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One-sided affection is incomplete, unsatisfying, and unhappy; it may be disastrous. Real friendship and true marriage imply mutual love, reciprocal kindnesses. So is it in those personal relations between Christ and the Christian soul, which are the foundations of the spiritual life of mankind. It is only well when the friend of the Saviour can truly say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am his."

I. THE CLAIM MADE BY THE CHRISTIAN TO A SPIRITUAL PROPERTY IN CHRIST

1. Our Lord and Saviour is ours, to exercise in our favour his mediatorial offices, as our Prophet, Priest, and King.

2. He is ours, to reveal his intimate affection to our heart.

"The opening heavens around me shine
With beams of heavenly bliss,
While Jesus says that he is mine,
And whispers I am his!"

3. He is ours, to impart a value and a charm to all our other possessions. These, whether material or spiritual, are altogether different from what they would otherwise be; they are irradiated and dignified by the glory which shines upon them from our Divine Friend. "All things are ours."

II. THE CLAIM MADE BY CHRIST TO A SPIRITUAL PROPERTY IN THE CHRISTIAN.

1. The Saviour regards his people with an especial favour and affection. In a sense, all men are Christ's; he assumed the human nature which is common to us all, and he died for all. But in a peculiar manner they are his who acknowledge his mission, receive his gospel, confide in his mediation, obey his commandments. Towards such his regard is one of complacency and personal affection.

2. The Saviour regards his people as his to care for, to protect, and to save. Having loved his own, he loves them unto the end. There are no circumstances in which he will not remember them, interpose upon their behalf and for their deliverance.

3. The Saviour possesses his people in order to exercise over them a peculiar authority. As the husband is the head of the wife, and as his affection does not destroy his authority, but makes it benign and welcome; so our Divine Lord, who loves his spouse, the Church, which he purchased with his precious blood, directs and governs the object of his tender interest with kindness which is yet authoritative. It is the prerogative and joy of Christ's people to take their Lord's will as the binding law of their individual and social life.

APPLICATION. It is forevery Christian to remember that in this relation the Lord Jesus is the superior. "We love him, because he first loved us." This fact should infuse gratitude into our affection, and should urge us to responsive consecration and obedience. - T.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

WEB: My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies.