{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26172/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26172","id":"gutenberg_26172","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26172","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Song of Solomon -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Free Elf, Emmy and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUnion and Communion\n\nOR\n\nTHOUGHTS ON THE\n\nSONG OF SOLOMON\n\n\nBY J. HUDSON TAYLOR, M.R.C.S.\n\nFOREWORD BY REV. J. STUART HOLDEN, M.A.\n\n_THIRD EDITION_\n\n          MORGAN & SCOTT, 12 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS,\n          LONDON, E.C.\n\n          CHINA INLAND MISSION, NEWINGTON GREEN,\n          LONDON, N.\n\n          PHILADELPHIA, TORONTO, MELBOURNE, SHANGHAI\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nTHIS little book, whose design is to lead the devout Bible-student into\nthe Green Pastures of the Good Shepherd, thence to the Banqueting House\nof the King, and thence to the service of the Vineyard, is one of the\nabiding legacies of Mr. Hudson Taylor to the Church. In the power of an\nevident unction from the Holy One, he has been enabled herein to unfold\nin simplest language the deep truth of the believer's personal union\nwith The Lord, which under symbol and imagery is the subject of The Song\nof Songs. And in so doing he has ministered an unfailing guidance to one\nof the most commonly neglected and misunderstood of the Sacred\nScriptures. For how many have said in bewilderment at the richness of\nlanguage and profusion of figure which both conceal and reveal its\nmeaning, \"How can I understand except some man should guide me?\" It is\nsafe to say that these pages cannot fail to help and bless all such.\n\nTo those who knew him, Mr. Hudson Taylor's life was in the nature of\nemphasis upon the value of this small volume. For what he here expounds\nhe also exemplified. If his words indicate the possibility and\nblessedness of union with Christ, his whole life declared it in actual\nexperience. He lived as one who was \"married to Another, even to Him Who\nis raised from the dead\"; and as the outcome of that union he brought\nforth \"fruit unto God.\" What he was has given a meaning and confirmation\nto what he has here said, which cannot be exaggerated. It is inevitable\nthat there are those who will read and reject as mystical and\nunpractical, that which is so directly concerned with the intimacies of\nfellowship with the unseen Lord. I would, however, venture to remind\nsuch that the writer of these pages founded the China Inland Mission! He\ntranslated his vision of the Beloved into life-long strenuous service,\nand so kept it undimmed through all the years of a life which has had\nhardly a parallel in these our days.\n\nThis is really the commendation of the following short chapters. They\nproclaim an Evangel which has been distilled from experience, and form\nat least a track through this fenced portion of God's Word, which will\nlead many an one who treads it into the joys of Emmanuel's land.\n\n                                              J. STUART HOLDEN.\n\n        ST. PAUL'S,\n  PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON, W.\n      _June 1, 1914._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                              PAGE\n\n  INTRODUCTORY                                  1\n\n  THE TITLE                                     7\n\n\n  SECTION I\n  THE UNSATISFIED LIFE AND ITS REMEDY           8\n\n\n  SECTION II\n  COMMUNION BROKEN--RESTORATION                27\n\n\n  SECTION III\n  THE JOY OF UNBROKEN COMMUNION                37\n\n\n  SECTION IV\n  COMMUNION AGAIN BROKEN--RESTORATION          47\n\n\n  SECTION V\n  FRUITS OF RECOGNIZED UNION                   58\n\n\n  SECTION VI\n  UNRESTRAINED COMMUNION                       70\n\n\n  APPENDIX                                     83\n\n\n\n\nTHE SONG OF SOLOMON\n\nINTRODUCTORY\n\n\nTHE great purpose towards which all the dispensational dealings of GOD\nare tending, is revealed to us in the fifteenth chapter of the First\nEpistle of Paul to the Corinthians: \"That GOD may be all in all.\" With\nthis agrees the teaching of our LORD in John xvii. 3: \"And this is (the\nobject of) life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true GOD,\nand JESUS CHRIST, whom Thou hast sent.\" This being so, shall we not act\nwisely by keeping this object ever in view in our daily life and study\nof GOD'S holy Word?\n\nAll Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, and\nhence no part is, or can be, neglected without loss. Few portions of the\nWord will help the devout student more in the pursuit of this\nall-important \"knowledge of GOD\" than the too-much neglected \"Song of\nSolomon.\" Like other portions of the Word of GOD, this book has its\ndifficulties. But so have all the works of GOD. Is not the fact that\nthey surpass our unaided powers of comprehension and research a\n\"sign-manual\" of divinity? Can feeble man expect to grasp divine power,\nor to understand and interpret the works or the providences of the\nAll-wise? And if not, is it surprising that His Word also needs\nsuperhuman wisdom for its interpretation? Thanks be to GOD, the\nillumination of the HOLY GHOST is promised to all who seek for it: what\nmore can we desire?\n\nRead without the key, this book is specially unintelligible, but that\nkey is easily found in the express teachings of the New Testament. The\nIncarnate Word is the true key to the written Word; but even before the\nincarnation, the devout student of the Old Testament would find much\nhelp to the understanding of the sacred mysteries of this book in the\nprophetic writings; for there Israel was taught that her MAKER was her\nHUSBAND. John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, recognized the\nBridegroom in the person of CHRIST, and said, \"He that hath the bride is\nthe Bridegroom: but the friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and\nheareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice: this\nmy joy therefore is fulfilled.\" Paul, in the fifth chapter of the\nEpistle to the Ephesians, goes still further, and teaches that the union\nof CHRIST with His Church, and her subjection to Him, underlies the very\nrelationship of marriage, and affords the pattern for every godly union.\n\nIn Solomon, the bridegroom king, as well as author of this poem, we\nhave a type of our LORD, the true Prince of peace, in His coming reign.\nThen will be found not merely His bride, the Church, but also a willing\npeople, His subjects, over whom He shall reign gloriously. Then distant\npotentates will bring their wealth, and will behold the glory of the\nenthroned KING, proving Him with hard questions, as once came the Queen\nof Sheba to King Solomon; and blessed will they be to whom this\nprivilege is accorded. A brief glance will suffice them for a lifetime;\nbut what shall be the royal dignity and blessedness of the risen and\nexalted bride! For ever with her LORD, for ever like her LORD, for ever\nconscious that His desire is toward her, she will share alike His heart\nand His throne. Can a study of the book which helps us to understand\nthese mysteries of grace and love be other than most profitable?\n\nIt is interesting to notice the contrast between this book and that\npreceding it. The Book of Ecclesiastes teaches emphatically that \"Vanity\nof vanities, all is vanity\": and is thus the necessary introduction to\nthe Song of Solomon, which shows how true blessing and satisfaction are\nto be possessed. In like manner our SAVIOUR'S teaching in the fourth of\nJohn points out in a word the powerlessness of earthly things to give\nlasting satisfaction, in striking contrast with the flow of blessing\nthat results from the presence of the HOLY GHOST (whose work it is, not\nto reveal Himself but CHRIST as the Bridegroom of the soul); \"Whosoever\ndrinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the\nwater that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I\nshall give him shall be in him a well of water springing\nup\"--overflowing, on and on--\"unto everlasting life.\"\n\nWe shall find it helpful to consider the book in six sections:--.\n\n            I. THE UNSATISFIED LIFE AND ITS REMEDY.\n                                             Chap. i. 2-ii. 7.\n\n           II. COMMUNION BROKEN. RESTORATION.\n                                             Chap. ii. 8-iii. 5.\n\n          III. UNBROKEN COMMUNION.\n                                             Chap. iii. 6-v. 1.\n\n           IV. COMMUNION AGAIN BROKEN. RESTORATION.\n                                             Chap. v. 2-vi. 10.\n\n            V. FRUITS OF RECOGNIZED UNION.\n                                             Chap. vi. 11-viii. 4.\n\n           VI. UNRESTRAINED COMMUNION.\n                                             Chap. viii. 5-14.\n\nIn each of these sections we shall find the speakers to be--the bride,\nthe Bridegroom, and the daughters of Jerusalem; it is not usually\ndifficult to ascertain the speaker, though in some of the verses\ndifferent conclusions have been arrived at. The bride speaks of the\nBridegroom as \"her Beloved\"; the Bridegroom speaks of her as \"His love,\"\nwhile the address of the daughters of Jerusalem is more varied. In the\nfirst four sections they style her \"the fairest among women,\" but in the\nfifth she is spoken of as \"the Shulamite,\" or the King's bride, and also\nas the \"Prince's daughter.\"\n\nThe student of this book will find great help in suitable\nBible-marking. A horizontal line marking off the address of each\nspeaker, with a double line to divide the sections, would be useful, as\nalso perpendicular lines in the margin to indicate the speaker. We have\nourselves ruled a single line to connect the verses which contain the\nutterances of the bride; a double line to indicate those of the\nBridegroom, and a waved line to indicate the addresses of the daughters\nof Jerusalem.\n\nIt will be observed that the bride is the chief speaker in Sections I.,\nII., and is much occupied with herself; but in Section III., where the\ncommunion is unbroken, she has little to say, and appears as the hearer;\nthe daughters of Jerusalem give a long address, and the Bridegroom His\nlongest. In that section for the first time He calls her His bride, and\nallures her to fellowship in service. In Section IV. the bride again is\nthe chief speaker, but after her restoration the Bridegroom speaks at\nlength, and \"upbraideth not.\" In Section V., as we noticed, the bride is\nno longer called \"the fairest among women,\" but claims herself to be,\nand is recognized as, the royal bride. In Section VI. the Bridegroom\nclaims her from her very birth, and not merely from her espousals, as\nGOD in Ezekiel xvi. claimed Israel.\n\n          In the secret of His presence\n            How my soul delights to hide!\n          Oh, how precious are the lessons\n            Which I learn at JESUS' side:\n          Earthly cares can never vex me,\n            Neither trials lay me low;\n          For when Satan comes to vex me,\n            To the secret place I go!\n\n\n\n\nTHE SONG OF SOLOMON\n\nTHE TITLE\n\n\"_The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's._\"\n\n\nWELL may this book be called _the_ Song of Songs! There is no song like\nit. Read aright, it brings a gladness to the heart which is as far\nbeyond the joy of earthly things as heaven is higher than the earth. It\nhas been well said that this is a song which grace alone can teach, and\nexperience alone can learn. Our SAVIOUR, speaking of the union of the\nbranch with the vine, adds, \"These things have I spoken unto you, that\nMy joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full\" (John xv.\n11). And the beloved disciple, writing of Him who \"was from the\nbeginning,\" who \"was with the FATHER, and was manifested unto us,\" in\norder that we might share the fellowship which He enjoyed, also says,\n\"These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.\" Union with\nCHRIST, and abiding in CHRIST, what do they not secure? Peace, perfect\npeace; rest, constant rest; answers to all our prayers; victory over all\nour foes; pure, holy living; ever-increasing fruitfulness. All, all of\nthese are the glad outcome of abiding in CHRIST. To deepen this union,\nto make more constant this abiding, is the practical use of this\nprecious Book.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION I\n\nTHE UNSATISFIED LIFE AND ITS REMEDY\n\nCant. i. 2-ii. 7\n\n\nTHERE is no difficulty in recognizing the bride as the speaker in verses\n2-7. The words are not those of one dead in trespasses and sins, to whom\nthe LORD is as a root out of a dry ground--without form and comeliness.\nThe speaker has had her eyes opened to behold His beauty, and longs for\na fuller enjoyment of His love.\n\n          Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth:\n          For Thy love[1] is better than wine.