“Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee,
       O my beloved.” 
              — Song of Solomon 7:13

The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart
has “all manner of pleasant fruits,” both “old and new,” and they are
laid up for our Beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us
survey our stores. We have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new
joy, new gratitude; we wish to make new resolves and carry them out by
new labours; our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soul is
pledging herself to new efforts. But we have some old fruits too. There
is our first love: a choice fruit that! and Jesus delights in it. There
is our first faith: that simple faith by which, having nothing, we
became possessors of all things. There is our joy when first we knew
the Lord: let us revive it. We have our old remembrances of the
promises. How faithful has God been! In sickness, how softly did he
make our bed! In deep waters, how placidly did he buoy us up! In the
flaming furnace, how graciously did he deliver us. Old fruits, indeed!
We have many of them, for his mercies have been more than the hairs of
our head. Old sins we must regret, but then we have had repentances
which he has given us, by which we have wept our way to the cross, and
learned the merit of his blood. We have fruits, this morning, both new
and old; but here is the point-they are all laid up for Jesus. Truly,
those are the best and most acceptable services in which Jesus is the
solitary aim of the soul, and his glory, without any admixture
whatever, the end of all our efforts. Let our many fruits be laid up
only for our Beloved; let us display them when he is with us, and not
hold them up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the key in our
garden door, and none shall enter to rob thee of one good fruit from
the soil which thou hast watered with thy bloody sweat. Our all shall
be thine, thine only, O Jesus, our Beloved!

On this day...

• 1 Samuel 5 - 2023
• 1 Samuel 4 - 2023
• Our open heart - 2011
• Perseverance of the saints - 2011
• Christ cures them that are dead - 2011
• Deal with sin as sin - 2011
• Neglect of the Bible - 2011
• Grace must find expression in life - 2011
• Invaluable Blood of Jesus - 2011
• Sin breaks the rules - 2011