Sermon Preached by C.H. Spurgeon
Solomon’s Song 1:4
“We will remember thy love more than wine.”
(Part four)
I think, my dear friends, I might give you twenty reasons why it would be impossible for the children of God to forget the love of Christ to them; but above and beyond every other reason is this one-
'Christ will not let his people forget his love'. If, at any time, He finds them forgetful, He will come to them, and refresh their memories.
If all the love they have ever enjoyed should be forgotten by them, He will give them some fresh manifestations of love. "Have you forgotten my cross?” He asks; "then I will cause you to remember it afresh, for at my table I will manifest myself to you as I have not done of late.
Do you forget what I did for you in the council chamber of eternity? Then I will remind you of it, for you still need a Counselor, and I will come to your relief just when you are at your wits' end, and I will give you wisdom.
Have you forgotten that I called you to myself when you were a stranger! I will bring you back from your wanderings, and then you will recollect me again.”
Mothers do not let their children forget them if they can help it? If the boy has gone to Australia, and he does not write home, his mother writes to him, "Has my John forgotten his mother?” Then there comes back a sweet epistle, which lets the mother know that the gentle hint she gave him was not lost.
So is it with Christ; He often says to one of his forgetful children, "What! is your heart cold to Him who loved you so much that He could not live in heaven without you, but must need come to earth, go out into the wilderness, up to the cross, and down to the grave, in order to find you?”
Be sure that He will have our hearts; prone to wander, He knows that they are, and we feel it ourselves, but He will have them. Oh, that He would drive the nail of the cross right through your hearts, that it might be forever fastened there! Painful might the process be; some sharp affliction might rend your flesh; yet, if that would bring you near your Lord, and keep you near Him, you might thank Him even for the affliction, and love Him all the more because of it.
Now, let us advance another step, and look at THE COMPARATIVE RESOLUTION:
"We will remember your love more than wine.”
Why is "wine” mentioned here? I take it to be used here as a figure. The fruit of the vine represents the chief of earthly luxuries. "I will remember your love more than the choicest or most exhilarating comforts which this world can give me.” We have many things which we might compare to wine, in the good and in the bad sense, too. Good, because they cheer, and comfort, and invigorate; bad, because, when we rely upon them, they intoxicate, they overthrow, and cast down to the ground.
We very readily remember the good things of earth for a season. When creature comforts abound with us, and we have happy and merry days, we recollect them; and when nights of darkness come upon us, we remember the days of our brightness, and we talk of them. It is so with the widow bereaved of her husband; she remembers the days of her happiness, when the partner of her joys was with her; she recollects his affectionate words, and his sweet deeds of love. In the case of the mother bereaved of her child, she recalls the love that child had to her, and the solace it was to her when her little one slept on her bosom. Have you become poor? Then the "wine” that you recollect is the wealth you once possessed; you remember how you had no need to tramp over weary miles, and to shiver in the wintry cold. Now that your pain has come, you recollect your former joy, and it makes your present pain all the more painful.
This "wine” may be, to a minister, the joy of being successful; and there may come to him days when his chapel will be half-empty, and then he will look back, with regret, upon the joys he once possessed. The spouse says, "We will remember your love more than all earthly comforts.” She cannot help doing so; if she could, she would recollect the world rather than heaven; she would have a remembrance of creature comforts, and she would be forgetful of her Lord. The fact is, the impression which the love of Christ makes on the true believer is far greater and deeper than the impression which is made by anything earthly.
Mere mortal joys write their record on the sand, and their memory is soon effaced; but Christ's love is like an inscription cut deeply into marble, the remembrance of it is deeply engraven in our hearts. The joy of the creature is something like a lithograph cut lightly on the stone; when the stone is cleaned, the picture is gone; but the love of Christ is like the steel engraving, it is deeply cut, and cannot be easily erased. Earthly joys tread with light feet, and leave but a faint impression; but the love of Christ treads into the very core of our soul at every footstep, and therefore it is that we remember it better than we remember any earthly pleasure.
Continued tomorrow...
