THE BRIDEGROOM’S PARTING WORDS – Charles Spurgeon
THE BRIDEGROOM’S PARTING WORDS
“You that dwell in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice: cause Me to hear it.” – Song of Solomon 8:13
The Song is almost ended, the bride and bridegroom have come to their last stanzas, and they are about to part for a while. They utter their adieus, and the bridegroom says to His beloved, “You that dwell in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice: cause Me to hear it.” In other words—when I am far away from you, fill this garden with My name, and let your heart commune with Me. She promptly replies, and it is her last word till He comes, “Make haste, my beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.”
These farewell words of the Well-beloved are very precious to His chosen bride. Last words are always noticed. The last words of those who loved us dearly are much valued. The last words of one who loved us to the death are worthy of a deathless memory. The last words of the Lord in this canticle remind me of the commission which the Master gave to His disciples, right before He was taken up, when He said to them, “Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Then, scattering benedictions with both His hands, He ascended into glory, and “a cloud received Him out of their sight.” As the sermon progresses, you will see why I say this, and you will detect a striking likeness between the commission connected with the ascension and the present adieu, in which the spiritual Solomon says to His espoused Solyma, “You that dwell in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice: cause Me to hear it.”
I. An Appointed Residence
We will get to our text at once, without further preface, and we notice in it, first of all, an Appointed Residence. The bridegroom, speaking of His bride, says, “You that dwell in the gardens.” The Hebrew is in the feminine, and therefore we are bound to regard it as the word of the bridegroom to His bride. It is the mystical word of the church’s Lord to His elect one. He calls her “Inhabitress of the gardens”—that is the word. So then, dear friends, we who make up the church of God are here addressed this morning under that term, “You that inhabit the gardens.”
This title is given to believers here on earth, first, by way of distinction—distinction from the Lord Himself. He whom we love dwells in the ivory palaces, in which they make Him glad. He is gone up to His Father’s throne, and has left these gardens down below. He came down awhile that He might look upon His garden, that He might see how the vines flourished, and gather lilies. But He has now returned to His Father and our Father. He watered the soil of His garden with His bloody sweat in Gethsemane, and made it to bear fruit unto life by being Himself laid to sleep in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, but all this lowly work is now over. He does not dwell in the gardens as to His corporeal presence. His dwelling place is on the throne. Jesus has not taken us up with Him. He will come another time to do that, but now He leaves us among the seeds and flowers and growing plants to do the King’s work until He comes.
He was a visitor here, and the visit cost Him dearly, but He has gone back unto the place from where He came out, having finished the work which His Father gave Him. Our lifework is not finished, and therefore we must tarry a while below, and be known as inhabitants of the gardens. It is expedient that we should be here, even as it is expedient that He should not be here. God’s glory is to come of our sojourn here, or else He would have taken us away long ago. He said to His Father, “I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil.” He Himself is an inhabitant of the palaces, for there He best accomplishes the eternal purposes of love. But His church is the inhabitress of the gardens, for there she best fulfills the decrees of the Most High. Here she must abide awhile until all the will of the Lord shall be accomplished in her and by her, and then she also shall be taken up, and shall dwell with her Lord above.
the title is given by way of distinction, and marks the difference between her condition and that of her Lord. Next, it is given by way of enjoyment. She dwells in the gardens, which are places of delight. Once you and I pined in the wilderness, and sighed after God from a barren land. We trusted in man, and made flesh our arm, and then we were like the heath in the desert which sees not when good comes. All around us was the wilderness of this world, a howling wilderness of danger, and need, and disorder. We said of the world at its very best, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Do you remember how you roamed, seeking rest and finding none? Your way was the path of darkness which leads to death. Then you were poor and needy, and sought water, and there was none, and your tongue cleaved unto the roof of your mouth for thirst.
Then came the Lord that bought you, and He sought you until He brought you into the gardens of His love, where He satisfied you with the river of the water of life, and filled you with the fruits of His Spirit, and now you dwell in a goodly land. “The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.” Your portion is with the Lord’s saints, yes, with Himself. And what can be a better portion? Is it not as the garden of the Lord? You dwell where the great Husbandman spends His care upon you and takes a pleasure in you. You dwell where the infinite skill and tenderness and wisdom of God manifest themselves in the training of the plants which His own right hand has planted. You dwell in the church of God, which is laid out in due order, and hedged about and guarded by heavenly power. And you are, therefore, most fitly said to dwell in the gardens. Be thankful. It is a place of enjoyment for you. Awake and sing, for the lines have fallen unto you in pleasant places.