\n\n\nIt is well that it should be so; it marks a distinct stage in the\ndevelopment of the life of grace in the soul. And this recorded\nexperience gives, as it were, a Divine warrant for the desire for\nsensible manifestations of His presence--sensible communications of His\nlove. It was not always so with her. Once she was contented in His\nabsence--other society and other occupations sufficed her; but now it\ncan never be so again. The world can never be to her what it once was;\nthe betrothed bride has learnt to love her LORD, and no other society\nthan His can satisfy her. His visits may be occasional and may be brief;\nbut they are precious times of enjoyment. Their memory is cherished in\nthe intervals, and their repetition longed for. There is no real\nsatisfaction in His absence, and yet, alas! He is not always with her:\nHe comes and goes. Now her joy in Him is a heaven below; but again she\nis longing, and longing in vain, for His presence. Like the\never-changing tide, her experience is an ebbing and flowing one; it may\neven be that unrest is the rule, satisfaction the exception. Is there no\nhelp for this? must it always continue so? Has He, can He have created\nthese unquenchable longings only to tantalize them? Strange indeed it\nwould be if this were the case. Yet are there not many of the LORD'S\npeople whose habitual experience corresponds with hers? They know not\nthe rest, the joy of abiding in CHRIST; and they know not how to attain\nto it, nor why it is not theirs. Are there not many who look back to the\ndelightful times of their first espousals, who, so far from finding\nricher inheritance in CHRIST than they then had, are even conscious that\nthey have lost their first love, and might express their experience in\nthe sad lament:--\n\n          Where is the blessedness I knew\n          When first I saw the Lord?\n\nOthers, again, who may not have lost their first love, may yet be\nfeeling that the occasional interruptions to communion are becoming more\nand more unbearable, as the world becomes less and He becomes more. His\nabsence is an ever-increasing distress. \"'Oh that I knew where I might\nfind Him!' 'Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Thy love\nis better than wine.' Would that His love were strong and constant like\nmine, and that He never withdrew the light of His countenance!\"\n\nPoor mistaken one! There is a love far stronger than thine waiting,\nlonging for satisfaction. The Bridegroom is waiting for thee all the\ntime; the conditions that debar His approach are all of thine own\nmaking. Take the right place before Him, and He will be most ready, most\nglad, to \"Satisfy thy deepest longings, to meet, supply thine every\nneed.\" What should we think of a betrothed one whose conceit and\nself-will prevented not only the consummation of her own joy, but of his\nwho had given her his heart? Though never at rest in his absence, she\ncannot trust him fully; and she does not care to give up her own name,\nher own rights and possessions, her own will to him who has become\nnecessary for her happiness. She would fain claim him fully, without\ngiving up herself fully to him; but it can never be: while she retains\nher own name, she can never claim his. She may not promise to love and\nhonour if she will not also promise to obey: and till her love reaches\nthat point of surrender she must remain an unsatisfied lover--she\ncannot, as a satisfied bride, find rest in the home of her husband.\nWhile she retains her own will, and the control of her own possessions,\nshe must be content to live on her own resources; she cannot claim his.\n\nCould there be a sadder proof of the extent and reality of the Fall than\nthe deep-seated distrust of our loving LORD and MASTER which makes us\nhesitate to give ourselves entirely up to Him, which fears that He might\nrequire something beyond our powers, or call for something that we\nshould find it hard to give or to do? The real secret of an unsatisfied\nlife lies too often in an unsurrendered will. And yet how foolish, as\nwell as how wrong, this is! Do we fancy that we are wiser than He? or\nthat our love for ourselves is more tender and strong than His? or that\nwe know ourselves better than He does? How our distrust must grieve and\nwound afresh the tender heart of Him who was for us the Man of Sorrows!\nWhat would be the feelings of an earthly bridegroom if he discovered\nthat his bride-elect was dreading to marry him, lest, when he had the\npower, he should render her life insupportable? Yet how many of the\nLORD'S redeemed ones treat Him just so! No wonder they are neither happy\nnor satisfied!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut true love cannot be stationary; it must either decline or grow.\nDespite all the unworthy fears of our poor hearts, Divine love is\ndestined to conquer. The bride exclaims:--\n\n          Thine ointments have a goodly fragrance;\n          Thy name is as ointment poured forth;\n          Therefore do the virgins love Thee.\n\nThere was no such ointment as that with which the High Priest was\nanointed: our Bridegroom is a Priest as well as a King. The trembling\nbride cannot wholly dismiss her fears; but the unrest and the longing\nbecome unbearable, and she determines to surrender all, and come what\nmay to follow fully. She will yield her very self to Him, heart and\nhand, influence and possessions. Nothing can be so insupportable as His\nabsence! If He lead to another Moriah, or even to a Calvary, she will\nfollow Him.\n\n          Draw me: we will run after Thee!\n\nBut ah! what follows? A wondrously glad surprise. No Moriah, no Calvary;\non the contrary, a KING! When the heart submits, then JESUS reigns. And\nwhen JESUS reigns, there _is_ rest.\n\nAnd where does He lead His bride?\n\n          The King hath brought me into His chambers.\n\nNot first to the banqueting house--that will come in due season; but\nfirst to be alone with Himself.\n\nHow perfect! Could we be satisfied to meet a beloved one only in public?\nNo; we want to take such an one aside--to have him all to ourselves. So\nwith our MASTER: He takes His now fully consecrated bride aside, to\ntaste and enjoy the sacred intimacies of His wondrous love. The\nBridegroom of His Church longs for communion with His people more than\nthey long for fellowship with Him, and often has to cry:--\n\n          Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice;\n          For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.\n\nAre we not all too apt to seek Him rather because of our need than for\nHis joy and pleasure? This should not be. We do not admire selfish\nchildren who only think of what they can get from their parents, and are\nunmindful of the pleasure that they may give or the service that they\nmay render. But are not we in danger of forgetting that pleasing GOD\nmeans giving Him pleasure? Some of us look back to the time when the\nwords \"To please GOD\" meant no more than not to sin against Him, not to\ngrieve Him; but would the love of earthly parents be satisfied with the\nmere absence of disobedience? Or a bridegroom, if his bride only sought\nhim for the supply of her own need?\n\nA word about the morning watch may not be out of place here. There is no\ntime so profitably spent as the early hour given to JESUS only. Do we\ngive sufficient attention to this hour? If possible, it should be\nredeemed; nothing can make up for it. We must take time to be holy! One\nother thought. When we bring our questions to GOD, do we not sometimes\neither go on to offer some other petition, or leave the closet without\nwaiting for replies? Does not this seem to show little expectation of an\nanswer, and little desire for one? Should we like to be treated so?\nQuiet waiting before GOD would save from many a mistake and from many a\nsorrow.\n\nWe have found the bride making a glad discovery of a KING--her KING--and\nnot a cross, as she expected; this is the first-fruit of her\nconsecration.\n\n          We will be glad and rejoice in Thee,\n          We will make mention of Thy love more than of wine:\n          Rightly do they love Thee.\n\nAnother discovery not less important awaits her. She has seen the face\nof the KING, and as the rising sun reveals that which was hidden in the\ndarkness, so His light has revealed her blackness to her. \"Ah,\" she\ncries, \"I am black\";--\"But comely,\" interjects the Bridegroom, with\ninimitable grace and tenderness. \"Nay, 'black as the tents of Kedar,'\"\nshe continues. \"Yet to Me,\" He responds, \"thou art 'comely as the\ncurtains of Solomon!'\" Nothing humbles the soul like sacred and intimate\ncommunion with the LORD; yet there is a sweet joy in feeling that _He_\nknows _all_, and, notwithstanding, loves us still. Things once called\n\"little negligences\" are seen with new eyes in \"the secret of His\npresence.\" There we see the mistake, the sin, of not keeping our own\nvineyard. This the bride confesses:--\n\n          Look not upon me, because I am swarthy,\n          Because the sun hath scorched me.\n          My mother's sons were incensed against me,\n          They made me keeper of the vineyards;\n          But mine own vineyard have I not kept.\n\nOur attention is here drawn to a danger which is pre-eminently one of\nthis day: the intense activity of our times may lead to zeal in service,\n_to the neglect of personal communion_; but such neglect will not only\nlessen the value of the service, but tend to incapacitate us for the\nhighest service. If we are watchful over the souls of others, and\nneglect our own--if we are seeking to remove motes from our brother's\neye, unmindful of the beam in our own, we shall often be disappointed\nwith our powerlessness to help our brethren, while our MASTER will not\nbe less disappointed in us. Let us never forget that what we are is more\nimportant than what we do; and that all fruit borne when not abiding in\nCHRIST must be fruit of the flesh, and not of the SPIRIT. The sin of\nneglected communion may be forgiven, and yet the effect remain\npermanently; as wounds when healed often leave a scar behind.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe now come to a very sweet evidence of the reality of the heart-union\nof the bride with her LORD. She is one with the GOOD SHEPHERD: her heart\nat once goes instinctively forth to the feeding of the flock; but she\nwould tread in the footsteps of Him whom her soul loveth, and would\nneither labour alone, nor in other companionship than His own:--\n\n          Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth,\n          Where Thou feedest Thy flock, where Thou makest it to\n                  rest at noon:\n          For why should I be as one that is veiled\n          Beside the flocks of Thy companions?\n\nShe will not mistake the society of His servants for that of their\nMASTER.\n\n          If thou know not, O thou fairest among women,\n          Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock,\n          And feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.\n\nThese are the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, and give a correct\nreply to her questionings. Let her show her love to her LORD by feeding\nHis sheep, by caring for His lambs (see John xxi. 15-17), and she need\nnot fear to miss His presence. While sharing with other under-shepherds\nin caring for His flock she will find the CHIEF SHEPHERD at her side,\nand enjoy the tokens of His approval. It will be service _with_ JESUS as\nwell as _for_ JESUS.\n\nBut far sweeter than the reply of the daughters of Jerusalem is the\nvoice of the Bridegroom, who now speaks Himself. It is the living fruit\nof her heart-oneness with Him that makes His love break forth in the\njoyful utterances of verses 9-11. For it is not only true that our love\nfor our LORD will show itself in feeding His sheep, but that He who when\non earth said, \"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of\nthese My brethren, ye have done it unto Me,\" has His own heart-love\nstirred, and not infrequently specially reveals Himself to those who are\nministering for Him.\n\nThe commendation of the bride in verse 9 is one of striking\nappropriateness and beauty:--\n\n          I have compared thee, O My love,\n          To a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.\n\nIt will be remembered that horses originally came out of Egypt, and\nthat the pure breed still found in Arabia was during Solomon's reign\nbrought by his merchants for all the kings of the East. Those selected\nfor Pharaoh's own chariot would not only be of the purest blood and\nperfect in proportion and symmetry, but also perfect in training, docile\nand obedient; they would know no will but that of the charioteer, and\nthe only object of their existence would be to carry the king\nwhithersoever he would go. So should it be with the Church of CHRIST;\none body with many members, indwelt and guided by one SPIRIT; holding\nthe HEAD, and knowing no will but His; her rapid and harmonious movement\nshould cause His kingdom to progress throughout the world.