My old brethren, it is my privilege to be here and to speak to you on this subject today. As you know, this book, The Song of Solomon, is a book that is much debated over in modern times, over how we should interpret it. There has been a lot of pressure to avoid the classical allegorical approach and to follow a more literal approach. Now, we are not going to spend time particularly on the arguments formed against that, but we will be following the allegorical approach. Just one quote to set us on our way from Mr Spurgeon, who has a particular good way of putting things sometimes. Some see here only Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter. They are short-sighted. Others see both Solomon and Christ. They are cross-eyed. Well focused spiritual eyes see Jesus here only. Now if we begin then with a basic map or outline of the Song of Solomon as one way of dividing it. The book, I would suggest, falls into seven scenes. And in these scenes, the Song of Solomon gives us the experience of the church in her relationship with Christ. That is the basic theme. the church in relationship with Christ. Most of the seven scenes follow a similar set pattern. The pattern begins with separation. They're apart. The woman, the bride of Christ, the Shulamite, is at a distance from her beloved. And after this, there comes a seeking period of each other. And then there's reunion and joy. And then that lastly, quite often, the scene ends. That joy is slightly tempered with the expectation of separation. again in the future. Now these scenes then are circular. They move from separation round to togetherness and then the next scene it opens again with separation. You're back at where you were a moment before. And if we don't mark the scene divisions that there are in the Song of Solomon then it gets very confusing because You can jump from one verse where the church is reposing with her beloved, with Christ, enjoying his company, and then the next she's bemoaning his absence. And what happened between these two verses? There's nothing given. It's because we've moved from one scene. Solomon's right has pressed the reset button and give us the next scene has opened up. I would suggest the seven scenes are not chronological. They're not designed to give, from beginning to end, how a Christian life goes or how the life of the church goes, but they are given an aspect of that relationship and then moves on to consider it from a slightly different perspective. The scenes then don't all line up like dominoes and one falls after the other. Instead, they're ripples in a pond. They're concentric circles. and each one widens out and develops what went before, but they all have the same centre, they all have the same basic theme. Now, for what it's worth, as I was looking at it, the seven sections in this view would be, there's a title of verse 1, chapter 1, but from verse 2 of chapter 1 to verse 7 of chapter 2 seems to be one section. From verse 8 of chapter 2 to verse 17, at the end of the second chapter, then from verse 1 of chapter 3 to verse 5, verse 6 of chapter 3 all the way to the beginning of chapter 5 verse 1, chapter 5 verse 2 to 6 verse 3, 6-4 to 8-4, and then 8-5 to 8-14. But we won't be having time to go through all of them, but that's just for your information. Also, just by way of introduction as well as the outline, what is the place of the song in the canon? And to know that, we need to ask, What is its function in revealing God? It is part of the revelation of God to us. What is its function? Well, we could say it reveals with unmatched clarity and fullness that the Lord is married to his people. We can say it reveals that the Lord's love is a husbandly love. And it reveals that the church's desire is as a wife's desire to please her husband. These truths are tentatively implied or suggested elsewhere. We can mine them out of other sections of scripture, or they are briefly given. But they are never made so explicit or so at length expounded as they are in the Song of Solomon. We could say that a hint of this relationship is the relationship God established in the Garden of Eden between the first covenant head and his wife. Moses begins speaking about the curses that will come if the people go a-whoring. Judges and Samuel use a similar phrase regarding the backsliding of the people, they went a-whoring after other gods. Ruth gives us the example of a holy love and marriage and is an allusion to this without being as explicit about it as the Song of Solomon and Psalm 45 as we sang earlier shows the same truth but perhaps on a slightly smaller scale than the song. So it's this book primarily that is used to introduce to the people of God this great truth. God binds himself to you and you to him in a marriage covenant. This then is God's manifesto of his love. It's his declaration of his heart for his people. Think of the books that follow the son of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Ezekiel, all these prophets denounce God's church with the same accusation or similar. The wife has become an adulteress, has become a harlot, she's divorced, she's on her own, she's solitary, she's isolated. How could the prophets have made these accusations at the bride, the church, without the song of Solomon? How could she be a harlot before being named a chaste virgin or an unfaithful wife without the Lord being her husband or an adulteress if she had never since Adam been once told she was a wife? How could she