The Apple Tree in the Woods

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 6, 1873,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my Beloved among
the sons." Song of Solomon 2:3.

BY the apple tree would probably be intended by the oriental writer
either the citron, or the pomegranate, or the orange. I suppose he did
not refer to the apple tree of our gardens, for it would scarcely be
known to him. The word would not, however, be properly rendered if we
confined it to any of the three fruit trees we have mentioned, or if we
excluded our own apple from it, for the term apple comprehends all
large round fruit not enclosed in a shell. And so we may, without
making any mistake, think of the apple tree of our own English orchards
and the metaphor will stand good, except that the shadow of our apple
tree at home is hardly so excellent a retreat from the sun as the
shadow of the other trees included under the term.

Our own apple tree will suffice us, however, and we shall not need to
enter into any minute distinctions, or to carry you away to Palestine.
We can sit at home in England and can say with great propriety, if we
love the Lord Jesus Christ, "As the apple tree among the trees of the
woods, so is my Beloved among the sons." The point of the metaphor is
this. There are many trees of the forest and they all have their uses,
but when one is hungry, faint and thirsty, the forest trees yield no
succor, and we must look elsewhere. They yield shelter, but not
refreshing nutriment. If, however, in the midst of the woods one
discovers an apple tree, he there finds the refreshment which he needs,
his thirst is alleviated and his hunger removed.

Even so the Church here means to say that there are many things in the
world which yield us a kind of satisfaction– many men, many truths,
many institutions, many earthly comforts–but there are none which
yield us the full solace which the soul requires. There are none which
can give to the heart the spiritual food for which it hungers. Jesus
Christ, alone, supplies the needs of the sons of men. As the apple tree
is the exception to the forest trees in bearing its fruit. As it stands
on that account in contrast to the trees of the woods, so does Jesus
our Beloved contrast with all others and transcendently excel them–

"An apple tree in simple beauty stands,

And waves its juicy treasure gracefully,

Among the barren trees which eroded the woods,

Of lofty form, but destitute of fruit.

So Jesus, 'midst the failing sons of men

Bears for my use the fruits of covenant love,

And fills my heart with rare delight and rest." Wandering, as I have
been, during the last few days, up and down in the New Forest, the only
real forest of our country, and finding rest in its vast solitudes,
often has this text occurred to me and therefore I can do no other than
speak of it to you–"As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so
is my Beloved among the sons." We shall at the outset speak of the tree
which the fainting soul most desires. We shall then remark that it is
no small wonder that the needy one finds an apple tree in so singular a
position. And, thirdly, we shall note her very natural conduct when she
found so desirable a tree in such a position–she sat down under its
shadow with great delight and feasted upon the delicious fruit.

I. First, then, our text speaks of THE TREE WHICH THE FAINTING SOUL
MOST DESIRES. Imagine yourself upon some sultry day in autumn as a
wanderer in the leafy lanes of a great forest. The grand cathedral
aisles reach before you to lengths immeasurable, or huge domes of
foliage rise above you like a second sky. Imagine yourself roaming
amidst the ferns and brakes, trampling on the briars and hollies, or
sitting down on mossy banks and knolls soft with layers of

leaves. Suppose, also, that you are hungry and thirsty and that no
rippling streams offer their cooling floods while you are so far away
from human ears that, hungry though you might be even to death, there
would be no eyes to see you and consequently no hands outstretched for
your help.

In such a plight it needs no imagination to conceive you as glancing to
the trees, your only companions, and silently appealing to them for
aid. Some of them look as if their bowing branches would sympathize if
they could, others grotesquely grin at you and the most of them sternly
refuse you succor by their solemn silence. You will ask in vain of oak,
or ash, or elm. Suppose you appeal to yonder stately tree which is the
greatest of them all, the king of the forest, unequalled in greatness
or girth? Admire its stupendous limbs, its gnarled roots, its bossy
bark, the vast area beneath its boughs. You look up at it and think
what a puny creature you are and how brief has been your life compared
with its duration. You try to contemplate the storms which have swept
over it and the suns which have shone upon it.

Great, however, as it is, it cannot help you. If it were a thousand
times higher and its topmost boughs swept the stars, yet it could
minister no aid to you. This is a fit picture of the attempt to find
consolation in systems of religion which are recommended to you because
they are greatly followed. Here is a religion which has been patronized
by kings and nobles for centuries–a religion which has the support of
the great and fashionable at the present hour–will not this content
you? Is it not enough to belong to the same religion as the majority,
especially when that majority includes the aristocrats of the land? Is
not the religion of the people the voice of God? What more do you need?
Why should you be singular?

