The King’s Garden

Orkers for Christ must remember that even if they have to care for the garden, their chief business must be to commune with the Lord and Master of that garden, since He Himself calls them todoso. “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved,” In happy and auspicious times, when the Spirit of God is working, it is very natural to say, “We must now work more abundantly than ever,” and God forbid that we should hinder such zeal, but the more spiritual privilege is not to be put in the second place. Let us commune as well as work, for therein shall we find strength for service, and our service shall be done the better, and become the more acceptable and ensure the larger blessing. If while we serve like Martha, we at the same time commune like Mary, we shall not then become cumbered with much serving; we shall serve and not be cumbered, and shall feel no fretfulness against others whose only faculty-may be that of sitting at the Master’s feet. The voice of the Master Himself calls us to consider His presence: He tells us He is come. What? Could He come without our perceiving it? Is it not possible? May we be like those whose eyes were holden so that they knew Him not? Is it possible for us to be like Magdalen, seeking Christ while He is standing very near us? Yes, and we may even be like the disciples who, when they saw Him walking on

*’Cant. v. I.

the water, were afraid,and thought it was a spirit, and

cried out, and had need for Him to say, “It is I, be not afraid,” before they knew who it was! Here is our ignorance, but here is His tenderness. He may come and yet we may not recognize Him; but here when He

-cometh He takes care to advertise us of the blessed

fact, and calls us to observe and to consider, and to

delight in it. He would, for our own comfort, prevent

it being said of us, ‘He came unto His own, and His

-own received Him not.”

This coming was in answer to prayer. Our translators, in dividing the Bible into chapters, seem to

have been utterly regardless of the connection or the sense, so that they brought down their guillotine between two verses which must not be divided. The church had said, “Awake, O north wind; and come,

thou south; blow upon my garden;” she had also

said, “Let my Beloved come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits.” In answer to that prayer the Beloved replies, “I am come into My garden.” Prayer is always heard, and the prayer of faithful souls finds an echo in Jesus’ heart. How quickly the spouse was heard! Scarce had the words died away, “Let my Beloved come,” before she heard him say,““I am come!” “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear.” He is very near unto His people, and» hence He very

speedily answers their request. And how fully does

He answer it, too! You will perhaps say, “But she had asked for the Holy Spirit, she had said, ‘ Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;’ and yet there

is no mention of the heavenly wind as blowing

through the garden.” The answer is that the

Beloved’s coming means all that. His visit brings both north and south wind; all benign influences are sure to follow where le leads the way; spices always flow out from the heart when Christ’s sweet love flows in,and where He is, Christians have all things in Him. There was a full answer to her prayer, and there was more than an answer, for she had but said, “Let Him come and eat,” but, lo, He gathers myrrh and spice, and He drinks of wine and milk; He does exceeding abundantly above what she had even asked or even thought, after the right royal manner of the Son of God, who doth not answer us according to the poverty of our expressions and the leanness of our desires, but according to His riches in glory, giving to us grace upon grace out of His own inexhaustible fulness.

What an unspeakable blessing this is! If the voice had said, “I have sent My angel,” that would have been a precious boon; but it is not so spoken; the word is, “Jam come.” What, doth He before whom angels adoringly bow their heads, doth He before whom perfect spirits cast their crowns, doth He condescend to come into the church? Ay, it is even so. There is a personal presence of Christ in the midst of His people. Where two or three are met together in His name, there is He in the midst of them; His corporeal presence is in heaven, but His spiritual presence, which is all we want — all it is expedient for Him as yet to grant — is assuredly in our midst. He is with us truly and really when we meet together in our solemn assemblies, and with us too when we separate and go our ways in private to fight the battles of the Lord.

Where Jesus Christ is not in the garden, the plants wither, and like untimely figs, the fruits fall from the trees. Blossoms come not, or if they appear, they do but disappoint when Jesus is not there to knit and fructify them; but when He comes, even the driest boughs in the garden become like Aaron’s rod that budded.

Remember, too, that if He had dealt with us according to our sins, and rewarded us after our iniquities, we should never have heard the footfall of the Beloved traversing the garden. How many have grieved the Holy Spirit by careless living and backsliding! How have most of us followed Him afar off instead of keeping step with Him in service and fellowship! Alas! my Lord, if Thou hadst regarded only the sins of the pastor of the church, Thou hadst long ago left this flock; but Thou hast not dealt with us severely, but according unto Thy love and to Thy mercy Thou hast blotted out our sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud our transgressions, and still dost Thou condescend to come into Thy garden.

If you take each word of this remarkable sentence, you will find a meaning. “/ am come.” There is the personal presence of Christ: “I am come.” There is the certainty that it is so. It is no delusion, no dream, no supposition, “I am truly come.” Blessed be the name of the Lord, at this present time it is assuredly so. Many of His saints can bear testimony that they have seen His face and have felt the kisses of His lips, and have proved even this day that His love is better than wine. Note the next word, “I am come zzto My garden.” How near is the approach of Christ to His church! He comes not to the garden door, nor to look over the wall, nor in at the gate and out again; but zzto His garden. Down every walk, midst the green alleys, among the beds of spices He walks, watching each flower, pruning the superfluous foliage of every fruit-bearing plant, and plucking up by the roots such as His heavenly Father hath not planted. His delights are with the sons of men. His intercourse with His chosen is most familiar; so that the spouse may sing, “My Beloved is gone down into His garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.” Jesus Christ the Lord forgets not His church, but fulfils the promise: “I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” He never comes without the winnowing fan when He visits His threshing floor; beware if thou be as chaff. He hath come into His garden. O you who have not enjoyed much of His gracious company, pray Him to cast a look towards you, and be you like the sunflower which turns its face to the sun, to refresh itself with his beams. O pant and long for His presence. If your soul is as dark as the dead of night, call out to Him, for He heareth the faintest sigh of any of His chosen.

“Tam come into J7Zy garden,” saith He. Note here the possession which Christ claims in the church. If it were not /7zs garden, He would not come into it. A church that is not Christ’s church shall have none of His presence, and a soul that is not Christ’s has no fellowship with Him. If He reveal Himself at all, it is unto His own people, His blood-bought people, the people who are His by purchase and by power, and by the surrender of themselves to Him.

Since the garden is His own, He will not suffer even the least plant to perish. My brethren who work for Christ, do not be downcast if certain portions of the work should not seem to succeed. He will attend to it. “The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” It is more His work than ours, and souls are more under His. responsibility than

ours. So let us hope and be confident, for the Master..

will surely smile upon His “vineyard of red wine.”

The next word denotes cultivation. “I am come into My garden.” The church is a,cultivated spot; it did not spring up by chance, it was arranged by Himself, it has been tended by Himself, and the fruits belong to Himself. Thankful are we if we can truly know that as a church —

“We are a garden walled around,
Chosen and made peculiar ground.”