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I.—' I am black! Singular confession! The Bride of the Most Lovely, black! In the kingdom of Christ, how counter every thing runs to reason, and our natural conceptions! For example: one would imagine the natural order to be, first, holiness, and then pardon. But the law of this kingdom reverses the matter, and declares, Pardon first, and then sanctification. Reason thinks virtue to be the way to peace; but the Divine rule makes peace with God precede, and virtue follow as the fruit of peace, and not peace as the fruit of virtue. Human wisdom supposes a man must become upright before he can attain the rights of citizenship in the kingdom of heaven; but the wisdom of God appoints the kingdom to sinners, and numbers integrity of life amongst the things to be enjoyed within its boundaries-not without them. Reason cannot think otherwise, than that a child of God must be pure and immaculate; and behold, here steps forth such a child of God, a soul entirely devoted to the Lord, and declares without the smallest reserve: 'I am black, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.' Black both inwardly and outwardly. Whence then thy blackness, thou fairest among women ? 'The sun has looked upon me.' The sun! what sun? Surely not the Sun of righteousness, that bringeth healing in his wings, and is the fountain of all light? Yes, the very same. In his vicinity, in the blaze of his light, the Shulamite has become black.

Whence does she come, the heavenly dove? Can it be from the world, has she there soiled her plumage; or from the paths of sin, or the fires of temptation? By no means; she is come straightway from the King's

chamber; where she has rejoiced in him, and refreshed herself with the fulness of his grace. And she no sooner leaves this sacred place, than she discovers that she is black. Whence then her blackness? She is black from the rays of that Sun, in whose beams she has been reposing; for her king-even Christ, with whom she had been-he is the sun. We are all by nature black; to the very core the complexion of our heart, our life and being, is black. But who is sensible of this? We' perceive not our blackness and sinfulness, until exposed to the radiance of the Eternal Sun; until the effulgent glory of God's presence renders our darkness apparent, and the light of his Spirit penetrating the gloom, discovers to us the dark abyss of our nature; then we exclaim: 'I am black, O ye daughters of Jerusalem ; the sun has looked upon me.' How was it with Isaiah, when he found himself suddenly near this sun, and saw the Lord sitting upon his exalted throne? He was all at once so black, and found himself so unholy and so miserable, that he began to tremble at himself, and before God, and anxiously exclaimed, ' Woe is me! I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.' What happened to Simon Peter, when he became aware that the Day Spring from on high was with him in his boat? As if struck by lightning, he fell at Jesus' feet, saying: 'Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!'-that is, in other words, I am black, O ye daughters of Jerusalem; the sun has looked upon me. And when the Lord looked up at the publican Zaccheus in the sycamore tree, what was the first impression which this look produced? The pub

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lican became a sinner, became black in his own eyes, black as an Ethiopian, and began to make confession : 'If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I return him four fold.' Thus it is still : when the Lord condescends to draw near to us, the first effect of his presence is, that all our imagined lustre is dispelled like the mist, and our darkness becomes palpable. The sun makes us black. When the Lord rends the heavens, and comes down to commune with a child of man, and to establish his covenant with him, the immediate effect is, that he feels himself black, and knows his misery. And be assured that he who has not experienced the searching power of that Sun, has never yet come in contact with the Sun itself; he is still without; not even having taken the preliminary steps towards the ratification of the covenant.

'I am black,' says the Bride. From whence does this confession proceed? Is it the excessive fervor of a first repentance, as a newly awakened sinner? By no means. It issues from her secret intercourse with the Lord, from a state of grace, and from the chamber of her King; as one of the redeemed, as a member of the kingdom. And she is still black? Yes that appears strange to many. But is it not strange to him who has been planted in the same soil with the Bride, and who has been led in the same way of salvation; he knows well the impossibility of living in the communion of the great Sun of Righteousness, without daily discovering in himself, by means of the bright rays, new and deeper shades of darkness; that by means of communion with Christ, one becomes daily blacker, and the state of the soul, as it is by nature, appears worse every day. Those

who so easily and rapidly pass over into a state of glorying, on account of their progress in holiness, cause us at least to suspect that they do not sufficiently walk in the light of Jacob, nor hold close communion with the Lord himself. It arises from the nature of the intercourse itself, and is confirmed by the experience of all the saints, that the more unreserved our confidence is in the Lord, and the closer our intercourse with Him, the more comprehensive will be our perception of the depth of our own ruin. Every fresh insight into the glory of Immanuel becomes a torch, to display, in a clearer light the greatness of our depravity. Every new discovery of the purity of his nature and his will, strengthens the consciousness of our own impurity. Every new communication of his grace will be a coal of fire upon our head, and will deepen and quicken the feeling of our own unworthiness; and every new experience of his love and faithfulness will make us more painfully sensible of the absence of those qualities in ourselves, and of the coldness of our hearts. Thus, in the light of his countenance, we shall daily discover deformities and stains, which we have hitherto overlooked; daily find occasions to humble ourselves at his feet, and devoutly to rejoice that our wedding garment has long been woven and finished for us; and that the blood and righteousness of Christ are abundantly sufficient to cover us before the judgment-seat of God. Yes, only be and walk with Christ, and have fellowship with Him, and I will warrant you that to the end of your days the Shulamite's confession will be yours. black, O ye daughters of Jerusalem; the sun has looked upon me.'

'I am

own,

‘I am black.' Black is the Shulamite in her and black in the eyes of the world. Look not upon me, because I am black.' Her Sun has deprived her of her natural complexion, and has made her dark. What does the regenerated soul still continue to bear about her of all the world calls beautiful and delightful? It has all faded like grass in the heat of the Sun that shone upon her. She is no longer seen in the assemblies of her former associates; she has forsaken the counsel of the children of this world, in which she once so joyfully participated; she no longer relishes their frivolous jests, and can contribute nothing to their diversions. She no longer attaches importance to appearances and dazzling show. Worldly fashions, and worldly conviviality, have lost their charm, and worldly views and opinions their hold and their reality. The doctrine of insufficiency which the Shulamite professes, which strips man of every thing, and renders him destitute; the air of conscious sinfulness she bears about with her the gravity she maintains; the sharp condemnation of unbelief and disregard of the truth ever on her lips; the eternal singing, praying, and Biblereading, with which she spends hours, and even days; oh how odious and disgustful they are to the world, and how liberally derision and abuse are showered down upon her. She is slandered, decried, ridiculed; and with good reason may she exclaim, 'I am black, O ye daughters of Jerusalem'-black in the estimation of the world but she adds, The Sun has looked upon me" -in this she rejoices, and lets the world rage. And were she also black through crosses, persecutions, and

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