be lamented as a widow without ever being then a bride? How could she be set aside as divorced, without first being married? So we have this as a key place in its canon of what it reveals to us, and its place in the Old Testament canon. So we want now to dip into three different areas of the song, just there. Now, isolated in a way, we haven't time to go right through the song, of course. But we're looking, first of all, and we're dipping now into what I think is the second scene of the song, the beloved approaches. The first scene, as we said, is from chapter 1, verse 2 to 2, verse 7. The song, as it's given to us, it breaks, if you like, into the middle of a relationship, the middle of this beautiful engagement. It doesn't specify particularly, we'll come to that later, the beginning of the relationship. It's not telling us so much about that. That's not its purpose. It is instead showing us how this relationship of love unfolds and develops. So in that first scene, we see the bride going over and over in her mind and speaking about her beloved. This makes her hungry for his company because she's been speaking about him. Perhaps she realises now as she's speaking about him to others, what she's been missing. Speaking well of Christ does this to our soul. I believe even that this conference we have, that blessing, as we speak of Christ, we maybe realise again, what are we missing? And so she seeks him, and he comes to her. And he expresses his own gladness and his own delight in her. And so the first scene there closes in with them together, with the church enjoying his nearness and hoping that he will stay for an extended period. You have it there at the end of verse 7 of chapter 2. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the rose and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love to be pleased. or that this would go on, or that we might hold on to him, we feel the same in times of the nearness of the Lord to us. So the first scene has this characteristic, it is her speaking of him, I'm going to find him. And then from verse seven, eight, it moves into the next scene, the second scene, which is really our point just now. And we have there, first of all, the arrival of the beloved, and we see there his voice in verse eight, the voice of my beloved. from a distance, if you like, the bride of Christ is alerted that he's coming, that he's approaching. And in great excitement, she watches him draw near. And the first thing that alerts her to the approach of Christ is his voice. The voice of Christ. No wonder there's an exclamation, the voice of my beloved. Let us then listen for his voice. Train yourself. to recognize His voice, love to hear His voice. She is excited by it. The Church ought to be excited by it. What a good state for us to be in. Excited because Christ the Savior is speaking to us in His Word. Brethren, let us behave like She does here. When He is near, let us want to keep Him. When He is gone, let's be waiting for Him. and listening for Him. How will we know He's returning to us? You will know first of all the return of Christ to your soul when you begin again to hear His voice, particularly addressing you in His Word. It addresses then not only His voice but His strength. Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. She also sees Him in His great strength. If you like, she sees him, first of all, silhouetted on the distant hills, outlined against the sky. She recognizes him and his voice and his look straight away. They were at a great distance there. He was on the hills. But his approach, it's powerful. It's purposeful. She admires his movements as he comes, graceful and strong like a deer, effortlessly traveling across these mountains. These mountains are a hint, perhaps, of trouble that the song is going to return to later, but enough here to know that they were separated hard from him, but not for long. Because by the second part of verse nine, look at the speed, look how quickly he has arrived. He started behind her wall, he looked forth at the windows. From being a figure on the mountain horizon, he's already outside the house. How swiftly Christ returned to her. How quickly souls that we have, often are we not, pining souls, feeling all dried up for want of Christ. How swiftly He may return to you. How swiftly He may return to your congregation. You may return to your congregation with this confidence and find Christ has been with them and come down upon them. But remember how swiftly he may choose to do it. His desire for his church has carried him with the utmost speed to it. And now he both shows himself at the window, yes, to excite his church, but he himself is peering in because he wants to catch a glimpse of her. It is not only for her sake that he appears at the window. He himself desires her. His eagerness is clear. He has come, the arrival of the Beloved. What about the speech of the Beloved there from verse 10 to verse 14? The speech falls into three main parts and there's one if you like, a footnote or a supplement. First of all we can say we see in his speech here his desire. He begins with a request for a meeting. In fact, we could say the whole of his speech is a request for them to spend time together and alone, enjoying each other's company. He is assuring her of his goodwill to her. And to assure her, he both explains a little about why they were separated and that his love has not changed. So look at the reason and the timing of the separation there in verse 11. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The winter is over, the sky is now clear, the birds are now singing, the flowers now bud, the fruit now ripens. The winter had to come first for that to happen. That seems to be the point. The withdrawal for her was for her good. The withdrawal was to allow the fruit now to get to this point where it's ready and ripe. He knew that he would return. He was waiting to return. He had the time set in his mind when he would return. He'd return when the fruit ripens. He'd return when the winter was over. It's not a full explanation here, it's the life given. But she's given enough to know that to make her content, with his dealing of her and why there was this time of separation. Enough to make her content with it. Enough to know he wasn't being negligent toward her. There was a reason for it. It was a sad time and he was coming when that time came. You can see in this speech the desire he has for their renewed communion. Arise, verse 13, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. His desire is clearly expressed. He calls his church with tenderness. It's a request, isn't it, to melt the heart of the Christian. Here Christ called you, my dove. Oh my dove. Doesn't it make you want to run to him? Doesn't it make you want to leave the sheer cliffs, the cold rock and the secret stairs? These places are dark, these places are inhospitable. He calls us to himself. They're gloomy and sad. Why would they stay in the rock? Why would you hide in the crevice of the rock when he says, come to me? find then not only that we've been waiting for him but that he still feels the same way about us. That his ardour, his love is still unabated despite all that we are, despite all that we've been, despite the guilt and the sinfulness we're aware of in ourselves, he feels the same. He hasn't changed his mind about us. That is joy to the Christian's heart. The church heard his voice and saw his face But now he wants to see her face and he wants to hear her voice. Your voice. Show yourself at his throne of grace. Show yourself at the means of grace. Speak in prayer. He is asking for that. Let me hear thy voice. Like there's this finishing point, this wonderful way of finishing. He finishes by telling us something that would be hard naturally to believe. Sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Our voice is sweet. Our appearance is comely to Him. Now we are used to thinking, we delight in hearing the voice of Christ our Saviour. We delight in speaking to him, so he rejoices to hear your voice speaking to him. What an inducement to prayer! To secret time when exhorted a moment ago to go into our closet and to shut the door. Christ is saying, shut the door behind you because I'll be there waiting for you. What Christian would refuse such an offer? Yet we do. It's not a great sin. We do. We can be so slow to pray. We can find other things to do. We're strange creatures sometimes. What about the response of the church? Verse 15 is a little like verse 1 in this chapter. There's a debate over who is speaking. Some see it as the brother of the woman. Some see it as the beloved himself. And others see it as the words of the daughters of Jerusalem and the words of the blind. But the desire in the verse is clear. Take us the little foxes that spoil the vines. The speakers want nothing to spoil their vine. They want all that is dangerous to their vine, to the grapes, to be nipped in the bud. And this is very apt for our sins. for dangerous heretical teachings, for the corruption of our soul, for the lust of our heart, all these things are very apt. That is the desire that is expressed here. But who is saying this? Well, it is open to debate. If Mr Craig was allowed to make some allowances and call for some understanding, there is nothing dogmatic in looking at the sacrifice, how much more so in that way. on the song of Solomon. But here I would suggest this. Christ has just asked to hear his bride's voice. Just the very verse before that. I think that's relevant. So we would expect to hear the church next, but then it comes to us in the plural, and that kind of throws us off a bit. The plural church is often spoken of in the song of Solomon as his daughters of Jerusalem. But the daughters of Jerusalem haven't been in this scene so far. I think it would be natural to take it as a desire of both Christ and His Church. When believers say the same thing as Christ, when they speak with the same words as Christ, when their heart is knit to His desire expressed to them, then they have fellowship and communion with Christ. As it might be expressed, it is certainly a truth. I think it is applicable to what is here in front of us. Think of when you've been thinking about something yourself and going over something in your mind, so you've been laid upon your heart and it's exercising in your own devotions and the encouragement that can be there when you go to church and find a minister is working on the same topic and giving you the same thing. Or when you had this upon your heart, you turned to your own devotions and you open your Bible and there it is in front of you, either a name you never knew or just something you knew so well, but it's hit you with a new power. and a new application to your life at that point. And then, like how we had this speaking togetherness, the church then continues to speak in verse 16, my beloved is mine. She notes that they are