Spices, Flowers, Lilies and Myrrh

Spices, Flowers, Lilies and Myrrh

(No. 2479)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 23, 1896.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST
5, 1880.

"His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: His lips like
lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh." Song of Solomon 5:13.

IN this chapter the spouse describes in detail the Person of her
Beloved. She is not satisfied with saying, "He is altogether lovely,"
but she delights to talk of the charms of each part of His sacred
Person and to picture the beauties of His Divine form and features, so
that thereby she may, perhaps, win some other heart, first to admire
and then to love Him.

Dear Friends, there are some things about which you will be wise not to
go into details. You had better speak in general terms of half the
things on earth, for if you once describe them in detail, you will have
to confess that they are marred by a thousand imperfections! You may be
content to give merely a surface glance at them, for if you dive
beneath the surface, you will soon discover much that will alter your
opinion of the thing that, at first sight, looked so lovely. But it is
not so with Jesus, our Well-Beloved! You may talk of Him as long as you
please and praise Him as much as you can, yet you will never discover
that you have exaggerated His excellences. You may go into detail about
Him and dwell with much minuteness upon everything relating to His
Character, His offices, His Words, His deeds and you shall be made to
wonder at the perfection of each one of them. You may apply the
microscope to Christ. You may examine His little things, if, indeed,
anything can be little that refers to Him. You may look into the deep
things of Christ, the hidden things of Christ, His secrets–and the
more closely you look, the more you will be amazed, astonished and
filled with delight!

It is of Christ, the Heavenly Bridegroom, that we perceive the spouse
to be speaking and mentioning in detail at least 10 particulars,
dwelling with delight upon the beauties of His head and His locks, His
eyes and His cheeks, His lips and His hands and every part of Him. And,
Beloved Friends, I think it shows true love to Christ when we want to
speak at length upon everything that concerns Him. The general Hearer
says, "Oh, yes, yes! Of course, Christ is the Son of God and He is also
perfect Man–I believe that." But he does not want you to go into
minute particulars concerning your Lord. It is not so with those who
truly love the Savior–they wish to know all that can be known about
Him. True love likes to become familiar with the object of its
affection–its heart is set upon that object. It studies it and can
never know it too well or too closely. True love to Christ thinks of
Him from morning till night. It is glad to be released from other
thoughts that it may follow only its one darling pursuit. True love to
Christ seeks to get to Him, to live with Him, to live upon Him and thus
to know Him so intimately that things which were unobserved and passed
over at the first, stand out in clear light to the increased joy and
delight of the contemplative mind! I wish, dear Friends, that we had
many more of those people who study Christ from head to foot that they
may learn all that can be learned about Him–those who would be able,
with the spouse, to talk of His charms and beauties in detail–and to
describe them as she does with rapturous delight!

You know how very unacquainted many people are with the Song of
Solomon–they shut up this Book of Canticles in despair and say that
they cannot understand its meaning. You will find that it is just the
same with every truly spiritual thing! If you put into the hands of any
one of them a deeply spiritual book, he will say, "I cannot comprehend
what the writer means. The man seems to be in a rapture and I cannot
make out what he is aiming at by such writing." Just so. Unspiritual
people are all at sea in spiritual things and even some of God's
children, who know Christ so as to be saved by Him, seem to be
altogether out of their depth when you begin to speak of the things
which you have made touching the King, or dilate upon those special
Truths of God which only experience and fellowship with Christ can
reveal to the soul. In speaking upon our text, I am sure that I shall
not say toomuchin praise of my Lord and Master! My fear is that I shall
not say a thousandth part as much as He deserves–and yet, perhaps, it
shall seem but trivial talk to some who as yet do not know that one
hair of His head is worth more than the whole world and that one drop
of His precious blood has an eternal efficacy about it. On the other
hand, I know that I shall not speak too enthusiastically for those
whose hearts are warm with love to Christ. May the Lord, in great
mercy, make us all to have such hearts, and He shall have all the
praise!

There are two things I shall speak of as I may be helped by the Holy
Spirit. First, Christ looked upon is very lovely– "His cheeks are as a
bed of spices, as sweet flowers." Secondly, Christ listened to is very
precious–"His lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh." There
is an important distinction between the two heads of my discourse that
I want you to notice before I proceed further, for there is a
considerable difference between Christ looked upon and Christ listened
to. There are some who listen to Christ's Gospel and they do well. But
those who also look with eyes of love upon His sacred Person. Those who
contemplate not only what He says but what He is. Those who delight to
know not only what He taught but what He is who taught it–these are
they who have penetrated yet further into the mysteries of Christ.

