A Song Among the Lilies

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 30th, 1874, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.''Song of
Solomon 2:16.

LAST SABBATH, in our morning's sermon, we began at the beginning and
described the turning point in which the sinner sets his face towards
his God, and for the first time gives practical evidence of spiritual
life in his soul. He bestirs himself, he goes to his Father's house,
and speedily is pressed to his Father's bosom, forgiven, accepted, and
rejoiced over. This morning we are going far beyond that stage, to a
position which I may call the very crown and summit of the spiritual
life. We would conduct you from the door-step to the innermost chamber,
from the outer court to the Holy of Holies, and we pray the Holy Spirit
to enable each one of us who have entered in by Christ Jesus, the door,
to pass boldly into the secret place of the tabernacles of the Host
High, and sing with joyful heart the words of our text, My beloved is
mine, and I am his.'

For he is mine and I am his,

The God whom I adore;

My Father, Savior, Comforter,

Now and for evermore.'

The passage describes a high state of grace, and it is worthy of note
that the description is full of Christ. This is instructive, for this
is not an exceptional case, it is only one fulfillment of a general
rule. Our estimate of Christ is the best garage of our spiritual
condition; as the thermometer rises in proportion to the increased
warmth of the air, so does our estimate of Jesus rise as our spiritual
life increases in vigor and fervency. Tell me what you think of Jesus
and I will tell you what to think of yourself. Christ us, yea, more
than all when we are thoroughly sanctified and filled with the Holy
Ghost. When pride of self fills up the soul, there is little room for
Jesus; but when Jesus is fully loved, self is subdued, and sin driven
out of the throne. If we think little of the Lord Jesus we have very
great cause to account ourselves spiritually blind, and naked, and
poor, and miserable. The rebel despises his lawful sovereign, but the
favored courtier is enthusiastic in his praise. Christ crucified is the
revealer of many hearts, the touchstone by which the pure gold and the
counterfeit metal are discerned; his very name is as a refiner's fire
and like fuller's soap; false professors cannot endure it, but true
believers triumph therein. We are growing in grace when we grow in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let everything else be
gone, and let Christ fill up the entire space of our soul, then, and
only then, are we rising out of the vanity of the flesh into the real
life of God.

Beloved, the grandest facts in all the world to a truly spiritual man
are not the rise and fall of empires, the marches of victory, or the
desolations of defeat; he cares neither for crowns nor mitres, swords
nor shields; his admiring gaze is wholly fixed upon Christ and his
cross and cause. To him Jesus is the center of history, the soul and
core of providence. He desires no knowledge so much as that which
concerns his Redeemer and Lord; his science deals with what Jesus is
and what he is to be, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he
will do. The believer is mainly anxious as to how Jesus can be
glorified, and how sinners can be brought to know him. That which
concerns the honor of Jesus is our chief concern from day to day; as
for other matters let the Lord do as he wills with them, only let Jesus
Christ be magnified, and all the rest of the world's story has small
significance for us. The Beloved is the head and front, the heart and
soul of the Christian's delight when his heart is in its best state.
Our text is the portrait of a heavenly-minded child of God, or rather,
it is the music of his well stringed harp when love as minstrel touches
the tenderest chords: My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth
among the lilies.'

We shall note then, first, that here is a delighting to have Christ;
secondly, a delighting to belong to Christ; and thirdly, a delighting
at the very thought of Christ.

