The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 94

HOMILIES BY V.ARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-5.-Love's dream. It is a dream that is told of in these verses. It was natural fur her who tells it to have dreamt such a dream. Lifting up the story to the higher level of things spiritual, what these verses say suggests- . I. CONCERNING DREAMS GENERALLY. '!'hey are often revelations of life and character. Sometimes they a.re mere folly, the misty vapours exhaled by a gross and over-fed body. But at other times, as here, they have a deeper meaning. They. show the manner of a man's life, .the bent of his inclinations, the character of his soul. Our dreams never play us false. The motives that govern their acts are the motives that govern ours. .A man dreams about the sins he loves too well; about the sorrows that haunt his life; about the joys on which his heart is set. Dreams have played a large part in God's governance of men. They often show us what we should avoid and what we should seek after. '!'hough some are foolish, wo cannot afford to despise them as if all were -so. . . II. CoNcEBNING THIS DBE.ill. In both its.stages it reveals the fervent love of the dreamer. L It began sorrowfully. She thought she bad lost her beloved (vers. 1, 2). This the deepest of distresses to the renewed soul (cf. Ps. lxxvii. 1--4)., If heaven would cease to be heaven, as it would were Christ's presence withdrawn, how much more must this life be all dark and drear if we have him not! ,And she tells.how she sought him. (1) In the city, amid the business and turmoil of men. But it is. but little that he is there. They wouid most probably crucify him if they found him, so deadly is the hate the world bath for him.. It is not true that virtue needs only to be seen to be loved. ,Ai; onr Lord was dealt with,. so would it be. (2) And in the a~scmblies, in wciety_ And we cannot be .aurprised that be was not there. • Society I doc:. that word t1unHnon up. the idea. of a community who would cherish_ Christ's presence? (3) But ev.en..the watcbmen·coulcLnot tell her,of him. How wrong this I Zion's watchmen, e.nd not know where Christ is to be found I '.Phey had found her, auti vuy likely foUlld fault with her, but they could not help her to find him. Such pastors th.ere:are, and to..them "the hungry sheep look up,-and are not fed." "We can ]Jicture the soul's distress when these failed:her. To have gone to the house of God hungering .for direction Chrietwards, and to come back with none at e.11-that is a sorrow not unknown nor slight.. But her dream did not end so. 2. It ended joyfully. (1) Her beloved revealed himself to her. She "found him.", But what is our finding other than his showing? (cf. the four findings ofChrist told ofin John i.). How often when we have" passed from" Sundays e.nd services and sermons, ·and have not found Gl,rist, he is found of us in some other season, place, and circumstances I If he b~ CH, Ill, 1-11.] THE &ONG OF SOLOMON. 83