IT is a good sign on people when they are seeking for Christ. The Greeks that went up to the feast at Jerusalem said:—”Sir, we would see Jesus.” These Greeks sought Him for the first time, but the Church here had Him before, and now seeks Him again. In speaking from this text I shall notice—
1. The Church seeking Christ.
2. The Church finding Christ.
3. That which she did when she found Him.
I. The Church seeking Christ.
It was at night she sought Him. Christ is the sun of righteousness, and when the sun sets there is darkness in the soul and darkness outside. It is not pleasant to be in darkness. Christ was away from the Church at this time, and so it was night with her. Did you find at any time that it was night upon your soul when He was absent? There are many professing Christians who are ignorant of His presence with them and His being absent from them, but the true Church knew both. She knew to have Him in her experience, and she knew not to have Him. The unconverted are ignorant of His absence because they never had Him, and they never miss that which they never had. The woman who searched for the piece of silver which she lost had that precious thing, and she was not content till she found it, so she lighted a candle and swept the house, and succeeded in finding the lost piece of silver. So it is with God’s people till they find Him who is absent from them.
Then it was in her bed that she sought Him. The bed here may be taken literally. The Lord’s people seek Christ lying in bed when others are sleeping, and sometimes they find Him there and are made truly happy. The bed also may mean a state of lukewarmness, when the Church is not in real earnestness in seeking Him, or a state slumbering and sleeping, as it was with the wise virgins when they slumbered and slept while they ought to have watched and prayed. In that state, although she sought Him, she found Him not. She could not be happy or satisfied without Him. He was her beloved. He loved her and she loved Him. As she did not find Him she was getting more miserable, and said this will not do, I will arise. It is a good sign when the Lord’s people are stirred up to seek Christ in real earnestness; it is a time of revival. She arose and went about the city in search of Him. The city here, as in other parts of Scripture, means the Church as to its outward means of grace. She does not mention the name of the Person she seeks. She calls Him: “Him whom my soul loveth.” Some wives when speaking of their husbands do not mention their names, but say, “Himself said, so and so, or did so and so”; they think that everybody knows whom they mean; so the Church here, having Christ so much in her thoughts, thinks that everybody knows whom she means when she calls Him, “Him whom my soul loveth.” It is a great thing to be able to say that Christ is your beloved when He is absent and you are in darkness. It was not outside the Church that she sought Him, but inside in the means of grace. Christ is not to be found outside the visible Church, although some say that He may be found by the heathen who never heard the Gospel. In a city there are streets. She searched all the streets of the city but found Him not. This was a great trial, but it was a trial of faith. The streets here mean the means of grace, the closet, family worship, the prayer meeting, and the public preaching of the Gospel. Many would give up seeking Him after such a disappointment and trial, but the Church did not give up seeking Him, so she went into the broad ways in search of Him, whom her soul loved. If you don’t find Him in the promises and calls peculiar to the Lord’s people, go in search of Him in the broad way of the universal call to sinners who are still in a state of nature. So it seems that the Church did so. There was hope for her; yet she was not left to despair. The watchmen found her—the watchmen are the apostles, prophets, and true ministers of the Gospel. These were watching at night and found this one while on duty watching for souls, and she asked them, “Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?” Ministers are led by the Spirit to find out the cases of those who seek Christ, and are thus able to give them information as to when and how to find Him. We are not told what the watchman said to her, but as she found Christ soon after speaking to them, so we are of the opinion that they said to her:—”We saw Him;” and told her where to find Him. There were different watchmen. In this book of the Song of Solomon we read of watchmen that met the Church and dealt harshly with her. “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me, the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me” (Chap. v. 7). Unconverted ministers, instead of doing good to the Lord’s people, do them much harm. They have no sympathy with them, and cannot enter into their experiences. Indeed, they hate them, and do their utmost to make them uncomfortable.
II. The Church finding Christ.
Those that truly seek Christ shall find Him. When the Church found Him the darkness vanished away as the darkness of the natural night is dispelled when the sun rises. The Sun of Righteousness arose upon her soul with healing under its wings. It was not for the first time that she found Him. The Lord’s people need to find Christ again and again. She was now truly happy in His fellowship. In the days of Christ’s flesh on earth some wondered that His disciples did not fast like others, but Christ told the reason—”Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast” (Matt. ix. 15).
The Church was so miserable in His absence, and now so happy in His fellowship that she is very careful not to do anything that would cause Him to leave her, and she charges others not to do anything to drive Him away—”I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake my Beloved till He please” (verse 7). The daughters of Jerusalem mean here the unconverted in the visible Church. Very little noise will drive away the roes and the hinds, and they run so fast that they are at a long distance in a short time, and when Christ is put away by the noise of worldly talk and conversation, He leaves sometimes very quickly, and many a time the Lord’s people lose the presence of Christ in the company of worldly people. Besides, they often lose His gracious presence by their own evil heart, “which is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” so that they require to be on the watch against these disturbers of their peace.