Alas, the great tree is not the fruit-bearing tree. The true Christian,
believing in Jesus Christ with all his heart, counts it no desirable
thing to be found in the broad road where the many go, for he remembers
that his Master spoke of it as leading to destruction. Majorities are
nothing to him, for he remembers that, "strait is the gate and narrow
is the way which leads unto life, and few there are that find it." He
does not reckon that the greatness of the company will make right
wrong, or overawe the Judge of All, or make eternal punishment one whit
the less intolerable. We desire not the way of the multitude–the way
of the Crucified we delight to follow. It is not the mightiest tree of
the forest that we look to with hope, but to the Lord Jesus, our
Beloved, who is the apple tree among the trees of the woods!

His fruit is sweet to our taste. He is the way, the truth, and the life
to us. His Person is most dear to us and His teachings are the food of
our spirits. Happy are you who dare to be singular with Christ! Blessed
are you who have found the narrow way which leads unto eternal life!
Blessed are you because you are not carried away with the strong
current and fashion of the age, but have heard the voice that says, "Be
not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of
your minds." Wisdom tells the hungry man to prefer the solitary apple
tree to whole groves of the largest oaks or beeches. And wisdom given
from above has brought you, O Believer in Jesus, to prefer your
Redeemer to all the great ones of the earth.

Suppose that in your wanderings to and fro you come upon another tree
which is said to be the oldest in the forest. We, all of us, have a
veneration for age. Antiquity has many charms. I scarcely know if
antiquity and novelty should run a race for popular favor, which might
win. Nowadays we are pestered by a class of men who would gladly
fascinate our nation to error by the charms of antiquity. They will
tell us that a certain ceremony, though no trace of it is to be found
in Scripture, must be venerable because practiced in the fourth
century. And they imagine that worship in buildings which were founded
by Saxons and garnished by Normans must be peculiarly acceptable with
God! To be ancient–is it not a great advantage? As cleanliness is next
to godliness, surely antiquity must he next to orthodoxy!

Yet if there is no Scripture to warrant it, an ancient ceremony is only
an ancient farce! There are some things which are so old as to be
rotten, eaten of worms and fit only to be put away. Many things called
ancient are but clever counterfeits, or when they are true they are but
the bones and caresses of that which once was good when life filled it
with energy and power. There is an "old way which wicked men have
trod," as well as a good old way in which the righteous walk. We cannot
be certain that a thing is right because it is old, for Satan is old,
and sin is old, and death is old, and Hell is old–yet none of these
things are right and desirable on that account.

No, Jesus Christ our Lord, since the day in which we have known Him by
faith, has quieted our conscience, has calmed our fears, has given us
joy and peace through believing. And we are not to be seduced from Him
by all the antiquated falsehoods which may weave their spells around
us. Old even to decay may be the trees in which other travelers
delight, but as for us, we choose the tree of heavenly fruit–the apple
tree is our choice, Jesus is our Beloved.

Ritualists may glory in their fourth century doctrines, their fathers,
their councils and their ancient customs. The Bible is primitive enough
for us! The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is venerable enough for us!
We are content with Him and need no more. To us the main thing is to
find food for our souls, the bread that never perishes, the fruit which
will quench our desperate thirst. We have found it in the Savior and
from the Savior we will not depart.

It may be that in the midst of the forest, while you are hungry and
thirsty, you come upon a strangely beautiful tree. Its proportions are
exact and as you gaze upon it from a distance you exclaim–"How
wonderful are the works of God!" And you begin to think of those trees
of the Lord which are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which He has
planted. You stand under it and look up among the majestic boughs and
the spreading branches and you again admire the beauty of Nature as it
comes from the hand of the Most High. But beauty can never satisfy
hunger and when a man is dying of thirst it is vain to talk to him of
symmetry and taste. He needs food. This reminds us that nowadays there
are some who try to satisfy the souls of men with beauty. Look at their
processions–who would not be charmed with their varied costumes, their
spangled banners, their gilded crosses and their melodious hymns?

