The Church, The Garden Of The Lord

[A Sermon By Mr. George Drake, Of Charlesworth, Preached At The Particular Baptist Chapel, Rochdale Road, Manchester, On Tuesday Evening, October 28^th, 1862.]

“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.”—Song of Solomon 4:18

If the Lord will, I will attempt to speak,

I. Of the garden.

II. Of the wind.

III. Of the spices that flow out.

I. By the garden here spoken of we are to understand the Church of Christ, which is represented in the word of God by several different figures. It is spoken of under the figure of a wife: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish ” (Eph. 5:25-27). Mark you, “it;” the little word “it” can never have an indefinite meaning; here it particularly refers to the church.

The church is also spoken of under the figure of a building, of which Christ is the foundation, and believers are lively stones; as Peter says, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.” Sometimes the church is compared to members of the body: Christ is the head, believers are the members. Now if you were to separate one single member from the body, it would not be a perfect body. If you were to take away my little finger, or my little toe, I should not be a whole man. These and other figures in the Bible set forth the oneness or union there is between Christ and his church; hence Jesus says, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one: and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:21-23).

We see the church compared to a building. If you were looking at one, and saw a stone tumble out here, and another there, you would think it a strange sort of building, and the architect to have been a poor foolish one for having laid his plan no better. Though this might be the case with an earthly architect, he being a finite, short­ sighted creature; yet it is not so with our God, who laid his plan in infinite and eternal wisdom, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10). He is also possessed of omnipotent power; so that what eternal wisdom plans, eternal power executes; “and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:35.)

If there is a woe pronounced “unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?” (Isaiah 45:10,) how much more abominable is it for creatures of a day, whose breath is in their nostrils, to find fault with the wisdom of him “who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11).

Here, then, the church is spoken of under the figure of a garden. A garden is generally set apart for a person’s own pleasure; and if a stranger were to go to the owner, and say, “You have no right to have a garden in that way;” he might reply, “It is my own ground, and I will do with it what I think proper.” So the Church is Christ’s garden; and in that garden are plants, for believers are said to be plants of God’s own right hand planting. If you look at plants in the winter season, you see but little difference between the living and the dead. But when the spring begins to appear, the living trees begin to bud, and put forth leaves and flowers. It is the same when the Holy Ghost blows upon his garden, the church; believers then begin to bring forth fruit to the honour and glory of God. When he begins a work of grace upon the heart of a sinner, he makes him a plant in this garden, manifestively, by implanting the fear of God in his heart, taking away the heart of stone, and giving him a heart of flesh. He takes him from the wild olive tree, and grafts him into the good stock, even Christ; and if you and I have been grafted into a good and fat root, namely, Christ, let us not boast against the branches, as though we had done it ourselves. It is of his mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not: great is his faithfulness; they are new every morning.

If there are any things which the Holy Ghost has taught me more deeply than other things, they are, the dreadful nature of sin; the utter helplessless of the creature; the insufficiency of man’s own righteousness to justify him in the sight of a heart-searching and rein-trying God; and the exceeding greatness of God’s grace, in giving his Son to die in our room and stead. “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden.”

A garden must have springs. “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” It was formerly the custom amongst eastern nations to have springs and fountains within their gardens, which sets forth how the Holy Ghost is in us, as God’s plants, a well of water springing up into everlasting life; and also how Christ, as the fountain of all grace, plays upon us the springs of mercy, love, wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness.

The Holy Ghost is the chief pruner of the plants; nevertheless he has his under-gardeners or pruners, which are the ministers of the gospel. These, having been well pruned themselves, are sometimes very close and cutting; and like the branches of the vine, the more they are pruned the more fruit they bear. So also it is with the people of God; by nature they do not like a searching ministry; or in other words, to keep up the figure, they do not like close pruning. But after the new man they say, and that feelingly, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23, 24). Now these poor sinners who can use those words feelingly, are plants of God’s right hand planting.

