October 15: For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. Isa. 54:5, 6

The teaching of this oft-repeated and beautiful symbol, by which the Lord would have us understand and appreciate his great love and tender care for us as his Church, is so plain that it seems strange that any should fail to comprehend it… And when once clearly seen and fully appreciated, we feel sure that none will regret the use by the Spirit of any figures used to show the Church and her relationship to her Lord—especially that representing her as the chaste virgin espoused to Christ and soon to be made one with him in nature and likeness and glory and work. As the figure of head and body represented the care of the Lord in and over the Church during his actual absence in "a far country," the figure of the betrothed or espoused virgin, longing for the coming of the Bridegroom and the consummation of her hopes and his promises, represents the actual state of the case far better. R1386