\n\nMany years ago a beloved friend, returning from the East by the overland\nroute, made the journey from Suez to Cairo in the cumbrous diligence\nthen in use. The passengers on landing took their places, about a dozen\nwild young horses were harnessed with ropes to the vehicle, the driver\ntook his seat and cracked his whip, and the horses dashed off, some to\nthe right, some to the left, and others forward, causing the coach to\nstart with a bound, and as suddenly to stop, with the effect of first\nthrowing those sitting in the front seat into the laps of those sitting\nbehind, and then of reversing the operation. With the aid of sufficient\nArabs running on each side to keep these wild animals progressing in the\nright direction the passengers were jerked and jolted, bruised and\nshaken, until, on reaching their destination, they were too wearied and\nsore to take the rest they so much needed.\n\nIs not the Church of GOD to-day more like these untrained steeds than a\ncompany of horses in Pharaoh's chariot? And while self-will and disunion\nare apparent in the Church, can we wonder that the world still lieth in\nthe wicked one, and that the great heathen nations are barely touched?\n\nChanging His simile, the Bridegroom continues:--\n\n          Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair,\n          Thy neck with strings of jewels.\n          We will make thee plaits of gold\n          With studs of silver.\n\nThe bride is not only beautiful and useful to her LORD, she is also\nadorned, and it is His delight to add to her adornments. Nor are His\ngifts perishable flowers, or trinkets destitute of intrinsic value: the\nfinest of the gold, the purest of the silver, and the most precious and\nlasting of the jewels are the gifts of the Royal Bridegroom to His\nspouse; and these, plaited amongst her own hair, increase His pleasure\nwho has bestowed them.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn verses 12-14 the bride responds:--\n\n          While the King sat at His table\n          My spikenard sent forth its fragrance.\n\nIt is in His presence and through His grace that whatever of fragrance\nor beauty may be found in us comes forth. Of Him as its source, through\nHim as its instrument, and to Him as its end, is all that is gracious\nand divine. But _HE HIMSELF_ is better far than all that His grace works\nin us.\n\n          My Beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh,\n          That lieth betwixt my breasts.\n          My Beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna-flowers\n          In the vineyards of En-gedi.\n\nWell is it when our eyes are filled with His beauty and our hearts are\noccupied with Him. In the measure in which this is true of us we shall\nrecognize the correlative truth that His great heart is occupied with\nus. Note the response of the Bridegroom:--\n\n          Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair;\n          Thine eyes are as dove's.\n\nHow can the Bridegroom truthfully use such words of one who recognizes\nherself as\n\n          Black as the tents of Kedar?\n\nAnd still more strong are the Bridegroom's words in chap. iv. 7:--\n\n          Thou art all fair, My love;\n          And there is no spot in thee.\n\nWe shall find the solution of this difficulty in 2 Cor. iii. Moses in\ncontemplation of the Divine glory became so transformed that the\nIsraelites were not able to look on the glory of his countenance. \"We\nall, with unveiled face [beholding and] reflecting as a mirror the glory\nof the LORD, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory\n[_i.e._ the brightness caught from His glory transforms us to glory],\neven as from the _Lord_ the SPIRIT.\" Every mirror has two surfaces; the\none is dull and unreflecting, and is all spots; but when the reflecting\nsurface is turned fully towards us we see no spot, we see our own image.\nSo while the bride is delighting in the beauty of the Bridegroom He\nbeholds His own image in her; there is no spot in that: it is all fair.\nMay we ever present this reflection to His gaze, and to the world in\nwhich we live for the very purpose of reflecting Him.\n\nNote again His words:--\n\n          Thine eyes are as dove's,\n\nor\n\n          Thou hast dove's eyes.\n\nThe hawk is a beautiful bird, and has beautiful eyes, quick and\npenetrating; but the Bridegroom desires not hawk's eyes in His bride.\nThe tender eyes of the innocent dove are those which He admires. It was\nas a dove that the HOLY SPIRIT came upon Him at His baptism, and the\ndove-like character is that which He seeks for in each of His people.\n\nThe reason why David was not permitted to build the Temple was a very\nsignificant one. His life was far from perfect; and his mistakes and\nsins have been faithfully recorded by the HOLY SPIRIT. They brought upon\nhim GOD'S chastenings, yet it was not any of these that disqualified him\nfrom building the Temple, but rather his warlike spirit; and this though\nmany of his battles, if not all, were for the establishment of GOD'S\nKingdom and the fulfilment of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\nSolomon, the Prince of Peace, alone could build the Temple. If we would\nbe soul-winners and build up the Church, which is His Temple, let us\nnote this: not by discussion nor by argument, but by lifting up CHRIST\nshall we draw men unto Him.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe now come to the reply of the bride. He has called her fair; wisely\nand well does she reply:--\n\n          Behold Thou art fair, my Beloved, yea, pleasant:\n          Also our couch is green.\n          The beams of our house are cedars,\n          And our rafters are firs.\n          I am (but) a rose of Sharon,\n          A lily of the valleys.\n\nThe last words are often quoted as though they were the utterance of\nthe Bridegroom, but we believe erroneously. The bride says in effect,\nThou callest me fair and pleasant, the fairness and pleasantness are\nThine; I am but a wild flower, a lowly, scentless rose of Sharon (_i.e._\nthe autumn crocus), or a lily of the valley.\n\nTo this the Bridegroom responds: \"Be it so; but if a wild flower, yet\n\n          As a lily among thorns,\n          So is My love among the daughters.\n\nAgain the bride replies:--\n\n          As the apple-tree (the citron) among the trees of the wood,\n          So is my Beloved among the sons.\n          I sat down under His shadow with great delight,\n          And His fruit was sweet to my taste.\n\nThe citron is a beautiful evergreen, affording delightful shade as well\nas refreshing fruit. A humble wild flower herself, she recognizes her\nBridegroom as a noble tree, alike ornamental and fruitful. Shade from\nthe burning sun, refreshment and rest she finds in Him. What a contrast\nher present position and feelings to those with which this section\ncommenced! He knew full well the cause of all her fears; her distrust\nsprang from her ignorance of Himself, so He took her aside, and in the\nsweet intimacies of mutual love her fears and distrust have vanished,\nlike the mists of the morning before the rising sun.\n\nBut now that she has learned to know Him, she has a further experience\nof His love. He is not ashamed to acknowledge her publicly.\n\n          He brought me to the banqueting house,\n          And His banner over me was love.\n\nThe house of wine is now as appropriate as the King's chambers were.\nFearlessly and without shame she can sit at His side, His acknowledged\nspouse, the bride of His choice. Overwhelmed with His love she\nexclaims:--\n\n          Stay ye me with raisins, comfort me with apples:\n          For I am sick of love.\n          His left hand is under my head,\n          And His right hand doth embrace me.\n\nNow she finds the blessedness of being possessed. No longer her own,\nheart-rest is alike her right and her enjoyment; and so the Bridegroom\nwould have it.\n\n          I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,\n          By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,\n          That ye stir not up nor awake My love,\n          Until she[2] please.\n\nIt is never by His will that our rest in Him is disturbed.\n\n          You may always be abiding,\n            If you will, at JESUS' side;\n          In the secret of His presence\n            You may every moment hide.\n\nThere is no change in His love; He is the same yesterday, to-day, and\nfor ever. To us He promises, \"I will never leave thee, never fail thee,\nnor forsake thee\"; and His earnest exhortation and command is, \"Abide in\nMe, and I in you.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Loves = endearments, caresses.\n\n[2] The pronoun here and in chapter iii. 5, and viii. 4, should not be\n\"he\" as A.V., nor \"it\" as R.V., but \"she.\"\n\n\n\n\nSECTION II\n\nCOMMUNION BROKEN--RESTORATION\n\nCant. ii. 8-iii. 5\n\n          _\"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed\n          to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift\n          away from them.\"_--Heb. ii. 1 (R.V.).\n\n\nAT the close of the first section we left the bride satisfied and at\nrest in the arms of her Beloved, who had charged the daughters of\nJerusalem not to stir up nor awaken His love until she please. We might\nwell suppose that a union so complete, a satisfaction so full, would\nnever be interrupted by failure on the part of the happy bride. But,\nalas, the experience of most of us shows how easily communion with\nCHRIST may be broken, and how needful are the exhortations of our LORD\nto those who are indeed branches of the true Vine, and cleansed by the\nWord which He has spoken, to abide in Him. The failure is never on His\nside. \"Lo, I am with you alway.\" But, alas, the bride often forgets the\nexhortation addressed to her in Ps. xlv.:--\n\n          Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;\n          Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;\n          So shall the KING greatly desire thy beauty:\n          For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.\n\nIn this section the bride has drifted back from her position of\nblessing into a state of worldliness. Perhaps the very restfulness of\nher new-found joy made her feel too secure: perhaps she thought that, so\nfar as she was concerned, there was no need for the exhortation, \"Little\nchildren, keep yourselves from idols.\" Or she may have thought that the\nlove of the world was so thoroughly taken away that she might safely go\nback, and, by a little compromise on her part, she might win her friends\nto follow her LORD too. Perhaps she scarcely thought at all: glad that\nshe was saved and free, she forgot that the current--the course of this\nworld--was against her; and insensibly glided, drifted back to that\nposition out of which she was called, unaware all the time of\nbacksliding. It is not necessary, when the current is against us, to\nturn the boat's head down the stream in order to drift: or for a runner\nin a race to turn back in order to miss the prize.\n\nAh, how often the enemy succeeds, by one device or another, in tempting\nthe believer away from that position of entire consecration to CHRIST in\nwhich alone the fulness of His power and of His love can be experienced.\nWe say the fulness of His power and of His love; for he may not have\nceased to love his LORD. In the passage before us the bride still loves\nHim truly, though not wholly; there is still a power in His Word which\nis not unfelt, though she no longer renders instant obedience. She\nlittle realizes how she is wronging her LORD, and how real is the wall\nof separation between them. To her, worldliness seems as but a little\nthing: she has not realized the solemn truth of many passages in the\nWord of GOD that speak in no measured terms of the folly, the danger,\nthe sin of friendship with the world.\n\n\"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any\nman love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him.\"\n\n\"Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity\nwith GOD? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh\nhimself an enemy of GOD.\"\n\n\"Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have\nrighteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?\nAnd what concord hath CHRIST with Belial? or what portion hath a\nbeliever with an unbeliever? . . . Wherefore:--\n\n          Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith\n               the LORD,\n          And touch no unclean thing;\n          And I will receive you,\n          And will be to you a FATHER,\n          And ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the\n               LORD ALMIGHTY.\n\nWe have to take our choice: we cannot enjoy both the world and CHRIST.\n\nThe bride had not learned this: she would fain enjoy both, with no\nthought of their incompatibility. She observes with joy the approach of\nthe Bridegroom.\n\n          The voice of my Beloved: Behold He cometh\n          Leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.\n          My Beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart;\n          Behold He standeth behind our wall,\n          He looketh in at the windows,\n          He glanceth through the lattice.