Sometimes the plants get a little leaning to this or that idol; and you will see a good gardener will not hesitate a moment to take his knife and cut these off. Christian men sometimes get a little wedded to idols. There may be a wife, or child, or money, which we have been idolizing. The apostle John says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” The Lord, who sees and knows all things, watches over these plants, and by and by he uses the pruning knife; perhaps the wife or child is taken away; or if our affections have been too much set upon riches, these make themselves wings and fly away. While this work is going on, we perhaps kick and rebel, and are like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. But the Lord goes on pruning the plant, until the believer is brought to say, in soul-feeling, with Jonah, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord” (ch. 2:8, 9).

But notice, this garden was chosen by God the Father as a peculiar spot of ground, for his own honour, praise, and glory; as the apostle Paul says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Eph. 1:3-5).

The Lord, like a good husbandman, carefully tends his plants; he knows where to cut, what to take from, and what to suffer to grow. He knows exactly how to deal with us; and he will take care that these plants shall be pruned and watered, so that they may bring forth fruit.

A garden is a place that is walled in. This garden was walled in with everlasting love, as the Lord says in Jeremiah 31:3: “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” There she was first in the purpose of God; then she was given to Christ, and thus became his by gift and purchase. When speaking to his Father in that glorious prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, Jesus says, “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me;” and again it is said, “who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit. 2:14). She became walled in by that salvation which Jesus wrought out, and which he brought in; and is so secure from danger, that all the beasts of prey that ever ranged over this garden while it was like the wilderness or the forest, overgrown with all kinds of weeds and rubbish, and exposed to every wild beast of prey, could not destroy it, for the reason given by Jude, the brother of James (ver. 1): “sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.” Yea, in effectual calling these plants are so manifestively walled in, that it is written, “thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise” (Isa. 60:18). It shall be so manifestively walled in by the salvation wrought out by Christ, and by the Spirit’s work, that these plants shall never be destroyed, nor go down to the pit.

She is walled in by eternal faithfulness: “faithful is he that called you, who also will do it;” ”for I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens” (Ps. 89:2).

God is also a wall of fire round about his people. If he should permit the hedge to be broken down for a short time, it he should suffer Satan to smite a saint, yet his command is, “Touch not his life.” The terminating of life is a prerogative of God’s; and no temptation happens to these plants but what is common unto men; and out of every temptation he will make a way for their escape. God is faithful; he cannot deny himself. “Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south.”

II. Let us, in the second place, notice what is intended by the word wind. I understand the operations of God the Holy Ghost to be meant by it. Thus Ezekiel says, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind; prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (ch. 37:1-10). The house of Israel is compared to these dry bones; they were in their graves. And what is man naturally? Dead in sins, in the grave of sin; and the Lord brings him out of the grave of his sins, when the north wind of his Holy Spirit blows upon him. Now if we come to speak particularly of the Holy Ghost, he is not a mere influence, but a person. “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (1 John 5:7). They are one in essence, one in love, one in justice, one in wisdom, one in power, one in all the attributes and perfections of the Deity.

When Christ was upon the earth, he said to his disciples, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 16:16). Now notice, there was Christ on earth praying to the Father who was in heaven; and the person prayed for was the Comforter, or Holy Ghost. Here is a trinity in unity. The Holy Ghost said also, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” (Acts 13:2). He takes up, also, his abode in our hearts, as he hath said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Cor. 6:15).

Who but a person can bear witness? “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16). He bears witness to our hungering and thirsting after righteousness; he bears witness, in his own time, to our spirits, that we are adopted sons and daughters, adopted into the fold and family of God, made joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

Again, if we come to notice the work of the Holy Spirit, this is set forth from Genesis to Revelation. When man lay, as it were, a corpse upon the ground, the Spirit breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul; holy and pure, as one just come out of the hand of his Creator. If we ask ourselves, How was Moses able to pen correctly the records contained in the first five books of the Old Testament, and the facts as to what things were created on the first, second, and third days, and how the Lord spoke all into existence? Why, we know Moses could have known nothing at all about it, had it not been for the Holy Ghost. For, my friends, “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). Thus, then, we find, as we trace out the work of the Holy Ghost, that all the prophets were inspired, for “the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21).

