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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Friday, May 1, 2009
MORNING:
"His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers."
-- Song of Solomon 5:13
Lo, the flowery month is come! March winds and April showers have done
their work, and the earth is all bedecked with beauty. Come my soul,
put on thine holiday attire and go forth to gather garlands of heavenly
thoughts. Thou knowest whither to betake thyself, for to thee "the beds
of spices" are well known, and thou hast so often smelt the perfume of
"the sweet flowers," that thou wilt go at once to thy well-beloved and
find all loveliness, all joy in him. That cheek once so rudely smitten
with a rod, oft bedewed with tears of sympathy and then defiled with
spittle-that cheek as it smiles with mercy is as fragrant aromatic to
my heart. Thou didst not hide thy face from shame and spitting, O Lord
Jesus, and therefore I will find my dearest delight in praising thee.
Those cheeks were furrowed by the plough of grief, and crimsoned with
red lines of blood from thy thorn-crowned temples; such marks of love
unbounded cannot but charm my soul far more than "pillars of perfume."
If I may not see the whole of his face I would behold his cheeks, for
the least glimpse of him is exceedingly refreshing to my spiritual
sense and yields a variety of delights. In Jesus I find not only
fragrance, but a bed of spices; not one flower, but all manner of sweet
flowers. He is to me my rose and my lily, my heart's- ease and my
cluster of camphire. When he is with me it is May all the year round,
and my soul goes forth to wash her happy face in the morning-dew of his
grace, and to solace herself with the singing of the birds of his
promises. Precious Lord Jesus, let me in very deed know the blessedness
which dwells in abiding, unbroken fellowship with thee. I am a poor
worthless one, whose cheek thou hast deigned to kiss! O let me kiss
thee in return with the kisses of my lips.
EVENING:
"I am the rose of Sharon."
-- Song of Solomon 2:1
Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ
possesses all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold degree. Amongst
flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more
beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens
of earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand.
He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day
are dark in comparison with him, for the King in his beauty transcends
all. "I am the rose of Sharon." This was the best and rarest of roses.
Jesus is not "the rose" alone, he is "the rose of Sharon," just as he
calls his righteousness "gold," and then adds, "the gold of Ophir"-the
best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the
loveliest. There is variety in his charms. The rose is delightful to
the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the
senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing,
the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification in
Jesus. Even the recollection of his love is sweet. Take the rose of
Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by the leaves in the jar of
memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling
the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most
educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is
quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her
highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ,
nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate him. Heaven itself
possesses nothing which excels the rose of Sharon. What emblem can
fully set forth his beauty? Human speech and earth-born things fail to
tell of him. Earth's choicest charms commingled, feebly picture his
abounding preciousness. Blessed rose, bloom in my heart for ever!
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