union of love. "My beloved is mine, and I am his : he feedeth his flock among the lilies." The favoured maiden, it may be, could not at the moment join her royal lover; but her heart was wholly his, and she knew that his love was fixed upon her. She describes him as a shepherd, but her words are figurative; he feedeth hie flock, not in common pastures, but among the lilies of his garden, the garden of spices mentioned again in eh. vi. 2, She delights in dwelling on the union of their hearts; three times ahe repeats the happy words (ver. 16; eh. vi. 3; vii. 10). The Church is the Lord's. He loved her, and gave himself for her, and presenteth her to himself as bis bride (Epb. v. 25, 27); and he is hers, her Bridegroom, her Kin", her Lord. The 0 Christian soul is the Lord's. "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's" (Rom. xiv. 8). He gave himself to each one of us individually when be called us to be his own; we give ourselves to him a.t the moment of our first spiritual awakening; we renew the gift continua.Uy in the hour of prayer, in the holy communion: "We offer and present unto thee, 0 Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a. reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee." "My Beloved is mine, and I am his "-to know that with the knowledge of personal experience is the highest of spiritual blessings. He gives himself first to us, and by that gift he enables us, cold and selfish as we are, to give ourselves to him. None can tell the blessedness of that inner spiritual union with the Lord save those happy souls to whom it 'is given; and they to whom he bas manifested himself must very jealously keep their souls from any unfaithful leaning to other masters, that they may be wholly his, that no unfaithfulness may mar the pure clear truth of their heart's love for him who loved them even unto death, and deigns now to irradiate their hearts with his most sacred presence. He is their Lord, and he is their good Shepherd; be knoweth his own, and bis own know him. Once be gave his life for the sheep; now he feeds them, and leads them on their way, till they come to the lilies of Paradise, the garden of the Lord. 4. The adieus of the "bride. She has expressed her confidence in her lovllr's affection and her own devotion to him; but now, apparently, she repeats the inUmation of ver. 15 in plainer words: her duties in the vineyard will occupy her time till the evening. She wishes her lover to continue his hunting excursion on the mountains of Bether, or, it may be, "of separation "-the mountains which for the time separate the lovers. She invites him to return when the day is cool, when the day breathes; that is, when the breeze comes in the evening, and the shadows lengthen and flee a.way (see Jer. vi. 4). The Christian must not neglect the ordinary commonplace duties of life; he must not allow himself, like the Thessa- lonians, to be so distracted with spiritual excitement as to be unable to attend to the pursuits of his calling. The bride tends the vineyards which have been eo=itted to her charge ; the Christian must do with his might whatever his hand findeth to do. He roust not neglect his duties even for the sake of giving a.11 his time to religious exercises. Laborare est orare. If, whatever he does, he does all to the glory of God, Christ is his, and he is Christ's, as fully in the midst of daily work as in the hour of prayer. Daniel, who kneeled upon his knees, and prayed and gave thanks three times a day, was faithful in all things to the kinl!: his master; no error or fault could be found in the administration of his arduous office. The bride will welcome her lover back in the cool of the evening, when she has finished her work; the Christian will take delight in his evening prayers when the tasks of the day have been performed.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-The rose a-nd the lily. We have suggested here the self-consciousness of the renewed soul a.s to its true character and condition. It is the maiden who speaks, not her beloved, who in the next verse lovingly responds to what she 511ys of herself. She likens herself- I. To THE 11osE OF SHAllON. That is, to a. common field flower, not rare or distin- guished, but of the lowliest if also of the loveliest kind. 1. It is the utterance of humility. (Cf, Paul's word of himself as '' less than the least of all saints.") Lowly thoughts of themselves are ever the characteristics of saints. It is not so strong an rixpresRion as the '' I o,m blac~" of c~, i. 61 b~t i~ is of s\miliu- orqer (cf, o:p. eh. i. 5) BQ?,fq Of BOL0?40N, & THE SONG OF SOLOMON. [oJt. n. 1-17.