderness on the
strength of this meal. Therefore let us keep the feast heartily! Our
Lord, in His invitation, challenges our friendship and our love. He
says–"Eat, O friends!" Prove yourselves friends by being free at His
table. "Drink, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved!" If this is His way of
testing us, let us not be slow in accepting it. Let us show our love by
joying in Him as He joys in us! Amen.