New Park Street Pulpit · Sermon No. 338
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, September 30, 1860, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, at Exeter Hall, Strand
“O You whom my soul loves.” Song of Solomon 1:7. IF the life of a Christian may be compared to a sacrifice, then humility digs the foundation for the altar; prayer brings the unhewn stones and piles them, one upon the other; penitence fills the trench round about the altar with water; obedience lays the wood in order—faithpleads the Jehovah-Jireh, and places the victim upon the altar. But the sacrifice, even then, is incomplete, for where is the fire? Love, love alone, can consummate the sacrifice by supplying the necessary fire from Heaven. Whatever we lack in our piety, as it is indispensable that we should have faith in Christ, so is it absolutely necessary that we should have love to Him. That heart which is devoid of an earnest love to Jesus is surely still dead in trespasses and sins. And if any man should venture to affirm that he had faith in Christ, but had no love to Him, we would at once also venture to affirm as positively that his religion was vain! Perhaps the great need of the religion of the times is love. Sometimes, as I look upon the world at large, and the Church which lies too much in its bosom, I am apt to think that the Church has light, but lacks fire. She has some degree of true faith, clear knowledge, and much besides which is precious, but she lacks to a great extent that flaming love with which she once, as a chaste virgin, walked with Christ through the fires of martyrdom; when she showed to Him her undefiled, unquenchable love in the catacombs of the city and the caves of the rocks—when the snows of the Alps might testify to the virgin purity of the love of the saints by the purple stain which marked the shedding of blood in defense of our bleeding Lord—blood which had been shed in defense of Him whom, though they had not seen His face, “unceasingly they adored.”
It is my pleasant task this morning to stir up your pure minds, that you, as part of Christ’s Church, may feel somewhat in your hearts today of love to Him, and may be able to address Him not only under the title, “You in whom my soul trusts,” but, “You whom my soul loves.” Last Sabbath, if you remember, we devoted to simple faith and tried to
preach the Gospel to the ungodly. [Sermon #336, Volume —STRUGGLES OF CONSCIENCE—] The present hour we devote to the pure, Spirit-born, godlike, flame of love.
On looking at my text, I shall come to regard it thus. First, we shall listen to the rhetoric of thelipsas we here read it in these words, “O You whom my soul loves.” We shall then observe the logic of the heart, which would justify us in giving such a title as this to Christ. I will then come, in the third place, to something which even surpasses rhetoric or logic—the absolute demonstration of the daily life;And I pray that we may be able to constantly prove by our acts that Jesus Christ is He whom our soul loves.
I. First, then, the loving title of our text is to be considered as expressing RHETORIC OF THE LIPS. The text calls Christ, “You whom my soul loves.” Let us take this title and dissect it a little.
One of the first things which will strike us when we come to look upon it is the reality of the love which is here expressed. Reality, I say—understanding the term, “real,” not in contradistinction to that which is lying and fictitious—but in contrast to that which is shadowy and indistinct. Do you not notice that the spouse here speaks of Christ as One whom she knew actually to exist? Not as an abstraction, but as a Person. She speaks of Him as a real Person, ” Youwhom my soul loves.” Why, these seem to be the words of one who is pressing Him to her bosom, who sees Him with her eyes, who tracks Him with her feet, who knows that He is, and that He will reward the love which diligently seeks Him. Brothers and Sisters, there is often a great deficiency in our love to Jesus. We do not realize the Person of Christ. We think about Christ, and then we love the conception that we have formed of Him. But O, how few Christians view their Lord as being as real a Person as we are ourselves—very Man—a Man who could suffer, a Man who could die, substantial flesh and blood—very God as real as if He were not invisible, and as truly existent as though we could compass Him in our minds. We need to have a real Christ more fully preached and more fully loved by the Church. We fail in our love because Christ is not real to us as He was to the early Church. The early Church did not preach much Doctrine; they preached Christ. They had little to say of truths about Christ; it was Christ Himself—His hands, His feet, His side, His eyes, His head, His crown of thorns, the sponge, the vinegar, the nails. O for the Christ of Mary Magdalene—rather than the Christ of the critical theologian! Give me the wounded body of Divinity, rather than the most sound system of theology! Let me show you what I mean.