THE Bride has been brought into the chambers ―she has gone out to the royal encampment ―she has been adorned with beauteous ornaments beseeming her princely rank, and now she appears at the banquet, where the King is sitting in the circle of His guests. “While the King sitteth at His table, my spikenard sendeth, forth the smell thereof” (Song of Solomon, 1:12).
The King’s table represents public fellowship, as the King’s chamber represents private communion. When Jesus was born King of the Jews, the wise men came and presented Him with their treasures; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. When Christ was sitting at His table in the upper room, where He instituted the remembrance feast with His disciples, there was no doubt blissful enjoyment and the drawing forth of the fragrance of the grace which He had imparted, but it was chiefly after He had sat down at His table above, anointed with the oil of gladness, and had shed down the Holy Ghost on His disciples, that they had the fragrance of the graces imparted by the Holy Ghost drawn forth in communion with Himself at His banquet of heavenly love. The thought which this subject suggests is this, that when Christ himself is filling our hearts and feasting our souls on Himself, so that He absorbs our attention and engages our affections, our graces are all in movement, and we have such a supply of “the spirit of Jesus Christ,” that the odor of the ointment fills the house, so that men can take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.
There are many illustrations of this in the Holy Scriptures. Abraham had such a sight of Christ’s day, and so lived at His table by faith, that he could allow Lot to choose the well-watered plains of Jordan; Moses could renounce the pleasures of sin for the presence of Him who dwelt in the bush, and leave Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; David could live the life of an exile and spare Saul, even when he was in his power, because he could sing, “The Lord is my shepherd―Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over;” Peter was with Him at the table when he said, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee;” and the spikenard of the disciples filled all Jerusalem with its fragrance when the Spirit descended on them at Pentecost, and they were so manifestly enjoying communion with the exalted Lord of glory, that the Jewish Sanhedrim were so much offended at the fragrance that it is said they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus; while the proto-martyr Stephen, praying for his murderers, let forth a fragrance that told unmistakably of intimate communion with his exalted Lord who had prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;” and Paul, in his life of self-sacrifice and devoted service, let out the spikenard fragrance when he said, “The love of Christ constraineth us: for me to live is Christ.” The King sitting at His table so occupied his thoughts and affections, that he was a sweet savor of Christ in all his ways wherever he went, pleasing not himself but pleasing all men for their good unto edification, and aiming that Christ should be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death. As a natural man he was no doubt self-asserting, proud, ambitious, and looking to outstrip all his compeers; but by the Spirit of Christ he was quickened; new life in association with the risen and glorified Christ was imparted, and the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” shed around him its spikenard fragrance. He could be the last and the least in the lowly path of service, enjoining forbearance with the weak, and avoiding all cause of offense even against the scruples of a factitious conscience, while he would love the saints the more the less he was loved. In preaching and teaching; in suffering and in service; in his missionary zeal for souls; and his care of all the churches, as well as in worship or letter writing from his Roman prisons, he was ever in heart-absorbing fellowship with the King at His table. Because his communion Christ-ward was a continual feast, he could let the spikenard of a continual fast manward tell how entirely he was occupied with Christ. He might say truly, “Out of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.”
This spikenard, then, sending forth its odors when the King sitteth at His table, represents to us how the graces of the Spirit will flow forth from the saints when they are consciously in the repose of faith enjoying Christ Himself.
All true service, as all true worship, must be the overflow of the heart which is feasting with the Lord in happy communion, while He sits at His own table. What a table is His! What has He not done to provide us with the rarest, richest, and costliest fare! “My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” All sorts of choice things, and in the greatest abundance, are there. He himself is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;―all according to the riches of His glory―all our need supplied according to His riches in glory; and there we have the best company; for “truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ:” and “all saints.” Christ being our all―our joy is full.
“The King” is always “at His table:” but sad it is that we are not always consciously with Him there. We should have all the fragrance of profound humility, were we always in His presence at the feast He makes. We are never taken up with ourselves when in the presence of those infinitely superior to ourselves—but we take our proper place of admiration and think of them. So is it with the saints of God when in happy fellowship with Christ. And when Mary of Bethany broke the alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and poured it on Jesus, the act so pleased Him that while the house was filled with the odor of the ointment, the act is so fragrant to Christ that He has secured that the perfume shall be felt in His house to the latest ages. “She hath done what she could,” said Jesus, and added, “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of, for a memorial of her.” We err if we think we have nothing to present to our Lord. Having the new life―the Holy Ghost―Christ in you―a heart fitted by His grace to appreciate the preciousness of Christ, by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit our hearts may be made to overflow, and in fullness of joy we may, like the Israelite presenting his basket of first-fruits, worship at the altar, offering by Christ the sacrifice of praise to God continually, and “do good and communicate,” knowing that “with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” We have received how we ought to walk and to please God (1 Thess. 4:11Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1)); and the kindness of the saints in sending once and again their gifts to Paul was “an odor of a sweet smell; a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God” (Philip. 4:18).
