Love, or desire towards another, takes different forms in the heart. There is the love of pity, of gratitude and of complacency. The love of pity regards its object in some sort as below it and is full of tenderness. The love of gratitude regards its object as above it and is full of humility. The love of complacency does not look above or below, but simply at its object, and it is full of admiration.
But there is also love of kindred natural affection-which has a glory peculiarly its own, for it warrants the deepest intimacies. Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters (and friends, too) know this. Such love gives full ease in going out and coming in. The heart knows its right to indulge itself over its object without check or shame. It is the richest feast of the heart, for it knows its title to satisfy itself without rebuke, in the warmest expressions of mutual love.
With kindred love it is the person and not qualifications or conditions that form the ground of our love. It is the Lord Himself that the heart embraces not His sorrows, favors, or excellencies, but Himself which this affection handles.
This delineates, as I judge, the experience of the poor woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5). She knew the Lord’s ability to relieve her sorrow; she knew her hearty welcome to avail herself of it. She therefore comes and takes the virtue out of Him without reserve. But she comes behind Him. This expresses the state of her mind, for though she knows her welcome to His service, she knows nothing more. But the blessed Lord trains her heart for more. He lets her know that she is interested in Himself as well as in His power to oblige her.
He calls her daughter, owning kindred or relationship with her. This was the communication which alone was able to remove her fears and trembling. Her rich and mighty Patron is her Kinsman and this is what her heart needed to know. Without this, in the spirit of her mind she would still have been behind Him. But this gives her ease. “Go in peace” may then be said, as well as, “Be whole of thy plague.” She need not be reserved, for Christ does not deal with her as a patron or benefactor (Luke 22:2525And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. (Luke 22:25)). She learns she has an interest in Himself as well as in His power to bless her.
As another has said, “In the glass of His eternal decrees the Father showed the church to Christ, and Christ was so ravished with the sight, that He gave up all for her. ”
Do we believe this? Does it make us happy? We owe the love of children to God as our Father, the love of the redeemed ones to God as our Saviour, and the love of disciples to Jesus as our Master and Lord. But what is the love that we owe for this way of Christ’s heart to us? How are we to meet it in a way worthy of it? The breathings of the Canticles (Song of Solomon) tell us. This little book gives us, I believe, the actings of the love of espousals, in both Christ’s heart and in ours. The joy of hearing the voice of the Bridegroom is fulfilled here in the heart of the saint.
J. G. Bellett (adapted)