Jesus was the beloved in the song of songs

JESUS WAS THE BELOVED IN THE SONG OF SONGS
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Song of Solomon 2:16 16My beloved is mine and I am
his; he browses among the lilies.

THE INTEREST OF CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE IN EACH OTHER NO.
374

A SERMON DELIVERED ON GOOD FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 29,
1861, DELIVERED BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” Song of Solomon 2:16.

THE Church says concerning her Lord, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.”
No “ifs,” no “buts.” The two sentences are solemn assertions. Not, “I hope, I
trust, I think.” But, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” “Yes,” but you will
say, “the Church must then have been gazing upon her husband’s face. It
must have been a season of peculiar enjoyment with Him, when she could
speak thus.” No, brothers and sisters, no! The Church, when she thus spoke,
was in darkness, for in the very next verse she cries— “Until the day breaks,
and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a
young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” I say, brothers and sisters, this
solemn certainty, this double assertion of her interest in Christ, and Christ’s
interest in her, is the utterance of the Church even in her darkness, in the

cheerless season of His absence! So then, you and I, if we believe in Christ,
ought, even when we do not see His face, still to cultivate full assurance of
faith, and never be satisfied unless we can say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am
His.” When you cannot say this, my hearer, give no sleep to your eyes, nor
slumber to your eyelids. Be not happy; take no solace; find no comfort as long
as there is any doubt about your union with the Beloved—His possession of
you and your possession of Him! We will now, having thus prefaced the text,
come at once to it. There are two members, you perceive, to the sentence, “My
Beloved is mine, and I am His.” These two things come in a strange order, you
will say, “Surely we are first Christ’s, before Christ is ours.” A right thought
of yours. We shall take the text, then, this evening two ways. We shall first
speak of it as it would be in the order of time. “I am my Beloved’s, and my
Beloved is mine.” We shall afterwards speak in the order of the text, which is
the order of experience. The words as Solomon penned them are not the order
of fact as far as God is concerned, but the order in which we find out God’s
great doings! You know God’s first things are our second things, and our
second things are God’s first things. “Make your calling and election sure.”
Calling is your first thing—election is the second. But election is God’s first
thing, and calling is the next! You are not elected because you are called; and
yet, at the same time, you shall never know your election until first you have
made your calling and election sure! The order of the text is the order of
experience. We shall take the members of the sentence as they would be if they
spoke in the order of fact. I. To begin, then, I AM MY BELOVED’S, AND
MY BELOVED IS THEREFORE MINE. 1. “I am my Beloved’s.” Glorious
assertion! I am His by His Father’s gift. Long before suns and moons were
made, and stars twinkled in the midnight darkness, God the eternal Father
had given the chosen to Christ, to be His heritage and marriage dowry. If
God, then, has given my soul to Christ, I am my Beloved’s. Who shall dispute
the right of God to give, or who shall take from Christ that which His Father
has given to be His heritage? Fiends of hell! Legions of the pit! When God
gives, can you take back the gift? If He puts the souls of the chosen into the
hands of Christ, can you pluck them from Him? If He makes them Christ’s
sheep, can you pluck them out of His fold, and make them your own? God
forbid we should indulge the blasphemous thought, that any can dispute the
ownership which Christ has in His people, derived from His Father’s gift! But

I am my Beloved’s, if I am a believer, because of Jesus Christ’s purchase of
me. We were bought not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ. Christ has an absolute right to all that He
bought with His blood. I do not believe in that dreamy atonement, by which
Christ redeems, and purchases, and yet the purchase is a fiction, and the
redemption a metaphor!
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All that Christ bought with blood He will have. If a man buys with gold and
silver of an honest man, he gets his own, nor will he be content until he does;
but when Christ ransoms with His blood and buys of God Himself, and
redeems His own people, it is not possible that He should be frustrated of His
purpose or denied the objective of His death! I am my Beloved’s then, because
He has paid the full price for me, counted down the purple drops, and
positively and surely has as much bought me with His money as ever
Abraham of old bought flocks of sheep and oxen, or as ever of old Jacob
served for Rachel and for Leah. No title deeds ever made estates more truly
the property of the purchaser; than did the resurrection guarantee the rights
of Christ in the “purchased possession.” “I am my Beloved’s,” by a double
tie—by the Father’s gift, and by the Son’s divine purchase. These two things
are not easily reconcilable to some minds. But let it be carried in your hearts
as a matter of fact, that there is as much grace in the Father’s giving the elect
to Christ as if no price were paid, and secondly, that there was as full and true
a price paid to the Father as though the Father had been justice only, and not
love. The grace of God and His justice are, both of them, full-orbed, they are
never eclipsed; they are never made to you with divided luster; He is as
gracious as though He were not just; He is as awfully severe as though there
were no grace in His nature. But, more than this, “I am my Beloved’s,” for, I
am His by conquest. He fought for me, and He won me, let Him possess me.
He went alone to that great battle. He defied all the hosts which had made me

their prey, encountered first my sins, and slew them with His blood, He
encountered Satan himself next, and bruised the serpent’s head, encountered
death, and slew him by “destroying him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil.” O Christ! You deserved to have those for whom You did wrestle
and agonize even unto blood, and who by Your strong hand, You brought out
of the land of their captivity! Never could a conqueror claim a subject so
justly as Christ claims His people; they were not only His, eternally His, by
the purchase of His blood, but they are His because He has taken them by
overwhelming might, having delivered them out of the hand of him who was
stronger than they! That word which He gird upon His thigh, is both the right
by which He claims, and the might by which He keeps His ransomed. Besides
this, every true believer can add, “I am my Beloved’s,” by a gracious
surrender. “With full consent I give myself to You.” This is your language,
brothers and sisters. It is mine. “I am my Beloved’s.” If I were never His
before, I do desire to give myself up to Him now. His Love shall be the fetters
in which I, a happy captive, will walk at His triumphant chariot wheels. His
grace shall bind me with its golden chains so that I will be free and yet His
bondman forever. The mercies of each hour shall be fresh links, and the
benefits of each day and night shall be new rivets to the chain. No Christian
would like to be his own; to be one’s own is to be lost; but to be Christ’s is to
be saved! To be one’s own is to be a wandering sheep; to be Christ’s is to
return to the great bishop and shepherd of our souls. Do you not remember,
many of you, the night when you first surrendered to Christ? He stood at the
door and knocked—the door was overgrown with brambles; the hinges had
rusted from long disuse; the key was lost; the keyhole of the lock was welded
together with filth and rust. Yes, from within the door was bolted fast! He
knocked—at first a gentle knock, enough to let you know who it was. You
laughed. He knocked again. You heeded not; you heard His voice as he cried,
“Open to Me, open to Me. My hair is wet with dew, and My locks with the
drops of the night.” But you had a thousand frivolous excuses, and you would
not open to Him! Oh, do you remember when at last He put in his hand by the
hole of the lock, and your heart was moved for Him? “Jesus! Savior! I yield, I
yield! I can hold out no longer, my heart melts. My cruel soul relents. Come
in! Come in! Please pardon me that I have kept You out so long; resisted so
long the wooings of Your heavenly love.” Well, you will say tonight, and set

your solemn hand and seal to it, that you are Christ’s because you do once
again, voluntarily and freely, surrender yourself to Him! I think tonight
would be a very proper occasion for each of us to renew our dedication vows.
We are, many of us, believers; let us go to our chamber and say thus—“O
God! You have heard our prayers as a Church. We have entered into Your
house; we have seen it filled to the full. By this, the answer which You have
given to our prayers, we rededicate ourselves to You, desiring to say with the
spouse more fully than heretofore, ‘I am my Beloved’s.’” Let us pause here an
instant. We have seen how we came to be our Beloved’s, let us inquire in what
sense we are so now.
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We are His, first of all, by a near affinity that never can be broken. Christ is
the Head; we are His members. There is nothing which my Head possesses so
truly as my hands, and my heart. Your head could not say that its helmet and
plume are so truly its own as the neck, the sinews, the veins, which are joined
thereunto. The head manifestly has a distinct and peculiar property in every
member. “I am my Beloved’s,” then, even as my hands and feet are mine. “I
am my Beloved’s”—if He loses me, I will be mutilated. “I am my Beloved’s,”
if I am cut away, or even wounded, He will feel the pain. The Head must
suffer, when the members are tempted and tried. There is nothing so true and
real, in the sense of property, as this! I would that you who doubt the
perseverance of the saints would take these few words to heart. If once Christ
should lose His people, He would be a head without a body. That would be a
ghastly sight! No, if He lost one of His people, He would be the head of a
mutilated body—that would not be a glorious sight. If you imagine the loss of
one mystical member of Christ, you must suppose an imperfect Christ—one
whose fullness is not full, whose glory is not glorious, whose completeness is
not complete! Now I am sure you would reject that idea. And it will be joy for
you to say, “As the members belong to the head, so am I my Beloved’s.”

Further than this—we are our Beloved’s by a most affectionate relationship.
He is the Husband, believers are the spouse. There is nothing that a man has
that is so much his property as his own wife, except it be his very life. A man’s
wealth may melt by losses; a man’s estate may be sold to pay his debts; but, a
man’s wife, as long as she lives, is his absolute property. She can say, “He is
mine.” He can say, “She is mine.” Now Christ says of all His people, “You are
mine, I am married to you; I have taken you unto Myself, and betrothed you
unto Me in faithfulness.” What do you say? Will you deny the celestial
marriage bond? God forbid! Will you not say to your Lord tonight, “Yes, I
am my Beloved’s”? Ah, there is no divorce court in heaven; there is no
division; no separation bill possible, for He “hates divorce.” If chosen, He will
not reject; if once embraced, He will never cast out; His she is, and His she
shall be forevermore. In this sense, then, “I am my Beloved’s.” Yet once
more—“I am my Beloved’s” by an indissoluble connection, just as a child is
the property of his father. The father calls his child his own. Who denies it?
What law is so inhuman as to allow another to tear away the offspring of his
heart from the parent? There is no such law among civilized men! Among the
aboriginal savages of the Southern States of America, such a thing may exist;
but among civilized men there can never be any dispute but that the father’s
right to his child is supreme, and that no master, and no owner can override
the rights of the parents to his children. Come, then—even so are we His! “He
shall see His seed.” “He shall see of the travail of His soul.” If He could lose
His glories, if He could be driven from His kingdom, if He could be despoiled
of His crown, if His throne could totter, if all His might could melt away as the
snow wreath melts before the summer’s sun—yet at least His seed would be
His own! No law, human or divine, could disown the believing child, or
unfather Christ, the Everlasting Father. So then, it is a great joy to know that
each believer may say, in the highest sense—“I am my Beloved’s. I am His
child, and He is my parent.” I half wish that instead of my preaching now, we
could stand up, each of us who feel the force of this sweet sentiment, and say,
“‘Tis true, great God; by eternal donation, by complete purchase, by a full
surrender, by a mighty conquest, I am my Beloved’s. He is my Head, my
Husband, my Father, and my all.” 2. The second sentence in order of time is,
“My Beloved is mine.” Ah, you very poor men and women, you who could not
call one foot of land your own, and probably never will till you get the space

where you lie down to sleep the sleep of death! If you can say, “My Beloved is
mine,” you have greater wealth than Croesus ever knew, or than a miser ever
dreamed! If my soul can claim Christ, the eternal God and the perfect man, as
being my own personal property, then my soul is rich to all the intents of
bliss—even if the body walks in rags, or should the lips know hunger, or the
mouth be parched with thirst! But how is my Beloved mine? He is mine,
because He gave Himself to me of old. Long before I knew it, or had a being,
He covenanted to bestow Himself on me—on all His chosen. When He said,
“Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your
will, O God,” He did in fact become My substitute, giving Himself to do my
work, and bear my sorrow! Mine He is because that covenant has been
fulfilled in the actual gift. For me (I speak in the first person, because I want
you each to speak in the first person, too), for you, my soul, He laid aside His
robes of glory to become a man; for
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you He was swaddled in the weakness of Infancy and lay in the poverty of the
manger; for you, my soul, He bore the infant body, the childish form, and the
human flesh and blood; for you the poverty which made Him cry, “Foxes have
holes and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son of man, have not where
to lay My head.” For you, my soul, for you that shame and spitting, that agony
and bloody sweat, that cross that crown of thorns, those expiring agonies, that
dying groan! “My Beloved,” in all this, “is mine.” Yes, yours the burial; yours
the resurrection and its mystic meaning; yours the ascension and its
triumphant shouts; yours the session at the right hand of God; yes, and by
holy daring we avow it, He who sits today, “God over all, blessed forever,” is
ours in the splendor of His majesty, in the invincibility of His might, in the
omnipresence of His power, in all the glory of His future advent! Our Beloved
is ours, because He has given Himself to us, just as He is. But besides that, our
Beloved is not only ours by His own gift, which is the reality of it all, but He is

ours by a graciously completed union. What a wonderful thing is the doctrine
of union with Christ. “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His
bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I
speak concerning Christ and the Church.” Christ and His Church are one—
one as the stones are one with the foundation; one, as the branches are one
with the vine; as the wife is one with the husband; one, as the members are
one with the head—as the soul is one with the body—no, if there can be
conceived a union closer, and there is but one, we are one with Christ, even as
Christ is one with His Father! “I in them, and You in Me;” for thus the union
stands; now, as soon as ever we are one with Christ, you see at once that
Christ must be ours. There is a common property between Christ and His
people. All theirs belongs to Him—His belongs to them. They have not two
stocks, they have but one. He has cast in His wealth, they have cast in their
poverty—from that day they have common funds. They have but one purse—
they have all things in common. All He is and all He has is theirs, and all they
are or can be belong to Him. I might add, but this is a high point, and needs to
be experienced, rather than preached upon, Christ is ours by His indwelling.
Ignatius used to call himself the God-bearer and when some wondered at the
title, he said—“I carry God about within me; our bodies are the temples of the
Holy Spirit.” That is an amazing text, amazing in the splendor of its meaning!
Does the Holy Spirit dwell in a man? Yes, that He does! Not in this temple,
“not in tabernacles made with hands.” That is to say, of man’s building, but
within this soul, and in your soul, and in the souls of all His called ones, He
dwells. “Abide in Me,” He said, “and I in you.” Christ must be in you, the
hope of glory; Christ must be formed in you, as He was in Mary, or you have
not come yet to know to the fullest, the divine meaning of the spouse, when she
said—“My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” Now, tonight, I wish that we could
get practical good, to our comfort, out of the thought that Christ is ours, if we
are believers. Hear me, then, a moment or two, while I dilate upon that
thought. Christ is surely yours. It is not a questionable property, a matter to
be put into dispute with heaven’s court; beyond question Christ is the
property—the rightful heritage—of every elect and called one! Again—Christ
is ours personally. We sometimes speak of severally and jointly. Well then,
Christ is ours jointly; but, blessed be His name, He is ours severally, too!

Christ is as much yours tonight, however mean you may be, as though He did
not belong to another man living. The whole of Christ is yours! He is not part
mine, and part yours, and part another man’s. He is all mine, all yours—
personally mine, personally yours! Oh that we could realize this fact! And
then, again, Christ is always ours. He is never more ours at one time, and less
ours at another. The moment we believe in Him, we may know our perfect
and invariable right to Christ; a right which depends not upon the changes of
the hour, or upon the temperature of our frames and feelings, but upon those
two immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie. Christ is ours
tonight; and, glory be to His name for it, if we believe, He is ours forever—
“This sacred bond shall never break, Though earth’s old columns bow! The
strong, the feeble and the weak Can claim their Savior now!”
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And this they shall do, perhaps with greater joy, but not with greater right,
when they stand before the throne of God! I cannot, tonight, in a place to
which I am so little accustomed, bring all my thoughts together as I would.
But, I think if I could but put this truth of God before you, or rather, if the
Spirit of God would put it so that you could feel Christ to be yours, it would
make you spring from your pew with ecstasy! Why, it is enough to thrill every
chord in a man; and if a man may be compared to a harp, make every string
in him pour forth an ocean of music! Christ mine—myself Christ’s—there
cannot be a more joyous or more heavenly theme beneath the skies! II. I have
thus completed the first work of this evening—taking the sentences of the text
in the order of time. I shall now take the text IN THE ORDER IN WHICH IT
IS GIVEN TO US, WHICH IS THE ORDER OF OUR EXPERIENCE. Do
you not see, that to a man’s experience, God’s order is reversed? We begin
thus—“My Beloved is mine.” I go to Him, take Him up in the arms of my
faith, as Simeon took up the little Child in the Temple, and pressing Him to
my heart, I say—“Jesus, You are mine. All unholy and unclean, I nevertheless

obey Your command; I believe You, I take You at Your word; I touch the
hem of Your garment; I trust my soul wholly with You; You are mine and my
soul can never part with You.” What next? Why then, the soul afterwards
says—“Now I am Yours, tell me what You would have me to do. Jesus, let me
abide with You. Lord, I would follow You wherever You go; put me on any
service, dictate to me any commandment; tell me what You would have me do
to glorify You”— “Through floods, through flames, if Jesus leads, I’ll follow
where He goes.” For I am His! Christ is mine—this is faith. I am His—this is
good works. Christ is mine—that is the simple way in which the soul is saved!
I am Christ’s—that is the equally simple method by which salvation displays
itself in its practical fruits. I am afraid some of you have never carried out the
last sentence, “I am Christ’s.” I know some, for instance, who believe (mark, I
am not speaking to those who do not) who believe it to be the duty of every
Christian to profess his faith in Baptism, but nevertheless are not baptized.
They say they are Baptists in principle. They are Baptists without any
principle at all! They are men who know their Master’s will, and do it not,
and they shall surely be beaten with many stripes. In other men it becomes a
sin of ignorance; but with such men it is willful. They reply, “It is a
nonessential.” Things non-essential to salvation are nevertheless essential to
obedience! As I said a few Sabbaths ago, you would not like a servant who
only did what he liked to do, and told you that some of your commands were
non-essential. I am quite certain that if a soldier did not load his gun, or stand
in rank, or shoulder arms at the word of command, the court martial would
never listen for an instant to the plea of non-essential! God’s commands
require obedience, and it is essential that every servant be found faithful. I
say, it is exceedingly essential to a Christian to do what he is told to do.
Whatever Jesus bids us do, if it save us from nothing, at any rate the
fulfillment of it will save us from the sin of being disobedient to Him! Now will
you try, my dear friends, not in the one command only, which lies at the
threshold of the house, but in all others, to feel that you are not your own?
“Ah,” says one man, “I am not my own; I have so much to do for my family.”
Another says, “I am not my own; I belong to a political party.” Another, “I
am not my own; I belong to a firm.” Just so—all these are ways in which men
are kept from saying, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” Oh that
we could, by any means whatever, feel that we were all Christ’s! I, though I

had a drop of blood in my veins that was not His, I would seek to have it let
out; and if there were a single power I have—mental, physical, or spiritual
which could not and would not serve God, though it might impair my
comfort—I would devoutly pray that this Jonah might be thrown into the sea,
this Achan stoned with stones, this Haman hanged on the gallows! This
cankered thing, it is a deadly thing—this damnable thing must be cut away,
once and for all, for, “Better to enter into heaven halt and maimed, than
having two eyes and two arms to be cast into hell fire.” We must have eyes
that see Christ! We must feel that we are all Christ’s, and live as if we were all
Christ’s, for we have no right to say, “My Beloved is mine,” unless we can
add, “And I am His.” Why look, sirs, look at the great multitude of professors.
How few there are who live as if they belonged to Christ! They act
independently of Him! They buy, they sell on their own account—that they
are stewards never pene
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trate their thick brains; that all they have is not their own, but His, never
seems to have come into their heart, though they have sung it with their lips—
“And if I might make some reserve, And duty did not call, I love my God with
zeal so great, That I would give Him all.” Many a man has sung that, with his
thumb-nail going round a coin in his purse, to find out whether it was a four
penny or a three penny bit! He says he would give Christ all; but then he
means that the bill is to be drawn at a very long credit, and he will pay when
he dies—he will give up what he cannot take away with him—and when he
leaves his rotten carcass, he will leave his rotten wealth. Oh that we could all
feel that we were all Christ’s! Why, the Church of God would not be penned
and shut up within the narrow bounds of England and America for long, if
once we felt we were Christ’s! At this very moment China is open to Christian
enterprise. The leader of the so-called “rebels” turns out to be, after all, a man
who is exceedingly enlightened in the things of God. He has said to Mr.