Just as Adam was put into the garden of Eden for his own happiness, so are you put into the garden of the church for your comfort. It is not a perfect paradise of bliss, but it has many points of likeness to paradise, for God Himself walks there, the river of God waters it, and the tree of life is there unguarded by the flaming sword. Is it not written, “I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day”? See, beloved, although you are distinguished from your Lord by being here while He is there, yet you are made partakers of His joy, and are not as those who are banished into a salt land to die in desolation.
The Lord’s joy is in His people, and you are made to have a joy in them also. The excellent of the earth, in whom is all your delight, are made to be the comrades of your sojourning. The title is also used by way of employment as well as enjoyment. Adam was not put in the garden that he might simply walk through its borders, admire its flowers, and taste its fruits, but he was placed there to keep it and to dress it. There was sufficient to be done to prevent his stagnating from lack of occupation. He had not to toil sufficiently to make him wipe the sweat from his brow, for that came of the curse, “In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread,” but still he was not permitted to be idle, for that might have been a worse curse. Even for a perfect man, unbroken leisure would not be a blessing. It is essential even to an unfallen creature that he should have work to do—fit work and honorable, seeing it is done by a creature for the great Benefactor who had created him.
If we had not our daily tasks to fulfill, rest would corrode into rust, and recreation would soon gender corruption. You and I are set in the garden of the church because there is work for us to do which will be beneficial to others and to ourselves also. Some have to take the broad axe and hew down mighty trees of error. Others of a feebler sort can with a child’s hand train the tendril of a climbing plant, or drop into its place a tiny seed. One may plant and another may water, one may sow and another gather fruit. One may cut up weeds and another prune vines. God has work in His church for us all to do, and He has left us here that we may do it. Our Lord Jesus would not keep a single saint out of heaven if there were not a necessity for his being here in the lowlands, to trim these gardens of herbs, and watch these beds of spices.
A schoolbook with which to teach the little children may be for a while more to our true advantage than a golden harp. To turn over the pages of Scripture with which to instruct the people of God may be more profitable to us than to hear the song of seraphim. I say, the Master’s love to His own which prompted Him to pray, “I will that they also whom You have given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory,” would long ago have drawn all the blood-bought up to Himself above, had it not been the fact that it is in infinite wisdom seen to be better that they should abide in the flesh. You are the lights of the world; you are the salt of the earth. Shall the light and the salt be at once withdrawn? You are to be as dew from the Lord in this dry and thirsty land. Would you be at once exhaled?
Brothers, have you found out what you have to do in these gardens? Sisters, have you found out the plants for which you are to care? If not, awaken yourselves and let not a moment pass till you have discovered your duty and your place. Speak unto Him who is the Lord of all true servants, and say to Him, “Show me what You would have me do. Point out, I pray You, the place in which I may serve You.” Would you have it said of you that you were a wicked and slothful servant? Shall it be told that you dwelt in the gardens, and allowed the grass to grow up to your ankles, and suffered the thorns and the thistles to multiply until your land became as the sluggard’s vineyard, pointed at as a disgrace and a warning to all that passed by? “O you that dwell in the gardens!” The title sets forth constant and engrossing employment.
Dear friends, it means also eminence. I know many Christian people who do not feel that they dwell in the gardens. They reside in a certain town or village where the gospel may be preached, but not in demonstration of the Spirit and in power. A little gospel is made to go a long way with some preachers. In some ministries there is no life or power, no anointing or savor. The people who meet under such preaching are cold of heart and dull in spirit. The prayer meetings are forgotten, communion of saints has well-near died out, and there is a general deadness as to Christian effort. Believe me, it is a dreadful thing when Christian people have almost to dread their Sabbath days, and I have known this to be the case. When you are called to hard toil through the six days of the week you need a good spiritual meal on the Sabbath, and if you get it, you find a blessed compensation and refreshment.
Is it not a heavenly joy to sit still on the one day of rest, and to be fed with the finest of the wheat? I have known men made capable of bearing great trials—personal, relative, pecuniary and the like—because they have looked backward upon one Sabbatic feast, and then forward to another. They have said in their hour of trouble—“ Patience, my heart. The Lord’s Day is coming, when I shall drink and forget my misery. I shall go and sit with God’s people, and I shall have fellowship with the Father and with the Son. And my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, till I praise the Lord with joyful lips.”
