The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 64

tabernacle which was known &a the most holy place, and whloh WRB emphatioally secret, for it wRs never entered but once a year, and then by the high priest alone. But it told of m1m's need of God's grace, and of that grace provided for him. 'l'o trust then in that God was, and is, to dwell "under the shadow of the Almighty." M~y that happy lot be ours! II. THE MEANING IT HAS SUGGESTED, The shadow of the cross, thl! shadow into which our Lord entered during his Passion especially. 1. lt was Ms shadow. See the agony in the .~arde~; hear the cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why hast," etc.? Read Ps. xxu., which tells of those dread hours. We read, once and again, in the Gospels of his being troubled, of his sighing, of his tears. Anticipating his death, he said," Now is my soul troubled." Yes, what wonder that he feared as he entered that dark shadow! 2. But we may sit under it" with great delight," and its fruit is sweet to our taste. (1) For that shadow has flown away. The cross is taken down. In its special form the Passion is past. Now," on his head" is not the crown of thorns, but the " many crowns" of his people's Jove. With great delight do they think of this. (2) And dark as that shadow was, it was the background on which shone out resplen- dently the love of the heart of God. Man had never really seen that love but for that shadow. (3) And because of all that has come forth from that shadow. Who cau reckon up in order or number the sweet fruits of that tree on which the Saviour hung? Have they not been, are they not, and will they not yet more be, blessed for man? What of redeeming force for all men was not set in motion by that a.et of redemption? Well, therefore, may even those who look not upon our Lord as we do, nevertheless sing, "In the cross of Christ I glory." 3. But his shadow may, will, must, be ours. For we also are to take up our cross and follow after him. We have to " know the fellowship of his sufferings, and to be made conformable to his death." "All that into God's kingdom come Must enter by this door," In some this fellowship with his sufferings has been manifest to all in that which they have been called upon to endure. In others, outwardly, there may not have been much, if anything, to tell of such fellowship. But there is the spiritual cross, as real, as sharp, as heavy, as repellent to our nature, as the outward and visible one. And who may escape that? But: 4. We may sit under such shadow-with great delight. (1) Men have done so (cf. "I glory in tribulations a.Isa"). .And St. Paul again, throughout the Epistle to the Philippians, whose key-note is joy. Yet he was in prison and in peril of his life all the while. And his experience has been that of "a great multitude which no man co.n number, out of," etc. (2) Why is this? Because it has been his shadow. The reason of suffering is the measure of its power over us. Does the fond mother, watching night after night by the bed of her fever-stricken, darling child, think much or complain of her sufferings? Does she not glory in them if they can but help her child? And so if our shadow be his shadow, that which be has bidden us bear, then because it is his we shall "sit down under it with," etc. St. Paul sprang towards it, counted all thinO'S but lose that he might attain to the excellency of its knowledge; so he speaks of it ~th almost rapture, with certainly no complaint. He was one of those who "sat down under . . . to his taste." Then let it be our sole care to see that the shadows which draw over all lives, and which will darken ours sometimes, be his shadow, and then all will be well.-S. C. Vers. 5-7.-Faint for love. Keeping to the ·spiritual, not the historical, interpre- taLion, these verses suggest what is common to all, but confessed here only by the saintly soul L CHBIST BHABEB IT. He said when on the cross, "I thirst," and that told not alone of his physical thirst, but of that sacred, insatiable, and still unsatisfied thirst for the love of human hearts. He could say, "I am faint for love." And yet he yearns for that Jc,ve, though much he already possesses, and will more and more. •The Passion was but as a picture thrown upon a. sheet to ruake clear and conspicuous to all what else they had not seen. So the sufferings of Christ serve to show not what was once. but what eternally ir, 1 in the heart of Christ-this yearning for man's love. The Holy .Spirit, the Wllleen and spiritual Christ, is yet Oil earth amoDgst men i and yet, as he OH. tt. 1-17.j 1 fHE SONG OF SOLOMON. !53