SONG OF SOLOMON 1

Shir Hashirim 1

3 Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

Love sets in as the fruit of knowledge. We must first know a friend before we can love him. The love of Christ follows introduction and acquaintance. It must be so: it cannot fail to be so where he is thoroughly known. If from whatever cause, we fail to advance to the love stage, our case is abortive.

Jesus requires our love; the figure of the coming marriage points to the fitness of it. What use or pleasure could he have in men who knew about him but did not love him? Common reason vindicates the divine requirement in the matter. God is love. His family in its final development will be a family of love, and a man in the family who did not love would be out of place. We look at Paul our example here,

"The love of Christ constraineth us,"

he testifies of his own case, and concerning the brethren, he prayed that they might be

"rooted and grounded in love," and "know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Ephes. 3:19

John says,

"Love is of God: and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." I love them that love me,"

is the declaration of the Spirit now corporealized in Christ, the Bridegroom.

Knowledge having brought forth love, love leads to betrothal where the right mind exists. The decision to become Christ's is so described by Paul, who said to the Corinthians,

"I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."

The espousal takes place when the enlightened man or woman enters into covenant with Christ by baptism. The act of baptism, as we all know from the apostolic teaching, is a taking of his name, not, however, with the finality of the conjugal relation which is not reached till the resurrection, but as a preliminary covenant to be afterwards ratified if the conditions are satisfactorily fulfilled.

It is being baptised into his death (Rom. 6:3); with the determination on the part of the baptised to be done with the sinful past as entirely as a dead man is done with his life (verses 11-14). If this determination is successfully performed,

" the fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (verse 22).

The act of baptism is therefore a betrothal and a "covenant by sacrifice"; a covenant entered into through the sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is, so to speak, placed in the act of baptism, so that qualified people submitting to the act are brought into association with Christ and become acceptable to God in their approach for covenant making.

A covenant has two parties to it. In the case in question they are easily discernible. They are the Father, and those who approach Him through Christ in the way appointed. Their respective relations to the covenant are visible in the words of Yahweh, quoted by Paul:

"Come out from among them, and be ye separate":

this is our side: this is what we undertake to do.

"And I will receive you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters":

this is the Father's side: this is what He undertakes to do for us if we carry out our part.

The period of betrothal is the period of each man's probation. The ultimate issue depends upon the divine estimation of this. No man is fit to perform this part of judgement. All judgement is committed to the hands of Christ, before whom we must appear to receive it, and who at his appearing is represented as saying,

"Gather my saints together unto me: those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice" (Psa. 50:5).

Seasons 1.81

8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

"fruitful in every good work."

And what are good works? Those only that God has required in His Word. There is none good but one - that is God; and there is no righteousness but that which has been constituted such by His Word. Hence, to be fruitful branches in the Christ-tree, men must do those things that Christ has commanded for his servants; otherwise, they are unfruitful branches.

Of what advantage is it for a man to know the truth and to profess the name of Christ, if at the same time he think and speak and act in accordance with the grovelling instincts of the natural man, which are opposed to what Christ has required?

How can a man hope to please Christ, who has conformed in all things to the present evil world, to which Christ did not belong, instead of being transformed in the renewing of his mind after the image of the new man, Christ?

To such a man the truth is of no advantage whatever, but contrariwise, a positive calamity, as he will find in the day-near at the door-when Christ will say to all such,

"I know you not, ye workers of iniquity."

It is better not to know the way of truth at all, than, knowing it, to continue in the ways, works and maxims of the flesh. The saintship that is disfigured by a conformity to this God-forgetting, man-fearing, self-seeking, money-making, poor-neglecting, proud, unjust, merciless, impure, drunken, tobacco-stupefied age - is a saintship that will not be recognized by Christ, for Christ will recognize only the saintship of his own pattern, which is abundantly exhibited beforehand in the word of truth.

That saintship is a saintship of zeal for God, independence of man, faithfulness to truth, purity (both of body and mind), righteousness, mercy, faith in God, love, meekness, gentleness, unselfishness, submission to evil, and kindness to the unfortunate - even if they are erring, fruitfulness in every good work, always abounding therein with thanksgiving, in the inextinguishable hope of the heavenly calling.

Bro Roberts - Christ and the prophets, Seasons 1: 33

Many beautiful figures are employed in the Scriptures to describe the close and affectionate relationship between Christ and his people, but there is none more beautiful than that of marriage.

What is marriage? For an answer we must turn, not to the many unhappy alliances which obtain on all hands, but to God's ideal of marriage. God made "male and female" that they twain should be "one flesh" (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4–5). Where this oneness — this divinely intended unity—exists, men nourish and cherish their wives, they love them as their own bodies (Eph. 5:28–29).

Thus is it, says Paul, with Christ and the ecclesia. As we think upon this revealed mystery we feel that we miserably fail in our appreciation of Christ's love, of his deep-down fondness for us, and of the joy which little acts done in his name, and for his sake, yield to him.

But he doubtless bears with us. He knows well the deadening influences of sin which press so heavily upon all of us. Our deficiencies are not to last for ever. Exaltation to spirit nature will right matters. The Kingdom of God will see a perfect (multitudinous) woman as we now behold in Christ a perfect man. Then will come the time for a complete antitype of human marriage, only in the antitype the excellencies will exceed the type as the light of the sun exceeds that of the moon.

Bro AT Jannaway