Union And Communion, J. Hudson Taylor [classic book list TXT] 📗
- Author: J. Hudson Taylor
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To her He says:—
[the beautiful city of Samaria,]
Comely as Jerusalem,
[the glorious city of the great King,]
Terrible [or rather brilliant] as an army with banners.
Turn away thine eyes from Me,
For they have overcome Me. (See vv. 4-7.)
Then, turning to the daughters of Jerusalem, He exclaims:—
And maidens without number.
My dove, My perfect one, is but one;
She is the only one of her mother;
She is the choice one of her that bare her.
The daughters saw her, and called her blessed;
Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her, saying,
Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,
Fair as the moon,
Clear as the sun,
Brilliant as an army with banners?
Thus the section closes with communion fully restored; the bride reinstated and openly acknowledged by the Bridegroom as His own peerless companion and friend. The painful experience through which the bride has passed has been fraught with lasting good, and we have no further indication of interrupted communion, but in the remaining sections find only joy and fruitfulness.
SECTION V FRUITS OF RECOGNIZED UNIONTo see the green plants of the valley,
To see whether the vine budded,
And the pomegranates were in flower.
Or ever I was aware, my soul set me
Among the chariots of my willing people.
As in the commencement of Section III., the bride, in unbroken communion with her Lord, was present though unmentioned until she made her presence evident by her address to the daughters of Zion; so in this section the presence of the King is unnoted until He Himself addresses His bride. But she is one with her Lord as she engages in His service! His promise, "Lo, I am with you alway," is ever fulfilled to her; and He has no more to woo her to arise and come away; to tell her that His "head is filled with dew," His "locks with the drops of the night"; or to urge her if she love Him to feed His sheep and care for His lambs. Herself His garden, she does not forget to tend it, nor keep the vineyards of others while her own is neglected. With Him as well as for Him, she goes to the garden of nuts. So thorough is the union between them that many commentators have felt difficulty in deciding whether the bride or the Bridegroom was the speaker, and really it is a point of little moment; for, as we have said, both were there, and of one mind; yet we believe we are right in attributing these words to the bride, as she is the one addressed by the daughters of Jerusalem, and the one who speaks to them in reply.
The bride and Bridegroom appear to have been discovered by their willing people while thus engaged in the happy fellowship of fruitful service, and the bride, or ever she was aware, found herself seated among the chariots of her people—her people as well as His.
The daughters of Jerusalem would fain call her back:—
Return, return, that we may look upon thee.
There is no question now as to who she is, nor why her Beloved is more than another beloved; He is recognized as King Solomon, and to her is given the same name, only in its feminine form (Shulammite).
Some have seen in these words, "Return, return," an indication of the rapture of the Church; and explain some parts of the subsequent context, which appear inconsistent with this view, as resumptive rather than progressive. Interesting as is this thought, and well as it would explain the absence of reference to the King in the preceding verses, we are not inclined to accept it; but look on the whole song as progressive, and its last words as being equivalent to the closing words of the Book of Revelation, "Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." We do not therefore look upon the departure of the bride from her garden as being other than temporary.
The bride replies to the daughters of Jerusalem:—
In the presence of the King, she cannot conceive why any attention should be paid to her. As Moses, coming down from the mount, was unconscious that his face shone with a divine glory, so was it here with the bride. But we may learn this very important lesson, that many who do not see the beauty of the Lord, will not fail to admire His reflected beauty in His bride. The eager look of the daughters of Jerusalem surprised the bride, and she says, You might be looking "upon the dance of Mahanaim"—the dance of two companies of Israel's fairest daughters—instead of upon one who has no claim for attention, save that she is the chosen, though unworthy, bride of the glorious King.
The daughters of Jerusalem have no difficulty in replying to her question, and recognizing her as of royal birth—"O Prince's daughter"—as well as of queenly dignity, they describe in true and Oriental language the tenfold beauties of her person; from her feet to her head they see only beauty and perfection. What a contrast to her state by nature! Once "from the sole of the foot even unto the head" was "but wounds, and bruises, and festering sores"; now her feet are "shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace," and the very hair of the head proclaims her a Nazarite indeed; "the King" Himself "is held captive in the tresses thereof."
