Morning, August 22, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am lovesick.” — Song of Solomon 5:8

Such is the language of the believer longing after minute-by-minute fellowship with Jesus: he is lovesick for his Lord. Grace-filled souls are never perfectly at ease except when they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from him they lose their peace. The nearer to him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigor, and joy, for these all depend on constant communication with Jesus. What the sun is to the day, what the moon is to the night, what the dew is to the flower, such is Jesus Christ to us. What bread is to the hungry, clothing to the naked, the shadow of a great rock to the traveler in a weary land, such is Jesus Christ to us; and, therefore, if we are not consciously one with him, it comes as no surprise if our spirit cries in the words of the Song, “I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him that I am lovesick.” This earnest longing after Jesus has a blessing attending it: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness…” and therefore, supremely blessed are they who thirst after the Righteous One. Blessed is that hunger, since it comes from God: if I may not have the full-blown favor of being filled, I would seek the same favor in a hungry longing in emptiness and eagerness till I am filled with Christ. If I may not partake of Jesus, it shall be next door to heaven to hunger and thirst after him. There is a holiness about that hunger, since it sparkles among the beatitudes of our Lord. But the blessing involves a promise. Such hungry ones “shall be filled” with what they are desiring. If Christ thus causes us to long after himself, he will certainly satisfy those longings; and when he does come to us, as come he will, oh, how delightful it will be!