le from this snare.

The bride continues: "The flashes of love are flashes of fire, a very
flame of the LORD." It is worthy of note that this is the only
occurrence of this word "LORD" in this book. But how could it be omitted
here? For love is of GOD, and GOD is love.

To her request the Bridegroom replies with reassuring words:--

Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can the floods drown it:
If a man would give all the substance of his house
for love,
It would utterly be contemned.

The love which grace has begotten in the heart of the bride is itself
divine and persistent; many waters cannot quench it, nor the floods
drown it. Suffering and pain, bereavement and loss may test its
constancy, but they will not quench it. Its source is not human or
natural; like the life, it is hidden with CHRIST in GOD. What "shall
separate us from the love of CHRIST? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in
all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creation [R.V. margin], shall be able
to separate us from the love of GOD, which is in CHRIST JESUS our LORD."
Our love to GOD is secured by GOD'S love to us. To the soul really
rescued by grace, no bribe to forsake GOD'S love will be finally
successful. "If a man would give all the substance of his house for
love, it would utterly be contemned."

Freed from anxiety on her own account, the happy bride next asks
guidance, and fellowship in service with her LORD, on behalf of those
who have not yet reached her favoured position.

We have a little sister,
And she hath no breasts:
What shall we do for our sister
In the day when she shall be spoken for?

How beautifully her conscious union with the Bridegroom appears in her
expressions. "_We_ have a little sister," not _I_ have, etc.; "what
shall _we_ do for our sister," etc.? She has now no private
relationships nor interests; in all things she is one with Him. And we
see a further development of grace in the very question. Towards the
close of the last section she recognized the Bridegroom as her
Instructor. She will not now make her own plans about her little sister,
and as