(Song 2:8-17.)
Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills" (ver. 8). This was as the first rays of light concerning the second coming of the Lord a few years ago. In it we found a key that opened up the bright future for a redeemed people; a key that opened up the prophetic word-yes, the Bible as a whole, and put in one's hand a new Book.
A few years passed away and this blessed hope drew still nearer:" Behold he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice " (ver. 9). Did not these words suggest how much nearer the great event had drawn? "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh." The hills and the mountains are behind, and He is at the door. How very near ! This is how things appear in the soul's experience. The heart is waiting, and the heart has no dates. It waits for its object, and finds its delight in the fact that each day brings it so much nearer. He is at the door; nothing more is needed but to hear His voice, and the joy of that blessed hope will be complete.
" My beloved spoke and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away " (ver. 10). The climax has come, the hope is reached. It is what we have waited for. It is the blessed hope made good-the completion of both His joy and our own. This will be for us, i Thess. 4:13-18; for Israel, Zech. 14; for the groaning creation, Rom. 8:19-25.
How soon this now may be fulfilled none can say, but all who live in spiritual exercise are aware that it must be very, very near. For us it will be as the morning star, appearing ; ' for Israel and the nations it will be the sunrise.
"Lo", the winter is past . . . the time of singing is come" (vers. 11-14) The change has come. The past, with all the chill and dreary hours we met with in our journey through the world, is gone, and gone forever. The cold blasts of winter have given place to the bright golden summer; a new life wakes up as life out of death, and the new scene puts on its fresh and beautiful colors. Singing is heard everywhere. The song of a people brought out of darkness into light, from death to life, and who know redemption by the blood of Jesus, fills the balmy air of this fair and eternal summer.
In the meantime, until all comes to pass, we are to be, as He desires us, watchful, careful, and devoted, "until the day break and the shadows flee away " (vers. 15-17) A. E. B.