But what a sorry case to dread Sunday and to mutter, “I shall get nothing next Sunday any more than I did last Sunday except some dry philosophical essay, or a heap of the childish toys and fireworks of oratory, or the same dull mumbling of a mechanical orthodoxy.” Oh, brothers and sisters, my text is scarcely meant for those who dwell in such deserts, but it speaks with emphasis to those who dwell where sweet spiritual fruits are plentiful, where aromas and perfumes load the air, where the land flows with milk and honey. If any of you happen to dwell where Christ is set forth evidently crucified among you, and where your hearts leap for very joy because the King Himself comes near to feast His saints and make them glad in His presence, then it is to you that my text has a voice and a call, “You that dwell in the gardens, in the choicest places of all Immanuel’s land, let Me hear your voice.”
II. Recorded Conversation
Yet one more word. The title here employed is not only for eminence but for permanence, “O you that dwell in the gardens.” If you are only permitted to enjoy sound gospel teaching now and again, and then are forced to cry, “It may be another 12 months before I shall be again fed on royal dainties.” Then you are in a trying case, and you need to cry to God for help. But blessed are those who dwell in the good land, and daily fill their homers with heavenly manna. “Blessed are they that dwell in Your house: they will be still praising You.” No spot on earth is as dear to the Christian as that whereon he meets His Lord. I can understand why the Jew asked of a certain town that was recommended to him as good for business, “Is there a synagogue there?” Being a devout man, and finding that there was no synagogue, he said he would rather remain where trade was dull, but where he could go with his brethren to worship. Is it not so with us?
How my heart has longed for these blessed assemblies! Give me a crust and a full gospel rather than all riches and a barren ministry. The profitable hearing of the word of God is the greatest enjoyment upon earth to godly men. It would be banishment to go where every week’s business turned into a mint of money if one were also compelled to be a member of an unhappy, quarrelsome, or inactive church. Our greatest joy is in you, O Jerusalem! Let our tongue cleave to the roof of our mouth if we prefer you not above our greatest joy!
“How charming is the place Where my Redeemer God Unveils the beauties of His face, And sheds His love abroad!
Not the fair palaces, To which the great resort, Are once to be compared with this, Where Jesus holds His court.”
Beloved, if you dwell in the gardens you have a double privilege, not only of being found in a fat and fertile place, but in living there continually. You might well forego a thousand comforts for the sake of this one delight, for under the gospel your soul is made to drink of wines on the lees well refined. This, then, is my first head—appointed residence—“You that dwell in the gardens.” Is not this a choice abode for the Lord’s beloved? I leave you to judge how far this describes yourselves. If it is your case, then listen to what the Bridegroom has to say to you.
III. Invited Fellowship
Secondly, let us note the Recorded Conversation—“You that dwell in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice.” She was in the gardens, but she was not quiet there, and why should she be? God gives us tongues on purpose that they should be used. As He made birds to sing, and stars to shine, and rivers to flow, so has He made men and women to converse with one another to His glory. Our tongue is the glory of our frame, and there would be no glory in its being forever dumb. The monks of La Trappe, who maintain perpetual silence, do no more than the rocks among which they labor. When God makes bells He means to ring them. It may be thought to be a desirable thing that some should speak less, but it is still more desirable that they should speak better.
When the tongue indites a good matter, it is no fault if it is nimble as the pen of a ready writer. It is not the quantity, it is the quality of what we say that ought to be considered. Now, observe that evidently the spouse held frequent conversations with her companions—“The companions hearken to your voice.” She frequently conversed with them. I hope it is so among those of you who dwell in this part of Christ’s garden. It should be so, “Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another,” they had not now and then a crack, now and then the passing of the time of day, but they held frequent fellowship.
Heaven will consist largely in the communion of saints, and if we would enjoy heaven below we must carry out the words of the creed in our practice—“I believe in the communion of saints.” Let us show that we believe in it. Some persons sit still in their pews till the time to go, and then walk down the aisle in majestic isolation, as if they were animated statues. Do children thus come in and out of their father’s house with never a word for their brothers and sisters? I know professors who float through life like icebergs from whom it is safest to keep clear, surely these partake not of the spirit of Christ. It is well when such icebergs are drawn into the gulf stream of divine love and melt away into Christ and His people. There should be among those who are children of the common Father a mutual love, and they should show this by frequent commerce in their precious things, making a sacred barter with one another.