Roberts, the missionary, “I open today 18 chapels in Nanking—write to your
friends and tell them to come over and preach, and we will be glad to hear
them. I give you a passport that no man may touch you, and any man who will
preach Christ’s gospel shall go unharmed through my dominions.” And he
actually issued, but a few days before the coming of the last mail, a
proclamation by which all idolatry is abolished throughout his dominions, and
witchcraft and fortunetelling are made crimes, and he invites, and prays
specifically that his brothers in England will send over the Word of life, that
they may have it among the people. Now I do honestly avow, if this place had
not been built, and I had had nothing beyond the narrow bounds of the place
in which I have lately preached, I would have felt in my conscience bound to
go to learn the language and preach the Word there! But I now know what to
do. I must here abide, for this is my place; but I would to God some were
found in the church, some in London, who have not such a gracious tie as this
to keep them in their own land, to say, “Here am I, send me. I am Christ’s
man; there is Christ’s field. Let me go and reap it, for the harvest is ripe. Help
me, O God, and I will seek to ingather it for Your honor.” “My Beloved is
mine, and I am His.” That last, “I am His” would make life cheap, and blood
like water, and heroism a common thing, and daring but an everyday duty,
and self-sacrifice the very spirit of the Christian life! Learn well, then, the
meaning of that sentence, “I am His.” But, will you please notice once again—
(I fear lest I shall weary you, and therefore will be brief)— “My Beloved is
mine”—that is my calling. He calls me to Him. He gives Himself to me. He is
mine. I am His—that is my election! I was His before I knew Him to be mine;
but I learned my calling first, and my election afterwards. We have scores of
people who will not come to Christ because they cannot understand election.
Meet a boy in the street, and invite him to go to a two-penny school. “No,”
says the boy, “I don’t feel fit to go to a national school to learn to read and
write—for, to tell you the truth, I don’t understand the Hebrew language,”
You would reply, “But, my good lad, you will learn Hebrew afterwards, if you
can—but that is no reason, at any rate, why you should not learn English
first! Come first to the little school; you shall go afterwards to the grammar
school; if you get on, you shall go to the University, take your B.A. degree, and
perhaps come out as a Master of Arts.” But here we have poor souls that want
to have their M.A. before they have gone to the penny school! They want to

read the volumes before they will read the primer book. They are not content
to spell A, B, C—“I am a sinner, Christ is a Savior”—but they long to turn
over the book of decrees, and find out the deep things of God. You shall find
them out afterwards—you shall go step by step, while the Master shall say to
you each time, “friend, come up higher.” But if you begin with election, you
will have to come down again—for there will be a more honorable man than
you who will come in, and you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. I
have seen plenty of high-flying Christians who began at the top of the tree;
they were the men; wisdom would die with them; the judges, the dictators, the
very consuls, the cardinals, the popes—they knew everything. And whenever
such men are gracious men, the Lord always puts the lancet into them, and
makes them grow smaller and smaller, and smaller, till at last they say, “Woe
is me, for I am undone.” And they cry, “My soul is even as a weaned child.”
Begin at the bottom and grow up. But do not begin at the top and come down!
That is hard work—but going up is pleasant work, joyous
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work! Begin by saying, “My Beloved is mine.” You shall come to know your
election, by-and-by, and say, “I am His.” And now I do not think I will preach
any longer about my text, but just come down upon my hearers for a few
minutes, with all my might! How many among us can dare to say this tonight?
Hundreds of you can! Thousands of you can! If this were the Day of
Judgment—if tonight you stood, fresh risen from your graves—if now you
heard the trumpet sound—if now you saw the King in His beauty sitting upon
the great white throne, I know that many of you would say, “My Beloved is
mine, and I am His.” If this day the millennial reign of Christ had begun—if
the vials had been opened, the plagues poured out, and if now Christ were
come—that the wicked might be driven out, and that His saints might reign—
I am sure there are many of you who would say, “Welcome, welcome, Son of
God! My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” And there are many of you, too, who

if the angel of death should pass the pew, and flap his black wings into your
face, and the cold air of death should smite you, would say, “‘Tis well, for my
Beloved is mine, and I am His.” You could shut your eyes and your ears to the
joys, and to the music of earth, and you could open them to the splendors and
melodies of heaven! To be fearless of death should always be the mark of the
Christian. Sometimes a sudden alarm may rob us of our presence of mind;
but no believer is in a healthy state if he is not ready to meet death at any
hour, and at any moment. To walk bravely into the jaws of the dragon—to go
through the iron gates and to feel no terror—to be ready to shake hands with
the skeleton king; to look on him as a friend, and no more a foe—this should
be the habitual spirit, and the constant practice of the heir of heaven. Oh, if
this is written on my soul, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His!” Come,
welcome death— “Come, death, and some celestial band, I’ll gladly go with
you.” But—and a solemn “But”—pass the question round these galleries, and
in this area, and how many among you must say, “I never thought of that. I
never thought whether I was Christ’s, or Christ mine.” I will not rebuke you
tonight. I will not thunder at you. God’s grace to me forbids that this should
be a day of thunder. Let it be a day of feasting to everyone, and of sorrow to
none. What shall I say to you, then, but this? O that Christ may be yours!
When He was here on earth, He chose to go among sinners— sinners of the
blackest hue! And now He is in heaven; up yonder He loves sinners as much
as He ever did. He is as willing to receive you tonight as to receive the thief! It
will give as much joy to His heart to hear your cry tonight, as when He
thanked God that these things were revealed unto babes. It is to His honor
that you should be His; it is to His joy that He should be yours. Sinner! If you
will have Christ—if now the Spirit of God makes you willing—there is no bar
on God’s part when the bar is taken away on your part! If you are willing, by
His grace, He is more willing than you are! If the gate of your heart is on the
latch, the gate of heaven is wide open! If your soul does but yearn after Christ,
His heart has long yearned after you! If you have but a spark of love to Christ,
He has a furnace of love to you; and if you have none at all—no love, no
faith—oh I pray you have it now! “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
shall be saved.” You! You! YOU! Did you come here out of curiosity?
Zaccheus heard Christ out of curiosity; but he was saved. Did you come for a
worse purpose? God bless you, anyhow, for whatever reason you came; and

may He bring you to Himself tonight! Trust Christ now, and you are saved.
My life for yours—if you perish trusting in Christ, I will perish, too! Even
should I have an ear listening to me which belongs to a harlot, to a thief, to a
murderer, yet, “He who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.” And
if you believe in Him, and you are lost, I will be lost with you; and the whole
Church of Christ must be lost, too; for there is the same way to heaven for the
best as for the worst—for the most vile as for the most righteous! “No man
comes unto the Father but by Christ.” Nothing can damn a man but his own
righteousness! Nothing can save him but the righteousness of Christ. All your
sin—your past sin—shall not destroy you—if you now believe in Jesus! It shall
be cast into the sea forever, and you shall begin again as though you had never
sinned. His grace shall keep you for the future, and you shall hold on your
way an honor to Christ’s grace, and a joy to your own soul! But if you are
disobedient and will not eat of the good of the land, then will I say, as Isaiah
said of old, “I am found of them that sought Me not, but all day long have I
stretched out My hands to an ungodly and gain-saying generation.” God has
stretched out His hands! Oh that you were wise and would run into His arms
tonight!
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I know I am speaking to some self-righteous men—some who say, “It is a
shame to tell men they are depraved. I am not.” Well, we think if their lives
were written, it might be proved they were. “It is a shame,” they say, “to tell
men that they cannot get to heaven by their good works, because then they
will be wicked.” It is an odd thing, that the more this truth is preached, the
better the people are! Preaching good works as the way to heaven always
makes drunkards and thieves, but preaching faith in Christ always produces
the best effects. Dr. Chalmers, who was no fanatic, says, “When I preached
mere morality, I preached sobriety till they were all drunkards; I preached
chastity till it was not known anywhere; I preached honesty till men grew to

be thieves. But,” he says, “as soon as ever I preached Christ, there was such a
change in the village as never was known!” Well, we believe that self-
righteousness will destroy you, my friend, and we therefore tell you, honestly
and plainly, that you might as well hope to get to heaven by flying up in a
balloon as to get there by your good works! You may as soon sail to India in a
sieve as get to glory by your own goodness; you might as well go to court in
cobwebs as seek to go to heaven in your own righteousness. Away with your
rags, your filthy, rotten rags! They are only a harbor for the parasites of
unbelief and pride! Away with your rotten righteousness, your counterfeit
gold, your forged wealth! It is of no worth whatever in the sight of God! Come
to Him empty, poor, naked! It grates on your proud ears, does it? Better, I
say, to lose your pride than to lose your soul! Why be damned for pride’s
sake? Why carry your head so high that it must be cut off? Why feed your
pride on your soul’s blood? Surely there is cheaper stuff than that for pride to
drink! Why let it suck the very marrow out of your bones? Be wise! Bow,
stoop, stoop to be saved! And now, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the man,
the God, I do command you, as His messenger and His servant—and at your
peril reject the command—“Believe, repent and be baptized, every one of
you.” “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved,” “for he who
believes and is baptized shall be saved; he who believes not shall be damned.”
God add His blessing, for His name’s sake. Amen.

BIBLEHUB RESOURCES

A Song Among the Lilies
Biblical Illustrator
Songs 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies.

This passage describes a high state of grace, and it is worthy of note that the
description is full of Christ. This is instructive, for this is not an exceptional
case, it is only one fulfilment of a general rule. Our estimate of Christ is the
best gauge of our spiritual condition; as the thermometer rises in proportion
to the increased warmth of the air, so does our estimate of Jesus rise as our
spiritual life increases in vigour and fervency. Tell me what you think of Jesus
and I will tell you what to think of yourself. Christ is all to us, "yea, more than
all when we are thoroughly sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost.

I. First, here is A DELIGHTING TO HAVE CHRIST. "My Beloved is mine."
The spouse makes this the first of her joy notes, the corner-stone of her peace,
the fountain of her bliss, the crown of her glory. Observe here that where such
an expression is truthfully used the existence of the Beloved is matter of fact.
Scepticism and questioning have no place with those who thus sing. Love
cannot, will not doubt; it casts away the crutches of argument and flies on the
wings of conscious enjoyment, singing her nuptial hymn, "My Beloved is
mine, and I am His." In the case before us the love of the heavenly-minded
one is perceived and acknowledged by herself. "My Beloved," saith she; it is
no latent affection, she knows that she loves Him, and solemnly avows it. She
does not whisper, "I hope I love the peerless One," but she sings, "My
Beloved." There is no doubt in her soul about her passion for the altogether
lovely One. But the pith of the text lies here, our possession of Him is proven,
we know it, and we know it on good evidence — "My Beloved is mine." Jesus
is ours by the promise, the covenant,, and oath of God; a thousand assurances
and pledges, bonds and seals, secure Him to us as our portion and everlasting
heritage. This precious possession becomes to the believer his sole treasure.
"My Beloved is mine," saith he, and in that sentence he has summed up all his
wealth. Oh, what would all the treasures of the covenant be to us if it were
possible to have them without Christ? Their very sap and sweetness would be
gone. Having our Beloved to be ours, we have all things in Him, and therefore

our main treasure, yea, our sole treasure, is our Beloved. O ye saints of God,
was there ever possession like this?

II. The second portion of the text deals with DELIGHTING TO BELONG TO
CHRIST. "I am His. This is as sweet as the former sentence. Christ is mine,
but if I were not His it would be a sorry case, and if I were His and He were
not mine it would be a wretched business. These two things are joined
together with diamond rivets — My Beloved is mine, and I am His." Put the
two together, and you have reached the summit of delight. That we are His is
a fact that may be proven — yea, it should need no proving, but be manifest to
all that "I am His." Certainly we are His by creation: He who made us should
have us. We are His because His Father gave us to Him, and we are His
because He chose us. Creation, donation, election are His triple hold upon us.
Now this puts very great honour upon us. I have known the time when I could
say "My Beloved is mine" in a very humble trembling manner, but I did not
dare to add "I am His" because I did not think I was worth His having. I
dared not hope that "I am His" would ever be written in the same book side
by side with "My Beloved is mine." Poor sinner, first lay hold on Jesus, and
then you will discover that Jesus values you. This second part of the text is
true as absolutely as the first. "I am His" — not my goods only, nor my time,
nor my talents, nor what I can spare, but "I am His." The believer feels that
he belongs to Jesus absolutely; let the Lord employ him as he may, or try him
as he pleases; let him take away all earthly friends from him or surround him
with comforts. Blessed be God, this is true evermore — "I am His"; His to-
day, in the house of worship, and His to-morrow in the house of business. This
belonging to the Well-beloved is a matter of fact and practice, not a thing to
be talked about only, but really to be acted on. If you are His He will provide
for you. A good husband careth for his spouse, and even thus the Lord Jesus
Christ cares for those who are betrothed unto Him. You will be perfected too,
for whatever Christ has He will make worthy of Himself and bring it to glory.

III. To conclude: the saint feels DELIGHT IN THE VERY THOUGHT OF
CHRIST. "He feedeth among the lilies." When we love any persons, and we
are away from home, we delight to think of them, and to remember what they
are doing. Now, where is Jesus? What are these lilies? Do not these lilies
represent the pure in heart, with whom Jesus dwells? Where, then, is my Lord
to-day? He is up and away, among the lilies of Paradise. In imagination I see
those stately rows of milk-white lilies growing no longer among thorns: lilies
which are never soiled with the dust of earth, which for ever glisten with the
eternal dews of fellowship, while their roots drink in unfading life from the
river of the water of life which waters the garden of the Lord. There is Jesus!
But what is He doing among the lilies? It is said, "He feedeth among the
lilies." He is feeding Himself, not on the lilies, but among them. Our Lord
finds solace among His people. His delights are with the sons of men; He joys
to see the graces of His people, to receive their love, and to discern His own
image in their faces. Then what shall I do? Well, I will abide among the lilies.
His saints shall be my companions. Where they flourish I will try to grow. I
will be often in their assemblies. Aye, and I will be a lily too. By faith I will
neither toil nor spin in a legal fashion, but I will live by faith upon the Son of
God, rooted in Him.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

He Mine; I His
S. Conway
Songs 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies.

This verse is the oft-repeated and rapturous utterance of her who is the type
of the redeemed soul concerning her beloved. Of course, we regard it as telling
of the soul's joy in Christ.

I. HE MINE. Let us ask three questions.

1. How?

(1) By his free gift of himself. "He loved me, and gave himself for me."

(2) By believing appropriation. Faith has this marvellous power.

(3) By joyful realization of his love to me.

His love has been shed shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. "I know
whom I have believed." How unspeakably blessed such realization is! But it is
not universal nor even common. A little child will cry even in its mother's
arms. But the arms are there all the same. And so is Christ's love.

2. What for? "He is mine to look upon, to lean upon, to dwell with; mine to
bear all my burdens, discharge all my debts; mine to answer all my accusers,
mine to conquer all my foes; mine to deliver me from hell, mine to prepare a
place for me in heaven; mine in absence, mine in presence, mine in life, mine
in death, mine in the grave, mine in the judgment, and mine at the marriage
of the Lamb" (Moody Stuart).

3. What then?

(1) All that is his is mine. His righteousness, acceptableness, worthiness; his
incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and intercession.

(2) I ought to know it if I do not. It is all-important to me if he be mine.

(3) I ought not to be so anxious about other things.

(4) Let me take care not to lose him. It is possible (cf. ch. 5:6).

II. I HIS. We ask the same three questions.

1. How?

(1) By creation. "It is he that hath made us" (Psalm 100).

(2) By the purchase of his blood.

(3) By the conquest of his Spirit.

(4) By my own free choice.

(5) By open avowal.

2. What for? To work and to witness, to suffer and to live, and if needs be to
die, for him. To care for those for whom he cares, and to minister as he
ministered.

3. What then?

(1) All that is mine, a sad inheritance indeed, is his. My sin, my guilt, my
sorrow, my shame. And he has taken them on himself and away from me
forever.

(2) Others should know it. I may not be a secret disciple.

(3) He will be sure to take care of me, teach me, perfect me, and bring me to
himself.

(4) I will be his even when I cannot realize that he is mine.

(5) I will try to win others to him. - S.C.

Mutual Possession
J.R. Thomson

Songs 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies.

One-sided affection is incomplete, unsatisfying, and unhappy; it may be
disastrous. Real friendship and true marriage imply mutual love, reciprocal
kindnesses. So is it in those personal relations between Christ and the
Christian soul, which are the foundations of the spiritual life of mankind. It is
only well when the friend of the Saviour can truly say, "My Beloved is mine,
and I am his."

I. THE CLAIM MADE BY THE CHRISTIAN TO A SPIRITUAL
PROPERTY IN CHRIST

1. Our Lord and Saviour is ours, to exercise in our favour his mediatorial
offices, as our Prophet, Priest, and King.

2. He is ours, to reveal his intimate affection to our heart.

"The opening heavens around me shine
With beams of heavenly bliss,
While Jesus says that he is mine,
And whispers I am his!"

3. He is ours, to impart a value and a charm to all our other possessions.
These, whether material or spiritual, are altogether different from what they
would otherwise be; they are irradiated and dignified by the glory which
shines upon them from our Divine Friend. "All things are ours."

II. THE CLAIM MADE BY CHRIST TO A SPIRITUAL PROPERTY IN
THE CHRISTIAN.

1. The Saviour regards his people with an especial favour and affection. In a
sense, all men are Christ's; he assumed the human nature which is common to
us all, and he died for all. But in a peculiar manner they are his who
acknowledge his mission, receive his gospel, confide in his mediation, obey his
commandments. Towards such his regard is one of complacency and personal
affection.

2. The Saviour regards his people as his to care for, to protect, and to save.
Having loved his own, he loves them unto the end. There are no circumstances
in which he will not remember them, interpose upon their behalf and for their
deliverance.

3. The Saviour possesses his people in order to exercise over them a peculiar
authority. As the husband is the head of the wife, and as his affection does not
destroy his authority, but makes it benign and welcome; so our Divine Lord,
who loves his spouse, the Church, which he purchased with his precious blood,
directs and governs the object of his tender interest with kindness which is yet
authoritative. It is the prerogative and joy of Christ's people to take their
Lord's will as the binding law of their individual and social life.

APPLICATION. It is forevery Christian to remember that in this relation the
Lord Jesus is the superior. "We love him, because he first loved us." This fact
should infuse gratitude into our affection, and should urge us to responsive
consecration and obedience. - T.

My Beloved is Mine
Biblical Illustrator
Songs 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies.

What I have to do is to mention a few things which may help some timid one
to say, "My Beloved is mine," and then to do the same with regard to the
second sentence in the text, "I am his." Thou askest, perhaps, "May I say, My
Beloved is mine?" You know who that Beloved is; I have no need to tell you
that. He is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely. First, hast
thou taken hold of Christ by faith? Faith is the hand with which we grasp the
Lord Jesus Christ. Hast thou believed that Jesus is the Christ, and that God
hath raised Him from the dead? Dost thou trust thyself wholly to Him? Let
me ask thee another helpful question. Is He truly thy Beloved, the Beloved of
thy soul? I remember well a dear Christian woman, who frequently said to
me, "I do love Jesus, I know I do; but does He love me?" Her question used to
make me smile. "Well," I said, "that is a question that I never did put to
myself, — 'If I love Him, does He love me?' No, the question that used to
puzzle me was, 'Do I love Him?' When I could once settle that point, I was
never again the victim of your form of doubt." If thou lovest Christ, Christ
loves thee for certain, for thy love to Christ is nothing more nor less than a

beam out of the Went sun of His love; and the grace that has created that love
in thy heart towards Him, if thou dost indeed love Him, proves that He loves
thee. Next, I would help thee with a third question. Is Jesus dear to thee above
all thy possessions? I hope that many of you can say, "O sir, we would give all
that we have, we would suffer all that might be suffered, we would part with
the Very light and our eyes, too, if we could but be sure that we might each
one truly say, 'My Beloved is mine.'" Well, if thou lovest Christ beyond all
earthly things, rest assured that He is thine. Further, dost thou love Him
beyond all earthly companions? Couldst thou part with your dearest ones for
His sake? Say, art thou sure of this? Oh, then, He is assuredly thine! Dost thou
love Him beyond all earthly objects? Aye, beyond the desire of learning, or
honour, or position, or comfort, — wouldst thou let all go for His dear sake?
Canst thou go that length? If thou canst, then surely He is thine. Let me
further help thee by another question. Is Jesus so fully thy hope and thy trust
that thou hast no other? O poor heart, if thou art clean divorced from every
confidence but Christ, then I believe that thou art married unto Christ,
notwithstanding that thou tremblest sometimes, and askest whether it be so or
not. Let that thought also help thee. I would further help you in this way. If
Christ is yours, your thoughts go after Him. You cannot say that you love a
person if you never think of him. He to whom Christ belongs often thinks of
Him. Again, do you do more than this? Do you long for Christ's company? If
"my Beloved" is indeed mine, I shall want to see Him; I shall want to speak
with Him; I shall want Him to abide with me. How is it with you? And, once
more, if thy Beloved is thine, thou wilt own it to be so. Holy Bernard was wont
to say, and I believe that he could say it truly, "O my Jesus, I never went from
Thee without Thee!" He meant that he never left his knees, and left Christ
behind him; he never went out of the house of God, and left Christ behind
him; but he went through the outward act of devotion with a consciousness of
the presence of Christ. Now, i f this be your habit to keep up or to labour to
keep up continued communion with Christ, and if you are longing for more
and more of that communion, then, dear friends, you are His, and He is yours.
Further, let me help you with a still closer question. Have you ever enjoyed
that communion with Christ? Didst thou ever speak with Him? Hast thou
ever heard His voice? If thou knowest anything experimentally about this
matter, then thou mayest conclude that thy Beloved is indeed thine. But

supposing that thou art not enjoying Christ's presence, I am going to put
another question to thee. Art thou cast down when He is away? If thou hast
grieved His Spirit, art thou grieved? If Christ be gone, dost thou feel as if the
sun. itself had ceased to shine, and the candle of thy existence had been
snuffed out in utter dark ness? Oh, then, He is thine! If thou canst not bear
His absence, He is thine. Stretch out the hand, of faith, and take Him, and
then say without hesitation, "My Beloved is mine." "Yes, weighing everything
the preacher has said and judging myself as severely. as I can, yet I dare take
Christ to be mine, and to say, 'My Beloved is mine.'" If that is your case, dear
friend, then you shall get confirmatory evidence of this fact by the witness of
the Spirit within your soul, which will very likely come to you in the form of
perfect contentment of spirit, perfect rest of heart.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Reciprocal Interest of Christ and His People
E. Payson, D. D.
Songs 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies.

I. EVERY REAL CHRISTIAN MAY SAY, "CHRIST IS MINE."

1. There are five different ways in which anything may become ours.

(1) By formation, or production. In this way the articles which we construct,
and the fruits of the earth which our labour produces, become ours.

(2) By purchase, or exchange. In this way we obtain many things which were
previously the property of others.

(3) By inheritance. In this manner we become possessed of the property of
deceased relatives. (.4) By conquest. In this manner many things are acquired,
especially by sovereign princes.

(5) By gift. In this manner whatever is bestowed on us by the generosity of
others, becomes our property.

2. Among all these ways, there is only one in which Christ can become ours.

(1) He is given to them by His Father.

(2) Christ gives Himself to His people.

II. CHRIST IS THE PROPERTY OF ALL TRUE CHRISTIANS, SO, ALL
CHRISTIANS ARE HIS.

1. They are His by creation; for by Him and for Him they were created.

2. They are His by inheritance; for we are told that the Father hath appointed
Him heir of all things.

3. They are His by purchase; for He has bought them, bought them with His
own blood.

4. Christians are the property of Christ by right of conquest.

5. They become His by gift.

(1) They are given to Him by His Father (John 17:6).

(2) All true Christians have voluntarily given themselves to
Christ.Conclusion:

1. From this subject you may learn something of the worth and interest of the
Christian's portion.

2. We may learn from our subject to whom this incomparable gift belongs;
who it is that without presumption may say, "Christ is mine." Every man may
say this who can with truth repeat the other part of our text, who can truly
say, "Christ is my beloved, and I am His property."

3. From this subject you may learn the extent of your duty. "I am Christ's"
are words easily said, but the engagements which they imply are not so easily
fulfilled. If we are His, we are no longer our own. If we are His, then

everything that we possess is His — our time, our possessions, our strength,
our influence, our powers of body and faculties of mind, all are His, and must
be consecrated to His service and glory; and if we love Him supremely, they
will he so, for the whole man ever follows the heart.

4. How great are the privileges which result from an ability to say, "Christ is
mine." If Christ is yours, then all that He possesses is yours. Its power is yours
to defend you, His wisdom and knowledge are yours to guide you, His
righteousness is yours to justify you, His Spirit and grace are yours to sanctify
you, His heaven is yours to receive you.

5. From this subject you may learn what is the nature of the ordinance which
you are about to celebrate, and what you are about to do at the Lord's table.
In this ordinance we give ourselves to Christ, and He gives Himself to us.

(E. Payson, D. D.)

An Absent Christ Yet Beloved
John Collinges, D. D.
Songs 2:8-17
The voice of my beloved! behold, he comes leaping on the mountains, skipping
on the hills.…

1. An absent Christ is yet a beloved Christ to His true Church, and to the
truly believing soul.

2. The spouse of Christ will know her Beloved's voice, though He hath a while
been absent.

3. The spouse of Christ will greatly rejoice to hear her Beloved's voice,
especially after a time of absenting Himself.

4. Though Christ may withdraw, and absent Himself from His Church, and
from the souls of His people, yet He will come.

5. When He comes, He will come skipping upon the mountains and leaping
upon the hills, openly and hastily, and trampling all difficulties and
impediments under His feet.

6. The Church, and the true members of it, will by the eye of faith discern
Christ coming, skipping upon the mountains.

(John Collinges, D. D.)

Christ's Coming to His Spouse to be Beheld
John Collinges, D. D.
Songs 2:8-17

The voice of my beloved! behold, he comes leaping on the mountains, skipping
on the hills.…

Believing souls in the time of His withdrawing from them may and ought to
behold Him again returning to them.

