“Thou That Dwellest in the Gardens”
He Song is almost ended: the bride and Bridegroom have come to their last stanzas, and
they are about to part for a while. They utter their adieux, and the Bridegroom says to His beloved, “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause Me to hear it.” In other words — “When I am far away from thee, fill thou this garden with My name, and let thy heart commune with Me.” She. promptly replies, and it is her last word till He cometh, “Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the - mountains of spices.” These farewell words of the - Well-beloved are very precious to His chosen bride. Last words are always noticed: the last words of those who loved us dearly are much valued; the last words of One who loved us to the death are worthy of a deathless memory. The last words of the Lord in this canticle remind me of the commission which the Master gave to His disciples or ever He was taken up; when He said to them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Then, scattering benedictions with both His hands,
* Cant. viii. 13.
He ascended into the glory, and “a cloud received Him out of their sight.”
You will see why I say this, and you will detect a striking likeness between the commission connected with the ascension and the present adieu, wherein the spiritual Solomon saith to his espoused Solyma, “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause Me to hear it.”
The Bridegroom, speaking of His bride, says, “Thou that dwellest in the gardens.” The Hebrew is in the feminine, and hence we are bound to regard it as the word of the Bridegroom to His bride. It is the mystical word of the church’s Lord to His elect one. He calls her “Inhabitress of the gardens” — that is the word. So, then, we who make up the church of God are here addressed under that term, “Thou that inhabitest the gardens.”
He whom we love dwelleth in the ivory palaces, wherein they make Him glad: He is gone up into His Father’s throne, and has left these gardens down below. He came down awhile that He might look upon His garden, that He might see how the vines flourished, and gather lilies; but He has now returned to His Father and our Father. He watered the soil of His garden with His bloody sweat in Gethsemane, and made it to bear fruit unto life by being Himself laid to sleep in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea; but all this lowly work is over now. He does not dwell in the gardens as to His corporeal presence; His dwelling-place is on the throne. Jesus has not taken us up with Him; He will come another time to do that; but now He leaves us among the seeds and flowers and growing plants to do the King’s work until He come. He was a visitor here, and the visit cost Him dear; but He is gone back unto the place whence He came out, having finished the work which His Father gave Him: our life-work is not finished, and hence we must tarry awhile below, and be known as inhabitants of the gardens.
It is expedient that we should be here, even as it is expedient that He should ot be here. God’s glory is to come of our sojourn here, else He would have taken us away long ago. He said to His Father, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” He Himself is an inhabitant of the palaces, for there He best accomplishes the eternal purposes of love; but His church is the inhabitress of the gardens, for there she best fulfils the decrees of the Most High. Here she must abide awhile until all the will of the Lord shall be accomplished in her and by her, and then she also shall be taken up, and shall dwell with her Lord above. The title is given by way of distinction, and marks the difference between her condition and that of her Lord.
Next, it is given by way of enjoyment. She dwells in the gardens, which are places of delight. Once you and I pined in the wilderness, and sighed after God from a barren land. We trusted in man, and made flesh our arm, and then we were like the heath in the desert, which seeth not when good cometh, All around us was the wilderness of this world, a howling wilderness of danger, and need, and disorder, We said of the world at its very best, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Do you remember how you roamed, seeking rest.and finding none? Your way was the path of darkness which leadeth unto death. Then you were poor and needy, and sought water and there was none, and your tongue cleaved unto the roof of your mouth for thirst. Then came the Lord who bought you, and He sought you until He brought you into the gardens of His love, where He satisfied you with the river of the water of life, and filled you with the fruits of His. Spirit, and now you dwell ina goodly land: “The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.” Your portion is with the Lord’s saints, yea, with, Himself; and what can be a better portion? Is it not as the garden of the Lord? You dwell where the great Husbandman spends His care upon you and takes a pleasure in you. You dwell where the infinite skill and tenderness and wisdom of God manifest themselves in the training of the plants which His own right hand has planted; you dwell in the church of God, which is laid out in due order, and hedged about and guarded by heavenly power; and you are, therefore, most fitly said to dwell in the gardens. Be thankful: it is a place of enjoyment for you: awake and sing, for the lines have fallen unto you in pleasant places. Just as Adam was put into the Garden-of Eden for his own happiness, so are you put into the garden of the church for your comfort. It is not a perfect paradise of bliss, but it has many points of likeness to paradise: for God Himself doth walk therein, the river of God doth water it, and the tree of life is there unguarded by the flaming sword. Is it not written, “I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will. keep it night and day”? Although you are distinguished from your Lord by being here while He is there, yet you are made partakers of His joy, and are not as those who are banished into a salt land to die in desolation. The Lord’s joy is in His people, and you are made to have a joy in them also: the excellent of the earth, in whom is all your delight, are made to be the comrades of your sojourning.