“As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
Faith, in the Scripture, is spoken of under the emblem of all the senses. It is sight: “Look to me and be saved.” It is hearing: “Hear, that your soul may live.” Faith is smelling: “Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia”; “your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out.” Faith is spiritual touch. By this faith the woman came behind and touched the hem of Christ’s garment, and by this we handle the things of the good word of life. Faith is equally the spirit’s taste. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” “Except a man eat my flesh,” says Christ, “and drink my blood, there is no life in him.”
This “taste” is faith in one of its highest operations. One of the first performances of faith is hearing. We hear the voice of God, not with the outward ear alone, but with the inward ear. We hear it as God’s Word, and we believe it to be so; that is the “hearing” of faith. Then our mind looks upon the truth as it is presented to us. That is to say, we understand it, we perceive its meaning; that is the “seeing” of faith. Next we discover its preciousness. We begin to admire it, and find how fragrant it is; that is faith in its “smell.” Then we appropriate the mercies which are prepared for us in Christ; that is faith in its “touch.” Hence follow the enjoyments, peace, delight, communion; which are faith in its “taste.”
Any one of these acts of faith is saving. To hear Christ’s voice as the sure voice of God in the soul will save us; but that which gives true enjoyment is the aspect of faith wherein Christ, by holy taste, is received into us, and made, by inward and spiritual apprehension of his sweetness and preciousness, to be the food of our souls. It is then we sit “under his shadow with great delight,” and find his fruit sweet to our taste.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
