Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Devotional For

July 5

      "A garden enclosed" (Song of Solomon iv. 12).
      
      The figure here is a garden enclosed, not a wilderness. The garden soil is a cultivated soil, very different from the roadside or the wilderness.
      
      The idea of a garden is culture. The ground has to be prepared, to be broken up by ploughing, to be mellowed by harrowing, all the stones removed, the roots of all natural growth dug up, for the good things we are seeking are not natural growths and will not grow in our soil.
      
      We all start on the old basis and try to improve the old nature, but that is not God's way. His way is to get self out of the way entirely, and let Him create anew out of nothing, so that all shall be of Him; and we must find Jesus the Alpha and Omega.
      
      The thing you want to learn here is to die. There can be no real life till self dies, and don't try to die yourself, but ask God to slay you, and He will make a thorough work of it.
      
      This the secret nature hideth,
          Summer dies and lives again,
      Spring from winter's grave ariseth,
          Harvest grows from buried grain.