The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 139

Wat-0h" (Mark xiii. 35-37). We must learn the prayer of the child Samuel, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." Each time we refuse to listen the old torpor steals more and more over our souls, our slumber becomes deeper, the difliculty of awakening us ~1C"romes greater, a_nd repei:itanee more do~btful, more encompassed with dangers, callmg for more exertion of will, more determmed effort. 2. Tlie charge. 'l'he bride cannot. find her beloved. She seeks the help of the chorus of maidens, the daucrhters 0 ,,f Jerusalem. She adjures them in her ea::;er anxiety, "If ye find my beloved 1 what will ye t~ll him? That I am sick of love." She had used the last words onco before (eh. ii. 5), but in a different connection. Then bis banner over her was love; then the joy of his love was almost too great for her; she was sick of love. Now it is her longing for the absent bridegroom which produces the heart-sickness which she describes. She fondly thinks that if be only knew her yearning for him he would return; he would forgive all that was past, and bring her again under the banner of his love. So the Christian soul, awakened out of sleep, longs for the Saviour's presence. She feels that she is sick. She needs the great Physician. Without him all is dark; without him there is no spiritual health, no joy, no hope. She seeks him in earnest prayer. She asks for the intercession of Christiau friends; she would have them bring lier distress and longing before the throne. " My God, my soul is cast .down within me ; " " My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; " " Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in •God : for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Vers. 9-16.-The brid,e's praise of the bridegroom. I. THE QUESTION OF THIii DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM. 1. The bride. The bride is dreaming still. 'l;'he chorus seem in her dream to address her again as they had done in eh. i. 8. She is atill to them the fairest among women. They are daughters of Jerusalem, the children of the kingdom; and to them the Church, which is the bride of Christ, must appear exceed- ing fair. She is not, alas! without spot or blemish now. She recognizes her own faults, her many shortcomings. Bot the children of the kingdom remember the holiness of the saints departed. They see traces of the beauty of holiness existing always in the Church. Being themselves children of God, they are learning that grace of charity which "believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; which rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." And so they regard the beauty of the bride rather than her blemishes; they think more of her yearning love for the Bride- groom than of her past shortcomings. It is a sad mistake, a sin against charity, to refuse to recognize the real goodness of Christian people who have from time to time fallen into various inconsistencies. 2. The bridegroom. What is he more than others? "What is thy beloved more than another beloved ... that thou dost so charge us?" The daughters of Jerusalem know King Solomon well, but in her dream the bride seems to hear them asking the question of the text. She has always loved the bridegroom for himself, not for his crown, his magnificence. She fancies that the maidens of the chorus take the same view of wedded love, and ask what are the distinguishing merits of her beloved. Sometimes, indeed, that question is asked in scorn or in temptation, " What think ye of Christ? " What is he more than other masters? Those other masters have their attractions; they offer more of earthly pleasure, more of present ease. What has Christ to offer ? What are his attractions? What are the rewards of his service? "What is thy Beloved more than another beloved?" men say sometimes to the Christian. "What is thy Master to us, that thou dost so adjure us?" But the daughters of Jerusalem, in this second dream of the bride, do not ask the question in scorn or irony. It is asked with a dramatic purpose to give the bride an occasion for dwelling upon the glorious beauty, the many endowments of her beloved. She gladly takes advantage of it. II. THE BRIDE'S ABBWER. 1. The bridegroom, is the chiefeat among ten thousand. "My beloved," she says, "is white aod ruddy." We think of him whose "garment was white as snow," and "his throne like the fiery flame" (Dan. vii. 9). Ancient writers have applied the description to our Lord. He was white in hie spotless purity; his sacred body was reddened with the precious blood. Thefl8 are the first thoughts of the Christian when he meditates upon the Lord's perfections-the perfect beauty of his IJlOst holy life, the glory of eelf-11;wrifice which sheds a golden light upo11 his e,touing OJI, V, 1-16.) THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 12!)