I. Christ's return to His spouse after an absence may be beheld by a believer.

(1) He came by His Incarnation.

(2) He cometh to His people in the influences of His grace, to comfort,
quicken, strengthen them.

(3) He cometh in the influences of His providence, to protect, save, rescue and
deliver His people.

(4) He cometh to judgment, and His reward is with Him to render to every
one according to his work.

II. A believer may behold Christ's coming, in many sure and faithful
promises.

III. The believer sees Him coming in the sure words of prophecy.

IV. His coming may be beheld in the steps of His providence.

(1) To a particular soul in the influences of His grace.

(2) To the public assemblies of His people in the influences of His common
providences.

(3) To the universal judgment. Signs of this are: —

(a) Plenty of seducers (Matthew 24:4).

(b) Great commotions in the world, and other judgments of God.

(c) Abounding of iniquity and decay of religion.

(d) Great security of sinners.

(e) Alterations in the course of nature.

(John Collinges, D. D.)

The Voice of the Beloved

R. M. McCheyne.
Songs 2:8-17
The voice of my beloved! behold, he comes leaping on the mountains, skipping
on the hills.…

I. WHEN CHRIST IS AWAY FROM THE SOUL OF THE BELIEVER, HE
SITS ALONE. Whatever he the mountains of Bether that have come between
his soul and Christ — whether he hath been seduced into his old sins that "his
iniquities have separated again between him and his God, and his sins have
hid his face from Him, that He will not hear "for whether the Saviour hath
withdrawn for a season the comfortable light of His presence for the mere
trial of His servant's faith, to see if, when he "walketh in darkness and hath no
light, he will still trust in the name of the Lord, and stay himself upon his
God" — whatever the mountains of separation be, it is the sure mark of the
believer that he sits desolate and alone. He cannot laugh away his heavy care,
as worldly men can do. He cannot drown it in the bowl of intemperance, as
poor blinded men can do. Even the innocent intercourse of human friendship
brings no balm to his wound — nay, even fellowship with the children of God
is now distasteful to his soul.

II. CHRIST'S COMING TO THE DESOLATE BELIEVER IS OFTEN
SUDDEN AND WONDERFUL. Some text of the Word, or some word from a
Christian friend, or some part of a sermon, again reveals Jesus in all His
fulness — the Saviour of sinners, even the chief. Or it may be that He makes
Himself known to the disconsolate soul in the breaking of bread, and when He
speaks the gentle words — "This is My body broken for you; this cup is the
New Testament in My blood shed for the remission of the sins of many; drink
ye all of it" — then he cannot but cry out, "The voice of my Beloved! behold,
He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills."

III. CHRIST'S COMING CHANGES ALL THINGS TO THE BELIEVER,
AND HIS LOVE IS MORE TENDER THAN EVER. The world of nature is
all changed. Instead of the thorn comes up the fir tree, and instead of the brier
comes up the myrtle tree. Every tree and field possesses a new beauty to the
happy soul. The world of grace is all changed. The Bible was all dry and
meaningless before; now, what a flood of light is poured over its pages! how
full, how fresh, how rich in meaning, how its simplest phrases touch the heart!
The house of prayer was all sad and dreary before — its services were dry and
unsatisfactory; but now, when the believer sees the Saviour, as he hath seen
Him heretofore within His holy place, his cry is,-"How amiable are Thy
tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts, etc." The garden of the Lord was all sad and
cheerless before; now tenderness towards the unconverted springs up afresh,
and love to the people of God burns in the bosom — then they that fear the
Lord speak often one to another. The time of singing the praises of Jesus is
come, and the turtle voice of love to Jesus is once more heard in the land; the
Lord's vine flourishes, and the pomegranate buds, and Christ's voice to the
soul is, "Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away."

IV. OBSERVE THE THREEFOLD DISPOSITION OF FEAR, LOVE, AND
HOPE, which this visit of the Saviour stirs up in the believer's bosom. These
three form, as it were, a cord in the restored believer's bosom, and a threefold
cord is not easily broken.

(R. M. McCheyne.)

COMMENTARIES

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(16) He feedeth.—Heb., he that is feeding his flock—the pastor.

Benson Commentary
Song of Solomon 2:16. My beloved is mine — These are the words of the
bride, who, having come to him upon his gracious invitation, now maketh her
boast of him. He feedeth among the lilies — Abideth and refresheth himself
among his faithful people, who are compared to lilies, Song of Solomon 2:2.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
2:14-17 The church is Christ's dove; she returns to him, as her Noah. Christ is
the Rock, in whom alone she can think herself safe, and find herself easy, as a
dove in the hole of a rock, when struck at by the birds of prey. Christ calls her
to come boldly to the throne of grace, having a great High Priest there, to tell
what her request is. Speak freely, fear not a slight or a repulse. The voice of
prayer is sweet and acceptable to God; those who are sanctified have the best
comeliness. The first risings of sinful thoughts and desires, the beginnings of
trifling pursuits which waste the time, trifling visits, small departures from
truth, whatever would admit some conformity to the world; all these, and
many more, are little foxes which must be removed. This is a charge to
believers to mortify their sinful appetites and passions, which are as little
foxes, that destroy their graces and comforts, and crush good beginnings.
Whatever we find a hinderance to us in that which is good, we must put away.
He feedeth among the lilies; this shows Christ's gracious presence among
believers. He is kind to all his people. It becomes them to believe this, when
under desertion and absence, and so to ward off temptations. The shadows of
the Jewish dispensation were dispelled by the dawning of the gospel day. And
a day of comfort will come after a night of desertion. Come over the
mountains of Bether, the mountains that divide, looking forward to that day
of light and love. Christ will come over every separating mountain to take us
home to himself.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Feedeth among the lilies - Pursues his occupation as a shepherd among
congenial scenes and objects of gentleness and beauty.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
16. mine … his—rather, "is for me … for Him" (Ho 3:3), where, as here,
there is the assurance of indissoluble union, in spite of temporary absence. So
2:17, entreating Him to return, shows that He has gone, perhaps through her
want of guarding against the "little sins" (So 2:15). The order of the clauses is
reversed in So 6:3, when she is riper in faith: there she rests more on her
being His; here, on His being hers; and no doubt her sense of love to Him is a
pledge that she is His (Joh 14:21, 23; 1Co 8:3); this is her consolation in His
withdrawal now.
I am his—by creation (Ps 100:3), by redemption (Joh 17:10; Ro 14:8; 1Co
6:19).
feedeth—as a "roe," or gazelle (So 2:17); instinct is sure to lead him back to
his feeding ground, where the lilies abound. So Jesus Christ, though now
withdrawn, the bride feels sure will return to His favorite resting-place (So
7:10; Ps 132:14). So hereafter (Re 21:3). Ps 45:1, title, terms his lovely bride's
"lilies" [Hengstenberg] pure and white, though among thorns (So 2:2).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
My Beloved is mine, and I am his: these are the words of the bride, who
having come to him upon his gracious invitation, now maketh her boast of
him, and of that intimate union and communion which was between them.

He feedeth among the lilies; either,

1. He feedeth his flock in sweet and lovely pastures, where there is not only
herbage to feed them, but lilies to delight them. Or rather,

2. He feedeth himself, i.e. he abideth and refresheth himself amongst his
faithful people, which are compared to lilies, above, Song of Solomon 2:2, and
Hosea 14:5, as Christ also is here, Song of Solomon 2:1.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
My beloved is mine, and I am his,.... These are the words of the church; who,
having had such evidences of Christ's love to her, and care of her, expresses
her faith of interest in him, and suggests the obligations she lay under to
observe his commands. The words are expressive of the mutual interest had
property Christ and his church have in each other: Christ is the church's, by
the Father's gift of him to her, to be her Head, Husband, and Saviour; and by
the gift of himself unto her, to be her Redeemer and ransom price; and by
marriage, having espoused her to himself, in righteousness and
lovingkindness; and by possession, he living and dwelling in her, by his Spirit
and grace: the church also acknowledges herself to be his, as she was, by the
Father's gift of her to Christ, as his spouse and bride, his portion and
inheritance; and by purchase, he having bought her with his precious blood;
and by the conquest of her, by his grace in effectual calling; and by a
voluntary surrender of herself unto him, under the influence of his grace:
hence all he is, and has, are hers, his person, fulness, blood, and righteousness;
and therefore can want no good thing. Moreover, these words suggest the near
union there is between Christ and his church; they are one in a conjugal
relation, as husband and wife are one; which union is personal, of the whole
person of Christ to the whole persons of his people; it is a spiritual one, they
having the same Spirit, the one without measure, the other in measure; it is a
vital one, as is between the vine and its branches; and it is a mysterious one,
next to that of the union of the three Persons in the Godhead, and of the two
natures in Christ; it is an indissoluble one, the everlasting love of Christ being
the bond of it, which call never be dissolved; and from this union flow a
communication of the names of Christ to his church, conformity to him,
communion with him, and an interest in all he has. Likewise these phrases
express the mutual affliction, complacency, and delight, Christ and his church
have in each other; he is beloved by his church, and she by him; she seems to
have a full assurance of interest in him, and to make her boast of him;

excluding all other beloveds, as unworthy to be mentioned with him: of whom
she further says,
he feedeth among the lilies; which is either an apostrophe to him, "O thou that
feedest", &c. thou only art my beloved; or is descriptive of him to others,
inquiring who he was, and where to be seen: the answer is, he is the person
that is yonder, feeding among the lilies; either recreating and delighting
himself in his gardens, the churches, where his saints are, comparable to lilies;
See Gill on Sol 2:1, and See Gill on Sol 2:2; or feeding his sheep in fields where
lilies grow: and it may be observed, it is not said, he feedeth on, or feeds his
flock with lilies, but among them; for it is remarked (y), that sheep will not eat
them: or the sense may be, Christ feeds himself, and feeds his people, and
feeds among them, as if he was crowned with lilies, and anointed with the oil
of them; as was the custom of the ancients at festivals (z), thought to be here
alluded to by some who read the words, "that feeds"; that is, sups in or with
lilies, being anointed and crowned with them. The lily is a summer flower (a);
the winter was now past, Sol 2:11.
(y) Tuccius in Soto Major in loc. (z) Vid. Fortunat. Schacc. Eleochrysm. Sacr.
l. 1. c. 28. p. 137. (a) Theophrast. apud Athenaeum in Deipnosoph. l. 15. c. 7. p.
679.
Geneva Study Bible
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
16. This verse is addressed by the bride to her companions within the house,
or is spoken in a loving rapture to herself. Some however think that it is sung
to the lover.

he feedeth among the lilies] Rather, as in R.V., He feedeth his flock among the
lilies. It may also be rendered, the shepherd among the lilies, the shepherd
standing in apposition to the ‘him’ involved in ‘his.’

Pulpit Commentary
Verse 16. - My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth (his flock) among the
lilies. These are the words of the bride. The latter clause is repeated in Song of
Solomon 6:2, with the addition, "in the gardens," and it is evident that
Solomon is lovingly regarded as a shepherd, because Shulamith delights to
think of him as fully sympathizing with her simple country life. She idealizes.
The words may be taken as either the response given at the time by the
maiden to the invitation of her lover to come forth into the vineyards, or as
the breathing of love as she lies in the arms of Solomon. Lilies are the emblem
of purity, lofty elevation above that which is common. Moreover, the lily stalk
is the symbol of the life of regeneration among the mystical mediaevalists.
Mary the Virgin, the Rosa mystica, in ancient paintings is represented with a
lily in her hand at the Annunciation. The people of God were called by the
Jewish priests "a people of lilies." So Mary was the lily of lilies in the lily
community; the sanctissima in the communio sanctorum. There may be an
allusion to the lily forms around Solomon in his palace - the daughters of
Jerusalem; in that ease the words must be taken as spoken, not in
remembrance of the first love, but in present joy in Solomon's embrace. Some
would render the words as simply praise of Solomon himself, "who, wherever
he abides, spreads radiancy and loveliness about him," or "in whose footsteps
roses and lilies ever bloom." At least, they are expressive of entire self-
surrender and delight. She herself is a lily, and the beloved one feeds upon her
beauty, purity, and perfection.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
When now Shulamith continues:
10a My beloved answered and said to me,
Arise, my love, my fair one, and go forth!
the words show that this first scene is not immediately dramatic, but only
mediately; for Shulamith speaks in monologue, though in a dramatic manner
narrating an event which occurred between the commencement of their love-
relation and her home-bringing.

(Note: Grtz misinterprets this in order by the supplement of similar ones to
make the whole poem a chain of narrative which Shulamith declaims to the
daughters of Jerusalem. Thereby it certainly ceases to be dramatic, but so
much more tedious does it become by these interposed expressions, "I said,"
"he said," "the sons of my mother said.")
She does not relate it as a dream, and thus it is not one. Solomon again once
more passes, perhaps on a hunting expedition into the northern mountains
after the winter with its rains, which made them inaccessible, is over; and
after long waiting, Shulamith at length again sees him, and he invites her to
enjoy with him the spring season. ענה signifies, like ἀποκρίνεσθαι, not always
to answer to the words of another, but also to speak on the occasion of a
person appearing before one; it is different from הנע, the same in sound, which
signifies to sing, properly to sing through the nose, and has the root-meaning
of replying (of the same root as הנן, clouds, as that which meets us when we
look up toward the heavens); but taking speech in hand in consequence of an
impression received is equivalent to an answer. With קוּמי he calls upon her to
raise herself from her stupor, and with ולכק־לך, French va-t-en, to follow him.

PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES

BRUCE HURT MD
Shulammite (young woman) speaks ...
Song 2:16 "My beloved is mine, and I am his; He pastures his flock among the
lilies.
NET Bible - My lover is mine and I am his; he grazes among the lilies.
NLT- My lover is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies.

POSB - What Solomon does not say at this point is as important as what he
does say. Certainly, something transpired between verses fifteen and sixteen,
but it is not recorded. Solomon does not reveal what their problems were,
their discussion of them, or how they resolved them. He only reveals that they
were resolved, and that they went on to have a glorious, unforgettable day. As
they spent the beautiful spring day together, the Shulamite made a strong
statement about their mutual possession of one another (Song 2:16a).
(Preacher's Outline and Sermon Bible- Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon)
Although the prince of preachers C H Spurgeon approached the text
primarily from an allegorical viewpoint, he clearly loved these two verses
preaching 8 different messages on them!
My beloved - This specific phrase is found 24x in 23v in the Song of Solomon -
Song 1:13, 14, 16; 2:3, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17; 4:16; 5:2, 4, 5, 6 (twice), Song 5:8, 10,
16; 6:2, 3; 7:9, 11, 13; 8:14. (There are only 2 other uses in the OT - Isaiah 5:1,
Jeremiah 11:15).
Beloved (01730) (dod) means beloved, loved one. 32 of 53 OT uses are found in
the Song of Solomon. Dod conveys three thoughts (1) the name or address
given by one lover to another (Song 5:4, 6:3, 7:9); (2) Love, where it speaks of
the adulteress (Pr 7:18) and in a positive sense of the love between Solomon
and the Shulammite (Song 1:2, 4:10). Love is used symbolically of Jerusalem
reaching the "age for love" (Ezek 16:8). Dod speaks of the adultery of
Jerusalem in Ezek 23:17. (3) Dod in some contexts means "uncle" (Lev 10:4,
1Sa 10:14-16, Esther 2:15).
Dod - 53v - NAS as beloved(31), beloved's(1), beloved's and my beloved(1),
love(8), lovers(1), uncle(11), uncle's(6), uncles'(1).
Lev 10:4; 20:20; 25:49; Num 36:11; 1 Sam 10:14ff; 14:50; 2 Kgs 24:17; 1 Chr
27:32; Esther 2:7, 15; Pr 7:18; Song 1:2, 4, 13f, 16; 2:3, 8ff, 16f; 4:10, 16; 5:1f,
4ff, 8ff, 16; 6:1ff; 7:9ff; 8:5, 14; Isa 5:1; Jer 32:7ff, 12; Ezek 16:8; 23:17; Amos
6:10.

The Lxx uses agapao to translate dod in Song 1:4. In most of the other uses in
the Song of Solomon, the Greek noun adelphidos is used (Song 2:3, et al) and
is a term of endearment meaning beloved one. It can also mean kinsman.
My beloved is mine and I am his (similar declaration also found in Song 6:3,
Song 7:10) - These words are reminiscent of the covenant formula (“I will be
their God, and they will be my people”—see Jer 7:23; 11:4; Ezek 34:30). In
this context this phrase clearly speaks of the complete giving of the future
marital partners to one another, which in turn speaks of the supernatural
oneness of the marriage covenant (See The Oneness of Covenant; Oneness
Notes; Covenant: As It Relates to Marriage). This phrase speaks of mutual
commitment and trust. The relationship of the husband and wife is to be one
of complete giving of each to the other (Although the context is different, the
following verses re-enforce the principle of selfless giving in marriage rather
than self-centered taking - see Php 2:3, 4-notes. Are you listening husbands?
I'm a man so I can pick on our species! I'm afraid we deserve it!). In Proverbs
Solomon emphasizes the vital importance of the husband and wife's
commitment to fidelity and loyalty to each other "Drink water from your own
cistern, And fresh water from your own well. Should your springs be
dispersed abroad, Streams of water in the streets? Let them be yours alone,
And not for strangers with you." (Pr 5:15-17-note)
My beloved is mine and I am his is often interpreted allegorically as referring
to Christ and His Bride, the church, and there are even some beautiful songs
that convey this same interpretative sense. However, if one is true to the text,
the speaker is literally the Shulammite and not Christ. Please do not
misunderstand -- The Church is indeed Christ's "beloved" and He is ours.
These are timeless, ineffable truths that surely speak of the oneness of the
covenant of creatures (New creatures - 2Cor 5:17) with their blessed Creator,
a supernatural bond wrought by the payment of His blood to effect an eternal
redemption and a "re-creation" of those creatures who by grace through faith
receive Him as Savior.
John MacArthur comments that the phrase My beloved is mine, and I am his
"clearly expresses the sanctity of a monogamous relationship that is built on
mutual love (cf. Song 6:3; 7:10)." (Ibid)

Glickman - Many people think the key to love is finding the perfect person; it
is more a matter of finding the person who belongs to you, and you belong to
them. “You don’t look at the other person as a status symbol who will raise
your prestige … you look at that one as your counterpart, the one who
completes you, the one with whom you can joyfully affirm your
belongingness.” (Solomon's Song of Love - Let a Song of Songs Inspire Your
Own Romantic Story)
Paige Patterson comments on mutual possession of the other in marriage -
Mutual ownership [was the theme] of Shulamith’s affirmation that her lover
belonged to her and she to him. This sense of mutual possession is a critical
feature for any happy marriage. One might have expected this oriental
maiden to stress the king’s claim on her exclusively. What is unusual in the
text is that she clearly understood that Solomon also belonged to her. The
same mutuality was expressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:3-4 where the
husband is told to render ‘due benevolence’ unto his wife, and the wife is
instructed to treat her husband similarly. Furthermore, Paul indicated that
the wife does not have authority over her own body; rather the husband
exercises that authority—such a state would be thoroughly anticipated in a
first century context. Surprisingly, however, the apostle also declared that the
husband does not have authority over his own body, but rather the wife
exercises that authority…This willingness both to possess and to be possessed,
to enmesh one’s life thoroughly in the life of the spouse, is surely something of
what was intended in God’s original design for marriage given in Genesis
2:24. (Song of Solomon)
Guzik observes that the young woman clearly is "confident in the bond that
joins her and her beloved. He belongs to her, and she belongs to him. In this
sense they are one, joined together with mutual bonds of affection, and not
one partner clinging to another more reluctant partner. It is also a statement
of exclusivity and preference. They are not saying, “My beloved is mine, and I
belong to him and a few other guys,” nor “I am my beloved’s and he is mine
and he also belongs to 999 other women.”
Husbands, does you wife have this verse emblazoned on her heart because of
your fervent love for her?

Guzik writes - These lines have been repeatedly allegorically applied to the
relationship between Jesus and His people. Charles Spurgeon preached eight
sermons on Song of Solomon 2:16–17, and in one of them titled The Interest of
Christ and His People in Each Other, he meditated on the meaning of each
aspect.
Ways that I belong to Jesus; ways that “I am my beloved’s”:
• I am His by the gift of His Father.
• I am His by purchase, paid for by His own life.
• I am His by conquest, He fought for me and won me.
• I am His by surrender, because I gave myself to Him.
“Blessed be God, this is true evermore—‘I am his,’ his to-day, in the house of
worship, and his to-morrow in the house of business; his as a singer in the
sanctuary, and his as a toiler in the workshop; his when I am preaching, and
equally his when I am walking the streets; his while I live, his when I die; his
when my soul ascends and my body lies mouldering in the grave; the whole
personality of my manhood is altogether his for ever and for ever.”
(Spurgeon)
Ways that Jesus belongs to me; ways that “He is mine”:
• He is mine by connection in the same body; He is the head and I am part of
His body.
• He is mine by affectionate relationship; He has given me His love.
• He is mine by the connection of birth; I am born again of Him.
• He is mine by choice; He gave Himself for me.
• He is mine by indwelling; He has decided to live inside me.
• He is mine personally, He is mine eternally.
“It certainly does seem a great thing to call him mine; to think that he should
ever be mine, and that all he is, and all he has, and all he says, and all he does,

and all he ever will be, is all mine. When a wife takes a husband to be hers, he
becomes all hers, and she reckons that she has no divided possession in him;
and it certainly is so with thee, dear heart, if Christ be thine.....“Which is the
greater miracle—that he should be mine, or that I should be his?” (Spurgeon)
NET Note on pastures his flock among the lilies - This line may be translated
either as “the one who grazes among the lilies” or as “the one who feeds [his
flock] among the lilies.” The latter would picture him as a shepherd pasturing
his flock among a bed of flowers which they were eating, while the former
would be picturing him as a gazelle feeding among a bed of flowers. Because
of the occurrence of the gazelle motif in the following verse, it is most likely
that this motif is present in this verse as well. Although it seems likely that he
is therefore being pictured as a gazelle eating these flowers, it is far from clear
as to what this figurative picture denotes. It is possible that it conveys the
peaceful nature of his relationship with her because she was earlier portrayed
as a lily (e.g., Song 2:1).
Guzik has an interesting interpretation on pastures his flock among the lilies -
He feeds his flock among the lilies: Lips are called lilies in Song 5:13; the
maiden probably dreamt of being smothered by kisses all through the night
(until the day breaks). i. “She is ready for him to ‘graze’ on her lips as sheep
‘browse’ on the lush grasses … Perhaps this is to be related to the opening
wish of our young lady (Song 1:2).” (Kinlaw) ii. Other commentators see
something far less physically intimate: “She is drawing attention to his
shepherd role wherein he would pasture his flock. And by this she emphasizes
his shepherd-like qualities of strength and gentleness.” (Glickman)
Carr on lilies - Lilies, cf. Song 2:1f. If Song 5:13 can be borrowed here, the
‘feeding in the lilies’ may be a circumlocution for sharing kisses or more
intimate behaviour. (The Song of Solomon - Tyndale Old Testament
Commentaries - G. Lloyd Carr)
Reformation Study Bible on pastures his flocks among the lilies - In view of
the context, this is most likely a metaphor for lovemaking. See note on Song
2:15 and Song 6:12.
Shulammite (young woman) speaks ...