I. First, here is A DELIGHTED TO HAVE CHRIST. My beloved is mine.' The
spouse makes this the first of her joy notes, the cornerstone of her
peace, the fountain of her bliss, the crown of her glory. Observe here
that where such an expression is truthfully used the existence of the
Beloved is matter of fact. Scepticism, and questioning have no place
with those who thus sing. There are dreamers now-adays who cast doubt
on everything; taking to themselves the name of philosophers, and
professing to know something of science, they make statements worthy
only of idiots, and demand for their self-evidently false assertions
the assent of rational men. The word philosopher' will soon come to
mean a lover of ignorance, and the term a scientific man' will be
understood as meaning a fool, who has said in his heart there is no
God. Such attacks upon the eternal verities of our holy faith can have
no effect upon hearts enamoured of the Son of God, for, dwelling in his
immediate presence, they have passed the stage of doubt, left the
region of questioning far behind, and in this matter have entered into
rest. The power of love has convinced us; to entertain a doubt as to
the reality and glory of our Well-beloved would be torment to us, and
therefore love has cast it out. We use no perhapses, buts, or ifs
concerning our Beloved, but we say positively that he is, and that he
is ours. We believe that we have better evidence of his being, power,
Godhead, and love to us than can be given for any other fact. So far
from being abashed by the cavils of sceptics, or quailing beneath the
question, Is there such a Beloved?' we are not careful to answer in
this matter, for we know that there is; our love laughs at the
question, and does not condescend to answer it save by bidding those
who seriously inquire to come and see' for themselves. We have ever
found, beloved, that when a time of chilling doubt has come over us'and
such ague fits will come'we have only to return to meditations upon
Jesus and he becomes his own evidence by making our hearts burn within
us with love of his character and person, and then doubt is doomed. We
do not slay our unbelief by reason, but we annihilate it by affection.
The influence of love to Jesus upon the soul is so magical'I wish I had
a better word'so elevating, so ravishing, so transporting, it gives
such a peace, and withal inspires such holy and lofty aspirations, that
the effect proves the cause. That which is holy is true, and that which
is true cannot rise out of that which is false. We may safely judge a
tree by its fruit, and a doctrine by its result: that which produces in
us self-denial, purity, righteousness, and truth, cannot itself be
false, and yet the love of Jesus does this beyond everything else.
There must be truth for a cause where truth is the effect; and thus
love, by the savor which it spreads over the soul by contemplation of
Christ, puts its foot upon the neck of doubt and triumphantly utters
bold, confident declarations, which reveal the full assurance of faith.
New-born love to Jesus, while yet in its cradle, like a young Hercules,
takes the serpents of doubt and strangles them. He who can say from his
heart My Beloved,' is the man who is in the way to confirmed faith.
Love cannot, will not doubt; it casts away the crutches of argument and
flies on the wings of conscious enjoyment, singing her nuptial hymn, My
Beloved is mine, and I am his.'

In the case before us the love of the heavenly-minded one is perceived
and acknowledged by herself. My beloved,' saith she; it is no latent
affection, she knows that she loves him, and solemnly avows it. She
does not whisper, I hope I love the peerless one,' but she sings, My
beloved.' There is no doubt in her soul about her passion for the
altogether lovely one. Ah, dear friends, when you feel the flame of
love within your soul, and give it practical expression, you will no
longer inquire, Do I love the Lord or no? Then your inner consciousness
will dispense with evidences. Those are dark days when we require
evidences; well may we then fast, for the Bridegroom is not with us;
but when he abides with us, enjoyment of his fellowship supersedes all
evidences. I want no evidence to prove that food is sweet when it is
still in my month; I want no evidence of the existence of the sun when
I am basking in his beams, and enjoying his light, and even so we need
no evidence that Jesus is precious to us when, like a bundle of myrrh,
he perfumes our bosom. We are anxious doubters as to our safety, and
questioners of our own condition, because we are not living with Jesus
as we ought to be; but when he brings us to his banqueting house, and
we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with him
and with the Father, and then we believe and are sure, and our love to
Jesus is indisputable, because it burns within too fervently to be
denied. Why, when a Christian is in a right state, his love to Jesus is
the mightiest force in his nature, it is an affection which, like
Aaron's rod, swallows up all other rods; it is the mainspring of his
action, and sways his whole body, soul, and spirit. As the wind sweeps
over all the strings of the Alolian harp, and causes them all to
vibrate, so does the love of Jesus move every power and passion of our
soul, and we feel in our entire being that our Beloved is indeed ours,
and that we love him with all our hearts. Here, then, is the Beloved
realized, and our love realised too.

