be dismissed with a favourable answer, if it was only to pre- vent her from wearying them with her entreaties : yet they also were refused, and in such a manner as effectually to silence them : " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Still however she would not give up all hope, but with deeper prostration than before renewed her petition : but the answer she received was more discouraging than before, in that it blamed her presumption in hoping to participate in any respect the blessings which were designed only for God's pecu- liar people : " It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it unto dogs." Who would believe, that, after all this, she should persevere in her request, and succeed at last ? Yet so she did": and such shall be the success of every child of man that " continues instant in prayer." To this effect our Lord assures us, in a parable which was spoken for the express pur- pose of encouraging persons " to pray and not faint." A poor widow, we are told, obtained redress from an unjust judge through mere dint of her importunity : and from thence we are taught to draw this inference ; " And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry day and night unto him, tliough he bear long with them ? I tell you, that he will avenge them speedily P." Here then we are warranted in affirming that the Bride's success shall be realized in us, if only, like her, we rise to the occasion, and press through every impediment to the enjoyment of our God. God " never did, nor ever will, say to any, Seek ye my face in vain."]
But that we may profit more fully by the example of the Bride, let us notice,
III. The use she made of her success —
Having found her Beloved, she held him and would not let him go, till she had brought him into her mother's house, where she hoped her communion with him would be more intimate, and free from inter- ruption. And thus should we also,
1 . Exert ourselves to retain the Saviour with us —
[There is a holy violence which wei are permitted to use, hke that of Jacob, who " wrestled all night with the Angel, and said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless mei." But how often, for want of this, is our enjoyment of the Saviour short and transient, " like the early dew, or the morning cloud that passeth away!" We should "stir ourselves up to lay hold on him ;" and, if ho would leave us, we must constrain him, as the disciples at Emniaus did, to take up his abode with
° Matt. XV. 22 — 28. p Luke xviii. 1—8. i Gen. xxxii. 24 — 28.