One writes beautifully on this point: “The heart never rises to the point of worship until it runs over. Then it has nothing to ask for. True worship is the overflowing of the heart. And oh! how sweet, how precious, how blessed it is! When the Holy Ghost ministers of the fullness of Jesus to our souls, how soon the heart runs over. And this overflowing of the heart with the fullness of Christ is true heavenly worship. To be in the presence-chamber of the Lord―the holiest of all―and to be feasting on the rich provisions of His table; what can we be but satisfied? What can we do but praise, admire, adore, love, and worship? The bride has now reached the highest place of blessedness. She is peacefully enjoying the presence of the King, while He is reclining at His table. The activities of service have given place to the repose of worship. The burning sun, the persecution, the poverty, the sorrow, are all forgotten in the fullness of that joy which His presence gives. And now the box is broken, the spikenard flows, the fragrance fills the house, the head and the feet of Jesus are anointed, and the heart is ravished with the advances of her love.”
We are introduced to Christ as at His table, when we see Him incarnate with His disciples as at that supper which he desired to eat with them before He suffered, and when He said, “I appoint unto you a kingdom as My Father hath appointed Me, that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” When we sit with Him at the feast of love which he makes for us in His house, enjoying communion with Himself and with His saints, as at His own table on the glorious resurrection day,―what a feast is it to be led by the Holy Ghost into the, knowledge of Himself in His original glory as the Divine Son, His moral glory as the Revealer of the Father’s name, and Redeemer of men, the Man full of grace and truth, in whom God delighted, when made flesh and dwelling amongst us; in His present glory, as crowned with glory and honor, and seated as Head of His body, and we united with Him there as glorified, and having the Holy Ghost in His measureless fullness baptizing us all into the great vessel of power and love, grace and glory―His body; which shall be displayed with Him when He comes in His glory to enter upon the inheritance of all things, as the heaven-appointed Heir, Head, and Lord; and to know that ere long the heavenly courts shall reecho the voice from the throne, “as the voice of many waters” ― “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. Blessed are they that are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb.” What a feast it is to look onward to being the Lamb’s wife, and being surrounded by those called ones and all the holy hosts of heaven (Rev. 5.): and being with Christ as the golden city of which He will be the light and glory, when from it, as His center, He will administer the kingdom in the world to come, and be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe. No wonder that Paul had great conflict for the saints, that their hearts might be knit together in love to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, for it is only when the saints are kept up to the highest point of their blessing in Christ, according to the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that they are safe from the seducings of Satan, and the enticings and beguilings of men; and having communion with Christ, according to the fullest revelation, are enabled to give forth the precious spikenard savor, according to the Holy Spirit’s composition, which contains all the ingredients of the latest revelation, “as the truth is in Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of God.”
The apostle Paul wrote, “Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ; and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ.” But can Christians be “a sweet savor of Christ,” if they do not know “the Christ of God”? Can they give off the true aroma of Christ unless they know “the mystery of the Christ,” as Paul revealed it? What is the condition of the majority of saints? Are there not many groaning in bondage because they have not yet obtained deliverance through Christ? (Rom. 7.)
And even among those who are delivered, do not the majority occupy themselves with themselves? and is not the aroma they give chiefly that which savors of personal advantage, rather than of the heart filled with Christ? They have had a happy escape from the flaming sword of justice―they have been so happy since they believed in Christ; they have had such enjoyment in serving the Lord, and trying to get sinners saved: and they don’t waste their time inquiring into mysteries―the Church may be composed of all saints, from Abel on to the great white throne, or only of the baptized election of the present parenthesis―the great thing is to make sure of being of it―lead a good and holy life, and get sinners saved, and as for dispensational truth, Church truth, kingdom glories, and the Lord’s coming, whether it be pre-millennial or post-millennial, they will not trouble themselves; they will leave all these mysteries in the Lord’s hands, and they will give themselves to gospel work and presentation of that truth which will not make any disturbance among Christians, only being up to the standard measure of a broken-down Christendom; and thus they will ensure tranquility and peace, ease and comfort to themselves, and thus be able to make “a fair show in the flesh” of having a great amount of work, even though it should turn out to be mostly “wood, hay, and stubble,” when “the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” Beloved saints are not aware how all this smells offensively of self, and that it is not faith “that will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
The Christianity of the multitude is the heresy of Hymenæus and Philetus in its full-grown manifestation: “Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some.” If the resurrection were past as to our witness on earth with our being “risen with Christ” as to our souls, then we need no longer stand, walk, work, and witness by faith, and set our affection on things above, and acknowledge the mystery of a called-out and heavenly body baptized into living association with a rejected Christ, as far as earth is concerned, and a glorified Christ, who has been claimed and seated by the Father in the heavenly glory.