But One, more to her than the daughters of Jerusalem, responded to her unaffected question, "What will ye see in the Shulamite?" The Bridegroom Himself replies to it:—
O love, for delights!
He sees in her the beauties and the fruitfulness of the tall and upright palm, of the graceful and clinging vine, of the fragrant and evergreen citron. Grace has made her like the palm-tree, the emblem alike of uprightness and of fruitfulness. The fruit of the date-palm is more valued than bread by the Oriental traveller, so great is its sustaining power; and the fruit-bearing powers of the tree do not pass away; as age increases the fruit becomes more perfect as well as more abundant.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They that are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;
They shall be full of sap and green.
But why are the righteous made so upright and flourishing?
He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
One with our Lord, it is ours to show forth His graces and virtues, to reflect His beauty, to be His faithful witnesses.
The palm is also the emblem of victory; it raises its beautiful crown towards the heavens, fearless of the heat of the sultry sun, or of the burning hot wind from the desert. From its beauty it was one of the ornaments of Solomon's, as it is to be of Ezekiel's temple. When our Saviour was received at Jerusalem as the King of Israel the people took branches of palm-trees and went forth to meet Him; and in the glorious day of His espousals, "a great multitude, which no man" can "number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," shall stand "before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes"; and with palms of victory in their hands shall ascribe their "salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."
But if she resembles the palm she also resembles the vine. Much she needs the culture of the Husbandman, and well does she repay it. Abiding in Christ, the true source of fruitfulness, she brings forth clusters of grapes, luscious and refreshing, as well as sustaining, like the fruit of the palm—luscious and refreshing to Himself, the owner of the vineyard, as well as to the weary, thirsty world in which He has placed it.
The vine has its own suggestive lessons: it needs and seeks support; the sharp knife of the pruner often cuts away unsparingly its tender garlands, and mars its appearance, while increasing its fruitfulness. It has been beautifully written:—
God gave to man for use and sustenance
Corn, wine, and oil, and each of these is good:
And Christ is Bread of life and Light of life.
But yet, He did not choose the summer corn,
That shoots up straight and free in one quick growth.
And has its day, is done, and springs no more;
Nor yet the olive, all whose boughs are spread
In the soft air, and never lose a leaf,
Flowering and fruitful in perpetual peace;
But only this, for Him and His is one,—
That everlasting, ever-quickening Vine,
That gives the heat and passion of the world,
Through its own life-blood, still renewed and shed.
* * * * * *
The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine;
Is it the poorer for that spirit shed?
The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof;
Are they the richer for that gift's excess?
Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;
Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth;
For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice;
And whoso suffers most, hath most to give.
Yet one figure more is used by the Bridegroom: "The smell of thy breath [is] like apples," or rather citrons. In the first section the bride exclaims:—
So is my Beloved among the sons.
I delighted and sat down under His shadow,
And His fruit was sweet to my taste.
Here we find the outcome of that communion. The citrons on which she had fed perfumed her breath, and imparted to her their delicious odour. The Bridegroom concludes his description:—
That goeth down smoothly—
For my Beloved—
How wondrous the grace that has made the bride of Christ to be all this to her Beloved! Upright as the palm, victorious, and evermore fruitful as she grows heavenward; gentle and tender as the Vine, self-forgetful and self-sacrificing, not merely bearing fruit in spite of adversity, but bearing her richest fruits through it;—feasting on her Beloved, as she rests beneath His shade, and thereby partaking of His fragrance;—what has grace not done for her! And what must be her joy in finding, ever more fully, the satisfaction of the glorious Bridegroom in the lowly wild flower He has made His bride, and beautified with His own graces and virtues!
And His desire is toward me,
Let us lodge
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