Songs 6:11 I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished and the pomegranates budded… What do we mean by the valley? There are two things to which I think the figure is fairly applicable, viz. outward estate and inward condition, both yielding fruit. 1. The former is often experienced, and is requisite for us all. (1) I speak to some who are young. You, in reference to age, are in the valley, not yet ascended to the higher levels of mature life, of paternity and seniority. There are fruits to be borne in this valley, fruits in their season, and in this condition — obedience, diligence, docility, consecration to Christ. (2) I speak to some who are poor; you are in the valley in reference to social position. There are fruits in this condition; and beautiful it is to see how by many patience, submission, contentment, thankful ness, practical generosity, are borne here. (3) I speak to some who are in affliction. This is a valley through which all pass, young, old, rich and poor alike. Need I say it has fruit? "Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, experience hope."(4) There is yet a valley before us all, and through which all must pass — "the valley of the shadow of death" There will be fruit to be borne there. Grace will not cease its exercise with the activities of life. 2. But I would more especially urge the thought that there is a valley in inward experience, and that this is especially fruitful. Humility. I need not attempt to define this grace, nor yet to extol it. Both will best be done, perhaps, in exhibiting some of its fruits. (1) There are many that relate to God. True humility is a grace of God's Spirit. It thus comes from God, and it has many bearings towards God. It best qualifies us for knowing God. Nothing, however, so hides God from us as pride, which is like a vapour concealing the sun. The humble spirit, low in its own estimation, looking up to God, sees excellences, beauties in Him, which to others are concealed. As knowledge of God, so repentance towards God springs from humility. Nor less is it the source of faith. To trust wholly in the merits of another, to forego all claim to personal merit or righteousness, is a plan of salvation which staggers and offends many. The same spirit is equally valuable in producing submission, contentment under affliction. And so in many ways bearing on the nature and government of God, humility is most fruitful Thus we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And thus it secures God's favour. As the springs flow down from the mountain, leaving it bare, but into the valleys, making them fertile, so do God's choicest influences avoid the proud spirit, but descend on the humble and the meek. "Unto that man will I look, and with him will I dwell," says the High and Lofty One, "who is humble, and of a contrite spirit."(2) Nor are the fruits borne by this lowly grace less important in relation to man. We are bound together in life by indissoluble ties, domestic, social and civil. Christianity claims to regulate all these, and it does so by regulating and rectifying the spirit which underlies them all. And it will be found that of all the dispositions most likely to remedy whatever is wrong in social life, and to confirm all that is good, is this spirit of humility. The more you look into yourself and observe others, the more I think you will find that the cause of nearly all that affects our social life, injuriously taints it, casts a shadow over it, makes it a jarring, distasteful, unattractive thing, when it ought to be only transparent, noble and pure, is the spirit of pride. It is this, unconsciously often, but really, which gives censoriousness to judgment, asperity to feeling, bitterness to expression, unkindness to act. We think so much of ourselves, that we despise and offend others. The Lord help us all, for the sake of each other, to walk more in this valley. (3) While this spirit, this valley-like grace, bears such blessed fruit towards God and towards man, it does so equally to its possessor. We cannot have a "conscience void of offence" in these two ways Without having the comfort of it ourselves. It often secures material advantages. Seest thou a proud man, a boaster, or "one wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him." Seest thou a truly humble man, one willing to stoop to do anything, go anywhere, serve any one, that man is on the road to preferment. Far more important than any material benefit is the spiritual blessing it secures. What peace it brings! While the proud spirit, like the lofty mountain-top, is exposed to constant storms, the humble spirit, like the valley, escapes them, and its peace flows like the river, of which it is the bed. What leisure it gives, too! While pride is ever busy on the watch for the appropriate tokens of respect, and like the swelling Haman, has all else embittered if these are withheld, humility cares little for these things, and, like Mordecai, has leisure to think about others, to care for a loved Esther, and to save a nation besides. What influence, too! When Moses descended from the mountain, subdued, overwhelmed by a sense of God's greatness and his own littleness, he "wist not that the skin of his face shone," but it did so, and his power over the people was never greater than then. These, however, are only moral results, though as such they indicate God's approval of the spirit He thus causes to be honoured. There are more directly spiritual ones. "God giveth grace to the humble," and that in a most signal manner. He does not give it except to the humble. Only the empty vessel is receptive, and only in proportion as it is so. Faith is the glance of humility, prayer its sigh; this sweet grace underlies all graces, and is the soil in which all grow; and it secures more, "grace for grace." As by the law of nature, water, with all the virtue it holds in solution, seeks the lowest level, fertilizing the valley and making it "bring forth and bud"; so grace from Christ in all its various forms descends to the humblest spirit, causing it to bear "much fruit." If we would learn of Christ, receive from Christ, be filled with the fulness of Christ, be qualified for the service of Christ, receive commission from Christ, be imbued with the spirit of Christ, we must be humble; like Mary, must sit at the Master's feet; like the beloved disciple, must fall down before Him; like Isaiah, must be awed by a sense of His glory, and say, "Woe is me"; like Paul, must in a sense, suffer the loss of all things, be weak in order to be strong. There are laws in the spiritual universe as in the natural, a Christian philosophy as We]l as a secular; and one of the principles of the former, as of the latter, is that the lowest level is the most receptive, and that which seeks and obtains most of all that is fertilizing and good. "Though the Lord be high, He hath respect unto the lowly." (J. Viney, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded. |
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