Listen to their choir–is not the singing perfection? If you want a
concert on Sunday and do not like to attend a theater, you can find it
in the cathedral and in many a parish Church. If you want to have your
senses gratified and cannot conscientiously attend an opera on Sunday,
you can have ears and eyes gratified at Church, yes and the nose as
well in some places–and these amusements they mistake for religious
exercises! Compared with the plainness of worship which we follow, our
casting out of everything like symbol, our abhorrence of everything
that would take away the mind from God Himself and fix it upon
secondary objects–compared with all this their worship is enchanting,
indeed, to the carnal mind–and we do not wonder that those who are led
by taste should follow after it.

But oh, if a man once hungers after the bread of Heaven, his taste for
finery will be reduced to a very secondary position as a governing
power of his mind. If once the soul craves after God, after peace,
pardon, Truth, reconciliation, holiness–it will seek the Lord Jesus,
the Apple Tree–and forget the other trees, however shapely they may
be. "These bear no fruit for me," says the hungry soul. The awakened
conscience listens to the chant as it is echoed among the massive
pillars and watches the smoke as it rises like a cloud among the arches
of the roof, and he cries, "What are chants and smoke to me? I need a
Savior!" He sees the procession and after he has gazed upon it he says,
"What are these mummeries to me? I need washing in the blood of
Christ."

As the incense smokes to Heaven he says to himself, "O for the incense
of the Savior's merit! What are these gums of Araby to me if they
should burn all day long?" He turns away, sick and faint in heart, from
all the gew-gaws and outward trappings of modern Popery and he cries,
"O God, You are a Spirit, and they that worship You must worship You in
spirit and in truth. I need You, O my God! I need spiritual life within
myself that I may commune with You! And where can I find it but in my
Savior? He gives it to me! He is the only fruit-bearing tree among the
trees of the woods."

We will pursue our investigations in the forest and while we are doing
so we shall come upon some very wonderful trees. I have seen, just
lately, instances in which branches are curiously interlaced with one
another. The beech sends forth a long drooping bough and lest it should
not be able to support itself, another bough strikes up from below to
buttress it, or descends from above and clasps it and the boughs
actually grow into one another. Strange things may be observed in the
undisturbed woods which are not to be seen in our hedgerow trees, or
discerned in our gardens. Trees have odd habits of their own and grow
marvelously if left to their own sweet wills.

I have stood under them and said, "How can this be? This is singular,
indeed! How could they grow like this? What wondrous interlacing,
intertwining, gnarling and knotting!" Yes, but if a man were hungry and
thirsty, he would not be satisfied with curiosities. So is it with some
preaching that I know of. If you regard it from the standpoint of
literary excellence you confess that it is wonderful. There are great
orators and deep thinkers to be found to whom I would not presume to
hold a candle–whose performances are really wonderful. I have felt,
after I have heard their essays, like the Primitive Methodist who went
to dinner with the squire and then pronounced the blessing
afterwards–"Lord, we thank you that we do not have such a good dinner
as this every day, for it is too rich to agree with us." I have felt
just like that after hearing the fine oration, though, mark you, I did
not remember a bit of it after it was over and my heart was none the
better.

How many sermons are published nowadays, as well as preached, which are
full of what is called thought? By the cant word, "thought," is
generally meant contradicting the plain meaning of Scripture and
starting new notions. A man

who preaches plainly what God reveals is said to be an echo of the
Puritans, a dealer in platitudes, a repeater at secondhand or exploded
dogmas. But to find out some new lie every week to tell your people, to
shake their faith in Inspiration every time you open your mouth–and
make them believe that there is nothing certain, but that everything is
a mere matter of opinion–that is "thought and culture" in these days.
And there are in certain dissenting pulpits the most miserable
specimens of this school and in the pews a number of their silly
admirers.

Brothers and Sisters, some of us are too old-fashioned ever to be led
astray in that way, and what is more, we have such an awful
appetite–we are possessed of such a dreadful hunger, and such
insatiable thirst that we dare not go away from the Apple Tree–because
we need to be always eating. We dare not go away from Jesus Christ,
because we are always needing pardon, always needing peace, always
needing fresh life. And provided we can retain our hold on Jesus we are
not particular about the way in which some of these wonderful trees
twist their boughs. We do not feel concerned about the marvels of
modern thought, or the resurrection of ancient errors–

"Should all the forms that men devise,

Assault my soul with treacherous art,

I'd call them vanities and lies,

And bind the Gospel to my heart.

