of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant" (Ezek. xvi. 60, 62), and he undertakes for thee" I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me" (Jer. xxxii. 40). Therefore, in the covenant the Bride may truly say, "He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts."

The whole period of the existence of the church of Christ on earth may be called "the night," for the Resurrection will alone reveal the full light of day. All this time, therefore, the Church would seek to abide in close union and communion with her Beloved, Christ dwelling in her heart by faith (Eph. iii. 16).

Ver. 14. "My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi."

"Camphire," the most highly esteemed, the sweetest and loveliest, and most fragrant of plants in Eastern countries, is the one chosen by the Bride to express her estimation of her beloved. As "a cluster," too, from the vineyards of Engedi, where it grew in richest profusion. How it reminds us of what St. Paul says, My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. iv. 19). We do not half enjoy the sweet fragrance of Jesus as we might. He is

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not only "the Lamb slain," to save us from sin, but

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a cluster of camphire" to be unto us as the most

refreshing perfume, the most delicious fragrance. O that believers did but more enjoy Jesus with joy unspeakable! not using him only as a bitter herb for medicine, but as a delicious plant for actual enjoy

ment.

And if a cluster from the vineyard prove so exquisitely sweet, what will it be to dwell in the vineyard for eternity! We may now by faith taste the sweet foretastes of heaven's joy, just as the Israelites did" the cluster of grapes" from the promised land; but the Land itself is ours, and soon we shall enjoy the fragrance of Jesus, not "as a cluster" from the vineyard, but as the "vineyard" himself!

THE LORD'S ANSWER.

Ver. 15. "Behold thou art fair, my love; behold thou art fair; thou hast dove's eyes."

So completely has the Lord covered our vileness and adorned our nakedness, that he beholds us as "fair." He has made us such that he can behold us with delight! He is not taken up, as we are, with our present state and condition; past, present, and future, are one with him. And the little moment of our existence here is a mere speck to his eternity. Therefore he looks not upon us "because we are black,” he does not despise us for our present deformities; but seeing our brief span of sinful mortality swallowed up in the ocean of a fathomless eternity, he regards us in the everlasting covenant, as "Chosen

in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame before him in love" (Eph. i. 4, 5); and in the fulness of time to be presented "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy;" "Without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Jude 24; Eph. v. 27). "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty" (Psalm xlv. 11). Whatsoever others might think of his Bride, the Lord looks upon her with holy complacency. He can discern her comeliness (ver. 5), and the assurance to the believer is most precious—“Behold thou art fair, my love." At this moment, Jesus is saying so of his Church, of each christian-" thou art fair!"

Ver. 16

THE BRIDE.

"Behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant: also our bed is green."

There is something peculiarly sweet in this reply of the Bride; there is no vaunting of herself upon the commendation of the Lord, but contrariwise, she immediately turns to his beauty. "Behold thou art fair, my beloved."

Neither is there anything of false humility, or denial of her beauty, but only the grateful return of adoring admiration of him. For after all, her beauty was his "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm xc. 17). "The beauty of the Lord our God!"

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She delighted herself in him—"Thou art fair, yea pleasant." Since he has been made unto her wisdom" (1 Cor. i. 30), she has learned by experience that his "ways are ways of pleasantness ;" and that "at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Prov. iii. 13-17; Psalm xvi. 11).

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And she owns their mutual enjoyment; Also, our bed is green." "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures," saith David; or, as it is in the original, in pastures of budding grass" (Psalm xxiii. 2). Such being the exquisite freshness of delight and repose enjoyed by the flock of the Good Shepherd in their beloved.

Ver. 17. "The beams of our house are cedar,
rafters of fir."

and our

It is scarcely possible to read these words without calling to remembrance the house built by Solomon for the worship and dwelling place of the Most High, for which we read that Hiram sent him "timber of cedar, and timber of fir" (1 Kings vi. 15-18; and v. 6-10).

may

"We

Both are so costly and so desirable, that probably that be the main idea suggested. know that if our earthly house (literally "hut") of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. v. 1).

The Temple of Solomon was but the type of the

heavenly temple, which is composed of "lively stones" built up upon Jesus the "living stone,” "the chief corner stone, the sure foundation ;' stones so completely taken into himself, that in Rev. xxi. 22, it is written "The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it."

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Ye, also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house" (1 Peter ii. 4-7; see also Eph. ii. 20,

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22;

1 Cor. iii. 9; Psalm xcii. 13). Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house are we" (Heb. iii. 6). "The beams of our house". —so perfect is their identification, “ye in me, and I in you” (John xiv. 20, and xvii. 21)! "In my Father's house are many mansions." Jesus and his Church abide together in the Father's house, for we are no more strangers and foreigners, but " of the household of God" (John xiv. 3; Eph ii. 19). "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever" (Psalm xxiii. 6; lxxxiv.; xxvii. 4; lxv. 4).

There is a striking contrast in this enduring building to the "tents" spoken of in ver. 5; the perishing abode of the Church on earth, to the “inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven" (1 Peter i. 4). " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out" (Rev. iii. 12).