But the pith of the text lies here, our possession of him is proven, we
know it, and we know it on good evidence''My beloved is mine.' You know
it is not a very easy thing to reach this point. Have you ever thought
of the fact that to claim the Lord and call him my God,' is a very
wonderful thing? Who was the first man in the Old Testament who is
recorded as saying My God'? Was it not Jacob, when he slept at Bethel,
and saw the ladder which reached to heaven? Even after that heavenly
vision it took him touch effort to reach to My God.' He said If God
will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me
bread to eat and raiment to put On, so that I come again to my father's
house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.' Only after long
experience of divine goodness could he climb up to the height of saying
My God.' And who is the first man in the New Testament that calls Jesus
My Lord and My God'? It was Thomas, and he must needs have abundant
proofs before he can speak thus: Except I see in his hands the print of
the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my
hand into his side, I will not believe.' Only when he had received such
proofs could he exclaim My Lord and my God.' Blessed are they who reach
it by simpler faith, who have not seen and yet have believed. My
Beloved' is a strong expression. Beloved' is sweet, but MY Beloved' is
sweetest of all. If you think of it, it is no little thing to claim God
as ours, to claim Jesus the Beloved as ours, yea, to put it in the
singular, and call him mine; and yet, when the believer's heart is in
the right condition, he makes the claim, and is warranted in so doing;
for Jesus Christ is the portion of all believers. His Father gave him
to us, and he has given himself to us. Jesus was made over to every
believing soul, as his personal possession, in the eternal covenant
ordered in all things and sure; Jesus actually gave himself for us in
his incarnation, becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; he
has made himself ours by his passion and death, loving us and giving
himself for us, to save us from our sins; he has also given us power to
appropriate him by the gracious gift of faith, by which we are in very
deed married to him, and are enabled to call him the husband of our
souls, who is ours to have and to hold, for better for worse, for life
and for death, by a bond of marriage union which neither death nor
hell, time nor eternity, can break. Jesus is ours by the promise, the
covenant, and oath of God; a thousand assurances and pledges, bonds and
seals, secure him to us as our portion and everlasting heritage.

This precious possession becomes to the believer his sole treasure. My
beloved is mine,' saith he, and in that sentence he has summed up all
his wealth. He does not say My wife, my children, my home, my earthly
comforts are mine.' He is almost afraid to say so, because while he is
yet speaking, they may cease to be his: the beloved wife may sicken
before his eyes, the child may need a tiny coffin, the friend may prove
a traitor, and the riches may take to themselves wings, therefore the
wise man does not care to say too positively that anything here below
is his; indexed, he feels that in very truth they are not his, but only
lent to him to be returned anon'; but the Beloved is his own, and his
possession of him is most firm. Neither doth the believer when his soul
is in the best state so much rejoice even in his spiritual privileges
as in the Lord from whom they come. He has righteousness, wisdom,
sanctification and redemption; he has both grace and glory secured to
him, but he prefers rather to claim the fountain than the streams. He
clearly sees that these choice mercies are only his because they are
Christ's, and only his because Christ is his. Oh, what would all the
treasures of the covenant be to us if it were possible to have them
without Christ? Their very sap and sweetness would be gone. Having our
Beloved to be ours, we have all things in him, and therefore our main
treasure, yea, our sole treasure, is our Beloved. O ye saints of God,
was there ever possession like this? You have your beloveds, ye
daughters of earth, but what are your beloveds compared with ours? He
is the Son of God and the Son of Man! The darling of heaven and the
delight of earth! The lily of the valley and the rose of Sharon!
Perfect in his character, powerful in his atoning death, mighty in his
living plea! He is such a lover that all earthly loves put together are
not worthy to touch the hem of his garment, or loose the latchet of his
shoes. He is so dear, so precious, that words cannot describe him nor
pencil depict him, but this we will say of him, he is the chief among
ten thousand, and the altogether lovely,' and he is ours. Do you wonder
that we glory in this fact, and count this the crowning delight of our
lives, My beloved is mine'?

The very tenure upon which we hold this priceless possession is a
matter to glory in. O worldlings, you cannot hold your treasures as we
hold ours. If you knew all, you would never say of anything, It is
mine,' for your holding is too precarious to constitute possession. It
is yours till that frail thread of life shall snap, or that bubble of
time shall burst. You have only a leasehold of your treasures,
terminable at the end of one frail life; whereas ours is an eternal
freehold, an everlasting entail. My beloved is mine,''I cannot lose
him, nor can he be taken from me; he is mine for ever, for who shall
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? So
that, while the possession is rare, the tenure is rare also, and it the
life of our life, and the light of our delight that we can sing'

Yea, thou art mine, my blessed Lord,

O my Beloved, thou art mine!

And, purchased with thy precious blood,

My God and Savior, I am thine.

MY CHRIST! Oh, sing it in the heavens,

Let every angel lift his voice;

Sound with ten thousand harps his praise,

With me, ye heavenly hosts, rejoice.

The gift unspeakable is given,

The grace of God has made him mine;

And, now, before both earth and heaven,

Lord, I will own that I am thine.'