Song 2:17 Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, Turn
(imperative = command), my beloved, and be (imperative = command) like a
gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.
NET Bible - Until the dawn arrives and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved–
be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain gorges.
NLT- Before the dawn breezes blow and the night shadows flee, return to me,
my love, like a gazelle or a young stag on the rugged mountains.
POSB - The longer she and Solomon were together, the greater their desire
was for each other. By evening, the couple’s passion was stirred to a
dangerous point. Do not miss what the young woman did: she stood against
temptation and ended their date. She implored her beloved to leave and not
return until morning. She did not want him to linger but to leave swiftly—like
a gazelle or a young stag. Earlier in the day she had described him in these
terms as he dashed through the mountains to visit her; now she was entreating
him to depart in the same manner, before their passions ran wild and they lost
control. (Preacher's Outline and Sermon Bible- Ecclesiastes and Song of
Solomon)
NET Note observes that "until the dawn arrives" (NET Bible) in Hebrew is
literally "“until the day breathes,” which is figurative (personification) for the
morning, that is, the time when the day begin its “life” (e.g., Song 4:6).
Likewise, “the shadows flee” is figurative (personification) for the dawn, i.e.,
the time when the dark shadows of the night disappear, or the shadows of the
evening which lengthen and are just as fleeting."
Gazelle...stag - This section ends with words similar to the beginning -- the
woman’s call for her lover to be like a gazelle and a young stag— a refrain
that marks the end of the book (Song 8:14).
Like a gazelle - The Song of Solomon makes liberal use of terms of
comparison // similes // metaphors. A simile is easily identified by a preceding
"as" or "like." As is used in 9v - Song 5:6, 8, 11, 15; 6:4, 10, 13; 8:6, 10. Like is
used 47x in 36v - Song 1:3, 5, 7, 9, 15; 2:2, 3, 9, 17; 3:6; 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11; 5:11,
12, 13, 15; 6:5, 6, 7, 10; 7:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9; 8:1, 6, 10, 14. Ask the Spirit, your

Teacher to guide you in the correct interpretation of these terms of
comparison and this should greatly assist your understanding of this great
love letter.
NET Note on turn...be - Scholars offer three interpretations of her figurative
request: (1) The Beloved desires her Lover to embrace her breasts, like a
gazelle romping over mountains (mountains are figurative); (2) The Beloved
entreats her Lover to leave and go back over the hills from whence he had
journeyed (mountains are literal); and (3) As her Lover prepares to leave her
country village, the Beloved asks him to return to her again in the same way
he arrived, like a gazelle bounding over the mountains in Song 2:8–10
(mountains are literal).
Constable favors interpretation #1 - Verse 17 probably looks forward to their
wedding and to its physical consummation. “Bether” is a transliteration
rather than a translation. Since no Bether mountains exist in this part of the
Middle East, it seems preferable to translate the Hebrew word (bater) as
“cleavage” or “separation.” The mountains of cleavage then may be an
allusion to the Shulammite’s breasts. (Ibid)
Longman - The poem comes to a close with a final expression of yearning and
desire. She wants him to return to her like a gazelle or a young stag (Song
2:17).
Guglielmo - In verse 17 the idea here is these mountains of Bether or
mountains of separation! And her cry is that like a gazelle or like a young
stag, don’t let those mountains separate you from me! And as much as the
things he was doing caused a separation, she too had some struggles. She
wanted him to come when the timing was better. Maybe it was too early in the
morning to get up, or it was too cold out, or she was just too comfortable and
just rolled back over in bed. Maybe the timing was bad and as much as she
wanted to go, she also wanted to wait until she felt like going. Now we are
going to see next time that Solomon does go and he doesn’t come back right
away, and she is scarred. It is like a nightmare to her. But we will deal with
that more next time. Make no mistake about it; difficulties will come in
regards to our marriage relationship. It is how we handle them that will make

all the difference. Don’t let those mountains of separation keep you apart. Do
everything you can to spend time with your wife. Don’t let circumstances,
don’t wait for a more convenient or opportune time to get together with your
husband. I would think most people, if they had an opportunity to go to a
Green Bay Packer game they would do everything possible to get there. What
about in your marriage, you should have more determination to spend time
with your spouse then some football game or whatever. The time you invest in
your marriage will pay back with great dividends you might say! One more
point as I close this evening and that deals with our spiritual life, our walk
with the Lord. Spurgeon sums it up like this, “The spouse speaks of
‘mountains’ dividing her from her Beloved: she means that the difficulties
were great. They were not little hills, but mountains, that closed up her way . .
. It is plain, from this sacred Canticle [song], that the spouse may love and be
loved, may be confident in her Lord, and be fully assured of her possession of
him, and yet, there may for the present be mountains between her and him.”
Don’t let anything or anyone get in your way of your relationship with the
Lord and don’t let anyone or anything get in your way of your relationship
with your spouse! (Song of Solomon)
EXAMPLE OF ERRONEOUS
ALLEGORICAL ANALYSIS
Commenting on Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, the
twentieth century commentator, A W Pink (see a brief critique) gives us an
example of a grossly non-literal (and thus grossly inaccurate) interpretation of
this passage writing...
Who can fail to perceive both the aptness and the sublimity of the parallel
between that allusion from the natural realm and its antitypical realization:
“Until the day break, and the shadows flee away” (Song 2:17), where the
reference is to both the first (John 8:56) and second appearing of God’s Son in
the flesh (Phil. 1:6, 10)? (Pink, A. W. Interpretation of the Scriptures)
Clearly Messiah came and will come again. That is truth, but that truth is not
even remotely taught in this passage. Pink's rather far fetched interpretation
points out once again that although an expositor may be highly respected, that

does not given them carte blanche and necessitate that the student "blindly"
accepts of all of the commentators comments. This type of comment should
motivate you to seek to become facile with the skill of inductive Bible study, so
that you might be able to comment on the commentaries! Every time you read
a commentary (including the one you are now reading) it is imperative that
you come with a Berean-like mindset...
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they
received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see
whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11-note)
Comment: Who were the Bereans "checking out"? The great apostle Paul!
Every comment needs to be compared with what the text actually says and
remember the two most vital elements are to read the text literally and in
context).
Clearly the respected expositor A W Pink is applying allegorical methods to
his so-called typological interpretation (he uses the word "antitypical"
interpretation of Song 2:17 - see discussion of Typology). The discerning
student will also observe that although one of the dictums assuring accurate
interpretation is to utilize other Scripture, A W Pink makes the mistake of
appealing to cross references that have no bearing on the parent passage in
Song 2:17 (See Compare Scripture with Scripture). It follows that just
because one gives Scriptural cross references to seemingly "buttress" their
interpretation, this does not necessarily validate the accuracy of their
interpretation. Be a Berean! As an aside Pink is occasionally quoted on this
website as he has some excellent comments on other passages. The old adage
applies "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!" Just make sure the
bath water is clean and healthy (cp sound [hugiaino ~ hygienic] doctrine)!

TODAY IN THE WORD - One of the most beloved characters in J. R. R.
Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings is Treebeard, an ancient creature
known as an Ent, a shepherd of the trees. Treebeard tells how in their
wandering the Ents forgot where the Entwives had settled. “The Ents,”
Tolkien writes, “gave their love to things they met in the world, and Entwives

gave their thought to other things.” Eventually the wandering Ents forgot
where the Entwives lived.
Tolkien’s story may be fantasy, but the problem he describes is not. People
who once loved each other deeply can become so preoccupied with other
things that they drift apart. In time, like the Ents, they forget how to find their
way back to a place of intimacy.
The groom in the Song of Solomon is also a shepherd who “pastures his flock
among the lilies.” Commentators are divided in their opinion about this
statement. It could be taken literally, describing the groom by his profession.
On the surface this seems out of place with the indication given elsewhere in
this book that the groom was actually King Solomon (cf. Song 3:11; 8:11,12).
However, elsewhere Scripture characterizes Israel’s leaders as “shepherds”
(cf. Jer 3:15). It has even been suggested that Solomon took time off from his
royal responsibilities to spend time as a shepherd in the Baal-hamon area.
Others see the lilies as an allegory. In one of his sermons St. Bernard said that
the lilies in verse 16 represent Christ’s truth, meekness, and goodness. If this
were the case, though, we would expect the bride to be the one browsing
among the lilies.
It is more likely that the phrase is simply the bride’s poetic way of describing
the groom’s manner. Unlike the Ents, who forgot their wives, he is a tender
shepherd who will gently care for the one he loves. Physical expressions of
love have an important place in their marriage relationship.
In his commentary on the Solomon's Song of Love - Let a Song of Songs
Inspire Your Own Romantic Story S. Craig Glickman observes that it is a
mistake to think that we can only be happy in a relationship when our partner
is “the best looking, most intelligent, most sensitive person in the world. You
don’t look at the other person as a status symbol who will raise your level of
prestige,” Glickman writes. “You look at that one as your counterpart, the
one who completes you, the one with whom you can joyfully affirm your
belongingness.”

Song of Solomon 2:16, 17 (Editorial Comment: While literally spoken between
the bride and bridegroom, we can APPLY the general truth to our lives today
as the Bride of Christ)- Surely if there be a happy verse in the Bible it is this—
“My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” So peaceful, so full of assurance, so
overrunning with happiness and contentment is it, that it might well have
been written by the same hand which penned the twenty-third Psalm. Yet
though the prospect is exceeding fair and lovely—earth cannot show its
superior—it is not entirely a sunlit landscape. There is a cloud in the sky
which casts a shadow over the scene. Listen, “Until the day break, and the
shadows flee away.” There is a word, too, about the “mountains of Bether,”
or, “the mountains of division,” and to our love, anything like division is
bitterness. Beloved, this may be your present state of mind; you do not doubt
your salvation; you know that Christ is yours, but you are not feasting with
him. You understand your vital interest in him, so that you have no shadow of
a doubt of your being his, and of his being yours, but still his left hand is not
under your head, nor doth his right hand embrace you. A shade of sadness is
cast over your heart, perhaps by affliction, certainly by the temporary
absence of your Lord, so even while exclaiming, “I am his,” you are forced to
take to your knees, and to pray, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee
away, turn, my Beloved.” “Where is he?” asks the soul. And the answer
comes, “He feedeth among the lilies.” If we would find Christ, we must get
into communion with his people, we must come to the ordinances with his
saints. Oh, for an evening glimpse of him! Oh, to sup with him to-night!
(Spurgeon - Morning and Evening)

LANGE
Song of Solomon 2:16. My beloved is mine and I am his.—This declaration
that she has become the property of her beloved and he hers, that they have
mutually surrendered themselves to one another (comp. Song of Solomon 6:3;
Song of Solomon 7:11), does not continue Shulamith’s answer to the greeting

of Song of Solomon, Song of Solomon 2:10 b–14 (Delitzsch, Weissbach, etc.),
but after her account of her first meeting with him, which terminates with
Song of Solomon 2:15, she takes up again the expression of her desire for her
absent lover uttered in Song of Solomon 2:8-9, by asserting in the first
instance that though still absent, he was inseparably bound to her.[FN52]—
Who feeds among the lilies.—Manifestly a figurative expression for “who,
wherever he abides, spreads radiance, joy and loveliness about him,” or “in
whose footsteps roses and lilies ever bloom.”[FN53] With reference to the
figurative nature of this form of speech as a fixed and favorite poetical phrase,
comp. its recurrence with two different applications, Song of Solomon 4:5 and
Song of Solomon 6:3. Shulamith had already represented her royal lover as
feeding his flock, Song of Solomon 1:7.

SPROUL
Marriage, Love, and Sex
“My beloved is mine, and I am his; he grazes among the lilies. Until the day
breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young
stag on cleft mountains” (vv. 16–17).
- Song of Solomon 2:8–17
Like the books of Ecclesiastes and Esther, the Song of Solomon never uses the
covenant name for God, Yahweh. This fact has led to some questions
regarding the placement of this book in the biblical canon. Its presentation of
sex and sensuality has also confounded some commentators, with the result
that throughout history, the book has often been read as an allegory of the
relationship between God and Israel, between Christ and His church. As we
will see, there are appropriate ways of discerning such allusions in the Song of
Solomon. The book points beyond itself to our need for the Lord. Yet to
understand this piece of wisdom literature rightly, we must begin with its

literal sense, and this work clearly celebrates marriage, love, and sex. This
should not concern us in the least. After all, God Himself created humanity as
male and female, each to delight the other. He gave His benediction to the
sexual relationship between husband and wife when He commanded them to
be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:27–28; 2:18–25).
Seeing the sensual and sexual imagery in the Song of Solomon has led some
teachers in recent years to present this work as almost a “how to” book
regarding lovemaking for husbands and wives. This should give us pause as
well. The book does refer to human sexuality, but the fact that it uses complex
imagery shows the desire of the author, who is traditionally identified as
Solomon (Song 1:1), to be discreet.
Many of the images in the Song of Solomon seem foreign to us, but they were
quite meaningful to the original audience. In today’s passage, for example, the
bride compares her husband to a “gazelle” or a “young stag” leaping over
mountains and hills (Song 2:8–9). The ancient Israelites would have been
familiar with such a sight, and these animals were associated with masculine
virility in that culture. The woman praises the strength and sensuality of her
husband, especially as he will stop at nothing to be with her. Like a gazelle or
stag that will not allow mountains and hills to stand in its way, the man
overcomes every obstacle to cultivate intimacy with his wife.
Song of Solomon 2:16–17 describes the husband and wife as they come
together sexually and enjoy one another. What is particularly notable is that
the woman declares that she belongs to her husband and that the man belongs
to his wife. Having come together as one flesh, each has surrendered to the
other (1 Cor. 7:1–5).
Coram Deo
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:1–5, the husband does not have authority over
his body, but his wife does. Similarly, the wife does not have authority over
her body, but her husband does. This authority is to be exercised in a loving
way, just as Christ exercises loving authority over His bride, the church (Eph.
5:25). The marriage bed must not be a place of abuse or demands; rather, it is
a place for intimacy that reflects self-giving love (Heb. 13:4).

Passages for Further Study

Proverbs 5:15–19
Song 4:1–16; 5:10–16; 6:2–10
Hebrews 13:4

A SONG AMONG THE LILIES NO. 1190

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S -DAY MORNING, AUGUST 30,
1874, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON.

“My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies.” Song of
Solomon 2:16.

LAST Sabbath, in our morning sermon—(See Sermon #1189, Volume 20—
THE TURNING POINT—by the grace of God, for all 63 volumes of C. H.
Spurgeon sermons in Modern English, and 574 Spanish translations, visit:
www.spurgeongems.org), we began at the beginning, and described the
turning point in which the sinner sets his face towards his God, and for the
first time gives practical evidence of spiritual life in his soul. He bestirs
himself; he goes to his Father’s house, and speedily is pressed to his Father’s
bosom, forgiven, accepted, and rejoiced over! This morning we are going far
beyond that stage to a position which I may call the very crown and summit of
the spiritual life! We would conduct you from the doorstep to the innermost

chamber; from the outer court to the holy of holies, and we pray the Holy
Spirit to enable each one of us who have entered in by Christ Jesus, the Door,
to pass boldly into the secret place of the Tabernacle of the Host High, and
sing with joyful heart the words of our text, “My Beloved is mine, and I am
His.”— “For He is mine, and I am His, The God whom I adore; My Father,
Savior, Comforter, Now, and for evermore.” The passage describes a high
state of divine grace, and it is worthy of note that the description is full of
Christ! This is instructive, for this is not an exceptional case; it is only one
fulfillment of a general rule. Our estimate of Christ is the best gauge of our
spiritual condition; as the thermometer rises in proportion to the increased
warmth of the air, so does our estimate of Jesus rise as our spiritual life
increases in vigor and fervency! Tell me what you think of Jesus, and I will
tell you what to think of yourself! Christ is, yes, more than all when we are
thoroughly sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit! When pride of self fills
up the soul, there is little room for Jesus—but when Jesus is fully loved; self is
subdued and sin driven out of the throne. If we think little of the Lord Jesus
we have very great cause to account ourselves spiritually blind, naked, poor,
and miserable. The rebel despises his lawful sovereign, but the favored
courtier is enthusiastic in his praise. Christ crucified is the revealer of many
hearts; the touchstone by which the pure gold and the counterfeit metal are
discerned! His very name is as a refiner’s fire, and the fuller’s soap; false
professors cannot endure it, but true believers triumph in it! We are growing
in grace when we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Let everything else be gone, and let Christ fill up the entire space of our soul;
then, and only then are we rising out of the vanity of the flesh into the real life
of God! Beloved, the grandest facts in the entire world to a truly spiritual man
are not the rise and fall of empires, the marches of victory, or the desolations
of defeat; he cares neither for crowns nor miters, swords nor shields; his
admiring gaze is wholly fixed upon Christ and His cross and cause! To him,
Jesus is the center of history, the soul and core of providence! He desires no
knowledge so much as that which concerns his Redeemer and Lord; his
science deals with what Jesus is, and what He is to be; what He has done, what
He is doing, and what He will do! The believer is mainly anxious as to how
Jesus can be glorified, and how sinners can be brought to know Him; that
which concerns the honor of Jesus is our chief concern from day to day! As

for other matters, let the Lord do as He wills with them, only let Jesus Christ
be magnified, and all the rest of the world’s story has small significance for
us! The Beloved is the head and front, the heart and soul of the Christian’s
delight when his heart is in its best state. Our text is the portrait of a heavenly-
minded child of God, or rather, it is the music of his well-stringed harp when
love as the minstrel touches the tender chords—“My Beloved is mine, and I
am His: He feeds among the lilies.” We shall note then, first, that here is a
delighting to have Christ; secondly, a delighting to belong to Christ; and
thirdly, a delighting at the very thought of Christ. I. First, here is A
DELIGHTING TO HAVE CHRIST. “My Beloved is mine.” The spouse
makes this the first of her joy notes, the cornerstone of her peace, the fountain
of her bliss, the crown of her glory!
A Song Among the Lilies Sermon #1190
Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 20
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Observe, here, that where such an expression is truthfully used, the existence
of the Beloved is matter of fact; skepticism and questioning have no place with
those who thus sing. There are dreamers, nowadays, who cast doubt on
everything; they call themselves philosophers, and professing to know
something of science, they make statements worthy only of idiots, and demand
for their self-evident false assertions, the assent of rational men. The word,
“philosopher,” will soon come to mean a lover of ignorance, and the term, “a
scientific man”—will be understood as meaning a fool who has said in his
heart there is no God! Such attacks upon the eternal truths of our holy faith
can have no effect upon hearts enamored of the Son of God, for dwelling in
His immediate presence, they have passed the stage of doubt; they have left
the region of questioning far behind, and in this matter have entered into rest.
The power of love has convinced us; to entertain a doubt as to the reality and
glory of our Well-Beloved would be torment to us, and therefore love has cast
it out. We use no “perhapses,” “buts,” or “ifs” concerning our beloved; we say
positively that He is, and that He is ours! We believe that we have better

evidence of His being, power, Godhead, and love to us than can be given for
any other fact. So far from being abashed by the quibbles of skeptics, or
quailing beneath the question, “Is there such a beloved?” We are not hesitant
to answer in this matter, for we know that there is! Our love laughs at the
question, and does not condescend to answer it except by bidding those who
seriously inquire—“Some and see” for yourselves! We have always found,
beloved, that when a time of chilling doubt has come over us, and such
shivering fits will come; we have only to return to meditations upon Jesus, and
He becomes His own evidence by making our hearts burn within us with love
of His character and person; and then doubt is doomed! We do not slay our
unbelief by reason, but we annihilate it by affection! The influence of love to
Jesus upon the soul is so magical—I wish I had a better word—so elevating, so
ravishing, so transporting! It gives such a peace, and inspires such holy and
lofty aspirations, that the effect proves the cause; that which is holy is true,
and that which is true cannot rise out of that which is false! We may safely
judge a tree by its fruit, and a doctrine by its results; that which produces in
us self-denial, purity, righteousness, and truth, cannot itself be false—and yet
the love of Jesus does this beyond everything else! There must be truth for a
cause where the truth of God is the effect! And thus love, by the savor which it
spreads over the soul by contemplation of Christ, puts its foot upon the neck
of doubt, and triumphantly utters bold, confident declarations which reveal
the full assurance of faith! New-born love to Jesus, while yet in its cradle like a
young Hercules, takes the serpents of doubt and strangles them! He who can
say from his heart, “My Beloved,” is the man or woman who is in the way to
confirmed faith! This love I speak of cannot, will not, doubt; it casts away the
crutches of argument, and flies on the wings of conscious enjoyment, singing
her nuptial hymn, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” In the case before us
the love of the heavenly-minded one is perceived and acknowledged by
herself. “My Beloved,” she says. It is no latent affection, she knows that she
loves Him, and solemnly avows it. She does not whisper, “I hope I love the
peerless one,” but she sings, “My Beloved.” There is no doubt in her soul
about her passion for the altogether lovely one. Ah, dear friends, when you
feel the flame of love within your soul, and give it practical expression, you
will no longer inquire, “Do I love the Lord or not?” Then your inner
consciousness will dispense with evidences! Those are dark days when we

require evidences—well may we, then, fast, for the Bridegroom is not with us!
But when He abides with us, enjoyment of His fellowship supersedes all
evidences! I need no evidence to prove that food is sweet when it is still in my
month! I need no evidence of the existence of the sun when I am basking in its
beams, and enjoying its light! And even so, we need no evidence that Jesus is
precious to us when, like a bundle of myrrh, He perfumes our bosom! When
we are anxious doubters as to our safety, and questioners of our own
condition, it is because we are not living with Jesus as we ought to be; but
when He brings us to His banqueting house, and we walk in the light of God
as He is in the light, we have fellowship with Him and with the Father, and
then we believe and are sure, and our love to Jesus is indisputable because it
burns within too fervently to be denied! Why, when a Christian is in a right
state, his love to Jesus is the mightiest force in his nature! It is an affection
which, like Aaron’s rod, swallows up all other rods! It is the mainspring of his
action, and sways his whole body, soul, and spirit. As the wind sweeps over all
the strings of the Alolian harp, and causes them all to vibrate, so does the love
of Jesus move every power and passion of our soul—and we feel in our entire
being that our beloved is, indeed, ours, and that we love Him with all our
hearts! Here, then, is the beloved realized, and our love realized, too. But the
pith of the text lies here: our possession of Him is proven; we know it, and we
know it on good evidence—“My Beloved is mine.” You know it is not a very
easy thing to reach this point. Have you ever thought of the fact that to claim
the Lord, and call Him, “my God,” is a very amazing thing?
Sermon #1190 A Song Among the Lilies
Volume 20 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ.
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Who was the first man in the Old Testament who is recorded as saying, “My
God”? Was it not Jacob, when he slept at Bethel, and saw the ladder which
reached to heaven? Even after that heavenly vision, it took him much effort to
reach to, “My God.” He said, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in the
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on so that I