What would Jacob have known of Shiloh who was to come, had it not been revealed unto him? What would Isaiah have known about a virgin conceiving and bringing forth a Son, had not the Holy Ghost instructed him in these mysteries? He writes of the sufferings of Christ, as if they had already taken place. He says, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” (Isa. 53:7); “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth” (Acts 8:33).

Now here he speaks in the past tense; and it had really taken place, that is, in the mind and purpose of God, who “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17); for it was as much done in the purpose of God, as if Christ had already suffered; yea, all things that are settled in the mind of God, shall take place in time, until his church is landed safe in eternal glory.

It was the Holy Ghost, likewise, who filled the human nature of Christ with his gifts and graces, as was prophesied by Isaiah: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (ch. 11:1, 2). As God, and the Eternal Son of the Father, who lay in the bosom of the Father from everlasting, he could not grow; but as man and mediator he “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

The Holy Ghost also wrought the human nature of Jesus Christ in the womb of the virgin, as the angel said: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). We find also that on the day of Pentecost, it was the Holy Ghost who caused the apostles to speak with other tongues: “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Gyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:3-11). Peter tells them that this was that which was prophesied of by Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17, 18). This came to pass on the day of Pente­ cost, when the Spirit was poured out openly, and the work proved to be that of God the Holy Ghost.

“Awake, O north wind; and come, tbou south.” This is like a prayer of the church, for the Holy Ghost to blow upon it, that the spices thereof might flow out. But what are we to understand by the north wind? I know that those of you who have any standing in the divine life know better than to think that there is no religion but what is comfortable. No part of the religion of Jesus Christ is palatable to flesh and blood. Of this I am a living witness for God; for “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7, 8). But one may say, Does not scripture declare, that wisdom’s “ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace”? (Prov. 3:17.) This, my friends, is the experience of the new man of grace; the old man, Esau, kicks and plunges, and is like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Sometimes the poor God-fearing man is so plagued with sin, that he can hardly hold up his head, and thinks every one views him with the same eyes with which he sees himself.

By the north wind I understand those cutting convictions which come upon the sinner when the Holy Ghost begins to work within him. I believe it was this north wind that made the apostle Paul cry, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” the jailor to cry, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” and the publican to exclaim, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Turning a sinner away from former pleasures, is like cutting off his right arm; it is almost like separating his limbs from his body. But the Lord begins with this north wind; he sends it upon him, and sets before him the holiness and justice of God, and the righteousness of his holy law. This wind begins to humble him, and strip him of his self-righteousness and pharisaism.

I think these are the effects of this north wind; and I believe in my very soul, that when the Lord begins to work in a sinner’s heart, he will not feel it to be a very comfortable spot to be in. When the book of conscience and law is opened, and when his secret sins are set in the light of God’s countenance, he will indeed feel distressed; and if any one were to tell him, that this was a mark of God’s love to him, he would not believe it. He might go to the Bible, but would consider it was all against him. He would say, “It is for such an one; the righteousness of Christ is for such an one; the salvation of Christ is for such an one; but as for me, I can see, and feel too, that I have sinned against God. I have broken his law and trampled upon his authority. I have rendered myself obnoxious to him. What must I do? whither must I flee? what will become of me? O that I had never been born! “These are the northern blasts that are blown upon a sinner. “Awake, O north wind.”

I pray God, that if it be according to his sovereign will, I may now be speaking to some poor creature upon whom this north wind is blowing, and shaking him out of his lusts. It is a great mercy to hear tell of any being convinced in this way; for without more or less of the blowing of the north wind, we neither see nor feel our position in the sight of a heart-searching and rein-trying God; neither is there any felt need of a Saviour; “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”

When the Lord began with me (and I shall never forget the time), arrested me, and set my sins in the light of his countenance, I would fain have drowned my reflections in carnal pleasures; but the more I tried, the more my sorrow kept working and rankling in my mind, until I was obliged to say, “God be merciful to me a sinner”! If the Lord fasten the arrow of conviction in thy heart, he will never leave thee until he has brought thee to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness; no, nor until he has landed thee safe in glory. Thou mayest kick and plunge, but thou wilt find thou art a worm, and that all thy fighting against God only brings distress and sorrow to thy poor guilty heart. “Awake, O north wind.”

