Oh!'istians to tho blessed sacrament is the love of Christ. The banner tells of battle and of victory. We are told that after the conflict between Israel and Amalek in Rephidim, when the victory was won through the sustained persevering prayer of Moses, " Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: for he said, Because the Lord bath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation" (Exod. xvii. 15, 16). Moses said," Jehovah is my Hanner;" tile bride says," His banner over me is love." The Hebrew words, indeed, are different, but the thought is similar. Jehovah will have war against the enemies of his people. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him" (Isa. lix. 19). The Lord is his people's banner, their rallying-point, the centre round which they range themselves in the hour of danger, when trials and temptations thicken, and the fiery darts of the wicked one are most frequent and most deadly. The banner is the Lord himself-his presence, his love. But as the standards round which our troops have fought are cherished and honoured, and reverently preserved in our cathedrals; so the royal banner which had led the soldiers of the cross to victory floats over the banqueting-house of the King. It is the token of his presence. He is there with his faithful ones; he receives them to his board; his banner is love. His love, which was their strength in the day of conflict, is the joy of their souls in the blessed hour of holy communion with their Lord. But the words run," His banner over me was love;" "The Lord is my Banner." We seem to see here a foreshadowing of those very precious words of Holy Scripture, "The Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me," The love of the Lord Jesus Christ is a personal, an individual love. "The Lord knoweth them that are his; " he knows them one and all. His banner is over each of them as ,he brings them into his banqueting-house, as he draws them ever nearer to himself; and that banner is love. 'l'hat unutterable love is their defence in times of danger, their joy and delight in seasons of spiritual enjoyment. Their earnest effort is so to lift up their hearts unto the Lord that they "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." The banqueting-house to which he brings the faithful here is the ante-room of the true presence-chamber of the King. "Here we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: here we know in part; but then shall we know even as also we are known." That banqueting-house is the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. There also his banner, which is love, will be over his elected saints. But it will no longer lead them to the battle, to hard and difficult struggles; it will tell of victory and glory, and of the unveiled presence of the King. Heart of man cannot tell what is the joy of those who in that banqueting-house sit down at the marriage supper of· the Lamb. Then the bride shall be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, the tine linen which is the righteousness of saints (Rev. xix. 8). Then each true soldier of the cross, who with that banner :floating over him has fought the good fight of faith, shall see that banner in all its glorious beauty, and sit beneath it very near the King; for it is written, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." 4. The bride's longing. She is sick of love. The joy of the bridegroom's love is too great and overwhelming; she is fainting in delight too sweet for her powers. She asks for restoratives, "cakes of raisins" (as the word seems to mean, not" flagons") and other fruits which were supposed to possess strengthening or reviving powers. \Vhen the Christian comes into the very presence of the King, he is oppressed with the deep sense of his own unworthiness, his own cold unloving heart, and the King•~ awful holiness and adorable, incomprehensible love; he needs the support of the fruit of the Spirit; he ne~ds to be strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner I?an. ~Vhen God reveals his great love to us, it makes us feel all the more the depth of our mgrat1tude, the coldness, the hardness, of this stony heart of ours.
" 0 Love Di vine, how sweet thou art I When shnll I find my willing heart All taken up by theo? I thirst, I faint, I die to prove The grentuess of redeeming love, The love of Christ to me." 46 THE SONG OF SOLO:\WN. [on, n. 1-17,