For if we search the globe around,

Yes, search from Britain to Japan,

There shall be no religion found,

So just to God, so safe to man." But as we are wandering in the forest
and are still hungry I hear someone saying, "Ah, here is the place for
food. You need not boast of your Apple Tree–the ground is covered with
meat beneath this noble tree." I look up–it is autumn time–and I see
a huge tree loaded with beech nuts which fall from it like rain. "Here
is the place for food." Was that a human voice I heard? No, it was the
grunts of a herd of swine! See how content they are–how happy–how
they are munching the meat as it falls from the trees. Yonder is a
grove of oaks, all shedding their acorns–and how delighted the swine
are! How they fatten upon the spoil! "Will you not come here?" they
seem to say, as they munch in comfort! "Will you not come here? Do not
tell us about trees which bear no fruit–there is surely fruit enough
here."

Even thus I hear a voice from the Exchange–"Here are the trees which
bear us golden apples! Come here and be filled." I hear it from those
who cater to public amusements–"Here are the fruits which can delight
the soul! Here is the place to spend a happy day." And so I hear it
from the gay followers of vice–"This dalliance, this dance, this
flowing bowl, this sweet-sounding viol, these are real joys." Yes, to
you, to you who choose them! Beech nuts and acorns are good enough for
swine. To you who can find comfort, solid comfort, in the gain of
merchandise, or in the pleasures of sin, or in the delights of pomp,
these things are good enough! But a man, a God-made man, a man into
whom God has put a new heart–not a swine's heart, but a man's
heart–needs apples, not acorns–needs spiritual food!

He needs food for an immortal Nature and there is no such food to be
found short of the Lord Jesus Christ, for He, and He only, is the Apple
Tree among the trees of the woods! I might enlarge, but I will not. I
will simply say what every child of God here knows that the Lord Jesus
Christ has given to us, ever since we found Him, everything we have
needed. When we came to Him we were worn out with faintness, we were
hungry to get rid of our sins, but we are now rid of them, every one of
them. We went up to His Cross and as we saw Him hanging on it, the
strings which bound our burden to our shoulders began to crack. Our
load rolled off into His sepulcher and we have never seen it since. We
have half fancied we have felt it again, but we never have, for if our
sins are searched for they cannot be found! No, they shall not be, says
the Lord.

You remember when you first came to that precious tree where the Savior
died? There you discovered that your sin was blotted out and that you
were accepted in the Beloved. And there you were made to be forevermore
an heir of Heaven! Oh, the lusciousness of the fruit which you tasted,
then! Oh, the delightful quiet of that shadow under which you sat that
day! Blessed be His name! You had searched among the other trees, but
you found no fruit there. You tried to rest in the shadow of other
boughs, but you never rested till on that blood-stained tree of the
Cross you saw your sins put away and your salvation secured! And then
you rested and were satisfied. But the Lord Jesus Christ has not only
satisfied us as to the past, see what He has done for us as to the
present!

My dear Hearers, there are some of you who have never known, yet, what
it is to be perfectly happy. I do not call it being perfectly happy to
be full of excitement, laughter and apparent joy–and then to go home
in the evening and sit down and feel disgusted with it all. That is the
froth of fancy and not the true wine of joy. But to be perfectly happy
is to be able to think about all things on earth and all things in
Heaven, and yet to say, "I lack nothing! There is nothing I desire,
nothing I pine after! I am saved! I am a child of God–the eternal God
is my own Father! I am on my way to His own glorious house. If death
should strike me now it would not matter, or if I am spared for another
50 years it will make no difference to me, for all is well and could
not be better! If there are crosses in my lot, they are God-sent
crosses. If I have troubles, they work my lasting good. If I lose, I am
a gainer by my losses. If I have all things, I see God in all things.
And if I have nothing, yet I see all things in my God. Nothing more can
I desire. Christ is all and Christ is mine and, therefore, I have all
things."

Now, that is the position of the Christian this day. He sits down under
the shadow of Christ and Christ's fruit is sweet to him. Let me ask
you, can you imagine any other place where such peace of mind or such
happiness can be enjoyed? Why, I know sick people who are far more
happy in their sickness than worldlings are in their health! And I know
poor men who are infinitely more at peace and more content than rich
men who have not the Savior. Jesus Christ, alone, satisfies us for the
past and delights us for the present. And then as to the future. The
man who has found Christ looks forward to it not merely with
complacency, not simply without a dread, but with a joyous expectancy
and hope! Those things which make others tremble make us glad.