Now, beloved friends, I cannot talk about this as I feel, I can only
give you hints of that which fills me to the full with joy. I beg you
to contemplate for a single moment the delight which is stored up in
this fact, that the blessed Son of God, the brightness of the Father's
glory,' is all our own. Whatever else we may have, or may not have, he
is ours. I may not exhibit in my character all the grace I could wish,
but My beloved is mine'; I may have only one talent, but My beloved is
mine'; I may be very poor and very obscure, but My beloved is mine'; I
may have neither health nor wealth, but My beloved is mine'; I may not
be what I want to be, but My beloved is mine.' Yea, he is altogether
mine, his Godhead and his manhood, his life, his death, his attributes,
and prerogatives, yea, all he is, all he was, all he ever will be, all
he has done, and all he ever will do, is mine. I possess not a portion
in Christ, but the whole of him. All his saints own him, but I own him
as much as if there were never another saint to claim him. Child of
God, do you see this? In other inheritances, if there are many heirs,
there is so much the less for each, but in this great possession every
one who has Christ has a whole Christ all to himself, from the head of
much fine gold, down to his legs, which are as pillars of marble. The
whole of his boundless heart of love, his whole arm of infinite might,
and his whole head of matchless wisdom,'all is for thee, beloved.
Whoever thou mayst be, if thou dost indeed trust in Jesus, he is all
thine own.

My beloved is all mine, and absolutely mine; not mine to look at and
talk about merely, but mine to trust in, to speak to, to depend upon,
to fly to in every troublous hour, yea, mine to feed upon, for his
flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed. Our beloved is not
ours only to use in certain ways, but ours outright, without
restriction. I may draw what I will from him, and both what I take and
what I leave are mine. He himself in his ever glorious person is mine,
and mine always; mine when I know it, and mine when I do not know it,
mine when I am sure of it, and mine when I doubt it; mine by day, and
mine by night; mine when I walk in holiness, ay, and mine when I sin,
for if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous.' He is mine on the hill Mizar, and mine in the swellings
of Jordan; mine by the grave where I bury those I love, mine when I
shall be buried there myself, mine when I rise again; mine in judgment,
and mine in glory; for ever mine.

Note well that it is written, My beloved is mine,' in the singular. He
is yours, I am glad of it; but still to me it is most sweet that he is
mine. It is well to bless God that others have a possession in Christ,
but what would that avail if we were strangers to him ourselves? The
marrow and the fatness lie in the personal pronoun singular, My beloved
is mine. I am so glad that Jesus loves me.' Oh for a blessed grip with
both hands on such a Christ as this! Observe well that he is ours as
our Beloved, so that he is ours as whatever our love makes of him. Our
love can never praise him enough, or speak well enough of him, she
thinks all descriptions fall short of his deservings; well, then, Jesus
is ours at his best; if we think him so glorious, he is ours in all
that glory. Our love says that he is a fair, lovely, sweet, and
precious Christ, and let us be sure that, however lovely, sweet, and
precious he is, he is all ours. Our love says there is none like him,
he is King of kings and Lord of lords, he is the ever blessed; well, as
the King of kings and Lord of lords he is yours. You cannot think too
much of him, but when you think your best he is yours at that best. He
has not a glory so high that it is not yours, nor a lustre so brilliant
that it is not yours. He is my beloved, and I would fain extol him, but
never can I get beyond this golden circle, when I most extol him he is
still mine.

Here, then, is the basis of Christian life, the foundation on which it
rests: to know that most surely Christ is altogether ours is the
beginning of wisdom, the source of strength, the star of hope, the dawn
of heaven.

II. The second portion of the text deals with DELIGHTING TO BELONG TO
CHRIST. I am his.' This is as sweet as the former sentence. I would
venture to put a question to each loving wife here present'when you
were married which was the sweetest thought to you, that you were your
husband's, or that he was yours? Why, you feel that neither sentence
would be sweet alone: they are necessary to each other. Ask any fond,
loving heart which of these declarations could best be parted with, and
they will tell you that neither can be given us. Christ is mine, but if
I were not his it would be a sorry case, and if I were his and he were
not mine it would be a wretched business. These two things are joined
together with diamond rivets''My beloved is mine, and I am his.' Put
the two together, and you have reached the summit of delight.

