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SERMONS.

SERMON I.

CHRIST THE BELOVED OF HIS CHURCH.

SONG OF SOLOMON viii. part of verse 7.

Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?

How rapturous are those expressions of love for Christ, that the church is pouring out in this chapter under the character of a bride! her heart so runs over with its streams of affection, that no words seem to have strength enough to tell her Lord all that she feels. I know that by those who cannot understand the language of the redeemed, the imagery is thought to be overstrained; it may be beyond nature, but it is not beyond grace: I mean that grace will teach us to speak, in the way of gratitude, a language altogether different from the heartless and unmeaning sounds that are uttered in the way of courtesy by the world.

B

A brother's love has usually a strong cord to cement it-it is firmly grafted-and therefore we find the church expressing a desire, that there might be such a bond between herself and Christ-"O that thou wert as my brother!" In the third verse Faith seems to have discovered that the prayer would be granted, and already to have anticipated something of the blessedness of such a holy connexion, when his strength would be made perfect in weakness. "His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me;" but lest her anxiety for the consolations of the Spirit might be mistaken by the children of sense for an act of impatience, she adds in the next verse, "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my Love, until he please." Here the narrative is broken, and an abrupt question is proposed by these very persons, as to the name, and condition, and character, of one who appears on a sudden to have caught their attention; for they cannot understand why a child of the earth, in all outward appearance like themselves, should be admitted to so familiar an intercourse with the Son of God. "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved ?" This inquiry I lay, my brethren, as a foundation for our meditations to-day; and oh! most heartily do I pray, that they may be so sweetly inclined

to it by the Spirit of truth, as to produce in our souls a full sense of its importance as it affects them, both for time and eternity.

There are three things respecting it, that suggest themselves for consideration: and first, what is denoted by the term wilderness; secondly, who they are that are said to come up from it; and lastly, what is imparted by the act of leaning on their beloved.

A wilderness, in Scripture, has a definite and fixed meaning: it is opposed to those spots where the olive tree and the cedar flourish, to the garden that is well watered, and the vineyard which is well pruned: it is spoken of by the prophet as an intricate and impassable place"Behold I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth, shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert;"-and Hosea, when he speaks of the destitute condition of the people of God, compares them to wild fruit that has neither savour nor beauty" I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness ;" and to mention only one more example, when our Lord tells his disciples that he has compassion on the multitude and will not send them away fasting, they answer him with surprise, and say, "Whence should we

have so much bread here in the wilderness?" From this testimony we may, in the first place, infer, that the wilderness is an unfruitful place:

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