But the most that the watchmen can do is to show the way or the teachings. In order to meet the Lord, you have to go to the Lord yourself. No watchman can do this for you. Finding the watchman is not the same as finding the Lord. Every seeking heart must deal directly with the Lord and be dealt with directly by the Lord. Although the watchmen are useful, they sometimes turn out to be useless. When the Lord is dealing with you, you will not receive anything if you depend too much on others. You have to see that you have to leave the watchmen in order to find the way to the Beloved. You may experience the same thing as this maiden, who meets her beloved as soon as she leaves him.

Going about the city is necessary. But we cannot find the Lord this way. The broad places are necessary, but they will not lead us to the Lord. The Lord wants her to take only one way, which the watchmen cannot help her to find.

Verse 4 says, "It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me." Now she finds the beloved. What does this mean? It does not mean that going about the city is absolutely justified, and it does not mean that the streets and the broad places are the right places to go. Nor does it mean that she was perfected by confessing her failures before the watchmen. There are still many lessons for her to learn. She is not only in the Lord's heart; she is also in the Lord's hand. The fact that she is able to find the Lord again is not a sign that she has been perfected. It merely means that the Lord realizes that she can only take so much testing. Although she is still far from perfection, her desperation for the Lord causes Him to gladly reveal Himself to her. He brings this period of testing to a conclusion and waits before taking her on further in the way ahead. The seeking of a person who is not in complete union with the Lord is mixed and imperfect. But the Lord does not have the time to deal with this mixture now. In the initial period of experience, the Lord is willing to allow those who seek to find, even though their seeking may not be spiritual. This experience is like that which is described in Ezekiel 47:3-5, where one is measured and brought through the water. The Lord has measured her, and He is now taking her through. This portion of the journey has been under the Lord's measuring.

"I held him, and would not let him go." She thinks that she has regained what she lost. She may think that she lost Him because she did not hold tight enough. Therefore, she holds Him tight now. Once she was not alert enough in her feelings, and she allowed Him to slip away. Now she has to be watchful to guard Him. Although she realizes that she needs to come out before she can be with the Lord, her heart's desire is still for His presence in her feelings. Part of the lesson of coming out has been learned, but the lesson of faith has not yet been learned. She has indeed risen, but she has not yet gone away with Him. She has not been brought to the point where she allows the Lord to come and go as He pleases. She does not realize that in a life of faith, it is impossible to retain the feeling of the Lord's presence forever. She still holds on to this experience. She has not realized that the feeling of His presence should be allowed to come and go. When He is pleased to give us the feeling of His presence, we can have it. But when He is not pleased to give us this feeling, we should gladly relinquish it, holding on to Him and on to all that He is by faith. But the maiden does not know this yet. She still thinks that the best experience is the feeling of His presence. She is still not aware of (even though she may have heard of it) a way and a life of faith. Therefore, she holds Him tight and will not let Him go. Little does she realize that holding with the flesh will only result in more loss. A spiritual pursuit allows the Lord to have the full freedom in everything, whereas a soulish pursuit plans everything for oneself, even though he is seeking the Lord's presence.