The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 86

the oity shows thl't such o. metaphor would by the bride in the presence of the ladies, be fRmiliRrly understood. Wliether adopted There is no occasion to connect a refrain from Solomou's Song or not, the figure of a very dosely with the words which go beforo city watched and guarded, and the people it. Like the ancient G1·eek chorus, it may of God as wRtching for the glory of Zion, express a gener11l sentiment In harmony with wRs common in the prophetio writings. The the pervading feeling of the whole com• MUI secl.-ing for its object 11.nd for the position. In this oe.so it seems to be a restoration of its peaoe mlls in the aid of geneml note of praise, oelebro.ting the the f&ithful guardians of the holy city, the preciousness of pure, spontaneous affection. friends alike of the Saviour and of those There have beeu several beautiful and cele- who desire to be his. brated imitations of this first part of Ver. 4.-It was but a little that I passed Solomon's Song, though they nil fall for from them, when I fonnd him whom my soul short of the original. Paul Gerhard hue loveth : I held him, and would not let him caught its spirit; Laureutius has copied it go, nntil I had brought him into my mother's iu his Advent Hymn. Wo.tts, in bk. i. 66-78 house, and into the oh&mber of her that oon- of his • Divine Songs;' 'Lyra Germanica;' oeived me. This verse plainly points to the Sche.ff's' Christian Song;' and Miss Haver- search referred to in the previous verse being gal, in some of her compositions, will furnish limited to the neighbourhood of Shulamith's examples. Delitzsch quotes an ancient Lntiu home. The lover was not far off, though imitation- • he had delayed his coming. Possibly it is e. real occurrence which is related. In that " Quando tandem venies; meus amor? caBe we must suppose that the night was Propera de Libano, dulcis amor I not very far advanced. But the hypothesis Clamat, amat, sponsula. Veni, J esu: of a dream is the most natural explanation. Dnlcis veni Jesu." The word cheTer, which is used of the house, This ends Part II., which sets before us the denotes fhe iuner part, penetral,ia. The lovely beginning of this ideal love. We must modesty of the last clause is very beautiful. The mother would, of course, at that time be then suppose that the writer imagines him- in her sleeping-chamber. There nlone would self in Jerusalem, as though one of the court the maiden receive her lover at such a time. ladies, at the time that Solomon the king The mother would gla.<lly welcome the young returns from the north, bringing with him man, and thus the love which Shulamith his bride-elect. We pass, therefore, from the declares is set upon the ground of perfect banqueting-chamber, and recall· the scenes chastity and homely purity. The object of this little episode introduced by the bride which accompanied the arrive.I of Shulamith into her song aB she lies in the e.rms of nt Jerusalem. The remainder of the poem Solomon is to 8how that, ecstatic and iu tense is simply the celebJ'ation of m&rried love, the as her devotion is, it is not the lawless delight of the bridegroom in the bride and affection of a concubine, but. the love of a of the bride in her husband. The whole book noble wife. The religious emotions a.re al wo.ys presented to us in Scripture, not as concerns a bride, and not one who is about ~o wild fanaticism or superficial excitement, but be made a bride. Here the dream which is as pure offering of the beartwhich blends with int1·oduced is not the dream of a lovernwaiting the highest relations and interests of hum_an the !>eloved one, but the dream of a young life and 11anctifies home and country w1t.l?. wife whose bridegroom tarries. 'fhe third all 'their ties and obligations. The mother part is the nuptiul rejoicings; the fourth part and the child axe one in the new atmosphere of bridal joy. No religion is worthy of the is the reminiscence of love-days or of the name which does not bring its object into early married life; nnd the fifth part, which tlie chamber of her who conceived us. We is a conclusion, is a visit of Solomon and ~is love all that are bound with us in life not bride to the cou11try home. of.. the latter, the Iese but the more, because we love Chri.,t pointing to the depth and reo.lity of the in- euprem~ly. We revere all that is just a:od fluence which this pure maiden ho.d upon holy in the common world the more,and not the less because we worsliip God and serve his royal nature. the Lo;a_. Wh,,t a rebuke to asceticism, Ver. 6---oh. v. 1.-Part III. NUPTIAL monasticism, and all unsocial religion! REJOJOINGS. Ver. 5.-I adjure yon, 0 daughters of 1en- ee.lem, by the roes, and by the hinda of the field, Ver. 6,--:-Who is this that cometh"np out that ye stir not up, nor awaken love, until of the wilderness like pillars of sm'oke, per- it plee.ee. This is the refrain which divides fumed with myrrh and 'frankincense, with the poem. We thus perceive that the whole all the powden·of the'me~ohant 1. This ma.y of the preceding paYage has been uttered be ta.ken as spokell' .by a single vo10e, one of  ,, OH, JU.1-11.] THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 7.,