I. With these we begin as we consider our first point–CHRIST LOOKED
UPON IS VERY LOVELY. Note that these saints first see their Lord's
loveliness and then they say concerning Him, "His cheeks are as a bed
of spices, as sweet flowers." But why do they mention His cheeks?

I suppose, first, because every part of Christ is inexpressibly
delightful. Take any portion of His Countenance that you may and it has
surpassing beauty about it. The spouse had already spoken about her
Beloved's head, locks and eyes–now she mentions His cheeks. Any sight
of Christ is delightful–a single passing glimpse of Him is a foretaste
of Heaven, the beginning of Paradise! Though you see but little of
Christ, yet if it is Christ whom you really see, that sight will save
you! Though you see Christ, as it were, with but one eye, and though
that eye is dim, and though that dim eye is filled with tears, yet if
you do but see Him at all, that sight will save you–and just in
proportion as you are able to see Him, your delight will increase! A
sight of Him in anycapacity and under any form has great richness of
sweetness in it.

Think for a moment what is meant by a sight of, "His cheeks. Though you
may not yet see the majesty of His brow as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Though you may not perceive the brightness of the lightning
flashes of His eyes, which are as a flame of fire. Though you may
scarcely be able to imagine, at present, what will be the Glory of His
Second Advent–yet if you can but see the cheeks that He gave to the
smiters–if you do but know something of Him as the suffering Savior,
you shall find that there is inexpressible delight in Him and, with the
spouse, you will say, "His cheeks are as a bed of spices." To a
believing soul, then, there is great delight in every part of the Lord
Jesus Christ.

But, I think the saints see great loveliness in those parts of Christ
which have been most despised. Just now I mentioned the cheek as one of
those parts of Christ's blessed body that were exposed to special
shame, as Isaiah foretold, using, by Inspiration, the very words of the
Messiah in His agony–"I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to
them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and
spitting." Oh, if we could but see Him, now! If we could but gaze upon
His face as it is in Glory, what a subject of meditation it would be to
think that ever the spit of cruel mockers did run down those blessed
cheeks–that infinite loveliness was insulted with inconceivable
contempt–the holy face of the Incarnate Son of God distained with the
accursed spit of brutal men! [See sermon #2473, Volume 42–"An Awful
Contrast"] O my Soul, how low your Lord has stooped! Can you really
believe it possible that it should have been so? Yes, you know that it
was so, yet, is it not sad to think that His dear face, which is as the
sun shining in his strength, which is, indeed, the very Heaven of
heavens, the light of the Temple of God above–is it not sad to think
that His face should have been spit upon for your sake and because of
your sin and your iniquity? Alas, that each of us had a part in that
shameful deed–

"My Jesus! Who with spittle vile Profaned Your sacred brow? Or whose
unpitying scourge has made Your precious blood to flow? 'Tis I have
thus ungrateful been Yet, Jesus, pity take! Oh, spare and pardon me, my
Lord,

For Your sweet mercy's sake!"

"It was I, with my vain and idle talk, with my false and proud speech,
that did spit into that dear face." How sad that He should ever have
been made to suffer so! O glorious love, that He should be willing,
even, to stoop to this terrible depth of ignominy that He might lift us
up to dwell with Him on high! So, I say again, every part of Christ is
lovely, but that which has been most despised and most subjected to
suffering and shame for us is the peculiar subject of our delightful
contemplation.

And next, my Brothers and Sisters, those parts of Christ in which we do
not immediately see any special office or use are, nevertheless,
peculiarly lovely to the saints. I can gaze by faith on the brow of Him
who plans for me and admire His infinite wisdom. I can think of the
eyes of Him who looks in love upon me and bless Him for His care. I can
praise the lips that speak for me in Heaven and that speak to me upon
earth–and I can bless the matchless eloquence that never ceases to
plead for me and with me. But as for the cheeks of Christ, what do they
do for me? What peculiar function have they to perform? I fear that we
are all too apt to ask concerning Christ, "How is this to work for our
advantage and how is that to turn out for our profit?" Has it come to
this–that we are never to love Christ except when we see that we are
profited by Him? If there is an abstruse doctrine, as we think it, that
does not appear to have a practical outlook, are we, therefore, never
to speak of it? If we cannot see that we derive comfort, or profit, or
sanctification from some teaching which may be high, mysterious,
sublime, so that we do not see whereunto it tends, yet, Beloved, are we
to refuse to think of it?

