the south wind

I'm almost finished reading Jeanne Guyon's commentary on Song of Songs. I wanted to share this here:

"As the Bridegroom has spread abroad His love and His soul in the heart of the bride, so she in turn pours her soul into the heart of her Beloved. As a snowbank upon a hillside exposed to the sun comes forth from itself, gives up its form, and melts and runs away on the side on which the warmth-giving rays fall upon it, so the soul of the spouse melted and ran toward the voice of her Well Beloved, coming forth from self and the confinement of her nature to follow Him who has called her.

But how is this holy melting of the soul into her Beloved accomplished? The extreme delight of the Bridegroom in the thing loved, produces in her a spiritual impotence, so that she no longer has the power to dwell in self; and thus, like melted balsam, deprived of consistency and solidity, she runs and flows into that which she loves. She does not hurry herself by a sudden effort, nor does she cling and clasp, as though she would become united by a force, but she only flows gently along, like a transparent and liquid thing, into the Divinity she adores. And as we see the clouds, thickened and driven by the south wind, melt and turn into rain, and no longer able to contain themselves, fall and run upon the ground, mingling with and tempering the earth so that they become one with it; so the soul, which, though loving, was still dwelling in self, issues forth in this holy and blessed stream, leaving herself behind forever, not only to be united to her Beloved, but to be wholly mingled and made one with Him."
-Treatise on the Love of God, Saint Francis de Sales, excerpt taken from Jeanne Guyon's Song of the Bride