That we are his is a fact that may be proveyea, it should need no
proving, but be manifest to all that I am his.' Certainly we are his by
creation: he who made us should have us. We are his because his Father
gave us to him, and we are his because he chose us. Creation, donation,
election are his triple hold upon us. We are his because he bought us
with his blood, his because he called us by his grace, his because he
is married to us, and we are his spouse. We are his, moreover, to our
own consciousness, because we have heartily, from the inmost depths of
our being, given ourselves up to him, bound by love to him for ever. We
feel we must have Christ, and be Christ's, or die''For me to live is
Christ.' Brethren and sisters, mind you attend to this clause, I am
sure you will if the former one is true to you. If you can say, My
beloved is mine,' you will be sure to add, I am his, I must be his, I
will be his: I live not unless I am his, for I count that wherein I am
not his I am dead, and I only live wherein I live to him.' My very soul
is conscious that I am his.

Now this puts very great honor upon as. I have known the time when I
could say My beloved is mine' in a very humble trembling manner, but I
did not dare to add I am his' because I did not think I was worth his
having. I dared not hope that I am his' would ever be written in the
same book side by side with My beloved is mine.' Poor sinner, first lay
hold on Jesus, and then you will discover that Jesus values you. You
will prize him first, and then you will find out that he prizes you,
and that though you do not feel worthy to be flung on a dunghill, yet
Jesus has put a value upon you, saying Since thou wert precious in my
sight thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee.' It is no small
joy to know that we poor sinners are worth Christ's having, and that he
has even said, They shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels.'

This second part of the text is true as absolutely as the first. I am
his''not my goods only, nor my time, nor my talents, nor what I can
spare, but I am his.' I fear that some Christians have never understood
this. They give the Lord a little of their surplus, which they never
miss. The poor widow who gave all her living, had the true idea of her
relation to her Lord. She would have put herself into the treasury if
she could, for she felt I am his.' As for myself, I wish I could be
dropped bodily through the little slit of Christ's treasure box, and be
in his casket for ever, never to be heard of any more as my own, but to
be wholly my Lord's. Paul desired to spend and be spent. It is not easy
to do those two things distinctly with money, for when you spend a
thing it is spent at one and the same time, but the apostle meant that
he would spend himself by activity, and then when he could do no more,
he would be glad to be spent by passive endurance for Christ's sake.
The believer feels that he belongs to Jesus absolutely; let the Lord
employ him as he may, or try him as he pleases; let him take away all
earthly friends from him or surround him with comforts; let him either
depress him or exalt him, let him use him for little things or great
things, or not use him at all, but lay him on the shelf; it is enough
that the Lord does it, and the true heart is content, for it truthfully
confesses, I am his. I have no mortgage or lien upon myself, so that I
can call a part of my being my own, but I am absolutely and
unreservedly my Lord's sole property.' Do you feel this, brethren and
sisters? I pray God you may.

Blessed be God, this is true evermore'I am his,' his to-day, in the
house of worship, and his to-morrow in the house of business; his as a
singer in the sanctuary, and his as a toiler in the workshop; his when
I am preaching, and equally his when I am walking the streets; his
while I live, his when I die; his when my soul ascends and my body lies
mouldering in the grave; the whole personality of my manhood is
altogether his for ever and for ever.

This belonging to the Well-beloved is a matter of fact and practice,
not a thing to be talked about only, but really to be acted on. I am
treading on tender ground now, but I would to God that every Christian
could really say this without lying: I do live unto Christ in all
things, for I am his. When I rise in the morning I wake up as his, when
I sit down to a meal I eat as his, and drink as his. I eat, and drink,
and sleep unto the Lord, in everything giving thanks unto him. It is
blessed even to sleep as the Lord's beloved, to dream as his Abrahams
and Jacobs do, to awake at night and sing like David, and then drop off
to sleep in Jesus.' It is a high condition,' say you. I grant it, but
it is where we ought to abide. The whole of our time and energy should
be consecrated by this great master principle, I am his.' Can you say
it? Never rest till you can. And if you can, beloved, it involves great
privilege. I am his,' then am I honored by having such an owner. If a
horse or a sheep is said to belong to the Queen, everybody thinks much
of it: now you are not the Queen's, but you are the Lord's, and that is
far more. Through belonging to Christ you are safe, for he will surely
keep his own. He will not lose his own sheep, he paid too dear a price
for them to lose them. Against all the powers of earth and hell the
Redeemer will hold his own and keep them to the end. If you are his he
will provide for you. A good husband careth for his spouse, and even
thus the Lord Jesus Christ cares for those who are betrothed unto him.
You will be perfected too, for whatever Christ has he will make worthy
of himself and bring it to glory. It is because we are his that we
shall get to heaven, for he has said, Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.' Because they are his he
would have them with him.