come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.”
Only after long experience of divine goodness could he climb up to the height
of saying, “My God.” And who is the first man in the New Testament that
calls Jesus, “My Lord and My God”? It was Thomas, and he needed abundant
proofs because he spoke thus—“Except I see in His hands the print of the
nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into
His side, I will not believe.” Only when He had received such proofs could He
exclaim, “My Lord and my God.” blessed are they who reach it by simpler
faith; who have not seen, and yet have believed. “My Beloved” is a strong
expression. “Beloved” is sweet, but, “MY Beloved” is sweetest of all! If you
think of it, it is no little thing to claim God as ours, to claim Jesus, the Beloved,
as ours, yes, to put it in the singular, and call Him mine! And yet, when the
believer’s heart is in the right condition, he makes the claim, and is warranted
in so doing—for Jesus Christ is the portion of all believers! His Father gave
Him to us, and He has given Himself to us! Jesus was made over to every
believing soul as his personal possession in the eternal covenant ordered in all
things and sure; Jesus actually gave Himself for us in His Incarnation,
becoming bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; He has made Himself ours
by His passion and death; loving us, and giving Himself for us, to save us from
our sins! He has also given us power to appropriate Him by the gracious gift
of faith, by which we are in very deed married to Him, and are enabled to call
Him the husband of our souls, who is ours to have and to hold, for better, for
worse, for life, and for death, by a bond of marriage union which neither
death nor hell, time nor eternity can break! Jesus is ours by the promise, the
covenant, and oath of God! A thousand assurances and pledges, bonds and
seals, secure Him to us as our portion and everlasting heritage. This precious
possession becomes to the believer his sole treasure. “My Beloved is mine,” he
says, and in that sentence he has summed up all his wealth! He does not say,
“My wife, my children, my home, my earthly comforts are mine.” He is almost
afraid to say so, because while he is yet speaking, they may cease to be his—
the beloved wife may sicken before his eyes, the child may need a tiny coffin,
the friend may prove a traitor, and the riches may take to themselves wings!
Therefore the wise man does not care to say too positively that anything here
below is his; indeed, he feels that in very truth they are not his, but only lent to
him, “to be returned someday.” But the beloved is his own, and his possession

of Him is most firm. Neither does the believer, when his soul is in the best
state, so much rejoice even in his spiritual privileges as in the Lord from
whom they come! He has righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; he
has both grace and glory secured to him, but he prefers, rather, to claim the
fountain than the streams! He clearly sees that these choice mercies of God
are only his because they are Christ’s—and only his because Christ is his! Oh,
what would all the treasures of the covenant be to us if it were possible to have
them without Christ? Their very sap and sweetness would be gone! Having
our Beloved to be ours, we have all things in Him, and, therefore, our main
treasure, yes, our only treasure is our Beloved! O you saints of God, was there
ever a possession like Christ? We have our beloveds, our daughters of earth,
but what are our beloveds compared with Him? He is the Son of God, and the
Son of Man; the darling of heaven, and the delight of earth; He is the lily of
the valley, and the rose of Sharon; He is perfect in His character, powerful in
His atoning death, mighty in His living plea; He is such a lover that all earthly
loves put together are not worthy to touch the hem of His garment, or loosen
the laces of His shoes; He is so dear, so precious, that words cannot describe
Him, nor pencil depict Him! But this we will say of Him—He is “the chief
among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely”—and He is ours! Do you
wonder that we glory in this fact, and count this the crowning delight of our
lives, “My Beloved is mine”? The very tenure upon which we hold this
priceless possession is a matter to boast in! O worldlings, you cannot hold
your treasures as we hold ours! If you knew all, you would never say of
anything, “It is mine,” for your holding is too precarious to constitute
possession; it is only yours till that frail thread of life shall snap, or that
bubble of time shall burst! You have only leasehold of your treasures,
terminable at the end of one frail life! Whereas ours is an eternal freehold, an
everlasting entail! “My Beloved is mine”—I cannot lose Him, nor can He be
taken from me! He is mine forever, for, “who shall separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” So that, while the possession is
rare, the tenure is rare, also, and it is the life of our life, and the light of our
delight that we can sing— “Yes, You are mine, my blessed Lord, O my
Beloved, You are mine! And, purchased with Your precious blood,
A Song Among the Lilies Sermon #1190

Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 20
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My God and Savior, I am Yours! MY CHRIST! Oh, sing it in the heavens,
Let every angel lift his voice! Sound with ten thousand harps His praise, With
me, you heavenly hosts, rejoice! The gift unspeakable is given, The grace of
God has made Him mine! And, now, before both earth and heaven, Lord, I
will own that I am Yours.” Now, beloved friends, I cannot talk about this as I
feel. I can only give you hints of that which fills me with joy. I beg you to
contemplate for a single moment the delight which is stored up in this fact,
that the blessed Son of God, the “brightness of the Father’s glory,” is all our
own! Whatever else we may have, or may not have, He is ours! I may not
exhibit in my character all the divine grace I could wish, but, “My Beloved is
mine.” I may have only one talent, but “My Beloved is mine.” I may be very
poor, and very obscure, but, “My Beloved is mine.” I may have neither health
nor wealth, but, “My Beloved is mine.” I may not be what I want to be, but,
“My Beloved is mine.” Yes, He is altogether mine! His Godhead, and His
manhood, His life, His death, His attributes—yes, all He is, all He was, all He
ever will be, all He has done, and all He ever will do, is mine! I possess not a
portion of Christ, but the whole of Him! All His saints own Him, but I own
Him as much as if there were never another saint to claim Him! Child of God,
do you see this? In other inheritances, if there are many heirs, there is so
much the less for each; but in this great possession everyone who has Christ
has a whole Christ all to himself—from the head of much fine gold, down to
His legs, which are as pillars of marble! The whole of His boundless heart of
love, His whole arm of infinite might, and His whole head of matchless
wisdom—all is for you, beloved! Whoever you may be, if you do, indeed, trust
in Jesus, He is all your own! My Beloved is all mine, and absolutely mine! He
is not mine to merely look at and talk about—but mine to trust in, to speak to,
to depend upon, to fly to in every troublous hour! Yes, He is mine to feed
upon, for His flesh is meat, indeed! And His blood is drink, indeed! Our
Beloved is not ours only to use in certain ways, but ours outright, without
restriction; I may draw what I will from Him, and both what I take and what

I leave are mine! He Himself in His everglorious person is mine, and mine
always; mine when I know it, and mine when I do not know it; mine when I
am sure of it, and mine when I doubt it! He is mine by day, and mine by night;
He is mine when I walk in holiness, yes, and mine when I sin, for, “if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He is
mine on the hill Mizar, and mine in the swellings of Jordan! He is mine by the
grave where I bury those I love, and mine when I shall be buried there myself;
He is mine when I rise again—mine in judgment, and mine in glory—He is
forever mine! Note well that it is written, “My Beloved is mine,” in the
singular! He is yours, I am glad of it—but still, to me, it is most sweet that He
is mine! It is well to bless God that others have a possession in Christ, but
what would that matter if we were strangers to Him, ourselves? The marrow
and the fatness lie in the personal pronoun singular, “My Beloved is mine.” I
am so glad that Jesus loves me; oh for a blessed grip with both hands on such
a Christ as this! Observe well that He is ours as our Beloved so that He is ours
as whatever our love makes of Him! Our love can never praise Him enough,
or speak well enough of Him; she thinks all descriptions fall short of His
deserving; well, then—Jesus is ours at His best! If we think Him so glorious,
He is ours in all that glory! Our love says that He is a fair, lovely, sweet, and
precious Christ; and let us be sure that, however lovely, sweet, and precious
He is, He is all ours! Our love says there is none like He—He is King of kings,
and Lord of lords; He is the ever blessed! Well, as the King of kings, and Lord
of lords He is yours! You cannot think too much of Him, but when you think
your best, He is yours at that best! He has not a glory so high that it is not
yours, nor a luster so brilliant that it is not yours. He is my Beloved, and I
would gladly extol Him, but I can never get beyond this golden circle—when I
most extol Him, He is still mine! Here, then, is the basis of Christian life, the
foundation on which it rests—to know that most surely Christ is altogether
ours is the beginning of wisdom, the source of strength, the star of hope, the
dawn of heaven! II. The second portion of the text deals with DELIGHTING
TO BELONG TO CHRIST. “I am His.” This is as sweet as the former
sentence. I would venture to put a question to each loving wife here present—
when you were married, which was the sweetest thought to you—that you
were your husband’s, or that he was yours? Why, you feel that neither

sentence would be sweet alone—they are necessary to each other! Ask any
fond, loving heart which of these declarations could best be parted with,
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and they will tell you that neither can be. Christ is mine, but if I were not His,
it would be a sorry case! And if I were His and He were not mine, it would be
a wretched business! These two things are joined together with diamond
rivets—“My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” Put the two together, and you
have reached the summit of delight! That we are His is a fact that may be
proven—yes, it should need no proving, but be manifest to all that “I am His.”
Certainly we are His by creation—He who made us should have us. We are
His because His Father gave us to Him, and we are His because He chose us!
Creation, donation, election are His triple hold upon us! We are His because
He bought us with His blood; we are His because He called us by His grace;
we are His because He is married to us, and we are His spouse! We are His,
moreover, to our own consciousness, because we have heartily, from the
inmost depths of our being, given ourselves up to Him—bound by love to Him
forever! We feel we must have Christ, and be Christ’s, or die; “For me to live
is Christ.” Brothers and sisters, mind you attend to this clause! I am sure you
will if the former one is true to you. If you can say, “My Beloved is mine,” you
will be sure to add, “I am His, I must be His, I will be His! I live not unless I
am His, for I count that if I am not His, I am dead, and I only live when I live
to Him!” My very soul is conscious that I am His! Now this puts very great
honor upon us. I have known the time when I could say, “My Beloved is mine”
in a very humble, trembling manner; but I did not dare to add, “I am His,”
because I did not think I was worth His having! I dared not hope that, “I am
His,” would ever be written in the same book side by side with, “My Beloved
is mine.” Poor sinner, first lay hold on Jesus, and then you will discover that
Jesus values you! You will prize Him first, and then you will find out that He
prizes you, and that though you do not feel worthy to be flung on a dunghill,

yet Jesus has put a value upon you, saying, “Since you were precious in My
sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you.” It is no small joy to
know that we poor sinners are worth Christ’s having, and that He has even
said, “They shall be Mine in the day when I make up My jewels.” This second
part of the text is as absolutely true as the first. “I am His”—not my goods
only, nor my time, nor my talents, nor what I can spare, but, “I am His!” I
fear that some Christians have never understood this; they give the Lord a
little of their surplus which they never miss. The poor widow who gave all her
living had the true idea of her relation to her Lord; she would have put herself
into the treasury if she could, for she felt, “I am His.” As for myself, I wish I
could be dropped bodily through the little slit of Christ’s treasure box, and be
in it forever, never to be heard of any more as my own, but to be wholly my
Lord’s! Paul desired to spend and be spent; it is not easy to do those two
things distinctly with money, for when you spend a thing, it is spent at once.
But the apostle meant that he would spend himself by activity, and then when
he could do no more, he would be glad to be spent by passive endurance for
Christ’s sake. The believer feels that he belongs absolutely to Jesus— let the
Lord employ him as He may, or try him as He pleases; let Him take away all
earthly friends from him, or surround him with comforts; let Him either
depress him or exalt him; let Him use him for little things or great things, or
not use him at all, but lay him on the shelf—it is enough that the Lord does it,
and the true heart is content, for it truthfully confesses, “I am His. I have no
mortgage or lien upon myself, so that I can call a part of my being my own,
but I am absolutely and unreservedly my Lord’s sole property!” Do you feel
this, brothers and sisters? I pray God you may! Blessed be God, this is true
forever—“I am His”—His today, in the house of worship, and His tomorrow
in the house of business! I am His as a singer in the sanctuary, and His as a
toiler in the workshop; I am His when I am preaching, and equally His when I
am walking the streets; I am His while I live; I am His when I die! I am His
when my soul ascends, and my body lies rotting in the grave! The whole
personality of my manhood is altogether His forever and forever! This
belonging to the WellBeloved is a matter of fact and practice—a thing not to
only be talked about, but to be really acted upon! I am treading on tender
ground, now, but I would to God that every Christian could really say this
without lying—“I do live unto Christ in all things, for I am His. When I rise in

the morning, I wake up as His; when I sit down to a meal, I eat as His, and
drink as His. I eat, and drink, and sleep unto the Lord, in everything giving
thanks unto Him. It is blessed, even, to sleep as the Lord’s beloved, to dream
as His Abrahams and Jacobs do, to awake at night and sing like David, and
then drop off to “sleep in Jesus.” “That is a high condition,” you say. I grant
it, but it is where we ought to abide! The whole of our time and energy should
be consecrated by this great master principle, “I am His.” Can you say it?
Never rest till you can! And if you can, beloved, it involves great privilege! “I
am His,” then am I honored by having such an owner! If a horse or a sheep is
said to belong to the Queen, everybody thinks much of it— now, you are not
the Queen’s, but you are the Lord’s, and that is far better! Through belonging
to Christ, you are safe, for He will surely keep His own; He will not lose His
own sheep—He paid too dear a price
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for them to lose them! Against all the powers of earth and hell, the Redeemer
will hold His own, and keep them to the end. If you are His, He will provide
for you! A good husband cares for his spouse, and even thus the Lord Jesus
Christ cares for those who are betrothed unto Him. You will be perfected, too,
for whatever Christ has, He will make worthy of Himself, and bring it to
glory! It is because we are His that we shall get to heaven, for He has said,
“Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I
am.” Because they are His, He would have them with Him! Now, give your
thoughts license to wonder that any of us should be able to say, “I am His.” “I
who used to be so giddy and thoughtless; so skeptical, and perhaps profane, I
am His.” Yes, and some of you can say, “I who used to be passionate and
proud; I who was a drunkard; I whose lips were black with blasphemy, I am
His.” Glory be unto You, O Jesus Christ, for this, that You have taken up
such worthless things as we are, and made us Yours! No longer do we belong
to this present evil world; we live for the world to come! We do not even

belong to the church, so as to make it our master—we are part of the flock,
but like all the rest we belong to the Great Shepherd! We will not give
ourselves up to any party, or become the slave of any denomination, for we
belong to Christ! We do not belong to sin, or self, or Satan—we belong
entirely, exclusively, and irrevocably to the Lord Jesus Christ! Another
master waits upon us, and asks us to give our energies to his services, but our
answer is, “I am already engaged.” Satan asks “How is that?” “I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus, and, therefore, from now on, trouble me no
more.” “But can you not serve me in part?” “No, sir, I cannot serve two
masters! I am not like a man who can do as he pleases; I have no time to call
my own.” “How is that?” “I belong to Christ! I am wholly His! If there is
anything to be done for Him, I am His man to the best of my ability. I decline
no service to which He calls me, and I can serve no other Lord.” Lord Jesus,
help each one of us now to say— “I am Yours, and Yours, alone, This I
gladly, fully acknowledge! And in all my works and ways, Only now would
seek Your praise.” III. To conclude—the saint feels DELIGHT IN THE
VERY THOUGHT OF CHRIST. “He feeds among the lilies.” When we love
any persons, and we are away from home, we delight to think of them, and to
remember what they are doing. You are a husband travailing in a foreign
land; this morning you said to yourself, “At this time they are just getting up
at home.” Perhaps the time is different, for you are in another longitude, and
you say to yourself, “Ah, now the dear children are just getting ready to go to
Sunday school.” And by-and-by you think they are at dinner; and so the
delight in the thought of Christ made the church say, “He feeds among the
lilies.” She was pleased to think of where He was, and what He was doing!
Now, where is Jesus? What are these lilies? Do not these lilies represent the
pure in heart with whom Jesus dwells? The spouse used the imagery which
her Lord had put into her mouth. He said, “As the lily among thorns, so is My
love among the daughters.” And she appropriates the symbol to all the saints!
A preacher who is great at spiritualizing has well said on this verse, “The
straight stalk, standing up erect from the earth, its flowers as high from the
ground as possible—do they not tell us of heavenly-mindedness? Do they not
seem to say, ‘set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth’?
And if the spotless snow of the leaves teaches us of divine grace, then the gold
of the pollen tells us of that crown which shall be the reward of divine grace!

The violet and the primrose in spring nestle close to the earth, as if in
sympathy with her chill condition, but the lily lifts itself up towards heaven in
sympathy with the summer’s light and splendor! The lily is frail, and such are
the saints of God; if Jesus were not among them to protect them, the wild
beasts would soon tread them down. Frail as they are, they are surpassingly
lovely, and their beauty is not that which is made with hands; it is a beauty
put upon them by the Lord, for, “They toil not, neither do they spin, yet
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” The saints work
not for life, and spin no righteousness of their own, and yet the royal
righteousness which adorns them far surpasses all that wisdom could devise
or wealth procure! Where, then, is my Lord today? He is up and away, among
the lilies of paradise! In imagination I see those stately rows of milk-white
lilies growing no longer among thorns! They are lilies which are never soiled
with the dust of earth, which forever glisten with the eternal dews of
fellowship, while their roots drink in unfading life from the river of the water
of life which waters the garden of the Lord. There is Jesus! Can you see Him?
He is fairer, even, than the lilies which bow their heads around Him! But He is
here, too, where we are, like lilies which have scarcely opened yet, lily buds as
yet, but still watered by the same river, and yielding, in our measure, the same
perfume! O you lilies of Christ’s own planting, He is among you! Jesus is in
this house today, the unction which has made His garments so fragrant is
discerned among us!
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But what is He doing among the lilies? It is said, “He feeds among the lilies.”
He is feeding Himself, not on the lilies, but among them. Our Lord finds solace
among His people! His delights are with the sons of men! He joys to see the
graces of His people, to receive their love, and to discern His own Image in
their faces! As He said to the woman of Samaria, “Give Me to drink,” so does
He say to each one of His people, “Give Me to drink.” And He is refreshed by

their loving fellowship! But the text means, also, that He is feeding His people!
He feeds that part of His flock redeemed by blood of which we read that, “The
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them
into living fountains of waters.” Nor does He forget that part of His flock
which is in the lowlands of earth—He gives them, also, their portion of food.
He has fed us this morning, for He is the Good Shepherd, and leaves none of
His sheep to famish. Then what shall I do? Well, I will abide among the lilies!
His saints shall be my companions; where they flourish I will try to grow; I
will be often in their assemblies. Yes, and I will be a lily, too! By faith I will
neither toil nor spin in a legal fashion, but I will live by faith upon the Son of
God, rooted in Him! I would be pure in life, and I would have the golden
anther of looking to the recompense of the reward; I would lift up my soul
aloft towards heaven as the lily lifts up its flower. Jesus will come and feed by
my side if I am a lily, and even I may yield Him some pleasure by my humble
gratitude! Beloved, this is a choice subject, but it is sweeter as a matter of fact
than mere hearing can make it! “He feeds among the lilies.” This is our joy
that Christ is in His church! The pith of all I want to say is this—never think
of yourself or of the church apart from Jesus. The spouse says, “My Beloved is
mine, and I am His.” She weaves the two into one! The cause of the church is
the cause of Christ! The work of God will never be accomplished by the
church apart from Christ! Her power lies in His being in her midst! He feeds
among the lilies, and therefore those lilies shall never be destroyed—their
sweetness shall make all the earth fragrant! The church of Christ, working
with her Lord, must conquer, but never will if she tries to stand alone, or to
compass any end apart from Him. As for each one of us, personally, let us not
think of ourselves apart from Christ, or of Christ apart from us! Let George
Herbert’s prayer be ours— “Oh, be mine still, still make me Thine, Or rather
make nor mine nor Thine.” Let mine melt into Thine! Oh, to have joint stock
with Christ, and to trade under one name! To be married to Christ, and lose
our old name, and use His name, and say, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in
me.” As the wife is lost in the husband, and the stone in the building, and the
branch in the vine, and the member in the head, we would be so amalgamated
with Christ, and have such fellowship with Him that there shall be no more
mine nor Thine! Last of all, poor sinner, you will say, “There is nothing in all
this for me,” and I should not like to send you away without a word. You are

saying, “This is a day of good tidings, but it is only for God’s people.” I beg
you to read through the first and second chapters of the Song and see who it
was that said, “My Beloved is mine,” because I should not wonder but what
you are very like she. She was one who confessed, “I am black,” and so are
you. Perhaps grace will, one of these days, help you to say, “I am comely.” She
was one with whom her mother’s children were angry—perhaps you, too, are
a speckled bird. She had done servile work, for they made her a keeper of the
vineyards. I should not wonder but what you are doing servile work, too,
trying to save yourself instead of accepting the salvation which Jesus has
already worked out for sinners! So it came to pass that she became very
sorrowful, and passed through a winter of rain and cold. Perhaps you are
there. And yet you know she came out of it—her winter was past, and the
birds began to sing! She had been hidden in the secret places of the stairs, as
you are now; but she was called out from the dust and cobwebs to see the face
of her Lord! One thing I wish to whisper in your ears—she was in the clefts of
the rock. O soul, if you can but get there; if you can shelter in the side of our
Beloved, that deep gash of the spear from which flowed blood and water, “to
be of sin the double cure”; if you can get there, I say, though you are black
and grimed with sin, and an accursed sinner only fit to be a firebrand in hell,
yet shall you, even you, be able to sing with all the rapture of the liveliest saint
on earth! And one day with all the transport of the brightest ones above, you
will sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies.”
There, go your way with those silver bells ringing in your ears! They ring a
marriage peal to saints, but they also ring a cheery invitation to sinners; and
this is the tune they are set to—Come and welcome! Come and welcome!
Come and welcome! Sinner, come! God bless you, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

“MY BELOVED IS MINE” NO. 2442 A SERMON INTENDED FOR
READING ON LORD’S DAY, DECEMBER 8, 1895. DELIVERED BY C. H.

SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,
ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 11, 1887.

“My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” Song of Solomon 2:16.