I like to hear them making sacred exchanges, one mentioning his trials, another quoting his deliverances, one telling how God has answered prayer, and another recording how the Word of God has come to him with power. Such conversation ought to be as usual as the talk of children of one family. And next, it should be willing and influential, for if you notice, it is put here, “You that dwell in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice.” They do not merely hear it, and say to themselves, “I wish she would be quiet,” but they listen, they lend an ear, and they listen gladly. I know some Christians whose lips feed many. I could mention brothers and sisters who drop pearls from their lips whenever they speak. We still have among us Chrysostoms, or men of golden mouths. You cannot be with them for half an hour without being enriched. Their anointing is manifest, for it spreads to all around them. When the Spirit of God makes our communications sweet, then the more of them the better.
I like to get sometimes under the shadow of God’s best people, the fathers in Israel, and to hear what they have to say to the honor of the name of the Lord. We who are young men feel gladdened by the testimonies of the ancients. And as for the babes in grace, they look up to the gray-beards and gather strength from their words of experience and grace. If there are any here whose language is such that others delight to listen to it, it is to such that my text is especially addressed, and when I come to open up the later part of it I want you that have the honeyed tongues. I want you who are listened to with pleasure, to notice how the Beloved says to you, “The companions hearken to your voice: cause Me to hear it.” Give your Lord a share of your sweet utterances.
Let your Savior’s ears be charmed as well as your companion’s ears. Come, speak to Him as well as to your brethren, and if there is music in your voice let that music be for the Well-beloved as well as for your fellow servants. This is the very heart of the matter. I cannot help alluding to it even before we have fairly reached that part of the text. The conversation of the bride in the gardens was constant, and it was greatly esteemed by those who enjoyed it.
IV. Requested Testimony
I gather from the text, rather by implication than otherwise, that the conversation was commendable, for the bridegroom does not say to the spouse, “You that dwell in the gardens, your companions hear too much of your voice.” No. He evidently mentions the fact with approval, because He draws an argument from it why He should also hear that same voice. Brothers and sisters, I leave it to yourselves to judge whether your communications with one another are always such as they should be. Are they always worthy of you? What communications have you had this morning? Can I make a guess? “Nice and fresh this morning.” “Quite a change in the weather.” Is not this the style? How often we instruct each other about what we already know! When it rains so as to soak our garments, we gravely tell each other that it is very wet. Yes, and if the sun shines, we are all eager to communicate the wonderful information that it is warm.
Dear me, what instructors of our generation we are! Could we not contrive to change the subject? Is it because we have nothing to say of love, grace, and truth that we meet and part without learning or teaching anything? Perhaps so. I wish we had a little more small change of heavenly conversation—we have our crowns and sovereigns for the pulpit, we need silver and pence for common talk, all stamped with the image and superscription of the King of heaven. O Holy Spirit, enrich us after this sort. May our communications be such that if Jesus were near we might not be ashamed for Him to hear our voices.
Brethren, make your conversation such that it may be commended by Christ Himself. These conversations were no doubt, very beneficial. As iron sharpens iron, so does a man’s countenance his friend. Oh, what a comfort it is to drop in upon a cheerful person when you yourself are heavy! What a ballast it puts into your ship, when you are a little too merry, to meet with one in sore travail who bids you share his burden and emulate his faith. We are all the better, believe me, when our Lord can praise us because our companions listen to our voices. In fact, our communications with one another ought to be preparatory to still higher communications.
The conversation of saints on earth should be a rehearsal of their everlasting communion in heaven. We should begin here to be to one another what we hope to be to one another world without end. And is it not pleasant to rise from communion with your brethren into communion with the Bridegroom?—to have such talk with one another that at last we perceive that truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ? We thought that we only communed with our brethren, but lo! We see that the Lord Himself is here. Do not our hearts burn within us? We two are talking of Him and now we see that He Himself is here, opening to us the Scriptures, and opening our hearts to receive those Scriptures in the power of them.
Beloved, let us try if we cannot make it so, that as we dwell together as church members, and work together in one common vineyard, we may be always making our fellowship with each other a grand staircase of fellowship with the King Himself. Let us so talk that we may expect to meet Jesus while we are talking. How sweet to hear and see the Master in the servant, the Bridegroom in the bridegroom’s friend, the Head in the members, the Shepherd in the sheep, the Christ in every Christian!
Thus may we rise upon the wings of hallowed communion with holy ones to yet more hallowed communion with the Holy One of Israel. Thus have we meditated upon two things, we have noted the appointed residence and the recorded conversation. We know what we are talking about.
May God bless you as long as you dwell in these gardens, till the day breaks and the shadows flee away. Amen.