Now, give your thoughts licence to wonder that any one of us should be
able to say, I am his.' I who used to be so giddy and thought' less, So
sceptical, and perhaps profane, I am his.' Ay, and some of you can say,
I who used to be passionate and proud, I who was a drunkard, I whose
lips were black with blasphemy, I am his.' Glory he unto thee, O Jesus
Christ, for this, that thou hast taken up such worthless things as we
are and made us thine. No longer do we belong to this present evil
world, we live for the world to come. We do not even belong to the
church, so as to make it our master; we are part of the flock, but like
all the rest we belong to the Great Shepherd. We will not give
ourselves up to any party, or become the slave of any denomination, for
we belong to Christ. We do not belong to sin, or self, or Satan; we
belong entirely, exclusively, and irrevocably to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another master waits upon us and asks us to give our energies to his
services, but our answer is, I am already engaged.' How is that?' I
bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus, and therefore from
henceforth trouble me no more.' But can you not serve me in part?' No,
sir, I cannot serve two masters; I am not like a man who can do as he
pleases, I have no time to call my own.' How is that?' I belong to
Christ, I am wholly his. If there is anything to be done for him I am
his man to the best of my ability; I decline no service to which he
calls me, but I can serve no other Lord.' Lord Jesus, help each one of
us now to say'

I am thine, and thine alone,

This I gladly, fully own;

And in all my works and ways,

Only now would seek thy praise.'

III. To conclude: the saint feels DELIGHT IN THE VERY THOUGHT OF
CHRIST. He feedeth among the lilies.' When we love any persons, and we
are away from home, we delight to think of them, and to remember what
they are doing. You are a husband travailing in a foreign land; this
morning you said to yourself, At this time they are just getting up at
home.' Perhaps the time is different, for you are in another longitude,
and you say to yourself, Ah, now the dear children are just getting
ready to go to the Sabbath-school;' and by-and-by you think they are at
dinner. So delight in the thought of Christ made the church say, He
feedeth among the lilies.' She was pleased to think of where he was and
what he was doing.

Now, where is Jesus? What are these lilies? Do not these lilies
represent the pure in heart, with whom Jesus dwells? The spouse used
the imagery which her Lord had put into her mouth. He said As the lily
among thorns, so is my love among the daughters,' and she appropriates
the symbol to all the saints. A preacher who is great at spiritualizing
has well said on this verse, The straight stalk, standing up erect from
the earth, its flowers as high from the ground as possible, do they not
tell us of heavenly-mindedness? Do they not seem to say, set your
affection on things above, not on things on the earth'? And if the
spotless snow of the leaves teaches us of grace, then the gold of the
anthers tells us of that crown which shall be the reward of grace.' The
violet and the primrose in spring nestle close to the earth, as if in
sympathy with her chill condition, but the lily lifts up itself towards
heaven in sympathy with the summer's light and splendor. The lily is
frail, and such are the saints of God; were not Jesus among them to
protect them the wild beast would soon tread them down. Frail as they
are, they are surpassingly lovely, and their beauty is not that which
is made with hands. It is a beauty put upon them by the Lord, for they
toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these.' The saints work not for life, and spin no
righteousness of their own, and yet the royal righteousness which
adorns them far surpasses all that wisdom could devise or wealth
procure.

Where, then, is my Lord to-day? He is up and away, among the lilies of
Paradise. In imagination I see those stately rows of milkwhite lilies
growing no longer among thorns: lilies which are never soiled with the
dust of earth, which for ever glisten with the eternal dews of
fellowship, while their roots drink in unfading life from the river of
the water of life which waters the garden of the Lord. There is Jesus!
Can you see him? He is fairer even than the lilies which bow their
heads around him. But he is here too where we are, like lilies which
have scarce opened yet, lily buds as yet, but still watered by the same
river, and yielding in our measure the same perfume. O ye lilies of
Christ's own planting, he is among you; Jesus is in this house to-day,
the unction which has made his garments so fragrant is discerned among
us.