Those who do not enter into the great truths connected with “the mystery of Christ,” as revealed in Ephesians and Colossians, cannot keep altogether free of the heresy of Hymenæus and Philetus; and instead of being entirely on the principle of faith, be of faith and sight, by turns, as the spoilings of philosophy, or the beguilings of superstition, may have place given them. “As ye therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught:” and what a different savor the Spikenard will give “while the King sitteth at His table,” compared with the savor when self is sitting at its table, and cutting and carving according to the best of its ability and wisdom. The true Christian spikenard is that which is composed according to the directions of the sanctuary, and which diffuses the savor of Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but which hath now been made manifest to the saints; Christ in you by the Holy Ghost on earth, you in Christ in heaven; you associated with Him as members of His body, as He is set down in the glory of God above; and He with you and in you in the power and grace of the Holy Ghost dwelling in His body the church below, making it a heavenly vessel of grace and power as it is connected with the Head in glory, and constituting it an answer to the place God has given Him at His right hand. Oh how little the servants of God have Paul’s agony for the saints, that they might have “all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the full knowledge of the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” How sad that even ministers of Christ now-a-days, instead of saying “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;” they now say, Beware lest any man communicate to you “the mystery of God!” How it throws the true servant who is in concert with the purpose of God into an agony for the saints, when they are not rising to the height of the position He gives them in Christ and by the Holy Ghost, and are not entering into the full knowledge of “the great mystery Christ and the Church,” for he knows that that is God’s means for giving them communion with His mind and heart in Christ, and preserving them from the evil currents of the age. And if we do not know it, it must be because of our misreading of “the word of Christ;” for it is fully revealed.
As another has well said, “In the present day there is very little apprehension of what the mystery of God is, and every allusion to the subject, or attempt to unfold it, is generally met by the repulse, ‘It is too high,’ showing at once that there is no true idea of the nature of the benefits which it confers, or of that true devotedness to Christ, which even in the youngest will never think anything too high which offers greater nearness to and association with Him. For such an one, even like John’s two disciples (John 1: 35-37), will naturally, as I may say, because simply devoted, have taste for the highest point. Though strangers, they say to Christ, ‘Where dwellest thou?’ They instinctively seek the place where He could be best known in the greatest intimacy; their hearts leaped onward to the point which only could satisfy them. Oh! for the true servant, the true energy, that the saints might be awakened to the counsel of God, and thus that there should be an acceptable offering for Christ out of that which is ripening for judgment! In conclusion, let me remark that the subject for prayer which the apostle specially commends to the saints, both in Ephesians and Colossians, is this mystery. The Lord give us all to see how responsible we are for maintaining the truth; how unsafe is our position otherwise, but in it how perfectly preserved we should be from the dire currents which are breaking in on every religious association, decoying souls into formalism or rationalism, and all bemuse they do not bold to the spot where they would be perfectly according to God’s mind, and perfectly safe and happy.”
How well the servant who was used as the revealer of the Christ of God in connection with the mystery answered in his character, life, and experience to the peculiar truths he communicated. How thoroughly he had been saturated in the mystery of Christ, and how fully his spikenard gave forth the smell thereof. He was molded by what he preached and taught, wholly absorbed with Christ and wholly dead to the world. His enfolding of the mystery and practically living it nit cost him the loss of all things―position, fiends, worldly prospects, comfort, ease―and as he went on, his course narrowed, and in his time sore trial “all men forsook me―no man stood with me,” he says. And again, “All they that be of Asia have turned away from me.”
And have not the professing Church turned away from Paul and his gospel? And so great is the apostasy from Paul that a man is no longer counted sound in the faith who stands by him and “the mystery of the gospel” as revealed by him. The New Testament curtain drops on Paul in prison, and the Church turned away from him; and this mournful picture is what we see still. The Pauline witness is the chief testimony for these days, but the world virtually gives such as stand up for it a “prison,” and the professing Church “turns away” from it, forgetful of the exhortation, “Be not thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.” Figuratively speaking, Paul is now a prisoner, and the mass of Christians have turned their backs upon him! If Paul were now amongst us he would hardly be allowed to preach, and he would have, we fear, to say, “All they that be in Christendom have turned away from me.”
Let us not deceive ourselves: it will now take quite as much faith to stand by Paul and “the mystery of the Christ,” as it would have done to stand by Noah and his preaching of righteousness and ark building before the Flood; yet therein, and therein alone, is the ark that will bear us safely over the seas of doubt, confusion, and error, that are surging over the world; but, depend upon it, as you widen your truth you will narrow your following; for were Paul’s gospel preached it would completely smash up everything of man’s, and burst his “old bottles;” but as for those who know Christ in glory, and are pressing on to gain Him as their prize, they will be so occupied with Him, that nothing, however painful, that may stand in the way, will be taken account of if they may but reach Him, have Him as their own, be with Him, and like Him in glory forever. Oh! that I and my reader may be of those who can say truly, “While the King sitteth at His table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.” There are always precious souls longing sincerely to know all that can be known of Christ personally, and in all the relationships in which He stands; and there is no doubt they will know more and more, for the Holy Ghost is here as the great minister of Christ, to guide us into all truth, to take the things of Christ and show them unto us; and we earnestly long to know Him at all cost; and let whatever knowledge He may impart flow down to others, that we and our beloved readers may together have our eyes upon our Beloved as we sit with Him at His table, and that our spikenard may send forth its peculiar fragrance.