THIS is a short verse from the Song of Songs and I do not hesitate to say that
it is the soul and heart of that divine composition. The bride dressed in her
richest poesy wears no jewel more precious than this diamond of full assured
possession! There is poetry here which none of the sons of music can excel. It
is the heart’s minstrelsy at its very best. This little sonnet might be sung in
heaven and the golden harps would be well employed if every string went with
the accompaniment. How I wish you could, each one, sing it now with a clear
sweet voice!— “Now I my best Beloved’s am, And He is mine.” Alas, many of
the Lord’s own chosen and called ones are afraid to take up this chorus and
join with us! I do not condemn them, but I am eager to comfort them. What
would they give?—rather, what would they not give—if they could but say,
“Christ is mine”? Yet they hesitate. The desire is strong, but the doubt is
killing and they dare not sing with us. It seems too good, too great, too
glorious a claim to come from their lips! They sometimes hope, but they as
often fear. They make a dash for it, now and then, and trust that Christ is
theirs—and then they subside into their former doubting. They are humble,
modest, retiring—but I fear I must add—they are, at least in a measure,
unbelieving! I want to lead these true hearts up to the table that they may
feast upon the dainties provided for faith. I know that even now, as they hear
the text, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” they are saying, “Happy people
that can speak thus, but I cannot. I am afraid it would be presumption and,
perhaps, hypocrisy, on my part, if I were to use such language.” And yet, dear
heart, it is very possible that you have a perfect right to put in your claim—
yes, and that you ought to be among the most confident and the most fully
assured! What a pity it is that you should be losing so much joy! Yet some of
the truest children of God walk in darkness at times and we have provision
made for them under the circumstances: “Who is among you that fears the

Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness, and has no
light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” Oh, that
I might be the means, by His grace, of enabling some of you to trust more
bravely and hold to your Lord in the darkness—for soon that darkness would
be over! Did I hear one mourn his faults and lament his temptations? This
need not be a hindrance! She who first sang this priceless stanza was, herself,
warring against enemies. Read the previous verse: “Take us the foxes, the
little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” Instead of
letting go her Lord to hunt the foxes, she clung the more to Him and joined
Him with herself in the effort to take them. “Foxes or no foxes,” she says, “My
Beloved is mine.” Jesus belongs to us in our imperfect condition— while yet
we are beset with many mischievous and cunning foes! The Song before us is
found in our own Bible, which is a Book to be used on earth rather than in
heaven. While yet the foxes prowl around us we may sing, “My Beloved is
mine, and I am His.” Indeed, it is by strength derived from such a cheering
confidence that we are enabled to kill these foxes and preserve the tender
clusters of grapes till they are ripe for our Lord. Come, brothers and sisters,
let us not do ourselves the serious hurt of refusing the greatest of blessings for
reasons which are not valid! Let us mourn our faults, but let us not, therefore,
forego our privileges! I will not let my Lord go because I see a fox. No, rather,
I will cling to Him the more closely. If that fox should hurt my vine, yet I have
a better Vine in my Lord, and one which no
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fox can touch! Away, you beasts of the field—you sins, doubts and fears—for
my heart dares to sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” I feel that I am a
bearer of a tenfold portion to the Benjamin of the family. Joseph—I mean,
Jesus— has sent it and I am eager to deliver it fresh from His dear hands! O
trembling believer, it is all for you! Receive it and eat abundantly thereof. I
am under the impression that my Master has bid me remember that there is a
Ruth here who only desires to glean—and she trembles while she gathers a
few scanty ears. She has not the courage to take a sheaf, herself, but my Lord
has said, “Let fall handfuls on purpose for her.” And I would try to do so, but

I pray that timid Ruth may have courage enough to take up what I shall
gladly let fall for her, for the good Boaz, in whose field I serve, has his eyes
upon her and means more kindness to her than I can tell! What I have to do,
tonight, is to mention a few things which may help some timid one to say, “My
Beloved is mine,” and then to do the same with regard to the second sentence
in the text, “I am His.” You ask, perhaps, “May I say, ‘My Beloved is mine?’”
You know who that Beloved is. I have no need to tell you that. He is the chief
among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely! You believe that it is He who is
the ever-blessed Son of God, who became man for our sake, and, as the God-
man, made atonement for our sin, and, having died, has risen from the dead
and gone into His Father’s within the veil where He ever makes intercession
for us. It is that Christ who is the light of heaven, the joy of everlasting bliss,
the adored of angels! It certainly does seem a great thing to call Him mine, to
think that He should ever be mine, and that all He is, and all He has, and all
He says, and all He does, and all He ever will be, is all mine! When a wife
takes a husband to be hers, he becomes all hers, and she reckons that she has
no divided possession in him. And it is certainly so with you, dear heart, if
Christ is yours. He is still yours, and altogether yours even if it looks as
though you were opening your mouth very wide to be able to say it. Some of
you were brought up in a school which is full of the law and you are afraid to
say what the gospel permits you to say—you have not yet dared to avail
yourselves of your privileges! Some of God’s heirs are often kept in the back
kitchen when they have a right to sit in the parlor and to eat of the dainties of
their Lord! Some are kept from the joys to which they have a fair claim, so I
am going to ask you a few questions to see whether you are one of them. First,
have you taken hold of Christ by faith? Faith is the hand with which we grasp
the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you believed that Jesus is the Christ and that God
has raised Him from the dead? Do you trust yourself wholly to Him? I say,
“wholly”—with no other secret confidence. Do you lean your whole weight on
Him? He that hangs on two branches, one of which is rotten, will go down.
You had best trust your whole self with Christ and let Him be the top and
bottom of your confidence. If you do that, then He is yours—this faith makes
Him yours to your joyful experience! Listen to His own words: “God so loved
the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you believe in Christ, you have

Christ to be your everlasting life, and you may say, “My Beloved is mine.” I
should hope that this is not a very difficult question for you to answer—you
are either trusting in Christ or you are not. If you are not trusting in Christ,
God forbid that I should exhort you to say what would be presumptuous! But
if you are resting on Him who lived, loved and died that He might wash us
from our sins in His blood—I say, if He is all your salvation and all your
desire, then hesitate not to say, “My Beloved is mine.” There is no surer claim
in the world than the claim of faith! God has given Christ to every believing
sinner—be he who he may—God has given Christ to him by a covenant of
salt, and Christ is his, and shall be his forever! Poor trembler, if you believe
on Him, even you may say, “My Beloved is mine.” Let me ask you another
helpful question. Is He truly your Beloved, the Beloved of your soul? I
remember well a dear Christian woman who frequently said to me, “I love
Jesus, I know I do. But does He love me?” Her question used to make me
smile. “Well,” I said, “that is a question that I never put to myself—‘If I love
Him, does He love me?’ No, the question that used to puzzle me was, ‘Do I
love Him?’ When I could once settle that point, I was never again the victim of
your form of doubt.” If you love Christ, Christ loves you for sure, for your
love to Christ is nothing more nor less than a beam out of the great sun of His
love and the grace that has created that love in your heart towards Him! If
you do, indeed, love Him, proves that He loves you! Is it not so: “We love Him
because He first loved us”? Did love ever get into the heart by any other door
than that? I am sure that it never did! So that, if you love Him, you can say,
“My Beloved is mine.” There are many who may love on earth and never
obtain the
Sermon #2442 “My Beloved Is Mine” 3
Volume 41 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 3
object of their affection. But if you love Christ, raise no question about His
love to you! He is yours and you are His! That test may help someone who,
perhaps, is standing trembling behind the door, full of blushes and afraid to
come in among God’s people. To you, poor timid soul, we say, “Come in, you
blessed of the Lord, why do you stand outside? If you love Him, you are
welcome to all He has.” Next, I would help you with a third question. Is Jesus

dear to you above all your possessions? Perhaps you have a great deal of this
world’s goods. Do you set small store by all that you have as compared with
Jesus? Could you see it all burn away, or melt away, or be stolen, rather than
lose Christ? If you can say, “Yes,” to that question, then He is yours. Perhaps
you have very little—a few earthly comforts, a narrow room and a scant
pittance to live upon—but would you sooner have Christ than all the riches of
the world, or would you be willing to sell Christ in order to rise in the world?
Would you sell Him that you might be made rich, great and famous? You who
are sick—which would you sooner have, your sickness and Christ, or go
without Christ to be made healthy and strong? According to your answer to
these inquiries will be my answer to the other questions, “Are you Christ’s
and is Christ yours?” I hope that many of you can say, “O sir, we would give
all that we have, we would suffer all that might be suffered, we would part
with the very light and our eyes, too, if we could but be sure that we might,
each one, truly say, ‘My Beloved is mine.’” Well, if you love Christ beyond all
earthly things, rest assured that He is yours! Further, do you love Him
beyond all earthly companions? Could you part with your dearest ones for
His sake? Say, are you sure of this? Oh, then, He is assuredly yours! Do you
love Him beyond all earthly objects? Yes, beyond the desire of learning, or
honor, or position, or comfort—would you let all go for His dear sake? Many
of His saints have had to do it and they have done it very cheerfully, and said
with the apostle, “Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, and be found in Him.” Can you go that length? If you can, then surely
He is yours! Let me further help you by another question. Is Jesus so fully
your hope and your trust that you have no other? I have often led persons into
liberty through that question. They have said, “I am afraid that I do not trust
Christ.” I have then asked, “Well, what do you trust? Every man has a
reliance of some sort—what are you trusting?” When I have pressed them
closely, they have said, “Oh, we have no other trust! God forbid that we ever
should have!” When I have mentioned their good works, they have said,
“Good works? Why, we would be foolish, indeed, to talk of them!” When I
have mentioned trusting in a priest, or in sacraments, they have scorned the
thought—it has been loathsome to them. Then I have said, “If you have no

other trust but Christ, and you are sure that you have a trust somewhere, then
your trust is in Christ, and though you may question it, and doubt it, yet if you
do so trust in Him as to trust nowhere else, He is yours and you are His.”
There is many a good and true believer who, nevertheless, is afraid that he is
not a believer. When you are once on board ship, even if the vessel is tossed to
and fro and you, yourself, are ill, perhaps sadly seasick, yet as long as that
ship does not go down, you will not go down—for your safety now does not
depend upon your health and strength, but upon the ship into which you have
entered! So, if you have fled to Christ away from everything else, then, though
you may sigh, and cry, and fear, and tremble—for all of which I am sorry, for
I would have every man on board ship to be well and strong and able to
handle the ropes—still, if you cannot touch a rope, and if you cannot even eat
your meals in your cabin, yet, if you are aboard the ship, and if that ship gets
safe to land, so will you! Therefore, be of good cheer! O poor heart, if you are
clean divorced from every confidence but Christ, then I believe that you are
married to Christ, notwithstanding that you tremble, sometimes, and ask
whether it is so or not! Let that thought help you. I would further help you in
this way. If Christ is yours, your thoughts go after Him. You cannot say that
you love a person if you never think of him. You could not, I am sure, let
another person fill your heart as Christ must fill His people’s hearts and yet
never let that person occupy your thoughts. He to whom Christ belongs often
thinks of Him. “Well,” says one, “I am so busy during the day that, often, my
mind is taken up with my business and I do not think of Christ.” Do you know
where those crows live that are feeding on that plowed field? They are going
up and down the furrows, picking up all the worms they can find. And as you
look at them, you cannot tell where their home is, can you? No, but wait till
evening, when the day’s feeding is over—then you will see which way the
crows fly and you will find out where their nests are! Do you see how quickly
they are winging their way to yonder rook
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ery? So is it with us—while we are busy in the world, picking up the worms,
as it were, we have to think about those things. We cannot do our business

properly without our thoughts going that way. But when the business is over,
when the evening comes—which way do you go then? When you have an
opportunity for thought, when your mind is going to its resting place—which
way do your thoughts fly? That shall be the true test! And if, when your
thoughts are set free, they fly away to Jesus, rest assured that He is yours!
That thought may help some of you poor trembling ones. We read of the
apostles, “Being let go, they went to their own company.” Just so. I heard a
working man who was expounding that chapter very well. He said, “If some
fellows were put in prison, and they were let out, they would go to the first
public house they see, for that is where they would find their company. Just
so: “birds of a feather flock together.” Now when you are let go, when your
mind gets out of the prison of your daily business, do you go to the world for
your pleasure? Do you go to carnal things for your mirth, or do you fly to
Christ? If you can answer, “My thoughts go naturally to Christ,” then you can
truly say, “My Beloved is mine.” Again, do you do more than this? Do you
long for Christ’s company? If, “my Beloved” is, indeed, mine, I shall want to
see Him! I shall want to speak with Him. I shall want Him to abide with me.
How is it with you? There is a great deal of religion in the world which only
consists of shells, or husks—the kernels are not there at all. A man goes
upstairs and kneels down for a quarter of an hour and he says that he is
praying, yet possibly he has not really prayed at all. Another opens his Bible
and he reads a chapter, and he says that he has been studying the Scriptures.
Perhaps it has been a mere mechanical act and there has been no heart and
soul in it. John Bradford, the famous martyr, used to say, “I have made a
point of this, that I will never go from a duty till I have had communion with
Christ in it.” And, when he prayed, he prayed till he did really pray. When he
praised, he praised till he did truly praise. If he was bowing in humiliation
before God, he humbled himself till he was actually humbled. If he was
seeking communion with Christ, he would not go away with the pleasure of
merely having sought, but he kept on seeking until he found, for he felt that he
had done nothing aright till he had come into communion with God and into
touch with Christ. And, once more, if your Beloved is yours, you will
acknowledge it to be so. Coming into this Tabernacle, or going down to the
communion table, or gathering round the family altar—what is all that if
Christ is not there? It should be with you as it is with a wife whose husband is

far away across the sea. “Oh,” she cries, “that I could hear the music of his
footsteps! The rooms seem all empty now that he is away. There is his portrait
on the wall, but it only makes me sigh the more for my beloved. The very dog,
as he comes in, seems to know that his master is away, and he makes me think
of him.” Is it so with you in regard to Christ? In every duty do you sigh for
Him and long for Him? Holy Bernard was known to say and I believe that he
could truly say it (it was in Latin, but I will give you the English of it), “O my
Jesus, I never went from You without You!” He meant that he never left his
knees, and left Christ behind him. He never went out of the house of God, and
left Christ behind him. But he went through the outward act of devotion with
a consciousness of the presence of Christ. Now, if this is your habit—to keep
up or to labor to keep up continued communion with Christ, and if you are
longing for more and more of that communion—then, dear friends, you are
His, and He is yours! Further, let me help you with a still closer question.
Have you ever enjoyed that communion with Christ? Did you ever speak with
Him? Have you ever heard His voice? I think I see you turning over the leaves
of your diary! I hope you have not to go far back to read the record of your
fellowship with your Lord. I hope that this morning was one instance of it and
that this evening may be another! But are there not some special days, red-
letter days, in your history? I recollect that Rutherford sent this message to
one of his friends who was in great sorrow, “Tell him to remember Torwood.”
Nobody knew what was meant except the two who had been to Torwood
where they had enjoyed such fellowship with Christ that they could never
forget it all their days! That is what David meant when He said, “Therefore
will I remember You from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, and the
hill Mizar.” Those were some choice spots that he remembered where the
Lord had met with him! How can Christ be yours if you know nothing about
communion with Him? Are you married to Him if He has never shown you
His face and you have never heard His voice, and never spoken with Him? But
if you have had Christ’s company, He has manifested Himself to you as He
does not unto the world. He would never have shown you such things as these
if you were not His. Ah, have you not, sometimes, crept out of the very
dungeon of despair and seen your Lord’s blessed face—and in a moment you
have been dancing for joy? Have you

Sermon #2442 “My Beloved Is Mine” 5
Volume 41 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5
not lain on the bed of sickness, “weary, and worn, and sad,” till His presence
has made the chamber of affliction bright with the light of heaven? Have you
not, sometimes, at the dead of night, been weary in watching for sleep that
would not come and your Lord has come to you—and then you have been
afraid to go to sleep lest you should lose the joy of His presence and wake up
without Him? Oh, some of us know what that experience means—when earth
has been the vestibule of heaven and when, even in our sickness and sadness,
we have been on the very verge of Jordan—and we have smelt the fragrance
of the spices that was wafted by the breath of the Spirit from the golden
gardens on the other side of the stream! If you know anything experimentally
about this matter, then you may conclude that your beloved is, indeed, yours!
But supposing that you are not enjoying Christ’s presence, I am going to put
another question to you. Are you cast down when He is away? If you have
grieved His Spirit, are you grieved? If Christ is gone, do you feel as if the sun,
itself, had ceased to shine and the candle of your existence had been snuffed
out in utter darkness? Do you cry when He is away— “What peaceful hours I
then enjoyed! How sweet their memory still! But now I find an aching void
The world can never fill”? Oh, then, He is yours! If you can not bear His
absence, He is yours! Last Thursday night I preached a sermon which was
intended to be very searching one, and I hope that it was. It was upon the text,
“Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Now see the
difficulty of a poor minister! If I preach very comforting sermons, there are
sure to be hypocrites who suck them down and say, “How delightful!” But
when I preach a soul-searching sermon, some dear child of God, who is as
precious to her Lord as gold tried in the furnace, takes everything to herself
and begins to be very sorrowful, and to say, “That sharp knife is meant for
me, for I am not one of the Lord’s people!” Well, after last Thursday night’s
sermon, a dear woman came to my vestry, broken-hearted, crying and
sobbing. I hope that the discourse will be a blessing to her in the long run, but
I assure you that I never meant to preach to her at all! I was not aiming at her
or at the sort of people to whom she belongs! It was a very different class
whom I was addressing. If the preacher says anything about hypocrites, very

often the hypocrites will not take it to heart, but the most sincere saint in the
congregation very likely says, “Oh, I am afraid that I am a hypocrite!” If you
are, you are an odd sort of hypocrite, for I never knew of a hypocrite who was
afraid that he was one! He has not grace enough for that kind of fear, but just
goes on in the self-conceit that all is right with him. I, for my part, feel more
confidence in the broken-hearted tremblers than I do in the boasters who
never have a question about their being all right, but set it down as an
undisputed fact that they are in the covenant of grace. O beloved, I am glad if
sometimes you moan like a dove and cry in the bitterness of your spirit, “Oh,
that I knew where I might find Him!” It may seem to be a spot on your
character, but this spot is the spot of God’s children and I am not sorry to see
it upon you! If the Prince Immanuel has left the town of Mansoul, then there
can be no marriage bells or joyous music there until He comes back. We must
invite Him and entreat Him to return! We must clothe ourselves in sackcloth
till He comes back! If we do not act thus, then He is not ours. If you can do
without Christ, you shall do without Christ—but if you cannot do without
Him, if you cry— “Give me Christ, or else I die,” then He shall be yours!
Stretch out the hand of faith and take Him, and then say without hesitation,
“My Beloved is mine.” I am not going on to the rest of the text, but I want to
say just this—if there is any man or woman here (and I know there are
many), who can sit down in the pew and quietly say, “Yes, weighing
everything the preacher has said, and judging myself as severely as I can, yet I
dare take Christ to be mine and to say, ‘My Beloved is mine.’” If that is your
case, dear friend, then you shall get confirmatory evidence of this fact by the
witness of the Spirit within your soul which will very likely come to you in the
form of perfect contentment of spirit, perfect rest of heart— “When I can say,
‘My God is mine,’ When I can feel Your glories shine; I tread the world
beneath my feet, And all that earth calls good or great.”
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“There,” says the believer, “now that my Beloved is mine, I have no other
wish or need.” Now will he be like Simeon when he took that blessed Baby
into his arms. “Lord,” he said, “now let Your servant depart in peace,

according to Your Word.” “Have you nothing more to live for, Simeon?”
“No,” replies the good old man, “what more can there be?” “Don’t you think
that if you lived a little longer, you might have a heavy purse of gold in your
hands?” “Yes,” he answers, “possibly I might, but it would be a cumbrous
burden. This dear Child is better than all the gold and silver in the world. If
He is mine, I have enough, yes, I have all!” That blessed rest of soul, which
comes of a sure possession of Christ, is not to be imitated—but it is greatly to
be desired! I know that some good people, who I believe will be saved,
nevertheless do not attain to this sweet rest. They keep on thinking that it is
something that they may get when they are very old, or when they are about
to die—but they look upon the full assurance of faith and the personal
grasping of Christ, and saying, “My Beloved is mine,” as something very
dangerous. I began my Christian life in this happy fashion as a boy 15 years of
age. I believed fully and without hesitation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when I went to see a good Christian woman, I was simpleton enough to tell
her that I believed in Christ, that He was mine and that He had saved me. She
said to me, “Ah, I don’t like such assurance as that.” And then she added, “I
trust you are believing in Christ—I hope so—but I have never got beyond a
hope, or a trust, and I am an old woman.” Bless the old woman, but she was
no example for us who know whom we have believed—we are to rise infinitely
beyond that groveling kind of life! The man who begins right, and the boy
who begins right, and the girl who begins right will begin by saying, “God has
said it—‘He that believes on Him is not condemned.’ I believe on Him,
therefore I am not condemned! Christ is mine!” O dear friends, do not always
keep on with that miserable hoping, and hoping, and hopping! Walk on both
your feet and get a good firm standing on the Rock of Ages—and say without
boasting, but without doubting: “My Beloved is mine!” This will bring you
into the condition of the psalmist when he said, “He makes me to lie down in
green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters.” David would never have
said that if he had not begun the Psalm with, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” If
He had begun by saying, “Perhaps the Lord is my Shepherd,” he would have
gone on to say, “Perhaps there may be green pastures, possibly there may be
still waters; but as yet my soul is in a dry and thirsty land where is no water
and not a blade of grass.” Ah, David was not so stupid as that! He had his
times of depression, but when he was singing that Psalm, he was in a positive,

certain frame of mind! “The Lord is my Shepherd.” He used the indicative
mood, not the subjunctive or conditional! The Lord help you to do the same!
And you may. If Christ is a satisfaction to your spirit, so that your soul is
satisfied as with marrow and fatness, then do not hesitate to say and to
emphasize the utterance, “My Beloved is mine.” He either is, or He is not—
which is it? Do not go to sleep tonight till you know! If Christ is yours, heaven
is yours! If Christ is not yours, you are neither fit to live, nor fit to die.
Remember that awful verse, “If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be Anathema Maranatha”: “let him be accursed, the Lord comes!” Take
heed unto yourselves, therefore—if Christ is not yours, you are in terrible
poverty! But if Christ is yours, you are eternally rich to all the intents of bliss!
Oh, that He might be yours, now, by your stretching out the hand of faith and
taking Him to yourself! “I dare not take Him,” says one. Well, you are a
strange person! I dare not let Him alone, and I challenge you to shape that,
“dare,” into any other proper form. If He bids you take Him, and trust Him,
how dare you refuse Him? Take Him, now, and be safe and happy forever!
God bless you, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Loved and Loving
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)

"My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds among the lilies."
-Song of Solomon 2:16
"My Beloved" -- this is a sweet name which our love takes liberty to apply to
the Lord Jesus. His inexpressible beauty has won our affection, and we cannot

help loving him whatever may come of it: whether he be ours or not, and
whether he smiles upon us or frowns, we love him and cannot do otherwise.
We are carried away by the torrent of his goodness, and have no longer the
control of our affections. As long as we live we must and will love the
altogether lovely One. Yes, he is, and must be to me, "My Beloved."

BUT suppose -- suppose for a moment that we loved and had no right to love.
Many a heart that has cried "My beloved," has been wounded even unto
death, because it could not come at its choice, but was doomed never to
exclaim, "My beloved is mine." The beloved was longed for, but could not be
grasped. This is often so in earthly love, since such love may be unlawful, or
unwise, and in every case it is the source of grievous misery. Thank God, this
is not the case with the soul enamored with Christ Jesus; for he freely presents
himself in the gospel as the object of our confidence and love. Though he is
infinitely above us, yet he delights to be one with all his loving ones, and of his
own will he gives himself to us. A polluted sinner may love the perfect Savior,
for there is no word in Scripture to forbid. Ay, if a sinner would be wedded to
the Lord of glory there is none to forbid the marriage.

Suppose that our possession of Jesus were a matter of doubt, as, alas! it is with
far too many: that would be a door of sorrow indeed. Life would be unhappy
if it were soured by a question as to whether our Well-beloved is ours or not.
To an awakened and instructed mind it is anguish to be dubious of our hold of
Christ; about this we must needs be sure, or be unhappy. All else may be in
jeopardy, but, O most blessed Lord, never allow our possession of yourself to
be in dispute! It would be a poor thing to say, "My beloved may be mine," or
even "he was mine," or "perhaps he is mine": we cannot bear any verb but
one in the indicative mood, present tense -- "My beloved IS mine."

