"We will remember thy love more than wine."
Solomon's Song 1:4
(part two)
Though we ought to recollect what we have heard, and what we have been taught, I think the spouse means more than this. "We will remember your loves,"-not only what we have been told, but what we have felt.
Come, dear hearers, let each one of you speak for yourselves; or, rather, do you think of this for yourselves, and let me speak of it for you.
I will remember your love, O Jesus; your love to me when I was a stranger, wandering far from God; the love which restrained me from committing 'deadly' sin, and withheld my hand from self-destruction!
I will remember the love which tracked me in my course- "When Satan's blind slave, I sported with death.”
I will remember the love which held back the axe when Justice said, "Cut it down; why does it cumber the ground?”
I will remember the love that took me into the wilderness, and stripped me there of all my self-righteousness, and made me feel my weight of guilt, and the burden of my iniquity.
Specially will I remember the love which said to me, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” I cannot forget that matchless love which, in a moment, washed my sins away, and made my spotted soul white as the driven snow.
Can you forget, my brothers and sisters, that happiest of days when Jesus first whispered to you, "I am yours, and you are mine"? I can never forget the transporting hour when He spoke thus to me; it is as fresh in my memory now as if it had only happened this afternoon. I could sing of it, if it were right to stop a sermon for a sonnet; I could sing of that love, passing all measure, which took my soul, and washed it in the precious blood of Jesus, and then clothed it in the spotless robe of his righteousness.
O love divine, you do excel all other loves, that you could deal with such a rebellious, traitorous worm, and make that worm an heir of heaven!
But we have more love than this to recollect- all the love that we have felt since then.
I will remember the valley of Baca and the hill Mizar; nor shall my soul forget those chambers of fellowship where you have unveiled yourself to me. If Moses had his cleft in the rock, where he could see the back parts of his God, we also have had our clefts in the rock, where we have seen the full splendors of the Godhead in the person of Christ. Did David remember the tracks of the wild goat, where he was hunted on the mountains- the cave of Adullam, and the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites? We, too, can remember spots equally dear to these in blessedness. "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you.”
Christian, can you not recollect the sweet exchanges there have been between yourself and your Lord, when you have left your griefs at his feet, and borne away a song?
Can you not remember some happy seasons when you went to him empty, and came away full? Is your heart heavy just now? It has not always been so. There have been times when, like David, you could dance before the Lord; times of holy merriment when, like Miriam, you could strike your timbrel, and say to those around you, "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.” There have been times when Jesus and you have not been strangers to one another, for He has linked His arms in yours, and walked along with you; and there have been other times when your head has been upon His bosom, and you could feel his heart beating with warm love to you.
continued tomorrow...
Solomon's Song 1:4
(part two)
Though we ought to recollect what we have heard, and what we have been taught, I think the spouse means more than this. "We will remember your loves,"-not only what we have been told, but what we have felt.
Come, dear hearers, let each one of you speak for yourselves; or, rather, do you think of this for yourselves, and let me speak of it for you.
I will remember your love, O Jesus; your love to me when I was a stranger, wandering far from God; the love which restrained me from committing 'deadly' sin, and withheld my hand from self-destruction!
I will remember the love which tracked me in my course- "When Satan's blind slave, I sported with death.”
I will remember the love which held back the axe when Justice said, "Cut it down; why does it cumber the ground?”
I will remember the love that took me into the wilderness, and stripped me there of all my self-righteousness, and made me feel my weight of guilt, and the burden of my iniquity.
Specially will I remember the love which said to me, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” I cannot forget that matchless love which, in a moment, washed my sins away, and made my spotted soul white as the driven snow.
Can you forget, my brothers and sisters, that happiest of days when Jesus first whispered to you, "I am yours, and you are mine"? I can never forget the transporting hour when He spoke thus to me; it is as fresh in my memory now as if it had only happened this afternoon. I could sing of it, if it were right to stop a sermon for a sonnet; I could sing of that love, passing all measure, which took my soul, and washed it in the precious blood of Jesus, and then clothed it in the spotless robe of his righteousness.
O love divine, you do excel all other loves, that you could deal with such a rebellious, traitorous worm, and make that worm an heir of heaven!
But we have more love than this to recollect- all the love that we have felt since then.
I will remember the valley of Baca and the hill Mizar; nor shall my soul forget those chambers of fellowship where you have unveiled yourself to me. If Moses had his cleft in the rock, where he could see the back parts of his God, we also have had our clefts in the rock, where we have seen the full splendors of the Godhead in the person of Christ. Did David remember the tracks of the wild goat, where he was hunted on the mountains- the cave of Adullam, and the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites? We, too, can remember spots equally dear to these in blessedness. "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you.”
Christian, can you not recollect the sweet exchanges there have been between yourself and your Lord, when you have left your griefs at his feet, and borne away a song?
Can you not remember some happy seasons when you went to him empty, and came away full? Is your heart heavy just now? It has not always been so. There have been times when, like David, you could dance before the Lord; times of holy merriment when, like Miriam, you could strike your timbrel, and say to those around you, "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.” There have been times when Jesus and you have not been strangers to one another, for He has linked His arms in yours, and walked along with you; and there have been other times when your head has been upon His bosom, and you could feel his heart beating with warm love to you.
continued tomorrow...
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