the believer now prays that Jesus may enter there and enjoy the fruits of holiness. Thus, in the Gitagovinda, the lovely Kadha is in like manner invited to enter the garden or the embraces of her beloved: "Enter, sweet Kadha, the bower graced with a bed of asoca-leaves, the bower illumined with gay blossoms, the bower made cool and fragrant by gales from the woods of Malaya." "Pleasant fruits," or fruits of pleasantness, as in ver. 13, means all that are most delicious of fruits. The fruits of the garden are the products of the garden; and the fruits enjoyed by Jesus in the believing soul are those virtues which are there developed by the Holy Spirit; and the text means that our Lord should enjoy them as really as we enjoy the most delicious fruits by eating. Well would it be for us, could we feel that the garden-spot of Jesus in the whole universe, is the heart of the saint; and the graces of the soul are to him a source of more exquisite pleasure than to us are the most

With finest meal sweet paste the women make,
Oil, flowers, and honey mingling in the cake:
Earth and the air afford a large supply

Of animals that creep, and birds that fly.

Green bow'rs are built with dill sweet-smelling crown'd,
And little Cupids hover all around;

And as young nightingales their wings essay,

Skip here and there, and hop from spray to spray,
What heaps of golden vessels glittering bright!
What stores of ebon black, and ivory white!
In ivory carved large eagles seem to move,
And through the clouds bear Ganymede to Jove."
—Idyl xv. 109.

precious fruits of the choicest garden. How valuable would we then feel those graces to be, and with what care would we cherish and cultivate them for this blessed friend, not for self-gratulation or self-interest, not for the applause of the world, but for the approbation and love of our Lord.

CHAPTER V.

VER. 1.-I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

THIS verse shows how promptly the prayer in the foregoing verse was answered. It is the eighth reason for meeting Jesus in prayer with preparation of the heart; because he will then come into the soul by his Holy Spirit, and bring around us a host of angels rejoicing to be our guard. When the heart is thus prepared, and anxiously desires the presence of Christ, "It shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear." Isa. lxv. 24. The fact of the existence of such desires for him, is evidence of his being with us; as in this passage, in immediate connection with the request, he adds, "I have already come, &c." He was present in the heart, though his presence was not felt; as "when Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not;" and when

Jesus was present in the garden with Mary, and she knew it not. John xx. 14.

In the East, banquets are sometimes held in gardens; as Egmont and Heyman, when at the convent of Sinai, dined under the trees of the garden, with a number of the inmates, on one of their festival days. The ancients were in the habit of wearing chaplets of flowers on their heads at feasts. Thus in the book of Wisdom: "Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments; and let no flower of the spring pass by us. Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds before they be withered." Chap. ii. 7. And in the Arabian Nights, a person is represented at Bagdad as buying myrtles, lilies, jessamine, and other fragrant flowers and plants, along with meat, wine, and fruit, as preparations for a repast. Milk and honey still form a luscious and common banquet among many Asiatic nations. Milk is mingled with wine for cooling the latter. Jael gave Sisera, when thirsty, milk to drink instead of water, as preferable; and Clemens Alexandrinus says, wine and milk is a very healthful and profitable mixture. Tibullus mentions "bowls of snow-white milk, mixed with wine." The words "my honey-comb with my honey," are possibly intended to express both the wild honey that was found dropping from trees, and that which was eaten in the comb and was consequently the most delicious. Gen. xliii. 11. In India, says Mr. Roberts, "the forests literally flow with honey; large combs may be seen hanging on the trees, as you pass along, full of honey." The same seems to have been the case formerly in Palestine. Here the beloved

found the best honey in perfection, and both kinds, liquid and in the comb.*

The meaning of this verse, therefore, is, that the Lord Jesus comes into the heart prepared for him and desiring him, and draws from the enjoyment of the virtues blooming there, a pleasure that can be best illustrated to man by saying, it is like, in richness and exquisiteness, to the delight had in dwelling amid the fragrance, and feasting on the delicious fruits, of an oriental garden. The willingness of Jesus to answer prayer is set forth in many places of the Scriptures, but nowhere in language more encouraging than this. The idea is the same, and in expressions equally figurative, though not so much amplified as here, in John xiv. 23, "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him;" and in Rev. iii. 20, “I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Unbelief, blunting the spiritual apprehension of the soul, keeps us from feeling the power of these passages, and gathering from them due consolation. And in the same tone are the words, "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit." Isa. lvii. 15. God is indeed everywhere present, but he is said to dwell in the places where his presence is

now.

* "Honey was of far more importance formerly than it is There was no sugar, and honey had to supply its place, besides being eaten in its primary state. Vast quantities of it must, therefore, have been consumed; and the importance assigned to it in Scripture becomes intelligible."-Kitto.

manifested in brighter displays of his glory. Size of place, greatness of extent or space, is not requisite for a habitation for him. In comparison with him the grandest world and the most obscure retreat, the most widely extended garden and the contracted limits of the human soul, are equally mere spots; in his sight, the dimensions of the temple on mount Moriah, and of the heart which is a temple for the habitation of God through the Spirit, are marked by no difference worthy of notice. Of all other places, the redeemed soul was especially created for a shrine in which may shine forth the divine glory; and hence, when that glory is thus manifested in the heart, there God is said to dwell. The idea of a banquet and of feasting on the most delicious fruits, as in this verse, is added for illustrating to our comprehension the exceedingly great delight Jesus has in dwelling in such soul and enjoying its graces of holiness, thankfulness, and praise: as we say of the society of a cherished friend, his company was a feast, so the same mode of expression is used here. Even this delight does he take in answering the prayer of his people and manifesting his presence in their soul, when they have sought the preparation of the heart, and are awaiting him in humble faith. And when by his Holy Spirit thus bringing us into union with him by pervading and enlivening our affections, we feel his presence, how truly may he be said to be feeding on the fruits of this spiritual garden; and how deep our tranquil, heavenly enjoyment.

66

"Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O