meant for each other, that they do love each other. He has come to her to feast, to enjoy time together. And at the very end of this section comes the same kind of contemplation and hope that has ended scene one. Here in this end of this section here before us. Until the daybreak, and the shadows flee away, turn my beloved, and be there like a row on a young heart upon the mounds of the earth. Scene one ended there in verse seven of chapter two. I charge you, ye gods of Jerusalem, stir not up, nor awake my love. At the end of this scene, the bride has a more clear end in sight. The day is coming when there will be no more separation, and she expressly hopes for that. But until then, she longs that her beloved will behave to her just as she is doing now, and he will be frequently coming over whatever obstacles have come between them, and he will come to visit often, and when he comes he will stay long, and when he goes he will come again quickly. Even so, come Lord Jesus. These mountains of Bitha are mentioned, the mountains of separation, and they've loomed in her experience in this section. They go on to play an even larger part still in the next scene of the song, although we're not going to look at that this time. So ends the second scene. As all these typical elements of the bride and the beloved coming together, enjoy being together, and yet tentatively aware that this coming together is not the final thing. I want us to move forward now to the sixth scene. The third, the fourth and the fifth scene all follow the same basic pattern as before. They start off at a distance and they end up reposing and relaxing in each other's company. The sixth scene is a little different. In fact, it is almost opposite. It goes from them being together, and it ends with the bride giving particular vent to her feelings of frustration that their nearness is still not as close as she longs for. She's almost feeling the separation more because of their nearness. She's, of course, longing for the day of their marriage. We're not going to go through the entire section yet. But note in chapter 7, as he is reviewing her beauty, He stops describing her for a moment to admire her and to assure us that he delights in us. It's more than him saying his bride is beautiful. It's him anticipating the pleasure and the joy of being with her. Look there in verse eight. He makes plans for their meeting. I said I will go up to the palm tree. See how he's spoken of her in verse six. How fair and how pleasant art thou, my love, for delights. This thy stature is like to a palm tree. I will go up to the palm tree. He makes plans for another meeting. He arranges what they will do together, how they will spend their time together. Christ remembers, just like you do, Christian, except with a perfect recollection, the sweetest times that you've enjoyed together. It's not only your soul that goes back over fond spiritual memories, he delights in them too. Surely he does this for his whole church, we could say. Dwelling on times of great blessings, the early church, the times of the Reformation, the Covenanting period, times when there was a great nearness of Christ to his whole church, but surely he would also do it for an individual Christian. Remember in early days of blessing, times of fervent love, times of great devotion. He remembers the sweet nearness in private when our prayer was easy to Him and our breath to Him was sweet, He says. He remembers these things. But what is most encouraging, I think, to our faith today is not only that Christ remembers these things, How could he, being who he is, ever forget anything? But that in remembering them, he makes his choice to renew these acquaintances, to return again to his beloved. Who knows, but for us today, for our congregations, Christ is in glory saying, I will now go up to my palm tree in this congregation. I will now visit the palm tree of that congregation. That soul, I will return to them. For I remember the times of love that we have had together. What a great thought. And of course, how would the spouse respond? She is delighted with this. There in verse 10 to 13. I am my beloved and his desire is toward me. He's expressed it again. It hasn't gone, it hasn't been diminished. She's delighted with this and immediately, what does she think? Right, let's get organised for this. She moves on in her mind to planning their time together. What better if we were to know, oh Christ will return to our souls soon. Christ will come and take sweetness soon. What planning would we make? Her first thought, to make the most of it. To get away from every distraction. To spend time just with Him. She didn't choose, oh well he's coming, I'll see if I can find a slot in my time table. Wait till I look at my diary and see, well there's a lot on that table. Maybe we'll find an hour together. She clears it all. She says, I'm going to make time for this. She clears it all for Jesus. She wants to take him away with her. To go somewhere together. She wants to have him with her in the evening time. She wants him still to be there first thing in the morning. She wants to take him to her garden to see the flourishing of her graces and also, I'm sure, to seek advice on how best to care for these flowers and plants that are there and fruits, how to tend them. She wants him. Then she goes to the garden, to the vineyards. She knows that this is what will please her most. How does she know this? She has listened to what he