blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?

Others, again, who may not have lost their first love, may yet be
feeling that the occasional interruptions to communion are becoming more
and more unbearable, as the world becomes less and He becomes more. His
absence is an ever-increasing distress. "'Oh that I knew where I might
find Him!' 'Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Thy love
is better than wine.' Would that His love were strong and constant like
mine, and that He never withdrew the light of His countenance!"

Poor mistaken one! There is a love far stronger than thine waiting,
longing for satisfaction. The Bridegroom is waiting for thee all the
time; the conditions that debar His approach are all of thine own
making. Take the right place before Him, and He will be most ready, most
glad, to "Satisfy thy deepest longings, to meet, supply thine every
need." What should we think of a betrothed one whose conceit and
self-will prevented not only the consummation of her own joy, but of his
who had given her his heart? Though never at rest in his absence, she
cannot trust him fully; and she does not care to give up her own name,
her own rights and possessions, her own will to him who has become
necessary for her happiness. She would fain claim him fully, without
giving up herself fully to him; but it can never be: while she retains
her own name, she can never claim his. She may not promise to love and
honour if she will not also promise to obey: and till her love reaches
that point of surrender she must remain an unsatisfied lover--she
cannot, as a satisfied bride, find rest in the home of her husband.
While she retains her own will, and the control of her own possessions,
she must be content to live on her own resources; she cannot claim his.

Could there be a sadder proof of the extent and reality of the Fall than
the deep-seated distrust of our loving LORD and MASTER which makes us
hesitate to give ourselves entirely up to Him, which fears that He might
require something beyond our powers, or call for something that we
should find it hard to give or to do? The real secret of an unsatisfied
life lies too often in an unsurrendered will. And yet how foolish, as
well as how wrong, this is! Do we fancy that we are wiser than He? or
that our love for ourselves is more tender and strong than His? or that
we know ourselves better than He does? How our distrust must grieve and
wound afresh the tender