There is such a thing as dying–thank God, there is! Who wants to live
here always? That narrow stream which separates this country from the
better land must be forded by each of us. Who would have it otherwise?
Instead of being afraid to cross it, we have sometimes said–

"O Lord of Hosts, divide the waves, And land us now in Heaven."

The judgment? The Christian quails not at the thought. Who shall lay
anything to his charge? The coming of the Lord? The Believer fears it
not, no, it is his grandest hope! Eternity and its never-ending cycles?
He dreads it not, for it is to him the climax of his joy that it is to
be everlasting. O, happy people who have Christ! Happy souls who rest
in Jesus! They may say what none others can–"As the apple tree among
the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons."

Dear Hearer, is He your Beloved? Can you claim Him as your own? If you
can, then I am sure you will bear witness, as the text does, to the
satisfying power of the Savior and declare with Ralph Erskine–

"What fool soever disagrees, My sweet experience proves

That Jesus is the tree of trees Among a thousand groves."

II. The spouse spoke of the tree which she most desired–THE WONDER WAS
THAT SHE FOUND IT. It was an apple tree, but it was not in a garden, a
fruit tree but not in a vineyard–it was "among the trees of the
woods." Who would know of so great a rarity as an apple tree in a
forest if he were not first told of it? So Jesus Christ, at this
present day, is not known to all mankind. It is a most unhappy thought
that probably the majority of the human race have not heard of the
Savior at all–and a very large proportion have never heard of Him
except through misrepresentations. Only a small minority of our fellow
men know anything about the Savior–

"What millions never knew the Lord! What millions hate Him when He's
known."

Even in our own country you will not find it a difficult thing to meet
with persons who are totally ignorant of Christ. Try it and you shall
find in country towns and in hamlets men grown up who could not give
you an answer to this question–"How is it that the death of Jesus
saves the soul?" No, they do not even know the fact that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners! "Well," you say, "we know the
rural districts are ignorant." Yes, but they are far superior in light
to parts of London. You can readily find children in our streets, and
what is worse, artisans in our workshops, to whom the bare name of
Jesus may be known, but anything like the doctrine of His
substitutionary Atonement is a thing of which they have not heard.

Living in the light they abide in darkness! Amid a thousand lamps they
see not. One of the problems which may most surprise us is the
existence of such dense ignorance in persons who live in intimate
connection with instructed people. If

you want the grossest ignorance, probably you would not find it in
Pekin or Timbuktu, but in London or New York. Where the greatest light
is, there the shadows are deepest. Men nearest to the Church are often
furthest from God. You cannot easily find an apple tree in a great
forest. If you were put down in the middle of a forest and told there
was an apple tree there, you might wander for many a day before you
discovered it–and often go over your own footsteps, lost in endless
mazes–and you may not find the object of your search.

And so, though there is a Savior, men have not found the Savior–and
there may even be souls here present who long for that which Jesus is
able to give and yet have not discovered Him. You know all about Him in
the letter of His Word but you cannot find Him spiritually. And I hear
you cry, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him." I know I am speaking
to some such. You have been going up and down for months with your
prayers and your tears and your good works. You have been trying to do
all you can to save yourselves, but you find your own actions to be
barren trees and you know that there is an apple tree somewhere, but
you cannot find it. Ah, poor Soul, you are like the Ethiopian eunuch,
when he was asked if he understood what he read, he gave the answer,
"How can I, unless some man should guide

me?"

Do you not wonder that the spouse found her apple tree among the trees
of the woods? The fact is, none ever find it except they are led there!
And none can lead a soul to that Apple Tree but the eternal Spirit of
God. He can make use of His ministers and He does. And therefore,
Brothers in the ministry, let us always be preaching about this Apple
Tree. Let us preach up Jesus Christ, let us make tracks to the Tree of
Life! Whatever we do not preach, let us preach Jesus Christ! I have
found, wherever I have been during the last month, that though there
might not be a road to this place or that, there was sure to be a
London road.

Now, if your sermon does not happen to have the doctrine of Election,
or the doctrine of Final Perseverance in it, let it always have Christ
in it. Have a road to London, a road to Christ, in every sermon. Still,
the most plain preaching will require the Spirit of God to go with it,
or else the soul will hear about this glorious tree and about the
sweetness of the fruit, but will never find the shadow–and will never
eat the dainty apples. Have you come to Christ, dear Brothers and
Sisters? Then give God the glory for it! Jesus led you. His Spirit
guided you. Praise and bless His holy name. Now, is it not a strange
place for an apple tree to be found in–in a forest? We seldom hear of
such a thing. An apple tree should grow in a garden. How should it be
found in a forest?