There were not only these convictions, but in our journeying forward in the wilderness we find our idols are stripped from us, one by one. The Lord has said, by the apostle John, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Yet we are wedded to our idols; but the heavenly gardener applies his pruning-knife, and cuts them down. Perhaps we have been setting our affections too much on our children, if we have any; and the Lord either takes them away, or lets them grow up to be a rod to scourge us with. We may have been too much wedded to the world, and may have been adding house to house, and field to field, until there has scarcely been any place left in the heart for Christ. He then takes the whip of small cords, and drives the buyers and sellers out of his temple; as it is written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

You sometimes find the preacher describe your feelings, and you think he is aiming at yourself particularly, and that it is no business of his to talk so of you in the pulpit. But at length you will be obliged to acknowledge that what he says is according to the word of God, and that you must stand or fall by it. You will think, that if you cannot bear the piercing of the word of God, what would you do when you come to stand before the Judge, when he shall come to judge the world in righteousness; if you cannot stand before the preacher, what would you do then? You will be obliged to say, “O Lord, take away my idols; and whatever is wrong, take it away. O let me have a tender conscience!” But you will still find your own nature raking together a great deal of wood, hay, and stubble.

But to go forward with our subject: “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south”. Though one and the self­ same Spirit is here intended, yet I understand by the south wind, the gentle influences of the Spirit. The south wind is generally a soft wind; so that here it signifies the Lord the Spirit bringing his word with power to the sinner’s conscience: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” When the Holy Ghost begins thus to blow upon us, and shews us that all the promises in the Bible are ours, from Genesis to Revelation, we begin to feel the sweet influences of this south wind, softening and mollifying our hearts. This is the time when “mercy and truth are met together” in the sinner’s conscience, “righteousness and peace have (embraced) each other” (Ps. 85:10). The promises now begin to yield their sweetness; almost every chapter we read seems to have a savour with it, and we enjoy every hymn that is given out.

Under these gentle breezes of the south wind, we feel likewise that repentance that is unto life, that needs not to be repented of. And depend upon it, if the south wind does not blow upon the garden, we shall surely sit to hear our condemnation; but when it again blows, and reveals to the eye of faith the sweetness of the atoning love and blood of Jesus; the sweetness of his righteousness; the sweetness of his faithfulness—for “he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:13), though we believe not for a season, but are full of unbelief, saying with Jacob, “all these things are against me” (Gen. 42:36); or with David, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul” (1 Sam. 27:1); it is then that the soul comes forth in the dances of them that make merry, and his song is, “The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation” (Isa. 12:2). Then he says, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;” for “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12); and if any one can tell us how far that is, then we can tell them how far the sins of the church and people of God are removed from them. Thus the sinner feels, that by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ he is justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. “Come, thou south wind,” that these plants may be refreshed and comforted.

III. We will now, in the third and last place, endeavour to speak of the spices; and depend upon it, there are many of them.

1. Love is one of the chief spices: “we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” When the old man is uppermost, we cannot feelingly say that we love the brethren; but if we hear them spoken evil of, we then feel a moving in our hearts towards them; and this is the effect of love in the new man of grace, which is created in righteousness and true holiness, after the image of him that created him (Eph. 4:24). Love is as the mainspring of a watch, which sets all the wheels in motion. Paul says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1, 3). When love is shed abroad in the heart, the believer begins to love the Lord in the first place; the precepts in the second place; and the brethren in the third place. Religion without love is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. “Charity beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things”, ” Charity never fails,” for the Holy Spirit brings it again and again with power to our souls. It sometimes feels dormant within us, and we do not feel it animating our bosom; but this precious spice, love to God, love to his people, love to his precepts, will again flow out with its healing influences, softening the hard heart.

