I. We shall, this morning, first of all, call your attention to the fact which is implied in the words of our text, that LOVE is THE GREAT MOTIVE FOR ACTION IN THE CAUSE OF CHRIST.
All through these verses the spouse acts with reference to her beloved. It is for him that she goes forth into the field, for the sake of his company, and the quiet enjoyment of his love, she would lodge in the villages; and all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which are stored within her gates she declares to be laid up for her beloved. Love, then, is the fittest and most powerful motive to holy service. “The love of Christ constraineth us.”
This love has about it certain marked peculiarities. It is first a love which realizes the person of the Beloved. In the text the spouse speaks of “my beloved” as of a real personage, whom she sees, upon whom she leans, and with whom she talks. Christ Jesus is to his church no fiction, no myth, no imaginary hero. Throughout the song both the personages are most real to each other, so real that they both enter into graphic descriptions of each other’s beauties, and present us with portraits drawn by the pencil of admiring love. Now, a church will always be strong when the Lord Jesus is real to her; by this, indeed, may her power be estimated. Jesus must be to us no historical personage who was once on earth, but is now dead and powerless; he must be an actual person living still in our midst. Imagine, my brethren, with what enthusiasm the present audience would be stirred if I should retire, and in my place there should come forward the very Christ who was nailed to the cross of Calvary. You would know him by his hands and by his feet, the sacred marks of his passion. Oh, how the sight of him would stir your souls! You would be bowing your heads in adoration, but grudging the closing of your eyes even for a second in prayer, for you would desire, without a pause, to drink in the blessed vision. And if the crucified One should stand here, and say, “My brethren, my blood-bought ones, for whom I laid down my life, there is yet much to be done to extend my kingdom; there are precious souls, brothers and sisters of yours who know not my name who must be brought in: there are ignorant ones to be taught and sinful ones to be restored;” and suppose he should then point with his hand to one of you, and say, “I send you there,” and to another, “I send you there.” Why you would feel at once anointed to the appointed work, and go forth to do it with much earnestness, carefulness and joy; you would be right pleased to receive a commission from those dear honey-dropping lips. My brethren, have you forgotten that you walk by faith, and will you permit it to be thought that sight would have more power over you than faith? I trust you will not have it so. Then, remember, by faith you may realize and ought to realize this morning that Jesus walketh among the golden candlesticks and is in his church now, saying to every one of his people, “Go and serve me! Seek my blood-bought ones! Help my feeble ones! Feed my sheep and my lambs!” I pray you, let your faith this morning sweeten your duties by the knowledge that they arise out of your Beloved’s personal commands. Execute his holy commands as if you had received them, as in very deed you have, directly from himself. Let your heart go with mine, while I say,— Jesus, my beloved, though I see thee not, and must be content to behold thee by faith alone, yet my faith shall be more influential than my sight. I know that thou art here, and what thou biddest me do my soul shall perform with all her might, because thou sayest it.
Note next, that the fore here spoken of teas well assured of the affection of its Beloved. Note the verse which precedes our text, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me.” A Christian is never strong for service when he does not know whether Christ loves him or not. If that be a question, you have put out the fire by which alone the force can be generated which must work the machinery of your spirit. You must know beyond question that Jesus loved you and gave himself for you, you must feel that lie is loving you now, that his heart is looking out through those dear eyes which once wept over Jerusalem, and that the meaning of his loving glance is, “Soul, I love thee, I loved thee so that I gave myself for thee, and I have not repented of the gift. I love thee still as much as I loved thee upon Calvary’s bloody tree.” It is strength to feel that still “his desire is toward me.” Oh, when you feel, “Jesus loves me, Jesus desires me to show my love to him, Jesus at this moment thinks of me and takes a delight in me,” this will make you strong as a giant in the cause of your beloved. Between the very jaws of death a man would venture who felt that the love of Christ was set upon him. Love to Jesus is the fountain of courage, the mother of self-denial, and the nurse of constancy. Strive then for a well assured sense of the Savior’s love. Be not content till you possess it, for it will be health to your spirit and marrow to your bones: it will be a girdle of strength to your loins and a chain of honor about your neck.