\n\nThe heart of the bride leaps on hearing the voice of her Beloved, as He\ncomes in search of her. He has crossed the hills; He draws near to her;\nHe stands behind the wall; He even looks in at the windows; with tender\nand touching words He woos her to come forth to Him. He utters no\nreproach, and His loving entreaties sink deep in her memory.\n\n          My Beloved spake, and said unto me,\n          Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away.\n          For, lo, the winter is past,\n          The rain is over and gone;\n          The flowers appear on the earth;\n          The time of the singing of birds is come,\n          And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;\n          The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs,\n          And the vines are in blossom,\n          They give forth their fragrance.\n          Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.\n\nAll nature is responsive to the return of the summer, wilt thou, My\nbride, be irresponsive to My love?\n\n          Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.\n\nCan such pleading be in vain? Alas, it can, it was!\n\nIn yet more touching words the Bridegroom continues:--\n\n          O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the\n               covert of the steep place,\n          Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice:\n          For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.\n\nWonderful thought! that God should desire fellowship with us; and that\nHe whose love once made Him the Man of Sorrows may now be made the Man\nof Joys by the loving devotion of human hearts.\n\nBut strong as is His love, and His desire for His bride, He can come no\nfurther. Where she now is He can never come. But surely she will go\nforth to Him. Has He not a claim upon her? She feels and enjoys His\nlove, will she let His desire count for nothing? For, let us notice, it\nis not here the bride longing in vain for her LORD, but the Bridegroom\nwho is seeking for her. Alas that He should seek in vain!\n\n          Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the\n               vineyards;\n          For our vineyards are in blossom,\n\nHe continues. The enemies may be small, but the mischief done great. A\nlittle spray of blossom, so tiny as to be scarcely perceived, is easily\nspoiled, but thereby the fruitfulness of a whole branch may be for ever\ndestroyed. And how numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises\nwith the world; disobedience to the still small voice in little things;\nlittle indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes\nof policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the\nbeauty and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed!\n\nWe have a sad illustration of the deceitfulness of sin in the response\nof the bride. Instead of bounding forth to meet Him, she first comforts\nher own heart by the remembrance of His faithfulness, and of her union\nwith Him:--\n\n          My Beloved is mine, and I am His:\n          He feedeth _His flock_ among the lilies.\n\nMy position is one of security, I have no need to be concerned about\nit. He is mine, and I am His; and nought can alter that relationship. I\ncan find Him now at any time, He feedeth His flock among the lilies.\nWhile the sun of prosperity shines upon me I may safely enjoy myself\nhere without Him. Should trial and darkness come He will be sure not to\nfail me.\n\n          Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,\n          Turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a gazelle or a\n               young hart\n          Upon the mountains of Bether.\n\nCareless of His desire, she thus lightly dismisses Him, with the\nthought: A little later I may enjoy His love; and the grieved Bridegroom\ndeparts!\n\nPoor foolish bride! she will soon find that the things that once\nsatisfied her can satisfy no longer; and that it is easier to turn a\ndeaf ear to His tender call than to recall or find her absent LORD.\n\nThe day became cool, and the shadows did flee away; but He returned not.\nThen in the solemn night she discovered her mistake: It was dark, and\nshe was alone. Retiring to rest she still hoped for His return--the\nlesson that worldliness is an absolute bar to full communion still\nunlearned.\n\n          By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth:\n          I sought Him, but I found Him not!\n\nShe waits and wearies: His absence becomes insupportable:--\n\n          _I said_, I will rise now, and go about the city,\n          In the streets and in the broad ways,\n          I will seek Him whom my soul loveth:\n          I sought Him, but I found Him not!\n\nHow different her position from what it might have been! Instead of\nseeking Him alone, desolate and in the dark, she might have gone forth\nwith Him in the sunshine, leaning upon His arm. She might have exchanged\nthe partial view of her Beloved through the lattice, when she could no\nlonger say \"Nothing between,\" for the joy of His embrace, and His public\nconfession of her as His chosen bride!\n\n          The watchmen that go about the city found me:\n          _To whom I said_, Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?\n          It was but a little that I passed from them,\n          When I found Him whom my soul loveth.\n\nShe had already obeyed His command, \"Arise, and come away.\" Fearless of\nreproach, she was seeking Him in the dark; and when she began to confess\nher LORD, she soon found Him and was restored to His favour:--\n\n          I held Him, and would not let Him go,\n          Until I had brought Him into my mother's house,\n          And into the chamber of her that conceived me.\n\nJerusalem above is the mother of us all. There it is that communion is\nenjoyed, not in worldly ways or self-willed indulgence.\n\nCommunion fully restored, the section closes, as did the first, with the\nloving charge of the Bridegroom that none should disturb His bride:--\n\n          I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,\n          By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,\n          (By all that is loving and beautiful and constant),\n          That ye stir not up, nor awake My love,\n          Until she[3] please.\n\nMay we all, while living down here, in the world, but not of it, find\nour home in the heavenly places to which we have been raised, and in\nwhich we are seated together with CHRIST. Sent into the world to witness\nfor our MASTER, may we ever be strangers there, ready to confess Him the\ntrue object of our soul's devotion.\n\n          How amiable are Thy tabernacles,\n          O LORD of hosts!\n          My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of\n               the LORD;\n          My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living GOD.\n          Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house:\n          They will be still praising Thee. . . .\n          A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.\n          I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my GOD\n          Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.\n          For the LORD GOD is a Sun and Shield:\n          The LORD will give grace and glory:\n          No good thing will He withhold from them that walk\n               uprightly.\n          O LORD of hosts,\n          Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee!\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[3] See note on p. 26.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION III\n\nTHE JOY OF UNBROKEN COMMUNION\n\nCant. iii. 6-v. 1\n\n          O JESU, KING most wonderful,\n            Thou CONQUEROR renown'd,\n          Thou sweetness most ineffable,\n            In whom all joys are found!\n          Thee, JESU, may our voices bless;\n          Thee may we love alone;\n          And ever in our lives express\n          The image of Thine own.\n\n\nWE have been mainly occupied in Sections I. and II. with the words and\nthe experiences of the bride; in marked contrast to this, in this\nsection our attention is first called to the Bridegroom, and then it is\nfrom Himself that we hear of the bride, as the object of His love, and\nthe delight of His heart. The daughters of Jerusalem are the first\nspeakers.\n\n          Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness\n               like pillars of smoke,\n          Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,\n          With all powders of the merchant?\n\nThey themselves give the reply:--\n\n          King Solomon made himself a car of state\n          Of the wood of Lebanon.\n          He made the pillars thereof of silver,\n          The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple,\n          The midst thereof being paved with love (love-gifts),\n          From the daughters of Jerusalem.\n          Behold, it is the litter of Solomon;\n          Threescore mighty men are about it,\n          Of the mighty men of Israel,\n          They all handle the sword, _and_ are expert in war:\n          Every man hath his sword upon his thigh,\n          Because of fear in the night.\n\nIn these verses the bride is not mentioned; she is eclipsed in the\ngrandeur and the state of her royal Bridegroom; nevertheless, she is\nboth enjoying and sharing it. The very air is perfumed by the smoke of\nthe incense that ascends pillar-like to the clouds; and all that\nsafeguards the position of the Bridegroom Himself, and shows forth His\ndignity, safeguards also the accompanying bride, the sharer of His\nglory. The car of state in which they sit is built of fragrant cedar\nfrom Lebanon, and the finest of the gold and silver have been lavished\nin its construction. The fragrant wood typifies the beauty of sanctified\nhumanity, while the gold reminds us of the divine glory of our LORD, and\nthe silver of the purity and preciousness of His redeemed and peerless\nChurch. The imperial purple with which it is lined tells us of the\nGentiles--the daughter of Tyre has been there with her gift; while the\nlove-gifts of the daughters of Jerusalem accord with the prophecy, \"Even\nthe rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.\"\n\nThese are the things that attract the attention of the daughters of\nJerusalem, but the bride is occupied with the King Himself, and she\nexclaims:--\n\n          Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King\n               Solomon,\n          With the crown wherewith His mother hath crowned\n               Him in the day of His espousals,\n          And in the day of the gladness of His heart.\n\nThe crowned KING is everything to her, and she would have Him to be so\nto the daughters of Zion likewise. She dwells with delight on the\ngladness of His heart in the day of His espousals, for now she is not\noccupied with Him for her _own_ sake, but rejoices in His joy in finding\nin her _His_ satisfaction. Do we sufficiently cultivate this unselfish\ndesire to be all for JESUS, and to do all for His pleasure? Or are we\nconscious that we principally go to Him for our own sakes, or at best\nfor the sake of our fellow-creatures? How much of prayer there is that\nbegins and ends with the creature, forgetful of the privilege of giving\njoy to the Creator! Yet it is only when He sees in our unselfish love\nand devotion to Him the reflection of His own that His heart can feel\nfull satisfaction, and pour itself forth in precious utterances of love\nsuch as those which we find in the following words:--\n\n          Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair;\n          Thine eyes are _as_ dove's behind thy veil;\n          Thy hair is as a flock of goats,\n          That lie along the side of Mount Gilead;\n          Thy teeth are like a flock _of ewes_ that are _newly_\n               shorn,\n          Which are come up from the washing.\n          Which are all of them in pairs,\n          And none is bereaved among them.\n          Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,\n          And thy speech is comely, etc. (See verses 3-5.)\n\nWe have already found the explanation of the fairness of the bride in\nher reflecting like a mirror the beauty of the Bridegroom. Well may He\nwith satisfaction describe her beauty while she is thus occupied with\nHimself! The lips that speak only of Him are like a thread of scarlet;\nthe mouth or speech which has no word of self, or for self, is comely in\nHis sight.\n\nHow sweet His words of appreciation and commendation were to the bride\nwe can well imagine; but her joy was too deep for expression; she was\nsilent in her love. She would not _now_ think of sending Him away until\nthe day be cool and the shadows flee away.\n\nStill less does the Bridegroom think of finding His joy apart from His\nbride. He says:--\n\n          Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,\n          I will get Me to the mountain of myrrh,\n          And to the hill of frankincense.