2. There is the spice of humility. This spice flows out under the gentle breezes of the south wind. When we experience this, instead of thinking ourselves better than others, we seem, in our own sight, less than the least of all saints, and the chief of sinners. And at such times we are ready to dispute with the apostle, upon this point, as to his being the chief of sinners; for we feel that there cannot be in the world a greater sinner, nor a greater fool, than ourselves. It is well for us that God hath said, by the apostle Paul, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are” (1 Cor. 1:26-28). O my dear friends, when the Lord humbles us, and teaches us humility, it is indeed a blessed thing. When Christ gave his disciples a lesson in humility, he took a little child, and set him in their midst, and said, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). This spice is produced by the blowing of the south wind; for we are then laid low, and instead of thinking ourselves better than others, we think every one in the chapel better than ourselves. We then say to the Lord, as Ruth said to Boaz, “Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take know­ ledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?” Now humility is indeed a blessed spice, and there is not one jot in us by nature; it is ail produced by the blowing of this south wind. To be enabled to see ourselves the least of all saints, is the work of God on the soul; and if you have never been humbled under the mighty hand of God, your religion is not worth having; but if ever you are brought to see yourself a lost and ruined sinner, you will then be humbled, so that you will esteem the weakest brother better than yourself. Remember, then, my dear friends, humility is a spice produced by God the Holy Ghost. Our nature is as contrary to it as light is to darkness; our nature is for being something, but Christ tells his people they can do nothing without him. Now when you feel least in yourself, you are in the enjoyment of this spice, humility; and you can then look upon others and esteem them highly, yea, better than yourselves.

3. There is the spice of prayer. This is the Christian’s element after the new man; but O, what dragging there is sometimes with the old man and the devil, to keep us back from this exercise. But this spice of prayer is not that which many call prayer, who have a form of godliness, but deny the power: from such turn away (2 Tim. 3:5). Prayer is sometimes only a sigh, or groan, or the falling of a tear: The Lord “looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death” (Ps. 102:19, 20). David elsewhere says, “Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee” (Ps. 38:9). There is, as it were, prayer of nearness and prayer of distance; but when the south wind blows a gentle breeze upon the Christian, it is sweet to be engaged in this exercise, whether in the family, or the church, or the prayer-meeting.

“But if the Lord be once withdrawn,

And we attempt the work alone,

When new temptations spring and rise,

We find how great our weakness is.”

4. There is the spice of faith. When this spice is flowing out, then we believe that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.” We believe the counsel of God will stand, and that he will do all his pleasure; that if he take away our property, or wives, or children, it is for our good. We can then believe the promises, and call them our own, and suck the sweetness out of them. We then need no one to tell us to believe, and lay hold of the promises; the promises then lay hold of us; God’s word is found, and we do eat it, and it is the joy and rejoicing of our heart (Jer. 15:16); “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps. 119:103.)

Under the sweet breezes of this south wind, how great does salvation appear! what wisdom is manifested in the plan of it! what power in the execution of it! and what glory is displayed in the appearance of Christ on earth, when he came to work it out! The angels then sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men! “and all the ransomed church of God will be forever employed in singing “Salvation to God and the Lamb for ever!” The spice of faith can look thousands of years backward or forward, for by it the elders obtained a good report; by it Abel offered a sacrifice to God, more excellent than that of Cain; and thus all the ancient worthies died in faith. This faith, then, is a spice that is brought forth by the south wind; but when the Lord hides his face from us, and leaves us to grope like the blind for the wall, then faith goes down like quicksilver in the thermometer; but let the south wind blow again, the believer rises again in his feelings, and says, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me” (Micah 7:8). This, my friends, is the language of true faith; and it speaks thus also by another prophet: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:17, 18). This faith teaches us that we are of the number of God’s elect, if he has put his fear into our hearts; and then we know that all things work together for our good, whether it be prosperity or adversity; afflictions of mind, of body, or of estate. When this blessed spice of faith is in lively exercise, we can look forward with joy and rejoicing to that happy day, when, freed from this body of sin and death, we shall enter into the sea of heavenly rest, to be with Jesus for ever and ever.

