RESERVE AND NEARNESS. THE NEW COMPANY, ETC.
RESERVE AND NEARNESS. THE NEW COMPANY, ETC.
As to Song of Songs 5, I think that the bride enjoyed the Bridegroom in verse 1 in a public way, but that in verse 2 she declines what we may call soul work, and loses the sense of His presence. We ourselves can often be at ease with one another in public when we should feel, if there was any cause for reserve, embarrassed when alone, though, of course, it is when alone, if there is no reserve, that the true measure of nearness is known. So it is with the Lord. It is when we get alone with Him that we are sensible of reserve, if there be cause for it, and if not, we [p. 253] are deepened in the sense of the blessedness of nearness to Him.
I was speaking on Luke 10: 30. The law was proved to be inadequate to meet the ruin of man, hence the new company is brought out. It starts there (chapter 10: 38) and runs on to chapter 18. There are seven traits of the new company. What are they? Study it. The word and prayer are the great traits. Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet sets forth one, and the widow (chapter 18) the other. My friend has what I want, and I cannot get it anywhere else. I am sure, were I in such circumstances, that you would help me, even though it put you to great inconvenience. But God tests us in order to ascertain whether we are exclusively dependent on Him.
The more I know the position in which God has set me in Christ, the more my heart, led by the Spirit, longs to be in practical accordance with it. I am empowered to be what I am; but that is death to my selfishness. If self is not displaced the song may be lovely to my ear, but I cannot dance to it. The most learned church lost its first love. Love is never satisfied unless it answers to the heart of the loved one. He has made us everything to suit Himself, as we see in Ephesians 1; but down here, if we are true to Him, we walk worthy of our vocation. As I learn His purpose I long to know more of “the exceeding greatness of his power to usward”.
We cannot know anything of Christ’s present mind but as we are in concert with Him where He is. Manna is our food where He was. The old corn is our food where He is. Love values much the manna where He was; but love is only satisfied in knowing its object where He is, and at the present moment. And this is communion.
There is a great difference between our being widowed here because of Christ’s death, and our being dead with Him. The one is that my heart is dead to everything here because its one object is gone; the other, that having died with Him, everything here is ended for me, and I have [p. 254] passed morally into another scene where He is, but this is only true to faith, and as I am in faith I reckon myself dead.