\n\nSeparation never comes from His side. He is always ready for communion\nwith a prepared heart, and in this happy communion the bride becomes\never fairer, and more like to her LORD. She is being progressively\nchanged into His image, from one degree of glory to another, through the\nwondrous working of the HOLY SPIRIT, until the Bridegroom can declare:--\n\n          Thou art all fair, My love;\n          And there is no spot on thee.\n\nAnd now she is _fit for service_, and to it the Bridegroom woos her;\nshe will not now misrepresent Him:--\n\n          Come with Me from Lebanon, _My_ bride,\n          With Me from Lebanon;\n          Look from the top of Amana,\n          From the top of Senir and Hermon,\n          From the lions' dens,\n          From the mountains of the leopards.\n\n\"Come with Me.\" It is always so. If our SAVIOUR says, \"Go ye therefore\nand disciple all nations,\" He precedes it by, \"All power is given unto\nMe,\" and follows it by, \"Lo, I am with you always.\" Or if, as here, He\ncalls His bride to come, it is still \"with Me,\" and it is _in connection\nwith this loving invitation_ that for the first time He changes the word\n\"My love,\" for the still more endearing one, \"My bride.\"\n\nWhat are lions' dens when the Lion of the tribe of Judah is with us; or\nmountains of leopards, when He is at our side! \"I will fear no evil, for\nThou art with me.\" On the other hand, it is while thus facing dangers,\nand toiling with Him in service, that He says:--\n\n          Thou hast ravished My heart, My sister, _My_ bride;\n          Thou hast ravished My heart with one look from thine eyes,\n          With one chain of thy neck.\n\nIs it not wonderful how the heart of our Beloved can be thus ravished\nwith the love of one who is prepared to accept His invitation, and go\nforth with Him seeking to rescue the perishing! The marginal reading of\nthe Revised Version is very significant: \"Thou hast ravished My heart,\"\nor \"Thou hast given me courage.\" If the Bridegroom's heart may be\nencouraged by the fidelity and loving companionship of his bride, it is\nnot surprising that we may cheer and encourage one another in our mutual\nservice. St. Paul had a steep mountain of difficulty to climb when he\nwas being led as a captive to Rome, not knowing the things that awaited\nhim there; but when the brethren met him at the Appii Forum he thanked\nGod and took courage. May we ever thus strengthen one another's hands in\nGod!\n\nBut to resume. The Bridegroom cheers the toilsome ascents, and the steep\npathways of danger, with sweet communications of His love:--\n\n          How fair is thy love, My sister, _My_ bride!\n          How much better is thy love than wine!\n          And the smell of thine ointments than all manner of spices!\n          Thy lips, O _My_ bride, drop as the honeycomb:\n          Honey and milk are under thy tongue;\n          And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.\n          A garden shut up is My sister, _My_ bride;\n          A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.\n          Thy shoots are a paradise of pomegranates, with precious\n               fruits;\n          Henna with spikenard plants,\n          Spikenard and saffron,\n          Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense;\n          Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.\n          _Thou art_ a fountain of gardens,\n          A well of living waters,\n          And flowing streams from Lebanon.\n\nEngaged with the Bridegroom in seeking to rescue the perishing, the\nutterances of her lips are to Him as honey and the honeycomb; and figure\nis piled upon figure to express His satisfaction and joy. She is a\ngarden full of precious fruits and delightful perfumes, but a garden\nenclosed; the fruit she bears may bring blessing to many, but the garden\nis for Himself alone; she is a fountain, but a spring shut up, a\nfountain sealed. And yet again she is a fountain of gardens, a well of\nliving waters and flowing streams from Lebanon: she carries fertility\nand imparts refreshment wherever she goes; and yet it is all of Him and\nfor Him.\n\nThe bride now speaks for the second time in this section. As her first\nutterance was of Him, so now her second is for Him; self is found in\nneither.\n\n          Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;\n          Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.\n          Let my Beloved come into His garden,\n          And eat His precious fruits.\n\nShe is ready for any experience: the north wind and the south may blow\nupon her garden, if only the spices thereof may flow out to regale her\nLORD by their fragrance. He has called her His garden, a paradise of\npomegranates and precious fruits; let Him come into it and eat His\nprecious fruits.\n\nTo this the Bridegroom replies:--\n\n          I am come into My garden, My sister, _My_ bride:\n          I have gathered My myrrh with My spice;\n          I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey;\n          I have drunk My wine with My milk.\n\nNow, when she calls, He answers at once. When she is only for her LORD,\nHe assures her that He finds all His satisfaction in her.\n\nThe section closes by the bride's invitation to His friends and hers, as\nwell as to Himself:--\n\n          Eat, O friends;\n          Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O Beloved.\n\nThe consecration of all to our MASTER, far from lessening our power to\nimpart, increases both our power and our joy in ministration. The five\nloaves and two fishes of the disciples, first given up to and blessed by\nthe LORD, were abundant supply for the needy multitudes, and grew, in\nthe act of distribution, into a store of which twelve hampers full of\nfragments remained when all were fully satisfied.\n\nWe have, then, in this beautiful section, as we have seen, a picture of\nunbroken communion and its delightful issues. May our lives correspond!\nFirst, one with the KING, then speaking of the KING; the joy of\ncommunion leading to fellowship in service, to a being all for JESUS,\nready for any experience that will fit for further service, surrendering\nall to Him, and willing to minister all for Him. There is no room for\nlove of the world here, for union with CHRIST has filled the heart;\nthere is nothing for the gratification of the world, for all has been\nsealed and is kept for the MASTER'S use.\n\n          JESUS, my life is Thine!\n          And evermore shall be\n              Hidden in Thee.\n          For nothing can untwine\n          Thy life from mine.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION IV\n\nCOMMUNION AGAIN BROKEN--RESTORATION\n\nCant. v. 2-vi. 10\n\n\nTHE fourth section commences with an address of the bride to the\ndaughters of Jerusalem, in which she narrates her recent sad experience,\nand entreats their help in her trouble. The presence and comfort of her\nBridegroom are again lost to her; not this time by relapse into\nworldliness, but by slothful self-indulgence.\n\nWe are not told of the steps that led to her failure; of how self again\nfound place in her heart. Perhaps spiritual pride in the achievements\nwhich grace enabled her to accomplish was the cause; or, not improbably,\na cherished satisfaction in the _blessing_ she had received, instead of\nin the BLESSER Himself, may have led to the separation. She seems to\nhave been largely unconscious of her declension; self-occupied and\nself-contented, she scarcely noticed His absence; she was resting,\nresting alone,--never asking where He had gone, or how He was employed.\nAnd more than this, the door of her chamber was not only closed, but\nbarred; an evidence that His return was neither eagerly desired nor\nexpected.\n\nYet her heart was not far from Him: there was a music in His voice that\nawakened echoes in her soul such as no other voice could have stirred.\nShe was still \"a garden shut up, a fountain sealed,\" so far as the world\nwas concerned. The snare this time was the more dangerous and insidious\nbecause it was quite unsuspected. Let us look at her narrative:--\n\n          I was asleep, but my heart waked:\n          It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh saying,\n          Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled:\n          For My head is filled with dew,\n          My locks with the drops of the night.\n\nHow often the position of the Bridegroom is that of a knocking Suitor\noutside, as in His epistle to the Laodicean[4] Church: \"Behold, I stand\nat the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I\nwill come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.\" It is sad\nthat He should be outside a closed door--that He should need to knock;\nbut still more sad that He should knock, and knock in vain at the door\nof any heart which has become His own. In this case it is not the\n_position_ of the bride that is wrong; if it were, His word as before\nwould be, \"Arise, and come away\"; whereas now His word is, \"Open to Me,\nMy sister, My love.\" It was her _condition_ of self-satisfaction and\nlove of ease that closed the door.\n\nVery touching are His words: \"Open to Me, My sister\" (He is the\nfirst-born among many brethren), \"My love\" (the object of My heart's\ndevotion), \"My dove\" (one who has been endued with many of the gifts and\ngraces of the HOLY SPIRIT), \"My undefiled\" (washed, renewed, and\ncleansed for Me); and He urges her to open by reference to His own\ncondition:--\n\n          My head is filled with dew,\n          My locks with the drops of the night.\n\nWhy is it that His head is filled with the dew? Because His heart is a\nshepherd-heart. There are those whom the FATHER has given to Him who are\nwandering on the dark mountains of sin: many, oh, how many, have never\nheard the SHEPHERD'S voice; many, too, who were once in the fold have\nwandered away--far away from its safe shelter. The heart that never can\nforget, the love that never can fail, _must_ seek the wandering sheep\nuntil the lost one has been found: \"My FATHER worketh hitherto, and I\nwork.\" And will she, who so recently was at His side, who joyfully\nbraved the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards, will she leave\nHim to seek alone the wandering and the lost?\n\n          Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled:\n          For My head is filled with dew,\n          My locks with the drops of the night.\n\nWe do not know a more touching entreaty in the Word of GOD, and sad\nindeed is the reply of the bride:--\n\n          I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?\n          I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?\n\nHow sadly possible it is to take delight in conferences and\nconventions, to feast on all the good things that are brought before us,\nand yet to be unprepared to go out from them to self-denying efforts to\nrescue the perishing; to delight in the rest of faith while forgetful to\nfight the good fight of faith; to dwell upon the cleansing and the\npurity effected by faith, but to have little thought for the poor souls\nstruggling in the mire of sin. If we can put off our coat when He would\nhave us keep it on; if we can wash our feet while He is wandering alone\nupon the mountains, is there not sad want of fellowship with our LORD?\n\nMeeting with no response from the tardy bride, her\n\n          Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the door,\n          And \"her\" heart was moved for Him.\n\nBut, alas, the door was not only latched, but barred; and His effort to\nsecure an entrance was in vain.\n\n          I rose up to open to my Beloved;\n          And my hands dropped with myrrh,\n          And my fingers with liquid myrrh,\n          Upon the handles of the bolt.\n          I opened to my Beloved;\n          But my Beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone.\n          My soul had failed me when He spake.\n\nWhen, all too late, the bride did arise, she seems to have been more\nconcerned to anoint herself with the liquid myrrh than to speedily\nwelcome her waiting LORD; more occupied with her own graces than with\nHis desire. No words of welcome were uttered, though her heart failed\nwithin her; and the grieved One had withdrawn Himself before she was\nready to receive Him. Again (as in the third chapter) she had to go\nforth alone to seek her LORD; and this time her experiences were much\nmore painful than on the former occasion.\n\n          I sought Him, but I could not find Him;\n          I called Him, but He gave me no answer.\n          The watchmen that go about the city found me,\n          They smote me, they wounded me;\n          The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.\n\nHer first relapse had been one of inexperience; if a second relapse had\nbeen brought about by inadvertence she should at least have been ready\nand prompt when summoned to obey. It is not a little thing to fall into\nthe habit of being tardy in obedience, even in the case of a believer:\nin the case of the unbeliever the final issue of disobedience is\ninexpressibly awful:--\n\n          Turn you at My reproof:\n          Behold, I will pour out My SPIRIT unto you,\n          I will make known My words unto you.