But what is he doing among the lilies? It is said, He feedeth among the
lilies.' He is feeding himself, not on the lilies, but among them. Our
Lord finds solace among his people. His delights are with the sons of
men; he joys to see the graces of his people, to receive their love,
and to discern his own image in their faces. As he said to the woman of
Samaria, Give me to drink,' so does he say to each one of his people,
Give me to drink,' and he is refreshed by their loving fellowship. But
the text means that he is feeding his people. He feedeth that part of
his flock redeemed by blood of which we read that the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them into living
fountains of waters.' Nor does he forget that part of his bock which is
in the low lands of earth, but he gives them also their portion of
food. He has fed us this morning, for he is the good Shepherd, and
leaves none of his sheep to famish.

Then what shall I do? Well, I will abide among the lilies. His saints
shall be my companions. Where they flourish I will try to grow. I will
be often in their assemblies. Ay, and I will be a lily too. By faith I
will neither toil nor spin in a legal fashion, but I will live by faith
upon the Son of God, rooted in him. I would be pure in life, and I
would have the golden anther of looking to the recompense of the
reward. I would lift up my soul aloft' towards heaven as the lily lifts
up its flower. Jesus will come and feed by my side if I am a lily, and
even I may yield him some pleasure by my humble gratitude.

Beloved, this is a choice subject, but it is more sweet as a matter of
fact than mere hearing can make it. He feedeth among the lilies.' This
is our joy, that Christ is in his church, and the pith of all I want to
say is this; never think of yourself or of the church apart from Jesus.
The spouse says, My beloved is mine, and I am his', she weaves the two
into one. The cause of the church is the cause of Christ; the work of
God will never be accomplished by the church apart from Christ, her
power lies in his being in her midst. He feedeth among the lilies, and
therefore those lilies shall never be destroyed, but their sweetness
shall make fragrant all the earth. The church of Christ, working with
her Lord, must conquer, but never if she tries to stand alone or to
compass any end apart from him.

As for each one of us personally, let us not think of ourselves apart
from Christ, nor of Christ apart from us. Let George Herbert's prayer
be ours.

Oh, be mine still, still make me thine,

Or rather make nor mine nor thine.'

Let mine melt into thine. Oh, to have joint stock with Christ, and to
trade under one name; to be married to Christ and lose our old name,
and wast his name, and say, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me.' As the wife is lost in the husband, and the stone in the building,
and the branch in the vine, and the member in the head, we would be so
amalgamated with Christ, and have such fellowship with him that there
shall be no more mine nor thine.

Last of all, poor sinner, you will say, There is nothing in all this
for me,' and I should not like to send you away without a word. You are
saying This is a day of good tidings, but it is only for God's own
people.' I beg you to read through the first and second chapters of the
Song, and see who it was that said, My beloved is mine,' because I
should not wonder but what you are very like her. She was one who
confessed, I am black', and so are you. Perhaps grace will, one of
these days, help you to say, I am comely.' She was one with whom her
mother's children were angry'perhaps you, too, are a speckled bird. She
had done servile work, for they made her a keeper of the vineyards. I
should not wonder but what you are doing servile work, too, trying to
save yourself instead of accepting the salvation which Jesus has
already wrought out for sinners. So it came to pass that she became
very sorrowful and passed through a winter of rain and cold. Perhaps
you are there; and yet you know she came out of it her winter was past,
and the birds began to sing. She had been hidden in the secret places
of the stairs, as you are now; but she was called out from the dust and
cobwebs to see the face of her Lord.

One thing I wish to whisper in your ears'she was in the clefts of the
rock. O soul, if thou canst but get there, if thou canst shelter in the
riven side of our Beloved, that deep gash of the spear from which
flowed blood and water, to be of sin the double cure'; if thou canst
get there, I say, though thou be black and grimed with sin, and an
accursed sinner, only fit to be a firebrand in hell, yet shalt thou,
even thou, be able to sing with all the rapture of the liveliest saint
on earth, and one day with all the transport of the brightest ones
above, My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.'
There, go your way with those silver bells ringing in your ears; they
ring a marriage peal to saints, but they ring also a cheery invitation
to sinners, and this is the tune they are set to'Come and welcome! Come
and welcome! Come and welcome! Sinner, come! God bless you, for Jesus'
sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Song of Solomon 2.

HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK''660, 663, 614.

The Turning Point.'
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For Whom Did Christ Die?