Until the question, "Cui bono?"shall have been answered, will we seal
up that sacred page and never read it? Do you care only for the lips
that speak to you? Have you no love for the cheeks that are silent? Do
you care for nothing but for the eyes that are watching over you? If
there comes to you nothing from those cheeks of your Lord, yet shall
they not be to you, "as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers"? The fact
is, we are not to judge concerning Christ in any such fashion as this.
On the contrary, if there is any duty which Christ has commanded, but
which, instead of seeming to be easy and profitable to us, is hard and
requires that we should give so much that Judas will cry out, "To what
purpose is this waste?" let us never mind him, but break our alabaster
boxes and pour out the sweet perfume upon our dear Master! Let the
cheeks that seem to have no special office to fulfill–let that part of
Christ or of Christianity that seems to serve no end that we can
see–be, nevertheless, precious to us! These are His cheeks, therefore
are they precious to me! This duty is a command from Hm, therefore I
must perform it! And this doctrine, of which I do not see the practical
end, is, nevertheless, a doctrine of His teaching–therefore I accept
it with delight!

But further, Beloved children of God, the followers of Christ have an
intense admiration, an almost infinite love for that part of Christ by
which they are able to commune with Him and, perhaps, that is one
reason why His cheeks are here mentioned. The cheek is the place of
fellowship where we exchange tokens of love. What a blessing it is that
Christ should have had a cheek for the lips of love to approach and to
kiss! What a privilege it is that it always should be possible for a
loving heart to express its affection to Christ! If He had accepted us
and then put us right away from Him and said, "There, you may love Me,
but you must never tell Me of it." If we were conscious that when we
did talk of our love to Christ, He never knew it, for He was far away
and high above us–and did not care for such poor love as ours–in such
a case He would not be half such a Christ as He now is to us. If He had
taken Himself away to the ivory palaces and had shut the door and if,
when we tried to gaze up at Him, He only looked down upon us with His
countenance "as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars," but never stooped to
where we were, that He might commune with us, and that we might tell
Him the story of our love–He would not be half as sweet to us as He is
now!

Many of you know what it is to pray right into His very ear in the time
of your sorrow and you also know what it is to speak right into His ear
in the hour of your joy! And, sometimes, when you have been alone with
Him (now I am talking of the deep things of Christ, of the pearls which
are not to be cast before swine)–you know that He has heard what you
have said to Him. You have been as certainly assured that He has been
listening to your declaration as if, like Peter, you had heard Him ask,
"Do you love Me?" and you had answered, "Lord, You know all things; you
know that I love You." And you have been delighted with the thought
that He didknow that you loved Him and that you might tell Him that it
was so! You also rejoiced that you could go forth into the world and do
something that He would see you do, something that you did not do for
the sake of the Church, much less for your own sake, but which you did
all for Him, just as you would give Him the kisses of love upon His own
cheeks, which are, "as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers."

Those of you who have been in communion with Christ know what I mean
and you know that anything by which you come into close contact with
Christ is very, very delightful to you.

How greatly we rejoice to think of Christ's Humanity because we feel
that it brings Him very near to us! He is our Brother! He feels what we
feel and through His Humanity this wondrous Man is next of kin to us!
He who is truly God is also our near Kinsman, bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh! How the blessed doctrine of the union of the saints
with Christ delights us as we remember that "we are members of His
body, of His flesh and of His bones"! How the wondrous Truth of the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit charms us because the same Spirit that
rested upon Him also rests upon us! And the holy oil that was first
poured upon Him, who is the Head, descends even to us who are as the
hem of the garment that reaches to the ground! It is the same Spirit
that is upon Him that is upon us and so, again, we are one with Him.
Does not this Truth of God also make prayer very sweet as the means of
getting to Christ? And does it not make praise very sweet as another
means of communicating with Christ? And oh, though some put the sacred
Table of the Lord out of its proper place, yet to the communion of the
body of Christ, it is a dear and blessed ordinance! Often do we know
Him in the breaking of bread when we have not recognized Him, even
though He has talked with us by the way. So, you see, the saints
delight in those Truths concerning Christ which enable them to have
fellowship with Him and thus they realize what the spouse meant when
she said, "His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers."