\n          Because I have called, and ye refused;\n          I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; . . .\n          I also will laugh in the day of your calamity. . . .\n          Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer;\n          They shall seek Me diligently, but they shall not find Me.\n\nThe backsliding of the bride, though painful, was not final; for it was\nfollowed by true repentance. She went forth into the darkness and sought\nHim; she called, but He responded not, and the watchmen finding her,\nboth smote and wounded her. They appear to have appreciated the gravity\nof her declension more correctly than she had done. Believers may be\nblinded to their own inconsistencies; others, however, note them; and\nthe higher the position with regard to our LORD the more surely will any\nfailure be visited with reproach.\n\nWounded, dishonoured, unsuccessful in her search, and almost in despair,\nthe bride turns to the daughters of Jerusalem; and recounting the story\nof her sorrows, adjures _them_ to tell her Beloved that she is not\nunfaithful or unmindful of Him.\n\n          I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my\n               Beloved,\n          That ye tell Him, that I am sick of love.\n\nThe reply of the daughters of Jerusalem shows very clearly that the\nsorrow-stricken bride, wandering in the dark, is not recognized as the\nbride of the KING, though her personal beauty does not escape notice.\n\n          What is thy Beloved more than another beloved,\n          O thou fairest among women?\n          What is thy Beloved more than another beloved,\n          That thou dost so adjure us?\n\nThis question, implying that her Beloved was no more than any other,\nstirs her soul to its deepest depths; and, forgetting herself, she pours\nout from the fulness of her heart a soul-ravishing description of the\nglory and beauty of her LORD.\n\n          My Beloved is white and ruddy,\n          The chiefest among ten thousand.\n\n(see verses 10-16, concluding with)\n\n          His mouth is most sweet: yea, He is altogether lovely.\n          This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend,\n          O daughters of Jerusalem.\n\nIt is interesting to compare the bride's description of the Bridegroom\nwith the descriptions of \"the Ancient of Days\" in Dan. vii. 9, 10, and\nof our risen LORD in Rev. i. 13-16. The differences are very\ncharacteristic.\n\nIn Dan. vii. we see the Ancient of Days seated on the throne of\njudgment; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like\nthe pure wool; His throne and His wheels were as burning fire, and a\nfiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. The Son of Man was\nbrought near before Him, and received from Him dominion, and glory, and\nan everlasting kingdom that shall not be destroyed. In Rev. i. we see\nthe Son of Man Himself clothed with a garment down to the foot, and His\nhead and His hair were white as wool, white as snow; but the bride sees\nher Bridegroom in all the vigour of youth, with locks \"bushy, and black\nas a raven.\" The eyes of the risen SAVIOUR are described as \"a flame of\nfire,\" but His bride sees them \"like doves beside the water brooks.\" In\nRevelation \"His voice is as the voice of many waters . . . and out of His\nmouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword.\" To the bride, His lips are as\nlilies, dropping liquid myrrh, and His mouth most sweet. The countenance\nof the risen SAVIOUR was \"as the sun shineth in his strength,\" and the\neffect of the vision on John--\"when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one\ndead\"--was not unlike the effect of the vision given to Saul as he\nneared Damascus. But to His bride \"His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent\nas the cedars.\" The LION of the tribe of Judah is to His own bride the\nKING of love; and, with full heart and beaming face, she so recounts His\nbeauties that the daughters of Jerusalem are seized with strong desire\nto seek Him with her, that they also may behold His beauty.\n\n          Whither is thy Beloved gone,\n          O thou fairest among women?\n          Whither hath thy Beloved turned Him,\n          That we may seek Him with thee?\n\nThe bride replies:--\n\n          My Beloved is gone down to His garden, to the beds of spices,\n          To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.\n          I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine:\n          He feedeth His flock among the lilies.\n\nForlorn and desolate as she might appear she still knows herself as the\nobject of His affections, and claims Him as her own. This expression, \"I\nam my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine,\" is similar to that found in\nthe second chapter, \"My Beloved is mine, and I am His\"; and yet with\nnoteworthy difference. Then her first thought of CHRIST was of her claim\nupon Him: His claim upon her was secondary. Now she thinks first of His\nclaim; and only afterwards mentions her own. We see a still further\ndevelopment of grace in chap. vii. 10, where the bride, losing sight of\nher claim altogether, says:--\n\n          I am my Beloved's,\n          And His desire is toward me.\n\nNo sooner has she uttered these words and acknowledged herself as His\nrightful possession--a claim which she had practically repudiated when\nshe kept Him barred out--than her Bridegroom Himself appears; and with\nno upbraiding word, but in tenderest love, tells her how beautiful she\nis in His eyes, and speaks her praise to the daughters of Jerusalem.\n\nTo her He says:--\n\n          Thou art beautiful, O My love, as Tirzah,\n              [the beautiful city of Samaria,]\n          Comely as Jerusalem,\n              [the glorious city of the great KING,]\n          Terrible [or rather brilliant] as an army with banners.\n          Turn away thine eyes from Me,\n          For they have overcome Me. (See vv. 4-7.)\n\nThen, turning to the daughters of Jerusalem, He exclaims:--\n\n          There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines,\n          And maidens without number.\n          My dove, My perfect one, is but one;\n          She is the only one of her mother;\n          She is the choice one of her that bare her.\n          The daughters saw her, and called her blessed;\n          Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her,\n               saying,\n          Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,\n          Fair as the moon,\n          Clear as the sun,\n          Brilliant as an army with banners?\n\nThus the section closes with communion fully restored; the bride\nreinstated and openly acknowledged by the Bridegroom as His own peerless\ncompanion and friend. The painful experience through which the bride has\npassed has been fraught with lasting good, and we have no further\nindication of interrupted communion, but in the remaining sections find\nonly joy and fruitfulness.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[4] The Church of Popular Opinion, as pointed out by the Rev. Charles\nFox in an address at Keswick, as the Church of Philadelphia is the\nChurch of Brotherly Love.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION V\n\nFRUITS OF RECOGNIZED UNION\n\nCant. vi. 11-viii. 4\n\n\nIN the second and fourth sections of this book we found the communion of\nthe bride broken; in the former by backsliding into worldliness, and in\nthe latter through slothful ease and self-satisfaction. The present\nsection, like the third, is one of unbroken communion. It is opened by\nthe words of the bride:--\n\n          I went down into the garden of nuts,\n          To see the green plants of the valley,\n          To see whether the vine budded,\n          _And_ the pomegranates were in flower.\n          Or ever I was aware, my soul set me\n          _Among_ the chariots of my willing people.\n\nAs in the commencement of Section III., the bride, in unbroken\ncommunion with her LORD, was present though unmentioned until she made\nher presence evident by her address to the daughters of Zion; so in this\nsection the presence of the KING is unnoted until He Himself addresses\nHis bride. But she is one with her LORD as she engages in His service!\nHis promise, \"Lo, I am with you alway,\" is ever fulfilled to her; and He\nhas no more to woo her to arise and come away; to tell her that His\n\"head is filled with dew,\" His \"locks with the drops of the night\"; or\nto urge her if she love Him to feed His sheep and care for His lambs.\nHerself His garden, she does not forget to tend it, nor keep the\nvineyards of others while her own is neglected. _With_ Him as well as\n_for_ Him, she goes to the garden of nuts. So thorough is the union\nbetween them that many commentators have felt difficulty in deciding\nwhether the bride or the Bridegroom was the speaker, and really it is a\npoint of little moment; for, as we have said, both were there, and of\none mind; yet we believe we are right in attributing these words to the\nbride, as she is the one addressed by the daughters of Jerusalem, and\nthe one who speaks to them in reply.\n\nThe bride and Bridegroom appear to have been discovered by their willing\npeople while thus engaged in the happy fellowship of fruitful service,\nand the bride, or ever she was aware, found herself seated among the\nchariots of her people--_her_ people as well as _His_.\n\nThe daughters of Jerusalem would fain call her back:--\n\n          Return, return, O Shulammite;\n          Return, return, that we may look upon thee.\n\nThere is no question now as to who she is, nor why her Beloved is more\nthan another beloved; He is recognized as King Solomon, and to her is\ngiven the same name, only in its feminine form (Shulammite).\n\nSome have seen in these words, \"Return, return,\" an indication of the\nrapture of the Church; and explain some parts of the subsequent context,\nwhich appear inconsistent with this view, as resumptive rather than\nprogressive. Interesting as is this thought, and well as it would\nexplain the absence of _reference_ to the KING in the preceding verses,\nwe are not inclined to accept it; but look on the whole song as\nprogressive, and its last words as being equivalent to the closing words\nof the Book of Revelation, \"Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come,\nLORD JESUS.\" We do not therefore look upon the departure of the bride\nfrom her garden as being other than temporary.\n\nThe bride replies to the daughters of Jerusalem:--\n\n          Why will ye look upon the Shulammite?\n\nor, as in the Authorized Version,\n\n          What will ye see in the Shulamite?\n\nIn the presence of the KING, she cannot conceive why any attention\nshould be paid to her. As Moses, coming down from the mount, was\nunconscious that his face shone with a divine glory, so was it here with\nthe bride. But we may learn this very important lesson, that many who do\nnot see the beauty of the LORD, will not fail to admire His reflected\nbeauty in His bride. The eager look of the daughters of Jerusalem\nsurprised the bride, and she says, You might be looking \"upon the dance\nof Mahanaim\"--the dance of two companies of Israel's fairest\ndaughters--instead of upon one who has no claim for attention, save that\nshe is the chosen, though unworthy, bride of the glorious KING.\n\nThe daughters of Jerusalem have no difficulty in replying to her\nquestion, and recognizing her as of royal birth--\"O Prince's\ndaughter\"--as well as of queenly dignity, they describe in true and\nOriental language the tenfold beauties of her person; from her feet to\nher head they see only beauty and perfection. What a contrast to her\nstate by nature! Once \"from the sole of the foot even unto the head\" was\n\"but wounds, and bruises, and festering sores\"; now her feet are \"shod\nwith the preparation of the Gospel of peace,\" and the very hair of the\nhead proclaims her a Nazarite indeed; \"the KING\" Himself \"is held\ncaptive in the tresses thereof.\"\n\nBut One, more to her than the daughters of Jerusalem, responded to her\nunaffected question, \"What will ye see in the Shulamite?\" The Bridegroom\nHimself replies to it:--\n\n          How fair and how pleasant art thou,\n          O love, for delights!\n\nHe sees in her the beauties and the fruitfulness of the tall and\nupright palm, of the graceful and clinging vine, of the fragrant and\nevergreen citron. Grace has made her like the palm-tree, the emblem\nalike of uprightness and of fruitfulness. The fruit of the date-palm is\nmore valued than bread by the Oriental traveller, so great is its\nsustaining power; and the fruit-bearing powers of the tree do not pass\naway; as age increases the fruit becomes more perfect as well as more\nabundant.\n\n          The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree:\n          He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.