III. What did the Church do when she found Christ?
(1) She held Him and would not let Him go. She took hold of Him by the hand of faith. In the day of her justification she took such a firm hold of Christ that she always holds Him with regard to her state, but not with respect to her experience. She needs to take hold of Him by the hand of faith again and again, as Peter says that the act of faith is coming unto Christ as to a living stone (I. Peter ii. 4). It is a continual coming to Him till they are with Him where He is. She determined not to let Him go. She resolved to keep her hold of Him, but could she do it? No. Still, it was good that she resolved to keep Him, as it was said of David that it was good that it was in his heart to build the temple, although he was not permitted to do so. How is it that Christ does not stay always with His people? Their house is not yet clean enough for His staying always with them, but notwithstanding this, He visits them in the time of need. He also leaves them to draw them after Him, as in the case of the two disciples that entertained Him on the day of His resurrection. As soon as He made Himself known to them He left them and they went after Him. He thus visits His people and leaves them that they might go after Him. As a mother teaches her child to walk, after leading the child by the hand, she lets go her hold of him and walks a few steps before him that he might endeavour to reach her again. Christ visits His people, but cannot stay with them always, because of indwelling sin within them. There was a godly woman came to a certain place where she was a stranger to the inhabitants. They enquired who she was and about her circumstances. She told them that she was a widow. They pitied her and were kind to her. She said—”Worse than that, I am the widow of a living man.” They pitied her more on that account, and said—”What a bad husband you had when he left you.” “I cannot say that He was a bad husband, but the best of husbands, but he could not stay with me, because I was so bad. It was I that was bad and not He; but bad as I am He writes kind letters to me, and in every letter He encloses money to support me.”
Whether the people understood her or not, we cannot say. No doubt she meant that Christ was the good husband that would not stay with her because of her badness. This is the experience of the Lord’s people. They find out by sad experience that Christ cannot remain with them always, that they are so bad; but bad as they are, Christ, as it were, writes letters to them in which He encloses what will support them during their pilgrimage in the wilderness. The next thing she did was that she brought Him to her mother’s house—to the house of her that conceived her. The Church is the mother of believers. It was there that they were born. It is there they are nursed, fed, and attended to, till they are ripe for glory. Although we call those in the text the Church, they were particular members of it. There are times when the Lord’s people come to hear the Gospel that they might find Christ. There are other times when they find Christ at home, before they come to church, and they bring Christ with them to the church, and the congregation is the better of their coming with such a glorious Person with them. When Mary found Christ on the morning of His resurrection she went straight to Jerusalem, and told the disciples, who were mourning that He was risen from the grave. Do you the same when you find Christ; bring Him first to others of His people who may be mourning His absence, and they shall be the better of your company and your glad tidings. Bring Him also to every company in which you may be. Speak of Him to the unconverted. Tell them of His transcendent excellency and beauty, and His ability to save to the uttermost all that come to the Father by Him. If the Lord’s people spoke more of Christ to the unconverted these might be led to seek Him. When the daughters of Jerusalem asked the Church, “Who is thy beloved more than another beloved?” she answered—”My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand,” etc. They began to seek Him with her (Song, vi. 1).
In conclusion, a word to the Lord’s people. There was a time when you were not seeking Christ, and when He was not your Beloved, and if you are now seeking Him you are indebted to God, who by His Spirit moved you to seek Him. You were first convinced by the Spirit of your sins and need of salvation. When Christ was revealed to you in the Gospel and faith wrought in you by the Spirit of all grace, you were made able and willing to close with Christ in the free offer of the Gospel. You have Christ now by an everlasting union with Him, which cannot be broken. But your communion with Him may be and often is by various causes in yourself and others broken. Be careful, therefore, not to make Him leave you and keep aloof from the world as much as possible, which drives Christ from your soul. The world often deprives believers of the presence and communion of Christ. Your calling in providence may bring you in contact with worldly men to transact business, but as soon as you transact that business leave their company. A certain minister, speaking of this subject, said that you should be like a farmer who, when he sees a shower coming, runs out to gather his hay, and as soon as he gathers the hay, and the rain pouring down, he leaves the field and runs home as fast as he can, lest he should be drenched with it. Seek to be as much as possible in the company of God’s people. For where two or three of them are gathered together, He promised to be in the midst of them. “As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Prov. xxvii. 17). (2) A word to the anxious enquirer. You are like the jailor at Philippi, asking the important question, “What must I do to be saved?” Seek Christ, believe in Him, for He is the only Saviour—”Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” He knows your anxiety, your doubts and fears. If you cast yourself upon Him as you are, a lost sinner, He will not cast you away, for He said—”Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” His mission to the world was to seek and to save that which was lost. If you began to seek Him, persevere in seeking Him till you find Him, and if you find Him, “you shall find life and obtain favour of the Lord” (Prov. viii. 35). “But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all that hate me, love death” (Prov. viii. 36). To sin against Christ is to refuse to be saved by Him. It is the sin of sins. It is a sin against the remedy.
(3) A word to the careless, of whom there are many in the present generation. While they are very diligent about worldly matters, they neglect the one thing needful—they neglect the salvation of their precious souls—”For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul?” (Matt. xvi. 27); we may add when it is lost. Therefore, seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Is. lv. 7). You may now laugh at religion, as many do, but if you persist to the end of your life in that state of mind, Christ, who now invites you to come to Him to save you, will laugh at your calamity. He will mock when your fear cometh” (Prov. i. 26). May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.