Light of the world), the blood of Jesus Obrist is oleansing him from aH sin, and he becomes in his poor measure a light, shining with the reflected light of the Saviour's holiness. Christ is tnade unto his people wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; whatever beauty of character they possess comes only from communion with him. "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, they are ohanged into the same image from glory to glory." They must be harmless as doves,. gentle; humble, innocent. The Lord in his condescending love accepts their imperfect service. "I know thy works, and thy love, and faith, and ministry, and patience; and thst thy last works are more than the first." 2. The answer ef the bride. Perhaps they hsve now gone forth into the air; they are sitting together, as the words seem to imply, on a green couch, on some grassy slope in the Lebanon country, under the interlacing boughs of cedars an<l fir trees. The bride enjoys the fair prospect around her; she delights still more in the presence and love of the bridegroom. She calls him "my beloved; " the Hebrew word is another form of the name of the king's father, David, which means "'beloved." He is very fair in her eyes; yea, pleasant. The Lord is fairer than the children of men; to the Christian there is no vision of earthly beauty which will Qear one moment's comparison with the tender loveliness of the Saviour's character, the exalted beauty of his self-sacrificing love. The Christian soul delights in the fair -beauty of the Lord; it is to ·him the one thing to be desired above all others.. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord" (Ps. xxvii. 4). So Isaiah, who alone of the prophets uses the bride's word of endearment," my Beloved" (Isa. v. 1), has the blessed promise," Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty" (Isa. xxxiii 17). The king is pleasant also ; not only fair to look upon, but possessed o( ever) charm, of all spiritual grace. We have the same word applied to God in Ps. :x:xvii. 4 aud xc. 17. May God "shine into our hearts, to reveal to us the light of the knowledge ()f ihe glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" I
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-" The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's." What does this mean? I. As TO THE TITLE ? " The Song of Songs." It affirms that this song ie the most eJ::ceilent of all songs, the incomparably beautiful song, a. song beside which, as one writer says, "all others hide their heads." . II. As TO THE NAME AFFIXED TO IT? Not that Sol,omon was. the autho:r. For the very title would convict him of egregious vanity. A writer would hardly thus spe3:k of bis own productions. But it would be quite lawful tha~ another should so speak; hence the poem might be Solomon's and the title be added on by another writer. Hut even then we question his authorship of this song.· For: 1. If we take the. literal interpretation of it, as well-nigh all modern competent Bible scholars do, in greater or less degree (cf. Ginsburg, Ewald, Maurer, Stanley, 'Speaker's-Commentary,' Hartwell Home's 'Introduction,' etc.),-th.en, since it represents Solomon as foiled and frustra~ed in his endearnurs to persuade the maiden Shulamith, whose constancy and fidelity the poem celebrates, to become his bride, it is hardly likely that he would depict himself in such an unlovtly light, or in such undignified guise as that in which, in this song, he certainly appears. Or, if we take the most ancient and most common interpretation of the i;ong, the spiritual and allegorical, which affirms that tho bride-though there is no bride in the song at all, but only one who is betrothed-represents the Cb.urch; and that Solomon, whom this interpretation identifies with" the beloved," is a type of our Lord Jesus Chrit;t; and that the poem is intended to set forth the mutual love, of Christ and his Church ;-then we say that Solomon is in no sense a fit type of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he was not a man after God's own heart, but very far from it. Moreover, he was not the man to write a spiritual poem of such exalted character. '!'hey were "holy men of old" whom the Spirit inspired. But, certainly, Solomon can lay no claim to that chara9ter. 'rheu: 3. David and Solomon are both Bpoken of in Buch manner. as would hardly be likely if ,Solomon were the writer. (Cf. eh. iii. 9, 11; viii. 11, 12.) It is the manner of one speaking of them, telling facts concerning them; b~j; it is not as thoy would orr. 1. 1-17,] THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 15