\n          They that are planted in the house of the LORD\n          Shall flourish in the courts of our GOD.\n          They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;\n          They shall be full of sap and green.\n\nBut why are the righteous made so upright and flourishing?\n\n          To show that the LORD is upright;\n          He is my ROCK, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.\n\nOne with our LORD, it is ours to _show forth_ His graces and virtues, to\nreflect His beauty, to be His faithful witnesses.\n\nThe palm is also the emblem of victory; it raises its beautiful crown\ntowards the heavens, fearless of the heat of the sultry sun, or of the\nburning hot wind from the desert. From its beauty it was one of the\nornaments of Solomon's, as it is to be of Ezekiel's temple. When our\nSAVIOUR was received at Jerusalem as the KING of Israel the people took\nbranches of palm-trees and went forth to meet Him; and in the glorious\nday of His espousals, \"a great multitude, which no man\" can \"number, of\nall nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,\" shall stand \"before\nthe throne and before the LAMB, clothed with white robes\"; and with\npalms of victory in their hands shall ascribe their \"salvation to our\nGOD which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the LAMB.\"\n\nBut if she resembles the palm she also resembles the vine. Much she\nneeds the culture of the Husbandman, and well does she repay it. Abiding\nin CHRIST, the true source of fruitfulness, she brings forth clusters of\ngrapes, luscious and refreshing, as well as sustaining, like the fruit\nof the palm--luscious and refreshing to Himself, the owner of the\nvineyard, as well as to the weary, thirsty world in which He has placed\nit.\n\nThe vine has its own suggestive lessons: it needs and seeks support;\nthe sharp knife of the pruner often cuts away unsparingly its tender\ngarlands, and mars its appearance, while increasing its fruitfulness. It\nhas been beautifully written:--\n\n          The living Vine, CHRIST chose it for Himself:--\n          GOD gave to man for use and sustenance\n          Corn, wine, and oil, and each of these is good:\n          And CHRIST is Bread of life and Light of life.\n          But yet, He did not choose the summer corn,\n          That shoots up straight and free in one quick growth.\n          And has its day, is done, and springs no more;\n          Nor yet the olive, all whose boughs are spread\n          In the soft air, and never lose a leaf,\n          Flowering and fruitful in perpetual peace;\n          But only this, for Him and His is one,--\n          That everlasting, ever-quickening Vine,\n          That gives the heat and passion of the world,\n          Through its own life-blood, still renewed and shed.\n               .     .     .     .     .      .\n          The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine;\n          Is it the poorer for that spirit shed?\n          The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof;\n          Are they the richer for that gift's excess?\n          _Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;_\n          _Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth;_\n          _For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice;_\n          _And whoso suffers most, hath most to give._\n\nYet one figure more is used by the Bridegroom: \"The smell of thy breath\n[is] like apples,\" or rather citrons. In the first section the bride\nexclaims:--\n\n          As the citron-tree among the trees of the wood,\n          So is my Beloved among the sons.\n          I delighted and sat down under His shadow,\n          And His fruit was sweet to my taste.\n\nHere we find the outcome of that communion. The citrons on which she had\nfed perfumed her breath, and imparted to her their delicious odour. The\nBridegroom concludes his description:--\n\n          Thy mouth [is] like the best wine,\n          That goeth down smoothly--\n                        For my Beloved--\n\ninterjects the bride,\n\n          Causing the lips of those that are asleep to move.\n\nHow wondrous the grace that has made the bride of CHRIST to be all this\nto her Beloved! Upright as the palm, victorious, and evermore fruitful\nas she grows heavenward; gentle and tender as the Vine, self-forgetful\nand self-sacrificing, not merely bearing fruit in spite of adversity,\nbut bearing her richest fruits through it;--feasting on her Beloved, as\nshe rests beneath His shade, and thereby partaking of His\nfragrance;--what has grace not done for her! And what must be her joy in\nfinding, ever more fully, the satisfaction of the glorious Bridegroom in\nthe lowly wild flower He has made His bride, and beautified with His own\ngraces and virtues!\n\n          I am my Beloved's,\n          And His desire is toward me,\n\nshe gladly exclaims. Now it is none of self or for self, but all of Thee\nand for Thee. And if such be the sweet fruits of going down to the\ngarden of nuts, and caring for His garden with Him, she will need no\nconstraining to continue in this blessed service.\n\n          Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the field;\n          Let us lodge in the villages.\n\nShe is not ashamed of her lowly origin, for she fears no shame: perfect\nlove has cast out fear. The royal state of the King, with its pomp and\ngrandeur, may be enjoyed by-and-by: now, more sweet with Him at her side\nto make the garden fruitful; to give to Him all manner of precious\nfruits, new and old, which she has laid up in store for Him; and best of\nall to satisfy Him with her own love. Not only is she contented with\nthis fellowship of service, but she could fain wish that there were no\nhonours and duties to claim His attention, and for the moment to lessen\nthe joy of His presence.\n\n          Oh that Thou wert as my brother,\n          That sucked the breasts of my mother!\n          _When_ I should find Thee without, I would kiss Thee;\n          Yea, and none would despise me.\n\nWould that she could care for Him, and claim His whole attention, as a\nsister might care for a brother. She is deeply conscious that He has\nrichly endowed her, and that she is as nothing compared with Him; but\ninstead of proudly dwelling upon what she has done through Him, she\nwould fain that it were possible for her to be the giver and Him the\nreceiver. Far removed is this from the grudging thought, that must so\ngrate upon the heart of our LORD, \"I do not think that GOD requires this\nof me\"; or, \"Must I give up that, if I am to be a Christian?\" True\ndevotion will rather ask to be allowed to give, and will count as loss\nall which may not be given up for the LORD'S sake--\"I count all things\nbut loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS my LORD.\"\n\nThis longing desire to be more to Him does not, however, blind her to\nthe consciousness that she needs His guidance, and that He is her true,\nher only Instructor.\n\n          I would lead Thee, _and_ bring Thee into my mother's\n               house,\n          That Thou mightest instruct me;\n          I would cause Thee to drink of spiced wine,\n          Of the juice of my pomegranate.\n\nI would give Thee my best, and yet would myself seek all my rest and\nsatisfaction in Thee.\n\n          His left hand _should_ be under my head,\n          And His right hand should embrace me.\n\nAnd thus the section closes. There is nothing sweeter to the Bridegroom\nor to the bride than this hallowed and unhindered communion; and again\nHe adjures the daughters of Jerusalem, in slightly different form:--\n\n          Why should ye stir up, or why awake My love,\n          Until she[5] please?\n\nHallowed communion indeed! May we ever enjoy it; and abiding in CHRIST,\nwe shall sing, in the familiar words of the well-known hymn--\n\n          Both Thine arms are clasped around me,\n            And my head is on Thy breast;\n          And my weary soul hath found Thee\n            Such a perfect, perfect rest!\n                Blessed JESUS,\n            Now I know that I am blest.\n\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[5] See note on p. 26.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION VI\n\nUNRESTRAINED COMMUNION\n\nCant. viii. 5-14\n\n\nWE have now reached the closing section of this book, which, as we have\nseen, is a poem describing the life of a believer on earth. Beginning in\nSection I. (Cant. i. 2-ii. 7) with the unsatisfied longings of an\nespoused one--longings which could only be met by her unreserved\nsurrender to the Bridegroom of her soul--we find that when the surrender\nwas made, instead of the cross she had so much feared she found a King,\nthe KING of LOVE, who both satisfied her deepest longings, and found His\nown satisfaction in her.\n\nThe second section (Cant. ii. 8-iii. 5) showed failure on her part; she\nwas lured back again into the world, and soon found that her Beloved\ncould not follow her there; then with full purpose of heart going forth\nto seek Him, and confessing His name, her search was successful, and her\ncommunion was restored.\n\nThe third section (Cant. iii. 6-v. 1.) told of unbroken communion.\nAbiding in Christ, she was the sharer of His security and His glory. She\ndraws the attention, however, of the daughters of Jerusalem from these\noutward things to her KING Himself. And, while she is thus occupied with\nHim, and would have others so occupied, she finds that her royal\nBridegroom is delighting in her, and inviting her to fellowship of\nservice, fearless of dens of lions and mountains of leopards.\n\nThe fourth section (Cant. v. 2-vi. 10), however, shows again failure;\nnot as before through worldliness, but rather through spiritual pride\nand sloth. Restoration now was much more difficult; but again when she\nwent forth diligently to seek her LORD, and so confessed Him as to lead\nothers to long to find Him with her, He revealed Himself and the\ncommunion was restored, to be interrupted no more.\n\nThe fifth section (Cant. vi. 11-viii. 4), as we have seen, describes not\nonly the mutual satisfaction and delight of the bride and Bridegroom in\neach other, but the recognition of her position and her beauty by the\ndaughters of Jerusalem.\n\nAnd now in the sixth section (Cant. viii. 5-14) we come to the closing\nscene of the book. In it the bride is seen leaning upon her Beloved,\nasking Him to bind her yet more firmly to Himself, and occupying herself\nin His vineyard, until He calls her away from earthly service. To this\nlast section we shall now give our attention more particularly.\n\nIt opens, as did the third, by an inquiry or exclamation of the\ndaughters of Jerusalem. There they asked, \"Who is this that cometh out\nof the wilderness like pillars of smoke, etc.?\" but then their attention\nwas claimed by the pomp and state of the KING, not by His person, nor by\nthat of His bride. Here they are attracted by the happy position of the\nbride in relation to her Beloved, and not by their surroundings.\n\n          Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness,\n          Leaning upon her Beloved?\n\nIt is through the bride that attention is drawn to the Bridegroom;\ntheir union and communion are now open and manifest. For the last time\nthe wilderness is mentioned; but sweetly solaced by the presence of the\nBridegroom, it is _no wilderness to the bride_. In all the trustfulness\nof confiding love she is seen leaning upon her Beloved. He is her\nstrength, her joy, her pride, and her prize; while she is His peculiar\ntreasure, the object of His tenderest care. All His resources of wisdom\nand might are hers; though journeying she is at rest, though in the\nwilderness she is satisfied, while leaning upon her Beloved.\n\nWonderful, however, as are the revelations of grace and love to the\nheart taught by the HOLY SPIRIT through the relationship of bride and\nBridegroom, the CHRIST of GOD is more than Bridegroom to His people. He\nwho when on earth was able to say, \"Before Abraham was, I am,\" here\nclaims His bride from her very birth, and not alone from her espousals.\nBefore she knew Him, He knew her; and of this He reminds her in the\nwords:--\n\n          I raised thee up under the citron-tree;\n          There thy mother brought thee forth.\n\nHe takes delight in her beauty, but that is not so much the cause as the\neffect of His love; for He took her up when she had no comeliness. The\nlove that has made her what she is, and now takes delight in her, is not\na fickle love, nor need she fear its change.\n\nGladly does the bride recognize this truth, that she is indeed His own,\nand she exclaims:\n\n          Set me as a seal upon Thine heart, as a seal upon\n               Thine arm;\n          For love is strong as death;\n          Jealousy (ardent love) is cruel (retentive) as the\n               grave;\n          The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,\n          A very flame of the LORD.