I have thus tried to show you that the saints see great beauty in
Christ when they look upon Him. But now I have to remind you that
saints also labor to tell others of the loveliness of Christ when they
look upon Him. In this blessed service, however, they must, in part,
labor in vain, for, as we have often sung–

"Living tongues are dumb at best, We must die to speak of Christ." I
suppose that even he who has seen Christ in Heaven could not fully tell
us of His beauties. Paul has not told us much of what He heard in
Paradise, though he told all he could tell after he had been caught up
to the third Heaven. He "heard unspeakable words, which it is not
lawful (or possible) for a man to utter." Oh, how one longs for but a
moment's sight of Christ in Glory! One might be content to have only a
dry crust and to lie in an underground dungeon for the rest of one's
life, if one might but gaze on His blessed face, for once, and hear Him
say, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Perhaps you think you
would have a deal to tell if that were your blessed experience, but,
Beloved, you might not have anythingto tell–you would only feel less
able to speak than you ever were before! You would be so dazzled, so
astonished, so amazed at the Glory of Christ that, perhaps, you might
never be able to speak at all!

The spouse, however, in our text tries to speak of the loveliness of
Christ by comparisons. She cannot do it with one emblem–she must have
two concerning His cheeks–they are "as a bed of spices," "as sweet
flowers."

Notice, in the metaphors used by the spouse, that there is a blending
of sweetness and beauty–"as a bed of spices"–there is sweetness. And
then, "as sweet flowers"–there is beauty. There is sweetness to the
nostrils and beauty to the eyes–spice for its fragrance and flowers
for their loveliness. In Christ there is something for every spiritual
sense and for every spiritual sense there is a complete satisfaction
and delight in Him. Look at Him and He is to your sight as sweet
flowers! Get a spiritual taste of Him and then He is as honey and the
honeycomb! Take, as it were, a spiritual smell of Him and you shall
find that He is "as a bed of spices." Touch Him, or hear Him and it
shall be just the same–you shall find the daintiest, the highest, the
most harmonious feelings your spirit ever knew when you do but approach
Him with any spiritual sense in full exercise. Our blessed Master may
be viewed from every side and yet He is perfect from every aspect. We
have seen Him far above us. There are few things that look well when
set up aloft and gazed at from below– but He does. We shall one day
see Him side by side and I guarantee you that we shall count Him
lovely, then, even as we reckon Him lovely now! Angels have looked down
upon Him from above, gazing on Him when He was here on earth, and He
was infinitely lovely to their vision. Seen by daylight or by
moonlight, seen in the crowd or seen in solitude, seen in our days of
sorrow or seen in our times of joy, our Lord Jesus possesses all kinds
of loveliness compacted into one perfect loveliness–all perfections
blended to make one perfection–every sweet concocted and distilled to
make one perfect sweetness. Well, therefore, may His spouse pile up the
metaphors and blend sweet spices with fragrant flowers in trying to
describe His charms!

Notice that when the spouse is speaking of the cheeks of her Beloved,
she brings in the idea of abundance–spices, yes, "a bedof spices."
Flowers–not one or two, but, according to the Hebrew, "towers of
perfume," which I understand to mean those raised beds which we delight
to have in our gardens, where there are many flowers set in order,
forming charming banks of beauty. No doubt Solomon had some of those in
his garden, for, "there is nothing new under the sun." And those raised
beds of dainty flowers are fit emblems of the beauteous cheeks of
Christ, with their delicate tints of white and red. So in Christ there
is infinite abundance.

There is also in Christ infinite variety. There is in Him all you can
need of any one thing and there is more than all you can need of
everything! There is all that your soul could take in of any one thing
and more than your soul could take in if it were multiplied a million
times and could take in a million precious things at once! There is all
you ever have needed and all you ever will need. Did I say, "need"?
There is in Christ all you can desire, for that is one of His names,
"He Is All Desires." When you get to Heaven and have a larger heart
than you at present possess. When your soul shall be spacious as the
sea. If it could be vast as the universe itself, still He would be able
to fill it and still to be, Himself, overflowing with blessing! There
is abundance in Him and there is variety. Oh, what a Christ He is! "As
a bed of spices, and as sweet flowers."

