But to proceed. "It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh." The awakened Bride at once recognises the tones of her Beloved! In like manner that voice is constantly employed. Its loving accents are ever putting us on our guard, and defeating the plots of our great adversary, the devil. Thrice it sounded in the ears of the sleeping Samuel, but he knew it not until the aged Eli taught him. Thirty and one chapters of the Book of Job are occupied in disputation, then God spake, first by the mouth of Elihu, and lastly out of the whirlwind. The afflicted patriarch, recognising it in the innermost chambers of his soul, repented in dust and ashes. For some time David slumbered, but the Beloved spake by Nathan, and it was effectual. Dear reader, has the spirit of slumber been stealing over your senses? Are the things which are eternal become less tangible and further from view, while the blaze of earth-born joys is increasing in intensity? May this portion of the Song be as the voice of the Beloved to you! He has said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Oh that this voice may become clearer to your ears, and that daily intercourse with Jesus may cause it to be increasingly known as the voice of your Beloved!

Open!" This is a word of power. "Unseal the slumber of thine eyes." "Awake, thou that sleepest."

me."

"Behold! I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Ministers, friends, and others speak in vain, until the voice of the Lord is heard, "Open to me." These are the accents of love. It is no stranger that asks an entrance, but one who is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. He wishes to reveal Himself more fully to us. Every day the Lord Jesus knocks at some one feature in our character, saying, "Open to "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." He enters for the blessed purpose of "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. x. 5). Conformity to His likeness is our highest privilege. Where He is admitted, Satan must be dismissed. The influence of His presence causes our whole spiritual nature to ripen and grow in meetness for the companionship of the spirits of just men made perfect.

Well, then, may we listen to His voice, saying, “Open to me."

Let us now examine the wonderful titles given to the Bride. "My sister, my love"-the family love-"my dove"-the gentle, the pure, the constant, the defenceless-" my undefiled” (Heb., my perfect one.) As labels are intended to tell the contents within, so Scripture names are descriptive of the person to whom they are applied. Were these titles given by man, we might hesitate to receive them; but they are not, and therefore we cannot doubt them. What an idea they convey to us of the love of Christ! Remember, there is no deception in them! His gentleness makes us great. He might justly have uttered complaint, but it is not So. The multitude of our wanderings is met by the magnitude of His mercy. "Yea, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." The physician of Gilead thoroughly compre

He

hended our disease before He undertook its cure. is therefore sure ultimately to triumph, because "He is able also to save them to the uttermost (margin, evermore) that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. vii. 25). These titles are full of heavenly philosophy. Nothing wounds and destroys sin or sloth so effectually as the love of Christ. A murderer's hand has been stopped by an infant's smile. When the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, he wept bitterly. The wicked can bear

anything but love. This completely subdues them. Hence there is deep wisdom for both worlds in that expression, "Love your enemies." "It is the soft word that breaketh the bone." "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." God grant that such accents may prove powerful in us. "It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh.”

Hearken now to His gentle complaint-" My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." Having declared His feelings towards the Bride, He asks her tender consideration for Himself, telling her what it has cost Him to come.

The idea is taken from one remaining all night in the open air, under the heavy dews of the East. A reference to the Word of God will give us a tolerable idea of their intensity" Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water" (Judges vi. 37-38.)

The elegant poetry of the Song, during the life of the man Christ Jesus, became stern matter of fact. Before sending out His apostles, we are informed that He went out into a mountain, and continued all night in

prayer. His locks were then filled with the drops of the night. I will not linger on these minor scenes, but pass at once to that great night of waiting, watching, and of suffering, in the Garden of Gethsemane. I marvel not at its commencement that He "began to be sorrowful and very heavy," or that He should have said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.” Thrice He looked for sympathy in man, but failed to find it. The disciples were asleep. Prayer alone was a refuge for the Man of Sorrows. How could that prayer remain unanswered? "There appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him; and being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Surely His "head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night." There was but one path by which He could reach the human heart. It lay directly through the Garden of Gethsemane. No self-indulgence marked that conflict. There was no taking of sleep, or putting off the apparel. Such was the price demanded for the salvation of a soul, and such the ransom paid. But for this, mercy and truth would not have met together, neither would righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

The text is true spiritually.

First, for the careless, it is the voice of the Beloved