The living Vine, CHRIST chose it for Himself:--
GOD gave to man for use and sustenance
Corn, wine, and oil, and each of these is good:
And CHRIST is Bread of life and Light of life.
But yet, He did not choose the summer corn,
That shoots up straight and free in one quick growth.
And has its day, is done, and springs no more;
Nor yet the olive, all whose boughs are spread
In the soft air, and never lose a leaf,
Flowering and fruitful in perpetual peace;
But only this, for Him and His is one,--
That everlasting, ever-quickening Vine,
That gives the heat and passion of the world,
Through its own life-blood, still renewed and shed.
. . . . . .
The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine;
Is it the poorer for that spirit shed?
The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof;
Are they the richer for that gift's excess?
_Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;_
_Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth;_
_For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice;_
_And whoso suffers most, hath most to give._

Yet one figure more is used by the Bridegroom: "The smell of thy breath
[is] like apples," or rather citrons. In the first section the bride
exclaims:--

As the citron-tree among the trees of the wood,
So is my Beloved among the sons.
I delighted and sat down under His shadow,
And His fruit was sweet to my taste.

Here we find the outcome of that communion. The citrons on which she had
fed perfumed her breath, and imparted to her their delicious odour. The
Bridegroom concludes his description:--

Thy mouth [is] like the best wine,
That goeth down smoothly--
For my Beloved--

interjects the bride,

Causing the lips of those that are asleep to move.

How wondrous the grace that has made the bride of CHRIST to be all this
to her Beloved! Upright as the palm, victorious, and evermore fruitful
as she grows heavenward; gentle and tender as the Vine, self-forgetful
and self-sacrificing, not merely bearing fruit in spite of adversity,
but bearing her richest fruits through it;--feasting on her Beloved, as
she rests beneath His shade, and thereby partaking of His
fragrance;--wh