such means that God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness shines into our hearts, and gives to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." See the Father shining, the Holy Ghost revealing, and the Son presenting himself.

Sharon was one of the most beautiful and fruitful localities in Palestine. We read of the excellency of Sharon and the blooming of the rose (Isa. xxxv. 1-2). And when the Lord speaks of bringing desolation on the land, he says, "Even Sharon shall be a wilderness." “I am the rose”! the Hebrew word implies the opening rosebud of Sharon! it is a beautiful thought! we are told of Christ that "in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." See the rosebud, not yet opened out, but containing, O how much, of beauty and fragrance, hidden, and yet to be developed. We have not yet seen the millionth part of the fulness that is in Christ for us! "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead," to be expended and enjoyed. Think of the eternity when he shall develop himself! think of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of love, all to be enjoyed from the fulness of Christ. We only seem to have him in the shadow. How much is yet to come! of wealth, of happiness, and joy, and blessedness in him. How much fragrance to rejoice us! how much beauty to adorn us! how much wealth to enrich us! how much love to satisfy us! We do not half take in how many love gifts are laid up in Christ for us, and all to be communicated to us and laid out upon us. We have seen him at Bethlehem, the little rosebud opening, and then traced him onward

to the cross, to his resurrection, ascension and throne, and yet again and again we wait, for his glory is not yet revealed. He is the rosebud !

The bride had said "a bundle of myrrh, and a cluster of camphire is my Wellbeloved unto me," but she had yet to learn that he was also the opening rosebud of Sharon, the most beautiful of the best! AND the lily of the valley! referring to some beautiful locality where lilies. grew; for there is much more in Christ to be enjoyed than his children know of. He is both the rose and the lily, and all for us to gather and enjoy.

There is a beautiful rendering of this in the Septuagint,. "I am the field rose." You need not trespass into another's. property to pluck it; it does not grow within a walled enclosure, any traveller might take it. Christ is for anyone, all his beauty and excellency, and attractions are for anyone, "whosoever will." Let us compare our Lord's own description of the lilies (Luke xii. 27), "Consider the lilies how they grow, they toil not, they spin not, and yet unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these"! But here he compares himself to the lily of the valleys, that we may enjoy him, no one forbidding us!

I say

And see v. 2, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." He the lily, and his child as the lily. "As he is, so are we in this present world.” He the lily, and we as the lily. White! fragrant !` beautiful! in his sight. "All fair, no spot in thee." How it must have ravished the heart of the bride to hear such words. How it would ravish our hearts, if we

believed them. This is not theory, but fact, for "as he is, so are we in this world," justified, lovely, washed in his blood, regenerated; once thorns among lilies, now lilies among thorns.

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Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him. as he is." The growth of this beautiful lily of the East, in the midst of thorns, is much noticed by travellers, Bonar, Thompson, &c.

What a picture is represented here of our own position. in this world. The thorns are not of us, but around us. Justified, changed, lovely like the lilies in a thicket of thorns, the object of Christ's delight, and the subject of Christ's care. One lily, many thorns, "so is my love. among the daughters." The daughters here are not God's children, but the daughters of men, spoken of before as her "mother's children."

"As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." O! to hear him call us, "my love"!

See what Christ thinks of his people! Lilies! fragrant washed, justified, lovely! and see what he thinks of unconverted men and women-" thorns" around his lilies, fruitless, unprofitable, crooked, perverse, choking the seed sown among them, whose end is to be burnt. See also Matt. x. 16, "wolves around his sheep." Why does our Lord leave his lilies among thorns and his people among wolves? Because, we cannot yet do without them. Remember Paul's "thorn in the flesh."

Until the promise is fulfilled, "instead of the thorn

shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree." The trials and difficulties, the temptations and oppositions, the storms and disappointments of life, are training us for the rest that remaineth. Moreover, we were once thorns ourselves. The Lord can use us to gather lilies out of thorns, and he leaves hist lilies in the midst of the thorns for this purpose! Oh! why all this love? Truly "grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord," and that grace is as truly needed to carry us across the threshold of glory, as it was needed at first to take us out of the kingdom of darkness. The prodigal had no more right to the servant's place than to the son's. It is all free grace.

"As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." -SONG ii. 3.

THIS is the heart's response to the unspeakable tenderness and sympathy of the Saviour in the previous verse, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." "The lily"! He challenges heaven and earth for a lily compared to her. And now she challenges

heaven and earth for a shadow and resting place for her weariness, like unto him! "As the apple tree among the

trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons."

Her language seems to mean, Dear Lord, thou seest I am among thorns. Thou art merciful enough to note the difficulties and conflicts of thy poor child. Thou knowest that I am oftentimes wounded and weary here.. But then, O Christ, what are thorns compared to the rest I have in thee? What are difficulties compared to the support and refreshment I have in thee? The conflicts of the wilderness are as nothing while I have thy shadow to rest me, and thyself for my portion! I have tried the companions, the shadeless vineyard, the mother's children, and the sons of men. And the thorns are fruitless, and the trees of the desert are shadeless, but "as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons." "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste," literally I delighted and sat down! And inside thy shadow I have found rest, and in thy fruitfulness I have found peace! With Christ is ever a complete and perfect rest, shadow, and refreshAnd even the very thorns of the wilderness must learn his purposes for his people, to protect them from the beasts of the field. Happy, thrice happy, are those hearts who can find more delight in Christ than matters for complaint in life's wilderness, and more joy in him than sorrow in life's circumstances. We are too apt to brood over little self, while everything that can rest us, or minister to our need, or make us happy and holy, is in Christ. All God wants from us is laid up for us in Christ, and all

ment.