The spouse's metaphors seem to me, also, to suggest use and delight.
She speaks of spices, for which there is practical use in surgery and
in medicine, for preservation and for perfume. And she also mentions
sweet flowers, for which there may not be any particular use, but which
are charming for ornament and for the delectation of taste. So, dear
Friends, in Christ Jesus there is all that we need, but there is a
great deal more! There is something beside and beyond our actual
necessities–there are many spiritual luxuries. I like, at the Lord's
Table, to think to myself, "Here is bread, that is the staff of life,
but what is that in the cup? Wine! Ah, why not water? Here is more than
I need, for I can live without wine but the Lord says that I shall not
do so. He will not only give His people the best things, but the best
of the best! When our Lord keeps house, He does not allow us just so
many ounces of bread and so many ounces of meat, as they do in the
workhouse, but He says, "Eat that which is good, and let your soul
delight itself in fatness." The Bridegroom cries, "Eat, O friends!
Drink, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved!" And He does not merely bring
out wine, but you know how it is described–"wines on the less
well-refined." Christianity is not the bond slave's starvation
allowance that some people make it out to be–duty, doing and serving
to win Christ and to keep up your position–and I know not what
besides. It is heirship with Christ, the possession in Him of
everything and the privilege of living up to our royal income–oh that
we could attain to that high style of living! "All things are yours."
Then claim them as your own! God has given you His dear Son and He has
given you Himself, for He has said, "I will be their God." Then live
with the joy that a man ought to have who has Jehovah to be his God and
Jesus Christ to be his Savior! The Lord has given us everything–then
let us live at the rate ofjoy that a man ought to have who possesses
everything! God bring us to that happy state!

"His cheeks"–those features of the Beloved which do not, at first,
seem likely to yield us anything–"are as a bed of spices, as sweet
flowers," inexpressibly precious, yielding to us both what we need and
what shall delight and overflow our souls. You see, Beloved, what
saints think of Christ–let each one of us ask himself and herself, "Do
I think thus of Him? Do I thus admire Him? Is He everything to me?"
These are sure marks of a true Christian, that he loves his Master and
praises Him. There is many a poor child of God who is half afraid that
he is not in the number of God's people, but he says, "I love Jesus.
Oh, I would do anything to glorify Him." My dear Friend, do not ever
get the idea that you love Him without His loving you! You may be quite
sure that the reason why you love Him is because He first loved you.
And if you love Him very much, you may rest assured that He loves you a
great deal more! If you have but a spark of love to Him in your heart,
He has a furnace of love to you in His heart! If your love to Him is
but as a single grain, His love to you is abundant as the richest
harvest! His love to you is as much above your love to Him as the
heavens are higher than the earth!

Oh, that we did but think more highly of Christ! Perhaps it may help us
to do so if we consider how worthy He is of that love and how
wondrously His thoughts of us exceed our thoughts of Him. I sometimes
feel very sad when I think about some who profess to be the Lord's
people. Ah, me, there are many who, I hope, may prove to be His people,
but they do not reflect much credit on Him. Some of God's children are
a very strange lot–if we had such sons and daughters as God has, some
of us would never be able to bear with them at all–we would be
impatient with them and turn them out of doors to get on as best they
could by themselves. When you get sick, sad and weary of God's people,
turn your thoughts to God, Himself, and if ever you see any spots in
the Church, Christ's bride, look at her glorious Husband and you will
only love Him the more as you think of His wondrous condescension in
having loved such a poor thing as His Church is, even at her best!

Think how bright He is, how glorious, how surpassing are His charms
that they can be seen even through the defects and imperfections of His
redeemed ones! We may well marvel that ever such love as His could have
been lavished upon such unworthy beings as His people are. Do not get
depressed and distressed, dear Friends, because of your own
imperfections, or the imperfections of others! Or if you do, quickly
rise again to fight against sin under the blessed conviction that there
are no imperfections in Him–that He is altogether lovely, altogether
sweet–and that the day must come when we, who are one with Him even
now, shall be like He is, for we shall see Him as He is. Complete
sanctification will be the lot of every redeemed soul! If we have known
the Lord and have already had something of His likeness, we shall go on
to know Him till we are perfect in that likeness. Let that blessed
consummation be the subject of our constant prayer and our confident
expectation.