And is it not a strange thing that a Savior should be found for us
among men–not among angels? You shall search for a Savior among "the
helmed cherubim and worded seraphim" as long as you will, but there is
none there. The Savior is found in a manger at Bethlehem, in a
carpenter's shop at Nazareth. Among the poor and needy is He seen while
He sojourns among the sons of men. As I was turning this text over in
my mind, I thought, "Ah, and what strange trees this tree grew among,
for there it stands with a gallows tree on either side, and two thieves
hanging upon them. "He was numbered with the transgressors."–

"Not among you, O you cedars,

Not among you, O mighty oaks,

But among the bushes of the desert,

Among the trees accursed was Jesus found!" "He made His grave with the
wicked."–

"As in some sere and unproductive wood

One lovely, fruit-producing apple tree,

Bright contrast to the ruined thousands round;

So in this populous but vicious world

O You Desire of nations, did You stand." Now, there is something very
sweet about this, because a forest is the very place where we most love
to find Christ growing. If I had come, the other day, upon an apple
tree in the forest and it had happened to be the time of ripe fruit, I
should have felt no compunction of conscience in taking whatever I was
able to reach, for a tree growing in the forest is free to all comers.
Should there be a hungry one beneath its bough, he need not say, "May
I?" when his month waters at the golden fruit! He need not say, "It
would be stealing. I am unfit to take it. I am unworthy of it." Man, if
there is an apple tree in the forest, no man can keep it for himself or
deny your right to it, for each wanderer has a right to what

fruit he can gather! The animals have rights of pasturage. And the
birds have rights of nesting. And you have rights of feeding. Pluck
away, Man, and eat to your full!

The shadows and the fruits of forest trees are free to all who need
them. This ought to delight any seeking soul here this morning. Jesus
Christ is not hedged about in the Scriptures, as some theologians would
desire to guard Him from coming souls. The Lord has planted no
protection of thorns and hollies by saying, "You must bring with you
preparations for Grace. You must feel this and feel the other, and only
then may you dare to come to Christ." It is a gross error to tell a man
to do something and be something before he believes in Jesus. No! There
He stands with no hedge about Him and whoever will, may partake freely!
If you hear the Gospel call, your reply to it should be–

"Just as I am, Your love unknown

Has broken every barrier down.

Now to rely on You alone,

O Lamb of God, I come."

Christ has no barriers around Him to keep you from Him. If there are
any they are of your own making–

"None are excluded but those Who themselves exclude Welcome the learned
and polite, The ignorant and rude."

Whoever shall come shall be welcome to this priceless Apple Tree! There
is some comfort, therefore, in thinking that He grows among the trees
of the woods.

III. It was little wonder that when the spouse, all hungry and faint,
did come upon this apple tree in the forest SHE ACTED AS SHE DID.
Straightway she sat down under its shadow with great delight. And its
fruit was sweet unto her taste. She looked up at it–that was the first
thing she did and she perceived that it met her double need. The sun
was hot, there was the shadow. She was faint, there was the fruit. Now,
see how Jesus meets all the needs of all who come to Him? God's anger,
like the hot noon-day sun, falls on me–how can I escape it? There is
no escape from the anger of God except by an Interposer.

What is a shadow? Is it not caused by the interposition of the bough,
or the rock, or whatever it may be which comes between us and the sun?
If we sit under a tree in the shadow, it is because the tree receives
the heat and so we escape from it. Jesus Christ's great office is the
Interposer, the Mediator, the Substitute, the Atonement, the
Sacrifice–and when we hide beneath Him we are screened. God's wrath
cannot come on us because it has come upon Him on our behalf–

"When Christ my Screen is interposed

Between the sun and me

My joyful heart and lips unclosed,

Adore the glorious Tree."

That is a beautiful picture in Solomon's Song where the king is said to
ride in his chariot of love. He takes his spouse with him and they ride
together in his palanquin, and it has over it a canopy. Did you ever
notice what it is made of? It is said, "The covering thereof was of
purple," for truly the only interposition between us and the sun of
God's wrath is the purple canopy of the atoning blood! Is it not
delightful to sit down beneath the scarlet canopy of the Savior's blood
and feel, "God cannot smite me–He has smitten His Son. He cannot
demand payment a second time. If Jesus suffered in my place, how can
God make me suffer, again, for my sin? Where were the justice of the
Most High to punish an Immaculate Substitute and then punish men for
whom that Substitute endured His wrath?" This is the cool, calm, holy
shadow under which we abide!

