11.eee towards God which they foster. It is the source of th6 Madonna and saint worship of Rome, and of worse things still. For men become as the gods they worship. 2. lt shows us how to deal wisely with all young life, especially the beginni □ gs of the Divine life in the soul: how to train our children. 3. .And it bids us trust Uod. Will God be so gracioue to birds and blossoms and not tenderly care for us? Impossible. III. "W1T11 lllM re PLENTEOUS REDKMPTION." Spring teaches that our God is the redeeming God. I•'or spring is the redemption of outward nature, its regeneration and resurrection. She was dead, but is alive again; was lost, but is found. Darkness has given place to light, barrenness to fruitfulness, and the "hills rejoice on every side." Tho vision of Ezekiel is put before us as oft as the spring comes round. "Can these dry bones live?" said he. "Can all this seeming deadness live?" say we. .And the spring is our answer. And we are told further of our dependence upon God for such redemption. Who can bring about the renewed life of spring but God ? and who that yet higher life of the soul? And how visible the life is! See all around the proofs of the presence of the spring. Not less visible are the fruits of the spring-tide of the soul. And as the spring is promised, so is the better gift of redemption. Each blade, blossom, and bud seems to say to us, "Shall God redeem me, and will be not redeem thee?" .And the mystery of the cross is shown. Fo(wbat is spring but life out of and through death? Redemption must imply a Redeemer, and the life of spring coming forth out of the death of winter patterns forth how the Christ must needs suffer and be raised again. And for ourselves it tells of him who said for us, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," and bids us say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." IV. "PuT YE ON THE NEW MAN." All Nature does this at spring-tide. We in our dwellings and in our dress try to imitate her and do the like. They who cau, get new garments; they who cannot, try to make the old look new. Let us learn the lesson in things higher still. Is there not much room for it? In too many even Christian people the remains of what Paul calls "the old man" are too plentifully visible-in homes, in habits, in speech, in thought, in temper. How much we need yet to be created anew in Christ Jesus, to" put on the new man"! And he who maketh "all things new" is ready to help us herein if we will have his help. V. BE DILIGBNT, Spring is a time of great activity. The hnsbandman dare not waste those precious hours if he would rejoice when harvest comes. So with this life of ours, all which is given us for preparation for the great harvest-time. Then let the activities of the spring remind us that we, too, must be diligent if we would be found at the last faithful before the Lord.-S. C.
Ver. 15.-" The littlefoxes." This verse is part of the description which Shulamith, the betrothed, gives of her beloved. In the verses preceding she relates (ver. 8, etc.) how he was wont to come to her home a.fter her, bounding and leaping over the hills in his loving haste, like a young hart. And how, when he had reached the house, he would "look in at the windows," and beg her to come forth to him. And to entice her he would sing the beautiful song of the spring," The winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is come." And then, because she was still slow to· come forth, she tells how he would call her again, and by the tender name of his timid" dove," that hides itself, because of its fear, in the clefts of the rocks, and amid the inaccessible crags and crevices of lofty cliffs; and then how he would ask her to sing to him her song of the foxes, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes . . . grapes." Such seems to be the circumstantial setting of this verse; but, like the whole poem of which it forms part, had it no more meanini than lies on the surface it would not, we believe, have found place amongst the sacred Scriptures, the Bible of the people of God. If, then, the words suggest to devout minds, as they have done in all the centuries since they were written, truths which belong to the region of the soul, to our relationships with God more than to any relationship of earth, surely we may believe that they were designed so to do; and earthly as the story may be on which such truths are grafted, like the parables of our Lord, it has a heavenly meaning, and is designed to help us on our heavenward way. Now, of some of these suggested truths let us speak, One word as to the imagery of this verse. "Foxes, jackals, little foxes, are very common in Palestine, and are particularly fond c,f grapes. 'l'hey often burrow in holes in hedges round the gardens, and, unless strictly watched, 68 THE SONG OF SOLOMON. [oa. lI, 1:-,--17,