II. Now, secondly, and but briefly, let us turn to the other part of
our text–"His lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh." These
words teach us that CHRIST LISTENED TO IS VERY PRECIOUS. When He is
silent, and we only look at Him, He is lovely to our eyes. But when He
speaks, we can see "His lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh."

Notice, first, that it is well, whenever we hear the voice of Jesus
Christ, to try to see the blessed Person who is speaking. The Gospel is
very precious to those of us who know its power, but, beyond all
question, Christ Himself is even more precious than His Gospel. It is
delightful to read any promise of the Scriptures, but it is more
delightful to come into communion with the faithful Promiser. The time
when I can most enjoy a promise from the Word of God is when it seems
to me as if it must have been written only yesterday–on purpose to
meet my case–or as if I could see the eternal pen writing every one of
the strokes and making them all for me! Whenever you hear one of the
Lord's promises, think of the Divine lips that spoke it and you will
love the promise all the better because you have thought of the lips
that uttered it. The spouse does not say in our text, "His Words are
sweet," but she speaks of, "His lips like lilies, dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh." Why should we not believe more in a personal
Christ and why should we not always see the connection between the
mercy and the hand that gives it, and between the promise and the lips
that speak it?

Some of you may remember William Huntington's story that I have
sometimes quoted to you about an old farmer, who, when one of his
daughters was married, gave her a thousand pounds as a wedding present.
There was another daughter and her father did not give hera thousand
pounds when she was married, but he gave her something as a wedding
present and then he kept on, pretty nearly every day in the week,
sending her what he called "the hand-basket portion, with father's
love." And so in the long run she received a great deal more than her
sister did! It was not given all at the same time and then done
with–but it kept on coming–now a sack of flour, and then this, and
that, and the other, always, "with father's love." And so she had far
more than the thousand pounds and she also had far more of his love. I
like, when I get a mercy, to have it come to me with my Heavenly
Father's love. Just my daily portion as I need it–not given all in a
lump, so that I might go away with it into a far country, as we are
sure to do if we have all our mercy at once–but given day by day, as
the manna fell, with our Heavenly Father's love every time–a fresh
token of Infinite Grace and Infinite Love! So, you see, the mercy leads
you to think of the hand that gives it and of the Father who sends it,
as in the text it is not the words of the Beloved, but His lips which
the spouse says are "like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh."

Notice the comparison in the text–lilies–not white lilies, of course,
but red lilies, crimson lilies, lilies of such a color as are
frequently to be seen which would be a suitable emblem of the Beloved's
lips. Christ's lips are peculiarly delightful to us, for it is with
them that He speaks to us and intercedes with the Father for us. When
He pleads as the Intercessor on behalf of a poor soul like me, His lips
are, indeed, in God's sight, like lovely lilies. The Father looks at
His dear Son's lips and He is charmed with them and blesses us because
of Christ's intercession. And whenever Christ turns round, and speaks
to us, shall we not listen at once, with eyes and ears wide open, as we
say, "I like to watch His lips as He is speaking, for His lips are to
me as lilies"?

I suppose this comparison means that Christ's lips are very pure, as
the lily is the purest of flowers, and that they are very gentle, for
we always associate the lily with everything that is tender, soft and
kind. There is not a thorn about it as there is with the rose. We speak
not of it as Herbert did of the rose–

"Whose hue, angry and brave, Bids the rash gazer wipe his eyes."

It is not so. The lily is all tenderness and is without a thorn, though
often it may be found growing among thorns. The lily is also
inconceivably beautiful and so is Christ in speaking to His people.
"Never man spoke like this Man." The very words of Christ are the
loftiest poetry and the sweetest music! Though they sometimes make us
weep, great joy lies deeply hidden beneath the grief He causes to our
spirits. "His lips are like lilies."