\n\nThe High Priest bore the names of the twelve tribes upon his heart, each\nname being engraved as a seal in the costly and imperishable stone\nchosen by GOD, each seal or stone being set in the purest gold; he\nlikewise bore the same names upon his shoulders, indicating that both\nthe love and the strength of the High Priest were pledged on behalf of\nthe tribes of Israel. The bride would be thus upborne by Him who is\nalike her Prophet, Priest, and King, for love is strong as death; and\njealousy, or ardent love, retentive as the grave. Not that she doubts\nthe constancy of her Beloved, but that she has learned, alas! the\ninconstancy of her own heart; and she would be bound to the heart and\narm of her Beloved as with chains and settings of gold, ever the emblem\nof divinity. Thus the Psalmist prayed, \"Bind the sacrifice with cords,\n_even_ unto the horns of the altar.\"\n\nIt is comparatively easy to lay the sacrifice on the altar that\nsanctifies the gift, but it requires divine compulsion--the cords of\nlove--to retain it there. So here the bride would be set and fixed on\nthe heart and on the arm of Him who is henceforth to be her all in all,\nthat she may evermore trust only in that love, be sustained only by that\npower.\n\nDo we not all need to learn a lesson from this? and to pray to be kept\nfrom turning to Egypt for help, from trusting in horses and chariots,\nfrom putting confidence in princes, or in the son of man, rather than in\nthe living GOD? How the Kings of Israel, who had won great triumphs by\nfaith, sometimes turned aside to heathen nations in their later years!\nThe LORD keep His people from this snare.\n\nThe bride continues: \"The flashes of love are flashes of fire, a very\nflame of the LORD.\" It is worthy of note that this is the only\noccurrence of this word \"LORD\" in this book. But how could it be omitted\nhere? For love is of GOD, and GOD is love.\n\nTo her request the Bridegroom replies with reassuring words:--\n\n          Many waters cannot quench love,\n          Neither can the floods drown it:\n          If a man would give all the substance of his house\n               for love,\n          It would utterly be contemned.\n\nThe love which grace has begotten in the heart of the bride is itself\ndivine and persistent; many waters cannot quench it, nor the floods\ndrown it. Suffering and pain, bereavement and loss may test its\nconstancy, but they will not quench it. Its source is not human or\nnatural; like the life, it is hidden with CHRIST in GOD. What \"shall\nseparate us from the love of CHRIST? shall tribulation, or distress, or\npersecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in\nall these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.\nFor I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor\nprincipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor\nheight, nor depth, nor any other creation [R.V. margin], shall be able\nto separate us from the love of GOD, which is in CHRIST JESUS our LORD.\"\nOur love to GOD is secured by GOD'S love to us. To the soul really\nrescued by grace, no bribe to forsake GOD'S love will be finally\nsuccessful. \"If a man would give all the substance of his house for\nlove, it would utterly be contemned.\"\n\nFreed from anxiety on her own account, the happy bride next asks\nguidance, and fellowship in service with her LORD, on behalf of those\nwho have not yet reached her favoured position.\n\n          We have a little sister,\n          And she hath no breasts:\n          What shall we do for our sister\n          In the day when she shall be spoken for?\n\nHow beautifully her conscious union with the Bridegroom appears in her\nexpressions. \"_We_ have a little sister,\" not _I_ have, etc.; \"what\nshall _we_ do for our sister,\" etc.? She has now no private\nrelationships nor interests; in all things she is one with Him. And we\nsee a further development of grace in the very question. Towards the\nclose of the last section she recognized the Bridegroom as her\nInstructor. She will not now make her own plans about her little sister,\nand ask His acquiescence in them; she will rather learn what his\nthoughts are, and have fellowship with Him in His plans.\n\nHow much anxiety and care the children of GOD would be spared if they\nlearned to act in this way! Is it not too common to make the best plans\nthat we can, and to carry them out as best we may, feeling all the while\na great burden of responsibility, and earnestly asking the LORD to help\n_us_? Whereas if we always let _Him_ be our Instructor in service, and\nleft the responsibility with _Him_, our strength would not be exhausted\nwith worry and anxiety, but would all be at His disposal, and accomplish\nHis ends.\n\nIn the little sister, as yet immature, may we not see the elect of GOD,\ngiven to CHRIST in GOD'S purpose, but not yet brought into saving\nrelation to Him? And perhaps also those babes in CHRIST who as yet need\nfeeding with milk and not with meat, but who, with such care, will in\ndue time become experienced believers, fitted for the service of the\nLORD? Then they will be spoken for, and called into that department of\nservice for which He has prepared them.\n\nThe Bridegroom replies:--\n\n          If she be a wall,\n          We will build upon her battlements of silver;\n          And if she be a door,\n          We will inclose her with boards of cedar.\n\nIn this reply the Bridegroom sweetly recognizes His oneness with His\nbride, in the same way as she has shown her conscious oneness with Him.\nAs she says, \"What shall _we_ do for our sister?\" so He replies, \"_We_\nwill build . . . _we_ will inclose,\" etc. He will not carry out His\npurposes of grace irrespective of His bride, but will work with and\nthrough her. What can be done for this sister, however, will depend upon\nwhat she becomes. If she be a wall, built upon the true foundation,\nstrong and stable, she shall be adorned and beautified with battlements\nof silver; but if unstable and easily moved to and fro like a door, such\ntreatment will be as impossible as unsuitable; she will need to be\ninclosed with boards of cedar, hedged in with restraints, for her own\nprotection.\n\nThe bride rejoicingly responds, \"I am a wall\"; she knows the foundation\non which she is built, there is no \"if\" in her case; she is conscious of\nhaving found favour in the eyes of her Beloved. Naphtali's blessing is\nhers: she is \"satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the\nLORD.\"\n\nBut what is taught by the connection of this happy consciousness with\nthe lines which follow?\n\n          Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;\n          He let out the vineyard unto keepers;\n          Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a\n               thousand _pieces_ of silver.\n          My vineyard, which is mine, is before me:\n          Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand,\n          And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.\n\nThe connection is, we believe, one of great importance, teaching us\nthat what she _was_ (by grace) was more important than what she _did_;\nand that she did not work in order to earn favour, but being assured of\nfavour, gave her love free scope to show itself in service. The bride\nknew her relationship to her LORD, and His love to her; and in her\ndetermination that He should have the thousand pieces of silver, her\nconcern was that her vineyard should not produce less for her Solomon\nthan His vineyard at Baal-hamon; her vineyard was herself, and she\ndesired for her LORD much fruit. She would see, too, that the keepers of\nthe vineyard, those who were her companions in its culture, and who\nministered in word and doctrine, were well rewarded; she would not\nmuzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn; a full tithe, nay a double\ntithe, was to be the portion of those who kept the fruit and laboured\nwith her in the vineyard.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHow long this happy service continues, and how soon it is to be\nterminated, we cannot tell; He who calls His servants to dwell in the\ngardens, and cultivate them for Him--as Adam of old was placed in the\nparadise of GOD--alone knows the limit of this service. Sooner or later\nthe rest will come, the burden and heat of the last day will have been\nborne, the last conflict will be over, and the voice of the Bridegroom\nwill be heard addressing His loved one:--\n\n          Thou that dwellest in the gardens,\n          The companions hearken to thy voice:\n          Cause Me to hear it.\n\nThy service among the companions is finished; thou hast fought the good\nfight, thou hast kept the faith, thou hast finished thy course;\nhenceforth there is laid up for thee the crown of righteousness, and the\nBridegroom Himself shall be thine exceeding great reward!\n\nWell may the bride let Him hear her voice, and, springing forth in heart\nto meet Him, cry:--\n\n          Make haste, my Beloved,\n          And be Thou like to a roe or to a young hart\n          Upon the mountains of spices!\n\nShe no longer asks Him, as in the second section:--\n\n          Turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a young\n               hart\n          Upon the mountains of Bether [separation].\n\nShe has never again wished Him to turn away from her, for there are no\nmountains of Bether to those who are abiding in CHRIST; now there are\nmountains of spices. He who inhabits the praises of Israel, which rise,\nlike the incense of spices, from His people's hearts, is invited by His\nbride to make haste, to come quickly, and be like a roe or young hart\nupon the mountains of spices.\n\nVery sweet is the presence of our LORD, as by His SPIRIT He dwells among\nHis people, while they serve Him below; but here there are many thorns\nin every path, which call for watchful care; and it is meet that now we\nshould suffer with our LORD, in order that we may hereafter be glorified\ntogether. The day, however, is soon coming in which He will bring us up\nout of the earthly gardens and associations to the palace of the great\nKING. There His people \"shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more;\nneither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the LAMB, which\nis in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto\nliving fountains of waters; and GOD shall wipe away all tears from their\neyes.\"\n\n          The SPIRIT and the bride say, Come! . . .\n          Surely I come quickly.\n          Amen; even so, come, LORD JESUS!\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nTHE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM\n\n\nTHE question is frequently asked, Who are represented by the daughters\nof Jerusalem?\n\nThey are clearly not the bride, yet they are not far removed from her.\nThey know where the Bridegroom makes His flock to rest at noon; they are\ncharged by the Bridegroom not to stir up nor awaken His love when she\nrests, abiding in Him; they draw attention to the Bridegroom as with\ndignity and pomp He comes up from the wilderness; their love-gifts adorn\nHis chariot of state; they are appealed to by the bride for help in\nfinding her Beloved, and, stirred by her impassioned description of His\nbeauty, they desire to seek Him with her; they describe very fully the\nbeauty of the bride, but, on the other hand, we never find them occupied\nwith the _person_ of the Bridegroom; _He_ is not all in all to them;\nthey mind outward and earthly things.\n\nDo they not represent those who, if not actually saved, are very near\nit; or, if saved, are only half-saved? who are for the present more\nconcerned about the things of this world than the things of GOD? To\nadvance their own interests, to secure their own comfort, concerns them\nmore than to be in all things pleasing to the LORD. They _may_ form part\nof that great company spoken of in Rev. vii. 9-17, who come out of the\ngreat tribulation, but they will not form part of the 144,000, \"the\nfirst-fruits unto GOD and to the LAMB\" (Rev. xiv. 1-5). They have\nforgotten the warning of our LORD in Luke xxi. 34-36; and hence they are\nnot \"accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to\npass, and to stand before the SON of Man.\" They have not, with Paul,\ncounted \"all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of\nCHRIST JESUS the Lord,\" and hence they do _not_ \"attain unto\" _that_\nresurrection from among the dead, which Paul felt he might miss, but\naimed to attain unto.\n\nWe wish to place on record our solemn conviction that not all who are\nChristians, or think themselves to be such, will attain to that\nresurrection of which St. Paul speaks in Phil. iii. 11, or will thus\nmeet the LORD in the air. Unto those who by lives of consecration\nmanifest that they are not of the world, but are looking for Him, \"He\nwill appear without sin unto salvation.\"\n\n\n          _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber's Note: Text uses both Shulamite and Shulammite.","title":"Union and Communion; or, Thoughts on the Song of Solomon","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":17497}