us there; we sit at his table, he has placed us there! we rest on his couch, he leads us there! we banquet on his fruits, he feasts us there! we recline under his shadow, he welcomes us there; we are protected with his banner, he covers us there! and "his left hand is under our head, and his right hand doth embrace us," and thus he enfolds us there! If we thought more of these things, and entered more by faith into these experiences, we, too, would be sick of love. Love is a constraining power, and the love of Christ the most so of all! And then notice, everything is his —his chambers, his couch, his banner. Christ is all and IN ALL! The increase of faith is in proportion to our increasing knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, and "growth in grace" is just a fuller apprehension and enjoyment on our part of what God has bestowed. God cannot give more than he has already given us in Christ, but what we want is the faith to grasp it, and then to pray, like the bride, to be sustained under the exceeding weight of glory to be enjoyed. "Stay me, comfort me with apples," anything! reviving and sustaining, for “I am sick of love," overcome, and overpowered ! It requires the Holy Ghost within to enable any of us to appreciate the love that flows from God to us through our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 7). "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem." It is difficult to determine by whom this charge is given, Christ or the bride. We may take it in either way. Christ is enjoying communion with his child, "do not stir up or awake my love." Such delightsome and heavenly communion is as easily disturbed as are "the roes and the hinds of the field." "I charge

you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please." This charge is again and again repeated (ch. iii. v. 5, ch. viii. v. 4), and there it seems to be the bride who speaks. Such delightful communion with Christ is sometimes enjoyed even here, but the world and the things of the world disturb it, aye, and religion and the things of religion ofttimes disturb it too. O! turn aside and see this great sight. Let us put ourselves into the same position, and perhaps our hearts also may become "sick of love."

It is the case of a sinful soul, black as the tents of Kedar in herself, a sunburnt slave, a toiler in the vineyards, a neglecter of her own. And see here this sinful one, this naturally corrupt one, not only made beautiful as the curtains of Solomon, but brought home to a glorious rest, the bosom of the Son of God!

Brought in by the King himself into the many mansions of his Father's house, and caused to sit down with him while angels attend! Made to rest on his own couch, and feast at his own table, and sit down. under his own shadow with great delight. The doors of the banqueting house of the most high God opened wide, and the poor home-borne slave brought in—and with no ordinary welcome-"His left hand is under her head, his right hand doth embrace her." Do we apprehend this glory? Truly is it written, "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things." The soul here has found its rest in Christ; and

Christ rests in his love, and nothing is wanting on our part but the continuance of it, "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem by the roes and the hinds of the field that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please." Alas! How seldom even the most advanced of God's children have faith to enter into the joys here described! "His banner over me is love." "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth" (Ps. lx. 4). "In the name of our God we will set up our banners" (Ps. xx. 5). The banner of protection, the royal standard of God Almighty floats over his child. The banner of redeeming love." We are not our own, but are bought with the price of his most precious blood. And the emblem on that banner is, "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," and the motto is, " He loved me with an everlasting love." It is the home banner! When the Queen is at home, her banner floats over her castle, and we are at home with God, just as truly secure in his everlasting arms now, as we ever shall be. But this is food for faith, beware of being satisfied with a false rest! Have faith in God, and do not rest without Christ's arms around you,

.66

May all his children know more and more of his pardoning and espousing love and of all the blessings of the new covenant in him. "Christ's flesh is meat indeed and Christ's blood is drink indeed," and Christ's love is rest indeed to every soul believing on him, and his spirit lives within to enlighten us, and Christ's beauty is bestowed to adorn us.

"He brought me into his banqueting house, his banner over me was love." "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me." May God Almighty make us all to be sick of heart-love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

"The voice of my Beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."--SONG ii. 8-13.

WE left the child of God in the bosom of her Lord and in the enjoyment of the highest possible communion with God. It is not possible to conceive of intercourse more heavenly than this language of the Holy Spirit describes as the privilege of the bride of Christ at the very

beginning of her spiritual experience, it is not surpassed in the remainder of this most spiritual book. He had kissed her with the kisses of his mouth, he had brought her into his chambers, she had sat down with Christ at his table, she had rested under his shadow with great delight, she had feasted on the fruits of his salvation, his left hand had been under her head, his right hand had embraced her, and his banner over her was love. Let us learn here this precious lesson, that from the first moment of our coming to Christ by faith, all these privileges are our own in him. Our heavenly Father gives us all his Christ in all his fulness, and afterwards teaches us, "That as he is, so are we in this world." And all that we need for our fulness of joy, is the full apprehension of, and the continuance in, that holy fellowship. Alas! it is too soon disturbed, sometimes in discipline, sometimes in sovereignty, but always in love. He hides his face for a time, but never for long, he never withdraws himself altogether or gives us less than himself, and he ever desires us to feast on all his fulness.

It is plain, however, from our text, that the scene before us is an altogether changed one. The bride's hallowed communion with the Beloved was disturbed, she is again seen alone! She seems to sit as a widow, and her tears are on her cheeks, it is winter with her soul, and the rain chilling and falling fast is but an emblem of the desolation within her.

"Mountains of division" seem hopelessly to separate her from her Lord, and she has neither the energy nor