5. There is also the spice of the fear of God. This is an important one. If you have never felt a reverential fear of God, then you lack divine salt. Without this, singing is wrong, praying is wrong, everything is wrong; for where there is no reverential fear of God, the man is out of the secret. But sometimes we are under slavish fear; and when left to ourselves, slavish fear is uppermost, so that we fear we have not entered in at the strait gate: that our Bible reading is wrong; and if the person is a preacher, he is afraid he is “a prating fool, who shall fall,” and he is afraid he shall stumble, and bring a disgrace upon the cause of God and truth. But when the south wind again blows, it brings filial fear, and “in the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence,” and his children shall have a place of refuge in the side of the dear Redeemer. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all true and evangelical wisdom.

All the graces of the Spirit are produced under the blowing of this wind. You may sit in your pews, and listen to all the minister says, and yet you may feel cold and barren, as if you possessed no life. You may talk about doing this, that, or the other thing, but remember, every child of grace knows it is the Holy Ghost who works in him; he cannot himself work his hope and godly fear. O no; all these graces are planted in the soul at regeneration, but they are brought forth as the Holy Ghost is pleased to work in us to will and to do; but the work is the Lord’s. I remember the time when I used to sit in Thornhill Chapel, Yorkshire, and listened to every word the minister said, feeling that it was indeed food for my soul, and I could have shouted Amen to every sentence he uttered. I wondered how the preacher could so exactly speak the feelings of my soul; but the reason was, he knew the Lord’s work in his own soul, so that he could trace the Lord’s handwriting upon my soul. It is the south wind that must comfort, and it is the north wind that strips the sinner; and thus, my dear friends, this fear we have been speaking of is an important spice; it goes with us, more or less, in all our movements in life, in the family, and in the world. But if you have no reverential fear of God, do not tell me you are a gracious soul, but depend upon it, if you are a child of God, you will be brought to abhor yourself.

6. There is also the spice of hope. Hope bears up the sinner. It is a compound grace, composed of faith and love. If a man believes in God, he must hope in God; and if he hopes in God, he must love God. Depend upon it, this grace bears up the soul when deep calleth unto deep. When the waves of trouble flow over the sinner’s head, he sometimes feels that his hope is removed like a tree (Job 19:10). “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life” (Prov. 13:12). In our darkest moments we dare not say we have no desire to love the Lord, or that we have no panting after him. Have we not some­ times said, “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God”? The Lord will never disappoint thy hope: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for thou shall yet praise him who is the health of thy countenance and thy God.”

Thus, then, this hope is another of the spices; and though at times it is as a prisoner, yet of such times it is said, “Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope.” Hope looks forward to the time when the blessing will be conveyed into the soul, and waits until the Lord appears a “second time, without sin unto salvation.”

7. There is the spice of joy. This is also a remarkable spice. It is a joy that is mixed with sorrow; and when there is solemn and holy joy, tears will run down the cheek, and the soul will join in the heavenly music and in the heavenly dance, at the prodigal’s return. The soul does indeed rejoice, and that in a solemn way, because the Lord has brought it into the banqueting house, and the banner over it is love, everlasting love. And this joy is not like the crackling of thorns under a pot; it is not the joy of the stony ground hearer, of whom it is said, “he heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended” (Matt. 13:20, 21). Now mark, this was all joy; there was no godly sorrow for sin; none of that repentance which is unto life. In the joy of the stony ground hearer, there is a tickling of the fancy, or some head notion of the truth. A minister sent of God is to such a character like one that plays well on an instrument: he charms the ears. Thus the Lord said to Ezekiel: “And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass (lo, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them” (ch. 33:32,33).

8.There is the spice of long-suffering. We sometimes feel as if we had no patience with any one; but if the south wind blow, we then have patience with our wives, and children, and servants. Moses, the meekest man that ever was upon the earth, was once provoked to speak unadvisedly with his lips. This shews us there is no perfection, even in the best of men. May God add his blessing. Amen and Amen.