Observe that the love of the spouse lived in fellowship with the Well-beloved. “Come, my beloved, let us go, let us lodge, let us get up, let us see, “There will I give thee my loves.” True love to Jesus grows stronger and stronger in proportion as it abides in him. We are cold in our love because we live at a distance from him. The angel who dwells in the sun has never to complain of an ice-bound heart; and he who lives in Christ and abides in him will blaze and glow with a warmth of love comparable to that of Christ himself. I do not think that the numbers of a church will have so much to do with the work it accomplishes; that depends more upon the degree of love than upon the length of the church roll. A small church inflamed with ardent affection for the divine Lord will do more for him than a great host eaten up by worldliness. Love burns its way by its own vehement flames. Coals of juniper are soon felt. The Enoch’s are the men,— they walk with God, and hence they have power over their times. The Johns are the men, they lean on Jesu’s bosom, and, when they come forth to tell of what they have seen and heard, they speak with authority as sent by the Most High. The Lord give to us as members of this church to abide in habitual fellowship with Jesus; not to have occasional spasms of delight in God, but one unbroken rest in him. We would not now and then look through the windows of agates and behold the king in his beauty, but we would continue “looking unto Jesus.” We would have his praise continually in our mouths, and his love burning like the quenchless altar fire of the temple, for ever within our hearts. This is the one thing needful to promote and sustain a revival in a church. If we have abounding love to Jesus we can prosper under disadvantages, but if we have it not we have lost the great secret of success. Love to Jesus teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight. It sets us side by side with the conquering Immanuel, and makes us share his victories. It yokes us with the strong Son of God, and so makes our infirmities to be but opportunities for the display of his power.
This love leads the church to hold all things in joint possession with Christ. Observe that word, “at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits.” Love to Jesus constrains us to make over all that we hold to him, while faith appropriates all that Jesus has to itself. Love will not stand to have divided properties. Such was the love of Jesus, that he gave all that he had to us. He could not bear to have anything, not even his throne itself, that should be altogether to himself. He stripped himself to his last rag to clothe us, and then gave us his breath to be our life, his blood to be our health; and now to-day, if we love him as we should, we are saying:—
“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.”
I like to think, in church matters especially, that we are all Christ’s, that if we have any ability, it is Christ’s ability— to be laid at his feet; if we have any substance, it is Christ’s money— to be used in spreading his church: our Sunday School is Christ’s nursery, and the little ones are Christ’s lambs. Our work out of doors in preaching at the corners of the streets is Christ’s mission; it is his trumpet, that is blown when the gospel is preached; and every form of agency is not ours— it is Christ’s; or if ours, it is only so because it is his. Oh, to have more and more all things common with our Lord, and no longer to speak of mine or thine. Beloved, we are joint heirs with him; all that we have is his, and all that he has is ours. When the church believes and acta upon this, the hour of her success is close at hand.
Consider once more, the love which is the great motive to Christian action is a love which looks to Jesus for united operation. It is, “Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us get up early to the vineyard.” Oh, it is glorious when Christ comes with the preacher, not the servant alone, but the master looking through his servant’s eyes, and speaking with his servant’s tongue, and pleading with his servant’s heart. Oh, it is good teaching in your Sabbath school when Jesus sits there among the boys and girls and speaks to their hearts. It is good, going into lodging-houses or calling at the people’s doors to tell them of the Saviour when Jesus knocks as well as you, and the crucified goes with you among the fallen, the infidel and the profane. All is well when the Redeemer leads the way. Be not afraid, beloved, for you go in good company. Who among us will be afraid to do anything or go anywhere if Jesus saith “I will go with you?” Such was the prayer the spouse put up, and doubtless she was led to pray for that, which God will grant. Let us pray with her as she prayed. Come, Saviour, come up with us to whatsoever we attempt for thee! If there be any brethren here who are working away for thee in dark places in London, dear Saviour carry the lantern with them, be thou their light! If they are digging for thee, and quarrying amidst granite rocks which refuse to yield to their strokes, come thou Almighty One and wield thy hammer, and straightway the stone shall be broken. Come with us, Lord. This is the fellowship we desire of thee, the fellowship of labor and of soul-winning. We would not only sit at thy feet to learn, but we would take up our cross and follow thee. We would go with thee whithersoever thou goest; we would fight, or labor, or suffer, or live, or die, at thy bidding. Be this the fellowship thou shalt bestow upon us!