Such will be more and more the language of our hearts as we are more and more occupied with thoughts "of him." "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

friend is Christ to me!"

"Our Jesus shall be still our theme,

While in this world we stay;
We'll sing our Jesus' lovely name,
When all things here decay.

"When we appear in yonder cloud,
With all the ransomed throng,

"O what a

Then will we sing more sweet, more loud,

And Christ shall be our song."-CENNICK.

"My meditation of him shall be sweet."

CHAPTER VI.

THE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM.

Ver. 1. "Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee."

WHAT blessed consequences flow from speaking of Jesus! Not only had the Bride regained her own happy confidence in her beloved, so that she could say "this is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem," (chap. v. 16); but they have also an earnest desire kindled within them to seek him too! "Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee." Surely this ought to teach us that if we would be of use to others, it is of Jesus we must speak. He must be the object to which we must direct them, as well as look ourselves; and it is very blessed to be joined in our heavenward way by fresh travellers to Zion, who are attracted thither by our beauty and our joys. We should ever be saying as we go, "Come with

us, and we will do thee good;" and some at least will be induced to seek the Saviour "with" us.

But the believer must also learn from these words how dishonouring his low views of Jesus are. The Bride had said, that "he had withdrawn himself and was gone;" and consequently these professors are led to inquire, "Whither he had turned aside? and whither he was gone? as if Jesus ever "turned aside," or ever forsook his people! It is thus that we cast stumbling-blocks in our brother's way, rendering it difficult for them to know where to find him whom we cannot find! whereas he is ever nigh.

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Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above); or who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead); but what saith it? the word is nigh thee," &c. (Rom. x. 6, &c.).

It is a blessed employment to be “seeking for Jesus" (John vi. 24); for he never says, "Seek ye me in vain," but rather " Seek, and ye shall find;" "Those that seek me early shall find me." (Matt. vii. 7, 8; Prov. viii. 17).—For "the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him,” and “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Lam. iii. 25; Heb. xi. 6). "Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee."

K

Ver. 2.

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THE BRIDE'S REPLY.

My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies."

At once the Bride is able to reply in the confidence of faith, my beloved is in his garden, where he is ever wont to be. It is precious experience; for whilst speaking to others of Jesus, her own sorrows were entirely forgotten. Her thoughts were turned away from herself, and all her affections called into exercise towards him. And now the eye of faith is fixed upon him, and she sees him, and regains her assurance and feels him present! Thus, like Mary, we may often be seeking for Jesus when he is standing beside us, and be speaking to him, though we know it not (John xx. 14, 15). But the moment he is come down sensibly into the garden of a believer's soul, that soul immediately cries out, He is mine! my beloved!"

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This verse sets forth some of the delightsome occupations of the heavenly husbandman in his garden; he feeds there, and he gathers his flowers. 'My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies." He loves to reap the precious fruit of the Spirit sown in each heart: "The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits" (2 Tim. ii. 6). He eats and drinks (chap. v. 1). He sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied;

feeding in his gardens. Oftentimes indeed he finds his plants so choked with the cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, that they need purging and pruning; but there are many souls that are as "beds of spices" to the Lord Jesus, and amongst these he goes and feeds.

Again, there are "lilies" growing there, taken from amongst the thorns, chosen out of the world, and gathered by the Lord to be planted in his garden, and these he oft-times gathers in a still closer sense to himself, drawing them aside for a season even from their fellow-Christians, by illness or bereavement, to hold near communion with himself. But there is a higher sense still in which he gathers them, namely, when he plucks them out of his garden, to plant them in his own bosom,-in the very house and courts of God above. Thus Enoch " was not, for God took him" (Gen. v. 24): Jacob was "gathered unto his people" (Gen. xlix. 33): Stephen "fell asleep" in Jesus (Acts vii. 60). And so one lily after another has been gathered, until there is in heaven already an innumerable multitude of the "Church of the first-born;" and yet lily after lily shall still be gathered, until the Saviour comes again and receives us unto himself, sending forth his angels to gather his elect from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other, so that all shall be safely gathered into the heavenly garner (Mat. xxiv. 31), and be "for ever with the Lord."