October 1, Morning
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." — Song of Songs 7:13 · KJV
The spouse desires to give 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 autumn 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 in new labors; our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soul pledges herself to new efforts. But we have some old fruits too. There is our first love — a choice fruit that, and one Jesus delights in! There is our first faith, that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of all things. There is the joy we felt when first we knew the Lord; let us revive it. We have our old memories of the promises. How faithful God has been! In sickness, how softly He made our bed; in deep waters, how calmly He buoyed us up; in the flaming furnace, how graciously He delivered us. Old fruits indeed! We have many of them, for His mercies have been more than the hairs of our head. We must regret our old sins, but then we have had repentances He has given us, by which we have wept our way to the cross and learned the worth 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 sole 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 You of one good fruit from the soil that You have watered with Your bloody sweat. Our all shall be Yours, Yours only, O Jesus, our Beloved!