said about her that pleased her. So he wants to take him to the garden. And this peaks here with perhaps the most detailed description in the whole scripture of the summertime of a Christian soul. The garden of the soul is all in bloom. Christ spends time with her. Treasure this time. expect and enjoy this time. Christ does. Because a little of the ache of parting is only a verse away. We have in this scene the pleasure of togetherness and the pain of departure. Oh, that thou wert as my brother, verse 8, chapter 8 begins. We're still in this sixth scene and it closes here I believe in the first four verses of the 8th chapter. Despite all of the communion of chapters 6 and 7, despite all that's been said, she wants more. It's not that now she's had her fill of him, that now she's got over him, now familiarity has bred contempt. None of that is here. Being with him, she wants more. She wants their relationship to be as full as it could ever be. She wants the marriage day to come. Is she wrong to want more? No. She gets no rebuke from Christ for her wish expressed at the beginning of chapter 8. Christians are meant to want to get to heaven, because that's where Christ is. Christians are meant to desire a better country, Hebrews 11. They are meant to be like Paul, with a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Context here. Or if they would ask my brother, that's not of the church sinfully dissatisfied. It's not of the church seeking escapism from trouble. It's of a believer so in love with Christ that any parting is hard to bear. Any lessening of the communion is hard to bear. The Christian never says, at the presence of Christ on earth is all we want. We want it all. Mary Magdalene wanted to hold him. Christ said, touch me not, I have not yet ascended to my father. Mary heartily loved her Lord. She had a kneel, calling his name, yet it was right for her It was right for her spiritual nature, for her faith, to long for permanence, where she could hold on to Him and never let Him go, although Christ had reserved that blessing and treat for glory. We should strive to get to the place where we have so enjoyed the fullness of Christ on earth that only glory could ever exceed it. She desires our relationship then without hindrance. As Christians mature in their faith, they increasingly become aware of the many hindrances in their relationship with Christ in this world, even at its best moments. Some hindrances are within. Our own shame. of open association with Christ. What a hindrance that can be. The fear of man. What a hindrance that can be. Some hindrances are without our control. Our fellow men misunderstand and misconstrue, sometimes deliberately, our relationship with Christ. And that is what is expressed here. The full expression of our relationship with Christ, it disgusts the world. It turns him off the gospel, you might even say. They find it distasteful that a woman, when she's converted, now loves Christ more than her husband. They find it uncomfortable for a Christian man to speak of the full ardour of his heart for Christ, and of that man being part of the bride of Christ. Our kisses to Christ are so often and so easily opened to misunderstanding this time. Oh, that thou art as my brother, that suck the breasts of my mother, when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised. She desires a deeper relationship in every way. Her desire is for more understanding. The sinner's state is awestruck at all that there is to know about Christ and about the eternity and the infinity of God the Son. We're taught how little we know. Have you not often turned over a scripture in your mind and tried to work at it for a while and seek, lighten it for a while? Promise yourself that you'll have to ask your Saviour about that in heaven. Have you not been sometimes at a fellowship with other Christians there Even the esteemed elders had to lay aside what they were talking about. The depths of the riches of scripture say we will have to come back to that when the day breaks. Haven't you seen believers who stop delving into the glories of God because sinful capacities can only take so much? Well, she wants to be taught everything and following on from knowledge of Him is yet more, deeper, better intimacy and love. This is why. It's not knowledge that's cold or isolated or academic. It is experiential in the very best Christian way. What a wonderful wise order there is in Scripture. In heaven with Christ, the more you know about Christ, the more intimate you will be with Him, the more you will love Him. Take a step back and look at these details. These are the desires of the spouse. We can have a fellow feeling with them. But they're more than saying, this is how Christians feel. Or even, this is how Christians ought to feel. They're in our hearts. They're echoed in our hearts. That's encouraging. But there's more than that. They are the expressed teaching and encouragement and promise. of God speaking to His Bride in His Word. Not only should we want this, as I hope we do, but the Lord in the lips of the Shulamite is promising these things, promised a relationship without hindrance, promised a relationship without hindrance within or without, promised a relationship of ever greater understanding with Christ as our Teacher. Promise a relationship of ever deeper intimacy with Jesus Christ. This is a Bible promise to us. There's a lot to look forward to. Lastly, the last scene looking at the seventh scene. Marriage has come. Marriage has come. Who is this? Verse five, that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved. In the previous section, it was a holy longing for marriage to Christ. And in scene 7, this last section to the end of the book from verse 5 of chapter 8, that day has come. He leads us down the aisle, as we would say, leaning upon her beloved. She is content. She's at his side. She's leaning upon him. We focus then just on a part of it. We haven't time to go through it all. We focus on the exchange of vows. Verse 5 to 7. First of all, his vow to her. Verse 5. I raised thee up under the apple tree. There thy mother brought thee forth. There she brought thee forth that bare thee. He vindicates them being openly together. So what are you doing? I don't think there's any malice intended in the question at the beginning of verse 5. Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? But verse, it does begin with a question about them being together. It focuses on where they've come from and her relaxed, intimate manner with her beloved. And Christ answers the question. He cuts it out of the air. He takes it upon himself to answer that question. But he doesn't even know exactly who's asked the question. He gives the answer back to his spouse. He gives her the answer. The whole aim seems to be to set her at her ease, to assure her that this is real, that this has finally come, the day she longed for. And he does this by going back to the beginning of their relationship. Not much in the song has focused upon the beginning of their relationship. His first assurance or vindication is that he initiated this relationship. I raised thee up under the apple tree. Christ gave life to this mutual love. He began to woo her. It was at his initiative. This has always been a comfort to the Christian church because she has this right reasoning from the Bible in her mind. Well, if he's begun it, he'll finish it. He is the author and the finisher of the faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega. conspirant of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. He promises it. It was me who began it. And it's me now who brings this relationship to consummation. His next assurance is that she truly is his rightful wife. There thy mother brought thee forth. There she brought thee forth that bare thee. He had not stolen her. He had not grabbed her. He had permission. The bride was given to him. He can clearly recall the when and the where and the who was involved. We were given to Christ. In truth, God gave him a people. Yes, a people that he had to woo, to pay a price for, and to move by his Spirit to get them to fall in love with him. but his bride was given all to him in the day of his espousals. Dear Christian, there will be no question about it on the day of your marriage to Christ, you belong to him. He will take it upon himself to make good his claim and even to refute the possibility of any counterclaim. There will be, there can be no nearer kinsman, there can be no other person as there was with Ruth and Boaz. This is Christ's wedding vow. He wooed us. He made us fall in love with Him. He received us as His bride from God. And He will now gladly, most gladly, bring that relationship to full consummation. His vow to her. Time is really gone. Her vow to Him, verse 6 and 7. He vindicated them being openly together, and she justifies them entering into marriage. Picture a bride and groom together, taking vows and exchanging rings, a seal. The bride vows that she now wants to be that seal for him to their marriage. She wants to be next to him in all his thoughts, certainly as a seal upon thine heart. She wants to be next to him in all his actions as a seal upon thine arm. She justifies their marriage by the strength of their love. It is real love. It's true love. It warrants marriage more. This love is so strong, it requires marriage. If it was a lesser love, it could rest with a lesser relationship. It might be satisfied with occasional meetings in this world. But it is not a lesser love. It can't rest with any less. And it won't. And we can't either. Real love then in this way. First of all she says it has beaten death. His love beat death on the cross. Love nails him to that tree. She knows also that her love has endured death. This is after the last enemy is gone. Never again will a believer die. Death itself is gone. It has been endured and they still love Christ. You will to death will not rob you, cannot rob you of your love to your Saviour. It fans into jealousy and provoke another evidence of true love. There's Christ's jealousy over her. And a zeal that was born in her by grace to do what was pleasing to Him. It endures all attacks against it. Many waters cannot quench love. Christ's love for His people. was questioned, doubted, mistaken, miscalled, but it endured. Christian love for Christ, often we doubt ourselves even, but it endures. You see, this is a love that has a worth and a value. Even she's able to express it. It outweighs the whole world. What will a man give in exchange for his soul? It's real love. It's a love that is so real, that it must be consummated. And that's the love that He has begotten in your heart. And it's a love He has for you, dear Christian. The marriage will come. Let us return to our congregations. Company with Christ is the thing. Let them know also that as they know they desire Him, He desires your company too. And at the marriage day, well.