Song of Solomon 6:1

The lovely description of the Bridegroom raises a further question in the minds of the daughters of Jerusalem. They had asked, "What is your beloved more than another beloved?" Now they ask, "Where has your beloved gone?" The full revival of the bride's affections lies in the answer to these two questions. If our love to Christ has grown cold, let us simply answer the two questions, "Who is He?" and "Where is He?" Then, as we occupy ourselves with Him again, the glow of His love will warm our cold hearts.

First, the effect of the bride's testimony. The daughters of Jerusalem now long to seek the Beloved with the bride. John the Baptist, with a heart full of admiration, looked at Jesus as He walked and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" That drew his disciples away after the One their master had testified about. In the same way, the bride's testimony drew her companions to the Beloved, and they could not resist. Nothing affects souls like the witness of an overflowing heart in the power of the Holy Spirit.

How true it is that the best way to attract others to Christ is to be able to show them that He means everything to us. If they can see that our hearts are full of His beauties and glories, then what we say about Him will be more effective.

Here for the first time we hear the Bridegroom's voice. He calls the bride the "most beautiful among women." She may be black in her own eyes, hated and persecuted by others, but in His sight she is the "most beautiful among women." Nothing will change Christ's estimate of His people. Neither the failure of the saints, nor the slander of the world, will alter His appreciation of His own. He always sees them in all the value of His own work, and according to the purposes of His grace.

Notice that the daughters of Jerusalem naturally conclude it must have been the Bridegroom who left His bride, not the bride who had left her Bridegroom. They heard her speak of Him in such glowing terms that they could not imagine her ever wandering from Him. He is so loved, so admired, so good, so appreciated. Surely her eye could never stop gazing on Him. Her heart could never stop delighting in Him, and she could never, never grow tired of Him. So they ask, "Where has your beloved gone? … Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?" What a sharp, cutting reproof, though an indirect one! And how keenly her now sensitive heart must have felt it. But in praising her Lord, she condemned herself.

When the soul is wholly taken up with Christ, the results are rich and varied. To lose sight of self and have Him as our one object brings immediate, certain blessing. When Christians slip into a low, dull state of soul, what will bring them out of it fastest and best? Being filled and taken up with Christ for themselves, and speaking of Him to others. The experience of the spouse is a beautiful illustration of this truth. Her failure, no doubt, was thinking and caring about herself: self-occupation and self-indulgence. But the daughters of Jerusalem challenged her to say how her Beloved was better than others. That question led her to think and speak of Him alone. As she went on, her own soul was the first thing to be fully and happily restored. She was lifted to a level of communion she had never reached before.