The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 108

appointment.. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity." He could not find sat.isfaction in his wisdom when he had begun to fall away from God. He found that "in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge iucreaseth sorrow" (Ercles. i. 18). Aud so the wisest of men betook himself to pleasure. "I said in my heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth;" "I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house;" "I gat me men-singers and women- singers; " "What.soever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy" (Eccles. ii. 1, 7, 8, 10). He found, as they that are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God always find sooner or later, that all this was " vanity and vexation of spirit," nothing better than "striving after wind." "There- fore," he says, "I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity aud vexation of spirit." And this is King Solomon, who surpassed all the kings of the earth for glory and riches; who was wiser than the wi~est of his time; who had won in his youth the love of the pure and innocent Shnlamite; who (and this is the saddest thought of all) once loved the Lord: "Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father" (1 Kings iii. 3). While he continued to love the Lord, he was true, we must believe, to the wife of his youth. One who walks in the light of the love of God cannot love the works of darkness, can- not admit into his heart that taint of impurity which so utterly shuts the soul away from the love of God. We wonder whether Solomon repented as his father David did. We know that God warned him, and chastised him for his sins, but we know also that much will be required from those to whom much has been given, and that to fall from rnch grace as had been bestowed upon Solomon must be a grievous fall indeed; to disobey God who had given him such abundant blessings showed a depth of ingratitude which utterly startles us, till we learn to know in penitence and self-abasement what Solomon impressed upon others, whether he felt it himself or not, "the plague of our mrn hearts" (1 Kings viii. 38). 'l'he pure love of wedlock is maintained in ever- growing affection when husband and wife both live near to God. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another" (1 John i. 7). That fellowship which "is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3) involves of necessity the holiest grace of charity in our mutual relations with our b:-other Christians; especially those whom God bath joined together must and will, if they are living as the children of God, live together in holy love unto their lives' end. We wonder whether the fair Shulamite lived to experience the change in her royal bridegroom; if she did, the loss of his affection must have been a bitter trial indeed. Perhaps God in his mercy took her to himself before that trial came. 2. The heavenly Bridegroom. It is the will of the Lord Jesus to present the Church unto himself as a glorious Church, holy and without blemish. The Lord shall rejoice in bis works. Through the cleansing power of his most precious blood, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, which he giveth to his chosen, the Church, his bride shall at the last be" all glorious within ; " for he i.s able "to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). Then shall there be joy in heaven, when the Lord, who endured for the Church's sake the great agony of the cross, sees the reward of his bitter Passion; when he looks upon the Church, a glorious Church indeed, no longer marred and stained by sin and strife and error, but cleansed and purified "even as he is pure" (1 John iii. 3), made like unto him in the vision of his love and holiness, Then he will rejoice over her as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride. "In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem . . . The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his Jove, he will joy, over thee with singing" (Zeph. iii. 16, 17). The heavenly Bridegroom will rejoice over his bride ; he will see in her the beauty of holiness; he will rejoice in her graces. She is very dear to him, for she is the reward of that long anguish, the agony and bloody 5Weat, the bitter cross and Passion. And now she is wholly his; she bas left all other masters, and given her whole heart to the Lord who bought her, with the full, pure, holy love which she has learned of him-the infinite love. 3. The bride must make her6elf ready. (Rev. xix. 7.) Without holiness no man can see the Lord. The ho~iness of the Church consists in the holiness of its members, We must follow after holiness, holiness of heart and life; for without the wedding-garment, the white robe of right- eousness, p.one can be admitted to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, We must, eacb OB, IV, 1-16,] THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 97