Suppose yet once again that, though we loved, and rightly loved, and actually
possessed the beloved object, yet our affection was not returned. Ah, misery!

to love and not be loved! Blessed be God, we can not only sing, "My Beloved is
mine," but also, "I am his." He values me, he delights in me, he loves me! It is
very wonderful that Jesus should think us worth the having; but since he does
so, we find a matchless solace in the fact. Which is the greater miracle -- that
he should be mine, or that I should be his? Certainly, the second is the surer
ground of safety, for I cannot keep my treasures, since I am feebleness itself;
but Jesus is able to preserve his own, and none can pluck them out of his
hand. The truth that Jesus calls me his is enough to make a man dance and
sing all the way between here and heaven. Realize the fact that we are dear to
the heart of our incarnate God, and amid the sands of this wilderness a
fountain of overflowing joy is open before us.
BUT THE TEXT IS FREE FROM ALL SUPPOSITION: it is the language of
indisputable possession, the exclamation of a confidence which has made its
assurance doubly sure. There are two positive verbs in the present tense, and
not the smell of a doubt has passed upon them. Here is a brave positiveness
which fears no controversy, "my beloved is mine, and I am his," doubt it who
may.

There he is, for "he feeds among the lilies." The spouse sees him of whom she
speaks; he may be a mere myth to others but he is a substantial, lovable,
lovely, and actually beloved person to her. He stands before her, and she
perceives his character so clearly that she has a comparison ready for him,
and likens him to a gazelle feeding on the tender grass among the lilies. This is
a very delightful state of heart. Some of us know what it is to enjoy it from
year to year. Christ is ours, and we know it. Jesus is present, and by faith we
see him. Our marriage union with husband or wife cannot be more clear,
more sure, more matter of fact, than our oneness with Christ and our
enjoyment of that oneness. Joy! joy! joy! He whom we love is ours!

We can also see the other side of the golden shield, for he whom we prize
beyond all the world, also prizes us, and we are his. Nothing in the universe
besides deserves for an instant to be compared in value with this inestimable

blessing. We would not exchange with the cherubim: their chief places in the
choirs of heaven are poor as compared with the glory which excels -- the glory
of knowing that I my best Beloved's am, and he is mine. A place in Christ's
heart is more sweet, more honorable, more dear to us than a throne among
the angels. Not even the delights of Paradise can produce a rival to this
ecstatic joy -- "My Beloved is mine, and I am his."

YET HAS THE TEXT A NOTE OF CAUTION. The condition of fully
assured love is as tender as it is delightful. The spouse in the seventh verse had
charged her companions by all things of gentleness, delicacy, and timidity --
"by the roes, and by the hinds of the field " -- to refrain from offending her
beloved while he deigned to abide with her; she had also compared him to a
roe or a young hart, rather hiding than revealing himself; and here she likens
him to the same roe, quietly pasturing in the gardens, so gently moving that he
does not break or even bruise a lily, but softly insinuates himself among their
delicate beauties, as one of the same dainty mould. This hints in poetic
imagery at the solemn and sacred truth that the dearest fellowship with Jesus
can never be known by the rough and the coarse, the hard and the restless,
but remains the priceless heritage of the lowly and meek; and these can only
retain it by a studious care which cherishes love, and guards it from even the
least intrusion.

A gazelle among the lilies would start at the bark of a fox, and be gone at the
voice of a stranger; and therefore soft whispers of inward love must say,
"Take us the foxes, the little foxes," and nimble hands with noiseless fingers
must draw up the lattice that kindly eyes may look forth at the windows, and
may be seen of him who delights in love.

The evident intent of the language is to set forth the delicacy of the highest
form of holy fellowship. The Lord our God is a jealous God, and that jealousy
is most seen where most his love is displayed. The least sin, willfully indulged

in, will grieve the Holy Spirit; slights, forgetfulnesses, and neglects will cause
him to turn away. If we would remain positively and joyously assured that the
Beloved is ours and that we are his, we must use the utmost circumspection
and holy vigilance. No man gains full assurance by accident, or retains it by
chance. As the gentle hind wanders in lovely spots where grow the pure white
lilies, and as he shuns the places profaned by strife, and foul with rank weeds
and nettles, so does the Lord Jesus come to holy minds perfumed with
devotion and consecrated to the Lord, and there in sacred quiet he finds
solace and abides with his saints.

May the Lord preserve us from pride, from self-seeking, from carnality, and
wrath, for these things will chase away our delights even as dogs drive off the
hind of the morning. Both our inward and outward walk must be eagerly
watched lest any thing should vex the Bridegroom. A word, a glance, a
thought may break the spell, and end the happy rest of the heart, and long
may it be before the blessing be regained.

We have some of us learned by bitter experience that it is hard to establish a
settled peace, and easy enough to destroy it. The costly vase, the product of a
thousand laborious processes, may be broken in a moment; and so the
supreme delight of communion with the Lord Jesus, the flower of ten
thousand eminent delights, may be shattered by a few moments' negligence.
Hence the one lesson of our little sermon is -- I charge you, O you daughters of
Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that you stir not up, nor
awake my love, till he please."
"For I am jealous of my heart
Lest it should once from him depart;
Then should I lose my best delight
Should my Beloved take to flight."

Over the Mountains
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)

"My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies.
Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away;
turn, my Beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart
upon the mountains of Bether."
Solomon's Song 2:16-17.

It may be that there are saints who are always at their best, and are happy
enough never to lose the light of their Father's countenance. I am not sure that
there are such persons, for those believers with whom I have been most
intimate, have had a varied experience; and those whom I have known, who
have boasted of their constant perfectness, have not been the most reliable of
individuals. I hope there is a spiritual region attainable where there are no
clouds to hide the Sun of our soul; but I cannot speak with positiveness, for I
have not traversed that happy land. Every year of my life has had a winter as
well as a summer, and every day has had its night. I have seen both clear
shining days, and heavy rains, and felt both warm breezes and fierce winds.

Speaking for the many of my brethren, I confess that though the substance be
in us, as in the teil-tree and the oak, yet at times we do lose our leaves, and the
sap within us does not flow with equal vigor at all seasons. We have our downs

as well as our ups, our valleys as well as our hills. We are not always rejoicing;
we are sometimes in heaviness through manifold trials. Alas! we are grieved to
confess that our fellowship with the Well-beloved is not always that of
rapturous delight; but rather, at times we have to seek Him, and cry, "Oh,
that I knew where I might find Him!" This appears to me to have been in a
measure the condition of the spouse when she cried, "Until the day break, and
the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved."
I. These words teach us, first, that COMMUNION WITH CHRIST MAY BE
BROKEN.

The spouse had lost the company of her Bridegroom: conscious communion
with Him was gone, though she loved her Lord, and sighed for Him. In her
loneliness she was sorrowful; but she had by no means ceased to love Him, for
she calls Him her Beloved, and speaks as one who felt no doubt upon that
point. Love to the Lord Jesus may be quite as true, and perhaps quite as
strong, when we sit in darkness, as well as when we walk in the light. No, she
had not lost her assurance of His love to her, and of their mutual interest in
one another; for she says, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His;" and yet she
adds, "Turn, my Beloved." The condition of our graces does not always
coincide with the state of our joys. We may be rich in faith and love, and yet
have so low a view of ourselves as to be much depressed.

It is plain, from this Sacred Canticle, that the spouse may love and be loved by
Christ, may be confident in her Lord, and be fully assured of her possession of
Him, and yet there may for the present time, be mountains between her and
Him. Yes, we may even be far advanced in the divine life, and yet be exiled for
a while from conscious fellowship with Jesus. There are dark nights for
spiritual men as well as for spiritual babes; and the strong know that the sun
is hidden quite as well as do the sick and the feeble. Do not, therefore,
condemn yourself, my brother, because a cloud is over you; do not cast away
your confidence; but the rather let faith burn up in the midst of the gloom,

and let your love resolve to come to your Lord again whatever may be the
barriers which divide you from Him.

When Jesus is absent from a true heir of heaven, SORROW will ensue. The
healthier our condition, the sooner will that absence be perceived, and the
more deeply will it be lamented. This sorrow is described in the text as
DARKNESS- this is implied in the expression, "Until the day break." Until
Christ appears, no day has dawned for us. We dwell in midnight darkness; the
stars of the promises, and the moon of our experience yield no light of comfort
until our Lord, like the sun, arises and ends the night. We must have Christ
with us, or we are in the night: we grope like blind men for the wall, and
wander in dismay.

The spouse also speaks of SHADOWS. "Until the day break, and the shadows
flee away." Shadows are multiplied by the departure of the sun, and these are
apt to distress the timid believer. We are not afraid of real enemies when
Jesus is with us; but when He is absent from us, we tremble at even a shadow.
How sweet is that song, "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff
comfort me!" But we change our note when midnight is now come, and Jesus
is not with us: then we populate the night with terrors: demons, hobgoblins,
and things that never existed except in our imagination, are apt to swarm
about us; and we are in fear where no fear really exists.

THE SPOUSE'S WORST TROUBLE WAS THAT THE BA CK OF HER
BELOVED WAS TURNED TO HER, and so she cried, "Turn, my Beloved."
When His face is towards her, she suns herself in His love; but if the light of
His countenance is withdrawn, she is sorely troubled. Our Lord turns His face
from His people, though He never turns His heart from His people. He may
even close His eyes in sleep when the vessel is tossed by the tempest, but His

heart is awake all the while. Still, it is pain enough to have grieved Him in any
degree: it cuts us to the quick to think that we have wounded His tender heart.

He is jealous, but never without cause. If He turns His back upon us for a
while, He has doubtless a more than sufficient reason. He would not walk
contrary to us if we had not walked contrary to Him. Ah, this is sad work!
The presence of the Lord with us, makes this life the preface to the celestial
life; but His absence leaves us pining and fainting, neither does any comfort
remain in the land of our banishment. The Scriptures and the ordinances,
private devotions and public worship- all are as sun-dials, -all are most
excellent when the sun shines, but of small avail in the dark. O Lord Jesus,
nothing can compensate us for Your loss! Draw near to Your beloved yet
again, for without You our night will never end.
"See! I repent, and vex my soul,
That I should leave You so!
Where will those vile affections roll
That let my Savior go?"
When communion with Christ is broken, in all true hearts there is a strong
desire to win it back again. The man who has known the joy of communion
with Christ, if he loses that nearness, will never be content until it is restored.
Have you ever entertained the Prince Emmanuel? Is He gone elsewhere? Your
chamber will be dreary until He comes back again. "Give me Christ or else I
die," is the cry of every person that has lost the dear companionship of Jesus.
We do not part with such heavenly delights without many a pang. It is not
with us a matter of "maybe He will return, and we hope He will;" but it must
be, or we faint and die. We cannot live without Him; and this is a cheering
sign; for the soul that cannot live without Him, shall not live without Him: He
comes speedily where life and death hang on His coming. If you must have
Christ, you shall have Him. This is just how the matter stands: we must drink
of this well or die of thirst; we must feed upon Jesus, or our spirit will famish.

II. We will now advance a step, and say that WHEN COMMUNION WITH
CHRIST IS BROKEN, THERE ARE GREAT DIFFICULTIES IN THE
WAY OF ITS RENEWAL.

It is much easier to go down hill than to climb to the same height again. It is
far easier to lose joy in God, than to find the lost jewel. The spouse speaks of
"MOUNTAINS" dividing her from her Beloved: she means that the
DIFFICULTIES were great. They were not little hills, but mountains, that
closed up her way. Mountains of remembered sin, Alps of backsliding, dread
ranges of forgetfulness, ingratitude, worldliness, coldness in prayer, frivolity,
pride and unbelief. Ah me, I cannot teach you all the dark geography of this
sad experience! Giant walls rose before the spouse like the towering steeps of
Lebanon. How could she come to her Beloved?

The dividing difficulties were MANY as well as great. She does not speak of
"a mountain", but of "mountains": Alps rose on Alps, wall after wall. She
was distressed to think that in so short a time, so much could come between
her and Him of whom she sang just now, "His left hand is under my head, and
His right hand does embrace me." Alas, how we multiply these mountains of
Bether with a sad rapidity! Our Lord is jealous, and we give Him far too
much reason for hiding His face. A fault, which seemed so small at the time we
committed it, is seen in the light of its own consequences, and then it grows
and swells until it towers aloft, and hides the face of the Beloved. Then has our
sun gone down, and fear whispers, "Will His light ever return? Will it ever be
daybreak? Will the shadows ever flee away?" It is easy to grieve away the
heavenly sunlight, but ah, how hard to clear the skies, and regain the
unclouded brightness!

Perhaps the worst thought of all to the spouse was the dread that the dividing
barrier might be PERMANENT. It was high, but it might dissolve; the walls
were many, but they might fall. But alas, these barriers were 'mountains', and

mountains stand fast for ages! She felt like the Psalmist, when he cried, "My
sin is ever before me." The pain of our Lord's absence becomes intolerable
when we fear that we are hopelessly shut out from Him. A night one can bear,
hoping for the morning; but what if the day should never break? And you and
I, if we have wandered away from Christ, and feel that there are ranges of
immovable mountains between Him and us- we will feel sick at heart. We try
to pray, but devotion dies on our lips. We attempt to approach the Lord at the
communion table, but we feel more like Judas than John. At such times we
have felt that we would give our eyes once more to behold the Bridegroom's
face, and to know that He delights in us as in happier days. Still there stand
the awful mountains- black, threatening, impassable; and in the far-off land,
the Life of our life is away, and grieved.

So the spouse seems to have come to the conclusion that THE DIFFICULTIES
IN HER WAY WERE INSURMOUNTABLE IN HER OWN POWER. She
does not even think of herself being able to go over the mountains to her
Beloved, but she cries, "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn,
my Beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether."
She will not try to climb the mountains, she knows she cannot: if they had
been less high, she might have attempted it; but their summits reach to
heaven. If they had been less craggy or difficult, she might have tried to scale
them; but these mountains are terrible, and no foot may stand upon their
treacherous crags.

Oh, the mercy of utter self-despair! I love to see a soul driven into that close
corner, and forced therefore to look to God alone. The end of the creature is
the beginning of the Creator. Where the sinner ends, the Savior begins. If the
mountains can be climbed, we shall have to climb them; but if they are quite
impassable, then the soul cries out with the prophet, "Oh, that You would
rend the heavens, that You would come down, that the mountains might flow
down at Your presence..." Our souls are lame, they cannot move to Christ,
and we turn our strong desires to Him, and fix our hopes alone upon Him.

Will He not remember us in love, and fly to us as He did to His servant of old
when He rode upon a cherub, and did fly, yes, He did fly upon the wings of the
wind!
III. Here arises THAT PRAYER OF THE TEXT WHICH FULLY MEETS
THE CASE.

"Turn, my Beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
division." Jesus can come to us, when we cannot go to Him. The roe and the
young hart, or, as you may read it, the gazelle and the ibex, live among the
crags of the mountains, and leap across the abyss with amazing agility. For
swiftness and sure-footedness they are unrivalled.
The sacred poet said, "He makes my feet like deer's feet, and sets me upon my
high places," alluding to the feet of those creatures which are so fitted to stand
securely on the mountain sides. Our blessed Lord is called, in the title of the
twenty-second Psalm, "the Deer of the morning"; and the spouse in this
golden Canticle sings, "My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart; behold He
comes, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills."

Here I would remind you that this prayer is one that we may fairly offer,
because it is the way of Christ to come to us when our coming to Him is
impossible. "How?" do you say. I answer that of old He did this; for we
remember "His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in
trespasses and in sins." His FIRST COMING into the world in human form--
was it not because man could never come to God until God had come to him?
I hear of no tears, or prayers, or entreaties after God on the part of our first
parents; but the offended Lord spontaneously gave the promise that the Seed
of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Our Lord's coming into the
world was unbought, unsought and unthought of- he came altogether of His
own free will, delighting to redeem.
"With pitying eyes, the Prince of grace

Beheld our helpless grief;
He saw, and oh, amazing love!
He ran to our relief."
His incarnation was a type of the way in which He comes to us by His Spirit.
He saw us cast out, polluted, shameful, perishing- and as He passed by, His
tender lips said, "Live!"
In us is fulfilled that word, "I was found by them that did not seek Me." We
were too averse to His holiness, too much in bondage to sin, to ever have
returned to Him if He had not first turned to us.

What do you think? Did He come to us when we were His enemies, and will
He not visit us now that we are His friends? Did He come to us when we were
dead sinners, and will He not hear us now that we are weeping saints? If
Christ's coming to the earth was after this manner, and if His coming to each
one of us was after this style, we may well hope that now He will come to us in
like fashion-- like the dew which refreshes the grass, and does not wait for
man, neither tarries for the sons of men.

Besides, He is coming again in person, in the LAST DAY, and mountains of
sin, and error, and idolatry, and superstition, and oppression stand in the way
of His kingdom-- but He will surely come and overturn them, until He shall
reign over all! He will come in the last days, I say, though He must leap over
these mountains to do it- and because of that I am sure we may comfortably
conclude that He will draw near to us who mourn His absence so bitterly.
Then let us bow our heads a moment, and silently present to His most
excellent Majesty the petition of our text: "Turn, my Beloved, and be like a
roe or a young hart upon the mountains of division."

Our text gives us sweet assurance that our Lord is at home with those
difficulties which are quite insurmountable by us. Just as the roe or the young
hart knows the passes of the mountains, and the stepping-places among the
rugged rocks, and is void of all fear among the ravines and the precipices-- so
does our Lord know the heights and depths, the torrents and the caverns of
our sin and sorrow. He carried the whole of our transgressions, and so became
aware of the tremendous load of our guilt.

He is also quite at home with the infirmities of our nature-- He knew
temptation in the wilderness, heartbreak in the garden, and desertion on the
cross. He is quite at home with pain and weakness, for "Himself took our
infirmities, and bore our sicknesses." He is at home with despondency, for He
was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He is at home even with
death, for He gave up His spirit, and passed through the sepulchre to
resurrection.

O yawning gulfs and frowning steeps of woe and despair- our Beloved, like
hind or hart, has traversed your glooms! O my Lord, You know all that
divides me from You; and You know also that I am far too feeble to climb
these dividing mountains, so that I may come to You; therefore, I beg You,
come over the mountains to meet my longing spirit! You know each yawning
gulf and slippery steep, but none of these can keep You back-- hasten to me,
Your servant, Your beloved, and let me again live in Your presence.

It is easy, too, for Christ to come over the mountains for our relief. It is easy
for the gazelle to cross the mountains- it is made for that end. Just so is it easy
for Jesus, for to this purpose was He ordained from of old that He might come
to man in his worst estate, and bring with Him the Father's love. What is it
that separates us from Christ? Is it a sense of sin? You have been pardoned
once, and Jesus can renew most vividly a sense of full forgiveness. But you say,
"Alas! I have sinned again: fresh guilt alarms me." He can remove it in an

instant, for the fountain appointed for that purpose is still opened, and is still
so full. It is easy for the dear lips of redeeming love to put away the child's
offences, since He has already obtained pardon for the criminal's iniquities. If
with His heart's blood He won our pardon from our Judge, he can easily
enough bring us the forgiveness of our Father. Oh, yes, it is easy enough for
Christ to say again, "Your sins are forgiven."

You say, "But I feel so unfit, so unable to enjoy communion with Him." He
that healed all manner of bodily diseases can heal with a word your spiritual
infirmities. Remember the man whose ankle-bones received strength, so that
he ran and leaped! And remember her who was sick with a fever, and was
healed at once, and arose, and ministered unto her Lord! "My grace is
sufficient for you; for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

Still you say, "But I have such afflictions, such troubles, such sorrows, that I
am weighted down, and cannot rise into joyful fellowship with Christ." Yes,
but Jesus can make every burden light, and cause each yoke to be easy. Your
trials can be made to AID your heavenward course instead of hindering it. I
know all about those heavy weights, and I perceive that you cannot lift them-
but skillful engineers can adapt ropes and pulleys in such a way that heavy
weights lift other weights. The Lord Jesus is great at 'gracious' machinery,
and He has the are of causing a weight of tribulation to lift from us a load of
spiritual deadness, so that we ascend by that which, like a millstone,
threatened to sink us down.

What else hinders Him from coming to us? I am sure that, if it were a sheer
impossibility, the Lord Jesus could remove it, for things impossible with men
are possible with God. But someone objects, "I am so unworthy of Christ. I
can understand eminent saints and beloved disciples being greatly loved by
Him- but I am a worm, and no man; utterly below such condescension by
Him." So you say? Don't you know that the worthiness of Christ covers your

unworthiness, and He has become for us wisdom from God-- that is, our
righteousness, holiness, and redemption? In Christ, the Father does not think
so worthless of you, as you think of yourself-- you are not worthy to be called
His child, but He does call you His child, and reckons you to be among His
jewels. Listen, and you shall hear Him say, "Since you were precious in My
sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you..." Thus, then, there
remains nothing which Jesus cannot overleap if He resolves to come to you,
and re-establish your broken fellowship.
To CONCLUDE, our Lord can do all of this INSTANTANEOUSLY. As in the
twinkling of an eye, the dead shall be raised incorruptible; so in a moment can
our dead affections rise to fullness of delight. He can say to this mountain, "Be
removed from here, and be cast into the midst of the sea," and it shall be
done.

In the sacred emblems now upon this supper table, Jesus is already among us.
FAITH cries, "He has come!" Like John the Baptist, she gazes intently on
Him, and cries, "Behold the Lamb of God!" At this table Jesus feeds us with
His body and His blood. His physical presence we do not have, but His real
spiritual presence we can perceive. He has come here. He looks forth at these
windows, I mean this bread and wine; showing Himself through the lattices of
this instructive and endearing ordinance. He speaks. He says, "The winter is
past, the rain is over and gone." And so it is; we feel it to be so- a heavenly
springtime warms our frozen hearts. Like the spouse, we wonderingly cry,
"Before ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib."
Now in happy fellowship we see the Beloved, and hear His voice-- our heart
burns; our affections glow; we are happy, restful, brimming over with delight.
The King has brought us into his banqueting-house, and His banner over us is
love. It is good to be here!

Friends, we must now go our ways. A voice says, "Arise, let us go from here."
O Lord of our hearts, go with us! Home will not be home without You. Life
will not be life without You. Heaven itself would not be heaven if You were

absent. Abide with us. The world grows dark, the twilight of time draws on.
Abide with us, for it is toward evening. Our years increase, and we near the
night when dews fall cold and chill. A great future is all about us, the
splendors of the last age are coming down; and while we wait in solemn, awe-
struck expectation, our heart continually cries within herself, "Until the day
breaks, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be like a roe or a
young hart upon the mountains of division."
"Hasten, Lord! the promised hour;
Come in glory and in power;
While Your foes are unsubdued;
Nature sighs to be renewed.
Time has nearly reached its sum,
All things with Your bride say 'Come;'
Jesus, whom all worlds adore,
Come and reign for evermore!