But, dear Friends, the spouse's comparison fails, for she said, "His
lips, like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh." Lilies do not do
this, but Christ does! He is more than a lily, or He is a lily of such
a sort as never bloomed on earth except once! He was the only lily that
ever dropped sweet-smelling myrrh! The spouse says that His lips do
that–what does this mean? Does it not mean that His Word is often full
of a very sweet, mysterious, blessed influence? You have come here
often and it is not because I have spoken that there has been a
blessing to your souls. When I have set forth Christ to you–and I have
no other theme but Christ–there have often come to you mysterious
droppings. You have had singular feelings in your spirit caused by the
secret oozing of the Word of God, the flowing out from the Word, and
flowing in into your spirit, causing you to say, "What a change has
come over me! I went into God's House very heavy, but I came away quite
relieved. I went in there perplexed and worried, but I came away
knowing clearly what I ought to do. I went in there cold and chilly,
and feeling myself at a distance from God, but I came out ready to
dance with the sense of His realized Presence!" Ah, that change has
been caused by some of the sweet-smelling myrrh that has dropped from
the lips of Christ!

There are many people who meet with us on the Sabbath who do not care
to come out to the week-night services. I take the week-night
attendance as somewhat of a test of piety–any hypocrite will come out
on a Sunday, but it is not every hypocrite who will come out on a
Thursday night, though some do, I dare say! But still, the most of them
are for a Sunday religion only–a week-day religion they do not need.
That is to say, they will feed on the Word after a fashion and worship
God after a fashion, when most other people do! But give me that
religion that loves to creep out on a week-night and is willing to take
a back seat if it may but get a bit of spiritual food! Give me that man
who says, "My soul must be fed. I have been tearing about all this
week, almost worn out with fatigue and perplexed with a great many
cares–it is a delightful thing to be able to get into the House of
Prayer to hear about Christ and to feed on Him." Oh, you who eat your
morsels in secret behind the door, I believe more in you than in those
who sit openly at the table, but who never have a secret feast at all!

"Oh, but!" says one, "I do not hear the Word to profit." No, of course
you do not! You see, you are looking to the lips of a man. But if you
look to the lips of the Master, you will find that "His lips are as
lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh." You may have heard the story of
the lady who was present when Mr. Ebenezer Erskine preached at a Scotch
Communion Service. She thought she had never heard such a man in all
her life! He preached Christ so sweetly that she was charmed. She
enquired where he was to preach the next Sabbath and she left her own
place of worship to go to hear Mr. Erskine again. But it was a
dreadfully dry discourse, she said, and she was foolish enough to go
into the vestry and say to the preacher, "My dear Sir, I have been
bitterly disappointed in hearing you this morning. I heard you last
Sabbath and you so extolled Christ that I enjoyed the service above
measure. So I thought I would come again to hear you, but now I have
got nothing." "No, Madam," replied the good man, "last Sabbath you went
to worship God and to feed on Christ, so you received the blessing you
sought. Today, you came to hear Mr. Erskine, and you have heard me, but
you have missed the blessing."

Oh, dear Friends, beware of going to places of worship merely to hear
men! Of course you must hear a man speaking, but go with this
view–that those lips which are as lilies, dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh, should be the lips to which you really are listening! Be praying
all the time, "Lord, speak to me through the minister. Speak to me
through the hymn. Speak to me through the prayer, speak to me through
any part of the service–yes, speak through the speaker's not speaking
if You will–only speak to me! Let those dear lips of Yours drop
sweet-smelling myrrh into my soul!" Pray thus and you shall not be
disappointed, you can be sure of that.

This blessing is what you and I must seek after day by day, for we need
this myrrh for the healing of the wounds that sin has made. We need
this myrrh in our spiritual worship that we may offer it up to God. We
need this myrrh to perfume us and make our lives fragrant in the midst
of our daily cares. We need this myrrh to kill the contagion that
abounds in this wicked world–and we shall get it through the Word of
God when it comes fresh from the lips of Christ! O God, bring us all
into this blessed state!

I close by saying that if there are any here present who do not prize
the Word of God, who have no care to listen to the lips of Christ, I
pray God that they may speedily be converted, for if they are not, they
shall hear Him speak when His lips shall not be as lilies, but as a
flaming fire! And His Word that shall be spoken, then, shall burn as an
oven, and His enemies shall be consumed thereby! God give Grace to such
as have not believed in Jesus to look to Him and listen to Him now!
"Incline your ears," He says, "and come to Me: hear, and your soul
shall live." Yes, He says, "Look to Me, and be you saved, all the ends
of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." May God give His
blessing to these words, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.