But then, the spouse also found that she was thirsty and that the fruit
of the tree exactly met her case. Our inner life needs sustenance and
food. Now, in the Lord Jesus is life and the bread of life. He is that
Bread which came down from Heaven, of which if a man eats he shall live
forever. O, to get a heart full of Christ, to get a whole Christ into
one's inmost soul, to have Him abide in you–this is bliss! Then your
soul feels, "It is enough–I have all things, for I have Jesus." Let
us, therefore, seek at this time, and especially this afternoon in our
meditations–and when we come to the communion table this evening–to
abide under the shadow of Jesus and there to be found abundantly eating
of His fruit.

One thing more is to be noted–the spouse, when she had begun to enjoy
the provision and the shade, and had sat down under it as if she
intended to say, "I never mean to leave this place. In this delicious
shadow I mean to repose

forever," then she also began to tell of it to others. In the text she
describes Christ as the Apple Tree and gives her reason for so calling
Him–"I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was
sweet to my taste." Experience must be the ground upon which we found
our descriptions. If a preacher wants to preach with power, let him
tell what he has felt, tasted and handled. It is of little use to say
Christ is precious, unless you can add, "I have found Him so."
Therefore the Church brings in her own experience–"Sweet shade! I
there sat down as one at home and there regaled my soul with most
delicious fare."

She could not hold her tongue about her Beloved! She must speak! She
could not retain the secret of this Apple Tree and say to herself,
"Others may go to it, and so perhaps when I go another time there may
be nothing left for myself." No, she spread the news. She set it down
in black and white in the Inspired Volume for an everlasting testimony
that there is an Apple Tree among the trees of the woods of which she
had eaten–so that others might eat of it, too–and enjoy the same
sweetness for themselves. This morning every renewed heart desires that
every other heart should know the Savior. I can speak well of my Lord
and Master. I do not know that I can say anything better of Him than
most of His people can, for the experience of the saints is much alike.
But I can say this, if there is happiness beneath the sky, Jesus can
give it to you! If there is peace and rest to a jaded soul, Jesus can
give it you!

If there is a delight, a brimming delight, an overflowing delight, if
there is that which can make the eyes sparkle and the pulse to beat
right merrily–and the blood to leap in the veins–it is when Jesus
Christ is consciously ours and we are resting in Him. I am sure, if
there were an apple tree in any forest and it were once found out,
everybody would be taken to see it, it would be such an attraction!
There would be many paths to it and everybody who had been in the
forest and seen it would tell his neighbors. Now, I beseech you, who
have found the Savior, to be telling others what you know about Him and
try to lead others to look at Him. You cannot make them feed upon Him,
but God can, and if you can lead them to the Tree, who knows but God
will give them spiritual hunger and will lead them to feed as you have
fed.

O you silent Christians, you silent Christians, who neither by your
tongue, nor your pen, nor by any other way, ever tell about Christ, I
do not know what to make of you! I wonder the seats you sit on do not
push you off and speak instead of you, and that the stones of the
street do not cry out against you as you pass over them. Why, what can
you be made of, to be saved from going down to Hell and not want others
to be saved, too? Shame on you! Shame on me, also, whenever I am silent
about such a blessed salvation, such a Divine redemption. I would
gladly set your tongues going about this blessed Apple Tree among the
trees of the woods!

There is nothing about which you can speak so freely without fear of
exaggeration. All the world has been talking about the Shah of Persia.
I wish they would talk half as much about the Christ of God! All the
good you will ever get out of the Shah you may see with your eyes shut.
But the benefit that will come from the King of Heaven to your own
souls and ten thousands of other souls is unlimited! Cry the Savior up,
Beloved! Set Him on a high throne! Give Him the best of your thoughts,
the best of your words, the best of your actions! Give Him of your time
and your substance. He deserves to have honor above all the sons of
men, for He is the best of all.

As the apple tree to the hungry man excels all other trees, so does
Jesus excel all other loves. Let us give Him, today, our hearts'
warmest love and praise Him forever and forever. God grant it, for His
name's sake. Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 23. Isaiah 12.
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Christ Asleep in the Vessel