三月二十日
我的良人……（歌2:9）
古代教会（指神所召的人说的）在最兴隆时以这个宝贵的名字称呼神的受膏者，差不多已经成为一种习惯。百鸟鸣叫的时候已经来到，斑鸠的声音在她的境内也听见了的时候，她可爱的声音：“良人属我，我也属他；他在百合花中牧放群羊。”比这一切声音都好听。她在歌中的雅歌里快乐地称他是“我的良人”！当长冬之时，当偶像使神的园凋敝起来，她（教会）的先知有一个短时期把重担放下，和以赛亚一样地说：“我要为我所亲爱的唱歌，是我所爱者的歌，论他葡萄园的事。”虽然那些圣徒没有看到过他的面，虽然他还没有成为肉身，还没有住在我们中间，人还没有看到他的荣耀，但他仍是以色列的安慰，是一切被选召之人的盼望和快乐，是一切在至高者面前为正直人的“良人”。我们，在教会的春季，也称基督是我们的心所最爱的，并感到他实在宝贵，“超乎万人之上”，全然可爱。教会就是这样爱耶稣，称他是“良人”，因此使徒愿意为爱基督的缘故把万事都看作粪土，并且说无论是患难、困苦、逼迫、饥饿、危险、刀剑都不能使他与基督的爱隔绝，他以这话向教会挑战，要教会也效法他。他更快乐地说：“靠着爱我们的主，在这一切的事上已经得胜有余了。”
求主使我们知道你是至宝贵的主！
“你的爱是我惟一的产业，在天上或地下，我没有别的需要；虽然我恳切呼求，天天缠扰你，但除了你的爱，我别无所求。”
March 20
“My beloved.” –Song of Solomon 2:8
This was a golden name which the ancient
Church in her most joyous moments was wont to give to the Anointed of the Lord.
When the time of the singing of birds was come, and the voice of the turtle was
heard in her land, her love-note was sweeter than either, as she sang, “My
beloved is mine and I am His: He feedeth among the lilies.” Ever in her
song of songs doth she call Him by that delightful name, “My
beloved!” Even in the long winter, when idolatry had withered the garden
of the Lord, her prophets found space to lay aside the burden of the Lord for a
little season, and to say, as Esaias did, “Now will I sing to my
well-beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard.” Though the
saints had never seen His face, though as yet He was not made flesh, nor had
dwelt among us, nor had man beheld His glory, yet He was the consolation of
Israel, the hope and joy of all the chosen, the “beloved” of all
those who were upright before the Most High. We, in the summer days of the
Church, are also wont to speak of Christ as the best beloved of our soul, and
to feel that He is very precious, the “chiefest among ten thousand, and
the altogether lovely.” So true is it that the Church loves Jesus, and
claims Him as her beloved, that the apostle dares to defy the whole universe to
separate her from the love of Christ, and declares that neither persecutions,
distress, affliction, peril, or the sword have been able to do it; nay, he
joyously boasts, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us.”
O that we knew more of Thee, Thou ever
precious one!
My sole possession is Thy love; In earth beneath, or heaven above, I
have no other store; And though with fervent suit I pray, And importune Thee
day by day, I ask Thee nothing more.
