The Bridegroom in His Garden
IN O sooner does the spouse say, “Let My beloved
come into His garden,” than. her Lord answers, ““I am come into My garden.” “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” When we desire our Lord Jesus to come to us, He has already come in a measure; our desire is the result of His coming. He meets us in all our desires, for He waiteth to be gracious. Our “come” is no sooner uttered than it is lost in His “Behold, I come quickly!”
When-we perceive that the Bridegroom has come, we perceive also that He has done exactly what He was asked to do. How cheering to find that our mind is in harmony with His mind! Our heart saith, “Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits.” His heart replies, “I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with ‘My milk.” “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” The Lord Jesus makes the desires of ‘His saints to be the foreshadowings of His‘ own actions: “The secret of the Lord is. with them that fear Him.” His secret counsel is made known in the believing soul by de- ‘sires inspired of the Holy Ghost.
I note, with much delight, that matters which seem inconsistent with perfection are not refused by the - heavenly Bridegroom. As the Lord did not refuse
Tn a for an offering the leavened cakes of the first-fruits, so in this instance He saith, “I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey.” The honey would be purer without the comb; but as it is incident thereto, He takes the one with the other. He graciously accepts, not only our heart’s desire, but the very mode in which our weakness works towards that desire. It is as if He delighted in the words of our prayers as well as in the essence of our prayers, and prized the notes of our songs as well as the meaning of them. Yes, I believe our Lord puts our tears as well as our sorrows into His bottle, and hears our groanings as well as our desires. The honeycomb which contains the honey is precious to Him. After He had risen from the grave, He ate a piece of a honeycomb, and I doubt not that He had a reason for choosing that food: sweet gathered from sweets, yet not without wax. Our Lord accepts our services without nicely noting and critically rejecting the infirmity which goes with them.
He Himself gathers what He enjoys: “I have gathered My myrrh with My spice.” Many a holy thing, which we have not in detail offered to Him in set form, He knows to have been given in the gross; and so He takes with His own hand what He knows we have by a comprehensive covenant made over to Him, How sweetly does He fill up our blanks, and believe in our consecration, even when we do not repeat the form of it!
Moreover, He makes mixtures out of our fruits, for He gathers myrrh with balsam, and drinks wine with milk; thus taking the rarer with the more common. He knows how to make holy compounds out of the
graces of His people, thus increasing their excellence. He is the best judge of what is admirable, and He is the best fashioner and compounder of character: He is using His skill upon us. Often by our mingled experiences He accomplishes an increase of virtue in us. Some graces are the result of work and wisdom, as wine which must be trodden from the grapes; others are natural, like milk which flows from living fountains without art of man: but the Lord accepts them both, and so combines them that they are pleasant to Him to a high degree. Simple faith and experimental prudence make up a sacred milk and wine; and the like may be seen in rapturous love and calm patience, which blend most deliciously. The Lord loves us, and makes the most of us. He is pleased with all that is the true produce of His grace, and finds no fault with it; on the contrary, He says, “I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey.”
It is evident that the Lord Jesus is made happy by us. These poetical sentences must mean that He values the graces and works of His people. He gathers their myrrh and spice because He values them; He eats and drinks the honey and the milk because they are pleasant to Him. It is a wonderful thought that the Lord Jesus Christ has joy of us. We cost Him anguish even unto death, and now He finds a reward in us. This may seem a small thing to an unloving mind, but it may well ravish the heart which adores the Well-beloved. Can it be true that we afford joy to the Son of God, the Prince Emmanuel? The King has been held in the galleries, He has been charmed by us. Our first repentance made Him call together His friends and neighbours; the first gleam
of faith He ever saw in us made His heart rejoice; and all that He has seen in us ever since of His own image, wrought by His grace, has caused Him to see of the travail of I1is soul. Never has a husbandman taken such pleasure in the growth of his choice plants as our Lord has taken in us. ‘The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him; in those that hope in His mercy.” That isa thought to be rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel. Yes, the Lord’s church is His Hephzibah, for, saith He, “My delight is in her,” The Lord Jesus will not and cannot be happy by Himself: He will have us share with Him. Note how the words run — “‘I have eaten”; “Eat, O friends!” “I havedrunk”; “Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!” His union with His people is so close that His joy is in them, that their joy may be full. He cannot be alone in His joy. That verse of our ‘ quaint hymn is always true: —, ‘““And this I do find, we two are so joined, He’ll not be in glory and leave me behind.”’ He will not be happy anywhere without us. He will not eat without our eating, and He will not drink without our drinking. Does He not say this in other words in the Revelation — * If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me”? The inter-communion is complete: the enjoyment is for both. To make our Lord Jesus happy we must be happy also. How can the Bridegroom rejoice if His bride is sad? How éan the Head be content if the members pine? At this table of fellowship His chief concern is that we eat and drink. “Take, eat,” saith He; and again, “Drink ye all of it.” I think I hear Him now say — “I have eaten, and I have drunk; and although I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God; yet eat ye, O friends: drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!” Thus we have seen, first, that Christ is made happy by us; and, secondly, that He insists upon our sharing His joy with Him.