10. The Hand of the Beloved at the Door of the Heart
10
The Hand of the Beloved at the Door of the Heart1
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door.
—Song of Solomon 5:4
“My beloved put in his hand”—that is, with the outward ministry of the Word. He put in His hand—which is His Spirit (Acts 11:21; Ezek. 3:14; Luke 11:20)—in the hole of my heart, to make a wider hole. I confess this putting of Christ’s hand in the keyhole of the heart is better felt than told. But it is this: when Christ sent His voice and tongue through the door, it did not [do] the work, and therefore He caused His hand to follow His tongue. He gave with the hand of His Spirit such a blow, until bed and house and all did shake, and the door fell on the floor. Does anyone who knows Christ’s working not know this—that when Christ speaks, His Spirit will make in the heart a stirring and such a glowing, that they will find His soft hand rubbing their cold heart? And when a key and lock are rusted, we rub oil upon the rusty part. When Christ comes, He finds the wards,2 sprents3 go in and out at will, and He takes will and heart and affections in His hand and scours them with His file. “I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12). “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us?” (Luke 24:32). “He brought me to the banqueting house” (Song 2:4). This was a pull of Christ, taking her by the shoulders and bringing her into the king’s pantry.
Hence, here are two actions. One of the Word—painting out with alluring and soul-delighting words Christ’s fair white and ruddy face; this is a moral yoke. And withal there is a real action of the hand of the Spirit in all His ten fingers working upon the lock and setting, engraving, and stamping Christ in deep letters upon the soul. As when a fish is taken there are two actions, the bait alluring and beguiling the fish with hope of meat. This is like the working of the Word, which is Christ’s bait; but when He wins us to dry land, then, when the fish is hooked, there is a real action of the fisher, drawing and hauling the fish to land; it leaps and flutters and wrestles while it bleeds with the hook. And this answers to the Holy Spirit’s powerful hauling and drawing of the soul in all the affections, that the soul feels joy, comfort, delight, desire, longing, and believing, while nibbling and biting Christ’s bait.
1. Quaint Sermons, 91–93.
2. ward: projecting ridge of metal in a lock casing or keyhole permitting only the insertion of a key with a corresponding notch
3. sprent: work of the lock