“A SONG OF MY BELOVED” NO. 3185

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1910
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON AT THE METROPOLITAN
TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON

“My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day
break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or
a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” Solomon’s Song 2:16-17

[Other sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon parts of the same passage, are #1190,
A Song Among the Lilies, #2442, “My Beloved is Mine,” and #2477, Darkness
Before the Dawn]

IT has been well said that, if there is a happy verse in the Bible, it is this one,
“My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.” So peaceful,
so full of assurance, so over-running with happiness and contentment is it,
that it might well have been written by the same hand which penned the
twenty-third psalm, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” The
verse savors of Him who, just before He went to Gethsemane, said to His
disciples, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world
giveth, give I unto you....In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world.” Let us ring the silver bell of this verse
again, for its notes are exquisitely sweet, “My beloved is mine, and I am his:
he feedeth among the lilies.” Yet there is a shadow in the latter part of the
text. The prospect is exceedingly fair and lovely, earth cannot show its
superior, but it is not entirely a sunlit landscape. There is a cloud in the sky,
which casts a shadow over the scene, it does not dim it, everything is clear,
and stands out sharply and brightly, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” That
is clear enough, yet I say again that it is not altogether sunlight, there are
shadows too, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.” There is a
mention also of the “mountains of Bether”—the mountains of division, and to
have anything like division is bitterness. I see here a paschal lamb, but I see
bitter herbs with it. I see the lily, but I think I see it still among the thorns. I
see the fair and lovely landscape of assured confidence, but a shadow, just a
slight shadow, takes away some of its glory, and he who sees it has still to look
for something yet beyond, “till the day break, and the shadows flee away.”

The text seems to me to indicate just this state of mind, perhaps some of you
may at this time exemplify it. You do not doubt your salvation, you know that
Christ is yours, you are certain of that, albeit you may not be at present
enjoying the light of your Savior’s countenance. You know that He is yours,
but you are not feeding upon that precious fact. You realize your vital interest
in Christ, so that you have no shadow of a doubt that you are His, and He is
yours, but still, His left hand is not under your head, nor does His right hand
embrace you. A shade of sadness is cast over your heart, possibly by
affliction, certainly by the temporary absence of your Lord, so even while
exclaiming, “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” you are forced to fall on your
knees and pray, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my
beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
division.” We may occupy the time profitably, if God the Holy Ghost shall
enable us, in speaking upon these matters. We have here, first, a soul enjoying
personal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, or personal interest assured. We
have, next, a soul taking the deepest interest in Christ, and longing to know
where
2 “A Song of My Beloved” Sermon #3185
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He is, or the deepest interest evinced, and then we have a soul anxiously
desiring present communion with Christ, or visible fellowship, conscious
communion sought after. I. We have here, first, PERSONAL INTEREST IN
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST ASSURED. I do not mean to try to preach
tonight, I should like my text to preach, and the way in which I should like it
to preach would be to see how far we can get hold of it, how we can take it
word by word, and drink it in, come to each word as to a well, and sit down on
the brink, and drink a refreshing draught, come to each word as to a palm
tree, and eat of the fruit thereof. The text begins with the words, “my
beloved.” Come, soul, can you venture to call Christ your Beloved? Certainly
He should be beloved by you, for what has He not done for you? Favors rich
and rare have been the gifts of His hand, gifts purchased by His own most
precious blood. If you do not love Him, my heart, you are a most ungrateful
thing indeed. Deceitful, rotten, loathsome above all things, and desperately

wicked art thou, O my heart, if, Jesus being your Savior, you do not love Him.
He ought to be beloved by the most of you here, for you profess to have been
redeemed by His blood, and adopted into the family of God through Him. You
professed, when you were baptized, to be dead with Him, and when you come
to this communion table tonight, you will profess that He is your meat and
your drink, your life, your soul’s stay and comfort, so, if you do not love Him,
what shall I say to you? I will let you say it to yourselves—

“A very wretch, Lord! I should prove, Had I no love for Thee: Rather than
not my Savior love, Oh may I cease to be!”

“My beloved.” He ought to be so, and He has been so. There was a time when
you and I did not love Him, but that time is over now. We recollect the happy
moment when first, by faith, we saw His face, and heard Him say, “I have
loved thee with an everlasting love.” Oh, the happiness of the day of
conversion! You have not forgotten it. How alive and zealous some of you
were then! In those first months when you were brought into the house of
mercy, and were washed and clothed, and had all your wants supplied out of
the fullness that is treasured up in Christ Jesus, you did indeed love Him. You
were not hypocrites, were you? And you used to sing with such force of voice
as well as of heart—

“Jesus, I love Thy charming name, ’Tis music to mine ear; Fain would I sound
it out so loud That earth and heaven should hear.”

Yes, we did love Him, but we cannot stop at that, we do love Him. With all our
faults, and imperfections, and frailties, the Lord, who knoweth all things,
knows that we do love Him. Sometimes, brethren, it is not easy to know
whether you do love Christ, or not. I have heard many remarks about the
hymn containing that line— “Do I love the Lord, or no?”

but I believe that every honest Christian sometimes asks that question, and I
think one good way of getting it answered is to go and hear a faithful minister.
Last Sabbath morning, I sat and listened to a very simple-minded preacher in
a Wesleyan chapel, he was a most unsound Wesleyan, but a thoroughly sound
Calvinistic brother, and when he began to preach about the love of Jesus
Christ, the tears streamed down my cheeks. I could not help letting them fall
upon the sanded floor as I sat there, and I thought to myself, “Well, now, I do
love the Savior.” I had thought that perhaps I did not, but when I heard of
Him, and the preacher began to play upon my heartstrings, the music came,
when I did but have Christ set before me, that woke up my soul, if
Sermon #3185 “A Song of My Beloved” 3
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indeed it had been asleep before. When I heard of Him, though only in broken
accents, I could not but feel that I did love Him, and love Him better than life
itself. I trust that it is true of many here that Christ is our “beloved.” But the
text says, not only “beloved,” but “my beloved is mine,” as if the spouse took
Him all to herself. It is the nature of love, you know, to monopolize. There is a
remarkable passage in the third chapter of the prophecy of Hosea, which I
need not quote except in outline, where the prophet is bidden to take one who
had been unclean and unchaste, and to say to her, “Thou shalt be for me, so
will I also be for thee.” This was meant to be typical of what Christ does unto
His church. Our love goes gadding abroad unto twenty objects until Christ
comes, and then He says, “Thou silly thing, now you shall fly abroad no more.
Come, thou dove, I will give thee a new heart, and my wounds shall be thy
dovecot, and thou shall never wander away again. I will be altogether thine,
and thou shalt be altogether mine; there shall be a monopoly between us; I
will be married to thee, and thou shalt be married to me. There shall be inter-
communion between us. I will be thine, thou wandering sinner, as thy
Husband, and thou shalt be mine.” Every heart that has been subdued by
sovereign grace takes Jesus Christ to be the chief object of its love. We love
our children, we love all our dear ones, God forbid that we should ever fail to

love them, but over and above them all we must love our Lord. There is not
one among us, I think, who would make it a matter of question about which
we would sooner part with, it would be a melancholy experience to have to
follow the partner of one’s bosom to the grave, but if it were a choice between
wife and Savior, we could not deliberate for a moment. And as for the
children of our love, whom we hope to see springing up to manhood and
womanhood, it would be a sorry blow to us to have them laid low, but it would
not take us a second to decide whether we should lose our Isaacs or lose our
Jesus. Nay, we should not feel that they were lost if God took them from us,
but we could not afford to think for a single instant of losing Him who is our
everlasting all in all. The Christian, then, makes Christ his Beloved beyond
all besides. Let other people love what they will, but as for him, he loves his
Savior. He stands at the foot of the cross and says, “This once-accursed tree is
now the blessed bulwark of my confidence.” He looks up to the Savior and he
says, “Many see no beauty in him that they should desire him, but to me he is
the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.” Let the scholar take
his classics, let the warrior take his weapons of war, let the lover take his
tender words and his amatory lyrics, but as for the Christian, he takes the
Savior, he takes the Lord Jesus, to be to him Alpha and Omega, the
beginning, the end, the midst, the all in all, and in Him he finds his soul’s
solace. Some people have thought that there is a tautology in the text when it
says, “My beloved is mine.” Why, of course, if He is my Beloved, He is mine,
what need is there to say that? Well, those who are acquainted with the
Christian’s experience know that all believers are subject to many doubts and
fears, and that they feel that they cannot make their assurance too sure, so
they like to double their expressions of assurance when they can, so each of
them says, “My beloved is mine.” There is no tautology, the speaker is only
giving two strokes of the hammer to drive the nail home. It is put so that there
can be no mistake about it, so that the spouse means what she is saying, and
intends others to also understand it, “My beloved is mine.” But I think it may
mean more than that, because we may love a thing, and yet it may not be our
own. A man may call money his beloved, yet he may never get it, he may
pursue it, but not be able to reach it. The lover of learning may court the love
he covets in all the academies of the world, yet he may not be able to win the
attainment of his desires. Men may love, and on their dying beds may have to

confess that their beloved is not theirs, but every Christian has that upon
which his heart is set. He has Christ, he loves Him, and possesses Him too.
4 “A Song of My Beloved” Sermon #3185
4 Volume 56
Besides, dear friends, you know that there is a time when men are not able to
say that their beloved is theirs. He who has been most wealthy or most wise
can take neither his wealth nor his wisdom with him to the tomb, and when
the sinner who died, and was buried, wakes up in another world, Croesus will
be as poor as Lazarus, and the wisest man without Christ will find himself
devoid of all wisdom when he wakes up in the day of resurrection. They may
stretch out their hands, but they will only clutch emptiness, and have to cry,
“Our Beloved is not ours.” But when we shall wake up in the image of Christ,
and shall see Him—whether we shall fall asleep or whether we shall be
changed, in either case we shall be present with Him—then shall each believer
say, “Yes, He is mine, still mine. I have Him, truly have Him, ‘My beloved is
mine.’” I am inclined to think that if a man can truly say this, he can say the
grandest thing that ever man said, “My beloved is mine.” “Look,” says the
rich man, “do you see far away beyond those stately oaks, yonder? Do you see
as far as that church spire? Well, as far as ever you can see, that is all mine.”
“Ah!” says Death, as he lays his bony hand upon the man, “Six feet of earth,
that is yours.” “Look,” says the scholar, as he points to the volumes on his
shelves, “I have searched through all these, and all the learning that is there is
mine.” “Ah!” says Death, again, as he smites him with his cold hand, “who
can tell the difference between the skull of the learned and the skull of the
ignorant when the worm has emptied them both?” But the Christian man,
when he can point upwards and say, “I love my Savior,” has a possession
which is surely his forever. Death may come, and will come, even to him, but
all that Death can do is open the door to admit the Christian into still fuller
enjoyment of that which was already his. “My beloved is mine,” so although I
may have but little, I will be satisfied with it, and though I may be so poor that
the world will pass me by, and never notice me, yet I will live quite content in
the humblest possible obscurity because “my beloved is mine,” and He is more
than all the world to me. “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none

upon earth that I desire beside thee.” Now I want to stop and see whether we
have really got as far as this. How many of us have said, “My beloved is
mine”? I am afraid there may be some poor Christian here who says, “Ah! I
cannot say that.” Now, my dear hearer, I will ask you a question—Do you
cling to Christ? Is He your only hope? If so, then He is yours. When the tide
goes down, have you ever seen the limpets clinging to the rocks, or holding
fast, perhaps, to the pier? Now, is that what your faith does with Christ? Do
you cling to Him? Is He all your trust? Do you rest on Him? Well then, if you
do, you do not need any other mark or sign, that one is quite enough, if you
are clinging to Christ, then Christ is yours. She who did but touch the hem of
His garment received the virtue which came out of Him. If you can cling to
Him, and putting away every other confidence, and renouncing all other trust,
can say, “Yes, if I perish, I will cling to Christ alone,” then do not let a single
doubt come in to take away the comfort of your soul, for your Beloved is
yours. Or perhaps, to put it another way, I may ask you—Do you love Jesus?
Does His name wake up the echoes of your heart? See the little child in its
mother’s arms. You want to take it for a little while, but no, it will not come
away from its mother, and if you still want to take it, it puts its little arms
around its mother’s neck, and clings there. You could pull it away, perhaps,
but you have not the heart to do so. It clings to its mother, and that is the
evidence to you that she is its mother. Do you cling to Christ in that way?
And though you feel that the devil would pull you away from Christ if he
could, do you still cling to Him as best you can? Do you remember what John
Bunyan said about the prisoner whom Mr. Great-heart rescued from Giant
Slay-good’s clutches? Mr. Feeble-mind said, “When he had got me into his
den, since I went not with him willingly, I believed I should come out alive
again.” Is that the case with you? Are you willing to have Christ if you can
have Him? Are you unwilling to give Him up? Then you shall never give Him
up, He is yours. Do not think that Christ wants a high degree of faith to
establish a union between Himself and a sinner, for a grain of mustard seed of
faith is sufficient for salvation, though certainly not for the highest degree of
comfort. If you can but trust
Sermon #3185 “A Song of My Beloved” 5
Volume 56 5

Christ, and love Christ, then let not Satan stop you from saying, in the words
of the text, “My beloved is mine.” Well, we have got so far, but we must
remember the next words, “I am his.” Now this is true of every Christian. I
am His by Christ having made me His. I am His by choice, He elected me. I
am His by His Father’s gift, God gave me to Him. I am His by purchase, He
bought me with His blood. I am His by power, for His Spirit has won me. I am
His by my own dedication, for I have vowed myself unto Him. I am His by
profession, for I have joined with His people. I am His now by my own
deliberate choice of Him, moved by His grace to choose Him. Every Christian
here knows that this is true, Christ is yours, and you are Christ’s. You are the
sheep of His pasture. You are the partners of His love. You are members of
His body. You are branches of His stem. You belong to Him. But there are
some persons who get at a more practical meaning of this sentence, “I am
his,” than others do. You know that in the Church of Rome, they have certain
orders of men and women who devote themselves to various benevolent,
charitable, or superstitious works, and who come to be especially considered
the servants of the Lord Jesus. Now, we have never admired this form of
brotherhoods and sisterhoods, but the spirit of the thing is just that which
ought to enter into the heart of every Christian man and woman. You
members of Christian churches, if you are what you ought to be, are wholly
consecrated to the Savior. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the
Father” should be practiced by the whole church of Christ, not merely by
certain “orders” and then to be called “religious.” Every Christian woman is
“a sister of mercy.” We hear of men who belong to the order of Passionists,
but every believing man ought to be of the order of Passionists, moved by the
passion of the Savior to consecrate himself to the Savior’s work. “I am his.” I
would like to have you take this for your motto, you professed Christians, if
you can honestly do so. When you wake in the morning, breathe a short
prayer while you are dressing, and before bowing the knee, feeling, “I am
Christ’s, and the first thing when I wake must be a word with Him and for
Him.” When you go abroad into the world, I want you to feel that you cannot
trade as other men trade, that you cannot imitate their tricks and sharp
practices because something whispers within your heart, “I am His! I am His!
I am different from other men. They may do what they will, for their
judgment is yet to come, but I am different from them, for I am Christ’s.” I

wish all Christians felt that the life they live is given to them that they may
glorify Christ by it. Oh, if the wealth that is in the Christian church were but
devoted to God’s cause, there would never be any lack of the means of
sustaining missions, or of building houses of prayer in the dark localities of
London. If some rich men gave to the cause of Christ as some poor men and
women that I know of do, there would never be any lack in the treasury. I
have sometimes rejoiced over some of you, I have had to bless God that I have
seen in this church apostolic piety. I have known men and women who, out of
their little, have given almost all that they had, and whose one objective in life
has been to spend and be spent for Christ, and I have rejoiced over them. But
there are others of you who have not given a tithe, nay, not a fiftieth part of
what you have, to the cause of Christ, yet, perhaps, you stand up and sing—

“I love my God with zeal so great That I could give Him all.”

Stop that! Do not sing lies, for you know very well that you would not give
Him all, and do not give Him all, and you also know very well that you would
think it the most absurd thing in all the world if you were to give Him all, or
even to dream of doing so. Oh, for more consecration! We are, most of us, up
to our ankles in our religion, very few of us are up to our knees, but oh, for the
man that swims in it, who has got off the earth altogether, and now swims in
consecration, living wholly unto Him who loved him, and gave Himself for
him!
6 “A Song of My Beloved” Sermon #3185
6 Volume 56
I am afraid I shall have to stop here, and ask the question, without getting any
answer to it—How far can we get toward this second sentence, “My beloved is
mine, and I am his”? Do you feel as if you could not say that? Do you feel that
you must not say it? Then let this be your prayer, “Lord, if I have not yet done
all that I can do, if there is anything left which I might have done for You, and
which I have not done, give me grace that I may do all I can for You, and give

all I can to You!” There ought not to be an unconsecrated hair on a
Christian’s head, nor an unconsecrated drop of blood in his veins. Christ gave
Himself wholly for us, He deserves that we should give ourselves wholly to
Him. Where reserve begins, there Satan’s dominion begins, for what is not
Christ’s is the property of the flesh, and the property of the flesh is the
property of Satan. Oh, may the spiritual consecration be so perfect in each
one of us that, if we live, we may live unto Christ, or if we die, it may still be
unto Him! I hope, though we may have to make many grave confessions that
we can still say, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” If He stood here at this
moment, if we could just clear a space, and on a sudden He should come, and
stand in our midst, with His wounds still visible, it would be so sweet to be
able then to say, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” But I am afraid that in
His presence, we would have to say, “Jesus, forgive us, we are Yours, but we
have not acted as if we were, we have stolen from You what was Your
purchase, and what You have the right to keep, from this day may we bear in
our body the marks of the Lord Jesus, and may we be wholly Yours!” II. I
cannot say much upon the second part of the subject, for our time is already
nearly gone. THE SOUL, BEING ASSURED OF ITS PERSONAL
INTEREST IN CHRIST, LONGS TO KNOW WHERE HE IS. “Where is
He?” asks the soul, and the answer comes from the text, “He feedeth among
the lilies.” The worldling cares not where Christ is, but that is the Christian’s
one subject of thought.

“Where He is gone I fain would know That I might seek and find Him too.”

Jesus is gone, then, among the lilies, among those snow white saints who
bloom in the garden of heaven, those golden lilies that are round about the
throne. He is there in—

“Jerusalem the golden With milk and honey blest;”

and it makes us long to be there, that we may feed with Him among the lilies.
But still, there are many of His lilies here below, those virgin souls who—

“Wheresoe’er the Lamb doth lead, From His footsteps never depart.”

If we would find Christ, we must get into communion with His people,, we
must come to the ordinances with His saints, for though He does not feed on
the lilies, He feedeth among them, and there, perhaps, we may meet with Him.
You are here tonight, dear friends, many of you members of this church, and
some of you members of other churches, and you have come to the place
where Christ feeds His flock. Now that He feeds among the lilies, look out for
Him. At the communion table, do not merely partake of the elements, but
look out for Him. Look through the bread and the wine to His flesh and blood
of which they are the symbols. Care not for my poor words, but for Him, and
as to anything else of which you have been thinking, get beyond that unto
Him. “He feedeth among the lilies,” so do you look for Him where His saints
gather in His name. If you would meet with Him, look, too, in the blessed lily
beds of Scripture. Each book of the Bible seems to be full of lilies, yet you
must never be satisfied merely with Scripture, but must get to the
Sermon #3185 “A Song of My Beloved” 7
Volume 56 7
Christ of Scripture, the Word of God, the sum and substance of the revelation
of the Most High. “He feedeth among the lilies.” That is where He is to be
found. Lord Jesus, come and feed us among the lilies tonight, come and feed
our hungry souls, and we will bless Your holy name! III. I must leave that
part of the subject unfinished because I want to speak of THE SOUL,
ASSURED OF CHRIST’S LOVE, DESIRING HIS CONSCIOUS
PRESENCE, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my
beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
Bether.” You observe that the soul speaks here of the day breaking. All of us
who love the Lord have to look for a daybreak, but the sinner has a night to

come. Sinner, this is your day, and when you die, that will be your long and
awful night, unbroken by a single star of hope. But Christian, this is your
night, the darkest period that you will ever have, but your day will break. Yes,
the Lord will come in His glory, or else you shall sleep in Him, and then your
day shall break. When the resurrection trumpet shall sound, the day of the
Lord will be darkness and not light to the sinner, but to you it will be an
everlasting daybreak. Perhaps at the present moment your life is wrapped in
shadows. You are poor, and poverty casts a shadow. You have a sick one at
home, or perhaps you are sickly in body, that is a shadow to you. And the
recollection of your sin is another shadow, but when the day breaks, the
shadows will flee away. No poverty then, no sin then, which is better still,
and—

“No groans to mingle with the songs Which warble from immortal tongues.”

Brethren, it is so sweet to know that our best things are on ahead. O sinner,
you are leaving your best things behind, and you are going to your worst
things, but the Christian is going to his best things. His turn is coming, He will
have the best of it ere long, for the shadows will flee away. No longer shall he
be vexed, and grieved, and troubled, but he shall be eternally in the light, for
the shadows shall flee away. While the shadows last, you perceive that the
soul asks Jesus Christ to turn, as though He had withdrawn His face from her.
She says, “Hast Thou turned away from me, my Master? Then, turn to me
again. Have I grieved and vexed You by growing worldly, carnal, careless,
reckless? Then turn to me, my Lord. Have You been angry with me? Oh, love
me! Have You not said that Your anger may endure for a moment, but that
Your love is everlasting? In a little wrath You have hidden Your face from
me, but oh, now turn unto me!” You know that the proper state for a
Christian to be in is not a state in which Christ turns away His smiling face,
but the state in which Christ’s love is beaming full in His face. I know that
some of you think it is best for you to be in the shade, but beloved, do not
think so. You need not have shadows forever, you may have the presence of

Christ even now to rejoice in, and I would have you ambitious to get two
heavens—a heaven below and a heaven above, Christ here, and then Christ
there, Christ here making you as glad as your heart can be, and the Christ
forever filling you with all the fullness of God. May we seek after that double
blessing, and may we get it! Then the soul says, “Turn, my beloved, and be
thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” Dr. Thomson,
who wrote The Land and the Book, tells us that he thinks he knows the
mountains of Bether. It matters little whether he does or does not, but he has
seen the roes and the harts skipping over the precipices. Certainly, those wild
creatures that are accustomed to craggy rocks, will go where human footsteps
would not dare to follow. And such is the love of Jesus Christ. Our love is
easily turned aside, if we are badly treated, we soon forget those who seemed
to be so fond of us, but Christ is like a roe or a young hart, and He skips over
the mountains of our sins, and all the dividing mountains of our unbelief and
ingratitude which might keep Him away. Like a young hart, He skips over
them as though they were nothing at all, and so hastes to have communion
with us.
8 “A Song of My Beloved” Sermon #3185
8 Volume 56
There is the idea of fleetness here, the roe goes swiftly, almost like the
lightning’s flash, and so does the Savior come to the soul in need. He can lift
you up from the lowest state of spiritual sorrow to the highest position of
spiritual joy, may He do so! Oh, cry to Him, cry to Him! There is nothing that
can tell with a mother like the voice of her child, and there is nothing that can
tell with Christ like the voice of His dear people, so cry to Him. Say, “Savior,
show Your love to me. Dear Savior, do not hide Yourself from Your own flesh.
I love you, I cannot live without You, I am grieved to think that I should have
driven You away. Come to me, come to me, return to me, and make me glad
in Your presence.” Cry thus to Him and He will come to you. And you, poor
sinner, who have never comfortably seen His face, remember that there is life
for a look at Him. God give you grace now to trust Him, and may you see His
face here so that you may see Him hereafter with everlasting joy!

Jesus was the beloved in the song of songs

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Jesus was the beloved in the song of songs

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