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unseen, so it is in retirement that we can alone pour out our whole souls to Jesus. In like manner, when David and Jonathan would embrace and kiss one another, they not only retired into "the field" without the city, but even waited until the lad that carried the arrows 66 was gone;" and "then they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded" (1 Samuel xx. 35, 41). Beautiful type of Christ, the true David, the beloved of his Bride! "There," she exclaims, "there will I give thee my loves!"

"Loves" is in the plural in the Hebrew, to show the abundance and excellency of it. It is not simply love, but the highest degree, the excess, the overflowings of love!

Ver. 13.

"The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved."

These words may either be taken as the continued language of the Bride, or as the answer of Christ to her invitation to inspect her fruitfulness (ver. 11, 12).

If the Bride is still speaking, her words evidence a very advanced stage of Christian experience, that she should be able to make such a declaration in the spirit of humility-" At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits!" But all idea of merit or selfexaltation is at once disclaimed in the following

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words-"which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved."

It is very certain that every development of the fruits of the Spirit in the Lord's people, and every act performed for his sake, is as treasure laid up in heaven for the Lord of the harvest. There is no other allusion in Scripture to a believer's laying up for Christ. When we are exhorted to "lay up," it is for ourselves—as in 1 Tim. vi. 18, 19; Matt. vi. 20, and xix. 21-for we are receiving out of Christ's fulness only sufficient grace for daily use. (The laying up the tithe of increase every third year, in Deut. xiv. 28, was a ministering to the need of others, "the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless," rather than a laying up for the Lord. And it is the only other instance where the expression occurs.)

It seems, therefore, more probable that the words are to be taken as Christ's reply to his Bride, most graciously owning and accepting the sweet fragrance he met with in his inspection of the vineyards "The mandrakes give a smell."

But as if he would give her no room for resting in present attainments, and lest she should be satis fied with the sweetness of such holy experience in this life, he immediately directs her to look yet higher, adding, "And at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved."

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There is much yet "laid up." O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!" as well as that "which thou hast wrought before the sons of men!" (Psalm xxxi. 19). "There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," &c. (2 Tim. iv. 8). Much is revealed to us now in sweet foretastes, through the indwelling of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10), but the full enjoyment of all is "laid up," "reserved in heaven" for us, to be known only in his presence where there is "fulness of joy!"

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Then, when we enter in through the gates into the city" (Rev. xxii. 14), what wonders we shall know of that light which no man can approach unto;" of that glory which ". no man hath seen or can see ;" and of that kingdom which "flesh and blood cannot inherit!" for there is "laid up" for us there, "all manner of pleasant fruits." Fulness of joy-pleasures for evermore" (Psalm xvi. 11). "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures!" (Psalm xxxvi. 8). Truly a glorious harvest is laid up for us in that heavenly garner, "where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal."

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There is yet one more thought of exceeding preciousness in the personal appropriation of all this -" for thee, O my beloved." Yes, for me! may every member of Christ's mystical body exclaim-" He loved me, and gave himself for me," and if he is

mine all things are mine! it is all "laid up" for me!

"Most wondrous joys he lets us know,

In fields and villages below;

Gives us a relish of his love

But keeps his noblest feast above!

"In Paradise, within the gates,

A higher entertainment waits,

Fruits,* new and old, laid up in store,

Where we shall feed, but thirst no more."--WATTS.

* Lev. xxvi. 10.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BRIDE.

Ver. 1. "O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother !"

It seems so unlikely towards the close of a book of Christian experience, such as this, in the matured development of the Christian life, and after such strong and unhesitating language has been used of a relationship still closer than a brother's, that the Church should now exclaim with regard to Christ, "O that thou wert as my brother;" that it is far more reasonable to understand these words in reference to those who were "without" the vineyards, which the Bride had been inspecting. From within that sacred enclosure, her eyes would rest on the waste howling wilderness," in which were many who were yet strangers to God, and in the overflowings of a heart of love, which beat in unison with that of Jesus when he looked down from heaven with a pitying eye upon a world of rebels, she would

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