Solomon’s Song 1:4
“We will remember thy love more than wine.”
(Part four)
I think, my dear friends, I might give you twenty reasons why it would be impossible for the children of God to forget the love of Christ to them; but above and beyond every other reason is this one-
'Christ will not let his people forget his love'. If, at any time, He finds them forgetful, He will come to them, and refresh their memories.
If all the love they have ever enjoyed should be forgotten by them, He will give them some fresh manifestations of love. "Have you forgotten my cross?” He asks; "then I will cause you to remember it afresh, for at my table I will manifest myself to you as I have not done of late.
Do you forget what I did for you in the council chamber of eternity? Then I will remind you of it, for you still need a Counselor, and I will come to your relief just when you are at your wits' end, and I will give you wisdom.
Have you forgotten that I called you to myself when you were a stranger! I will bring you back from your wanderings, and then you will recollect me again.”
Mothers do not let their children forget them if they can help it? If the boy has gone to Australia, and he does not write home, his mother writes to him, "Has my John forgotten his mother?” Then there comes back a sweet epistle, which lets the mother know that the gentle hint she gave him was not lost.
So is it with Christ; He often says to one of his forgetful children, "What! is your heart cold to Him who loved you so much that He could not live in heaven without you, but must need come to earth, go out into the wilderness, up to the cross, and down to the grave, in order to find you?”
Be sure that He will have our hearts; prone to wander, He knows that they are, and we feel it ourselves, but He will have them. Oh, that He would drive the nail of the cross right through your hearts, that it might be forever fastened there! Painful might the process be; some sharp affliction might rend your flesh; yet, if that would bring you near your Lord, and keep you near Him, you might thank Him even for the affliction, and love Him all the more because of it.
Now, let us advance another step, and look at THE COMPARATIVE RESOLUTION:
"We will remember your love more than wine.”
Why is "wine” mentioned here? I take it to be used here as a figure. The fruit of the vine represents the chief of earthly luxuries. "I will remember your love more than the choicest or most exhilarating comforts which this world can give me.” We have many things which we might compare to wine, in the good and in the bad sense, too. Good, because they cheer, and comfort, and invigorate; bad, because, when we rely upon them, they intoxicate, they overthrow, and cast down to the ground.
We very readily remember the good things of earth for a season. When creature comforts abound with us, and we have happy and merry days, we recollect them; and when nights of darkness come upon us, we remember the days of our brightness, and we talk of them. It is so with the widow bereaved of her husband; she remembers the days of her happiness, when the partner of her joys was with her; she recollects his affectionate words, and his sweet deeds of love. In the case of the mother bereaved of her child, she recalls the love that child had to her, and the solace it was to her when her little one slept on her bosom. Have you become poor? Then the "wine” that you recollect is the wealth you once possessed; you remember how you had no need to tramp over weary miles, and to shiver in the wintry cold. Now that your pain has come, you recollect your former joy, and it makes your present pain all the more painful.
This "wine” may be, to a minister, the joy of being successful; and there may come to him days when his chapel will be half-empty, and then he will look back, with regret, upon the joys he once possessed. The spouse says, "We will remember your love more than all earthly comforts.” She cannot help doing so; if she could, she would recollect the world rather than heaven; she would have a remembrance of creature comforts, and she would be forgetful of her Lord. The fact is, the impression which the love of Christ makes on the true believer is far greater and deeper than the impression which is made by anything earthly.
Mere mortal joys write their record on the sand, and their memory is soon effaced; but Christ's love is like an inscription cut deeply into marble, the remembrance of it is deeply engraven in our hearts. The joy of the creature is something like a lithograph cut lightly on the stone; when the stone is cleaned, the picture is gone; but the love of Christ is like the steel engraving, it is deeply cut, and cannot be easily erased. Earthly joys tread with light feet, and leave but a faint impression; but the love of Christ treads into the very core of our soul at every footstep, and therefore it is that we remember it better than we remember any earthly pleasure.
Continued tomorrow...
Comments
Thank You, Jesus.
I'm greatly looking forward to the continuation.