£CCLESIASTES XII. 13 441
Him ? I tell you : through a means which He has established by which we can love Him freely, and without the least regard to any profit of ours: we can be useful, not to Him, which is impossible, but to our neighbour. To show the love we have to Him, we ought to serve and love every rational creature. Every virtue receives life from love, and love is gained in love, that is, by raising the eye of our mind to behold how much we are beloved of God. Seeing ourselves loved, we cannot do other- wise than love." ^
3. The New Testament fully endorses the idea that the " chief good " for man lies in a life of godliness and virtue. The gospel, it is true, seeks to infuse a spirit of love and trust into our reverence for God; but it does not abolish this reverence. It reveals to us a " Father in heaven " whose " name " is to be " hallowed." It proclaims, indeed, the forgiving mercy of God, and offers pardon to the "chief of sinners"; but it does not lessen the sanctity of God's law, or relax the demands of that law on our conscience. It points us to our great High Priest who has offered the perfect sacrifice of Himself upon the cross. It gives us a still larger view of the Divine commandments, and seeks to bring us into harmony with their inmost spirit. It does not " make void the law through faith " ; it " establishes the law." The Saviour whom it proclaims to us is the King whom we are bound to obey, and who said, " Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets ; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil."
^ True religion is no mere mystic passive dream of devotion — a gazing in rapt reverence on the mystery of godliness, and no more. It is a system also of high comprehensive delicate law, which demands daily determined obedience. It is a doing and a being. The righteousness of Christ is excelling; it signifies infinitely more than civil law, social courtesy, or ecclesiastical discipline. It means a noble heart governing daily life in its most delicate relations and situations. It is no "rule of thumb," but of finer discriminations than the most exquisite instruments of science. Let me not mistakenly spend life in arguing down and arguing away the lofty laws of Christ. Let me not labour to accommodate them to my weakness. Let me daily pray for the grace that will bring me up to the height of the law, and not attempt to bring down the law to my frailty .^
^ V. D. Scudder, Letters of Saint Catherine 0/ Siena, 79. ' W. L. Watkinson.
Separated Lovers.
Literature.
Cannon (W. W.), The Song of Songs, 2.
Falconer (H.), The Maid of Shulam.
Qodet (Q.), Biblical Studies : Old Testament, 265.
Lepper (C. W.), The Bridegroom and His Bride, 35.
Macduff (J. R.), The Shepherd and His Flock, 205.
Marston (A. W.), Joined to the Lord, 32.
Rainsford (M.), The Song of Solomon, 33.
Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, vi. (1860), No. 338.
„ „ Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xi. (1866), No. 636 ;
xix. (1873), No. 1115. Stuart (J.), Church and Home, 140. Christian Age, xxvii. 1 16 (T. de W. Talmage).
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Separated Lovers.
Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,
Where thou feedest thy flock, where thou makest it to rest at noon :
For why should I be as one that is veiled
Beside the flocks of thy companions ? — Song of Songs i. 7.
1. The popular poetry of Israel would be a blank had there not been handed down to us the beautiful poem, springing out of the very life of the people, which is named The Song of Songs. This exquisite production reveals to us that, while the poetic genius of the Hebrew nation soared to its highest flights in the expression of religious emotion, there were also poets capable of giving utter- ance in song to the most universal of all human emotions. The Sacred Canon abounds in writings which view the religious aspect of human life in manifold ways, but the reader may be thankful that one piece has been included which gives lyric expression to what has inspired poets in every age and every country. Old Testament literature would have been incomplete without this poem of human love.
From indications contained in the poem itself, we can easily see the drift of the story which lies behind it, and on the basis of which it develops its action. The little town of Shunem (now called Solam) in the tribe of Issachar, five miles from Mount Tabor, lying among the mountains which overlook the fruitful plain of Jezreel, was the home of the heroine, the " girl from Shulem " {I and n being interchangeable in Hebrew). To the north and east the roads lead to the Galilean mountain region full of variegated charms, to the lordly Tabor and the beautiful shores of the Lake of Gennesaret. South and west the prospect extends over the once richly cultivated highland of Ephraim and the noble wooded headland of Carmel, falling into the Western Sea, Not far away at Baal-hamon, King Solomon had a large and profitable vine- yard. In this little town of Shulem lived a family comprising a