The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 177

towers, her head to the mountain so famous in the history of Elijah. So In the Book of the Revelation, when the angel had said to St. John, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife," "he carried me," the eva.naelist continues, "away in the Spirit to e. great and high mouutain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God" (Rev. xxi. 9, 10). Here, again, the bride, which is the Church, is compared to a city, a city built upon a.n exceeding high mountain, according to the Saviour's prophecy, "Upon thls rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. xvi. 18). St. John dwells in ardent words upon the heavenly beauty of the bride, which is the city of the living God; he tells us of her stately gates, of her vast dimensions, of her jewelled foundations, of her" streets of pure gold as it were transparent glass." The glories of that heavenly city draw the Christian soul mightily with a constraining power, a8 King Solomon was held captive in the dark tresses of hie bride. The Lord "loveth the gates of Zion" ~Ps. lxxxvii. 1); the heavenly Bridegroom loved the Church, and gave himself for it. Christians, taught by him, set their affection on the heavenly city; they love to meditate upon its glories; they count its towers and mark its pa.laces, the many mansions in .our Father's house; confessing that they a.re pilgrims and strangers here, they seek the continuing city, which is to come. " Blessed a.re they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Rev. xxii. 14). Vers. 6-13.-Dialogue between the king and the bride. I. ENTRANCE OF THE KING. 1. His praise of love. Perhaps the last words of the chorus were overheard by the king as be approached the bride. He assents; he is content to be held captive in the tresses of the bl'ide's hair ; for love is fair and pleasant above all delightful things. The bridegroom is not here using the word with which he so often addresses the bride (as in eh. i. 9; iv. l; vi. 4), which is translated," 0 my love," or perhaps better," 0 my friend." In this place we have the word ordinarily used for the affection of love; and perhaps •it is best to take it in that sense here. Among all delightful things there is nothing so beautiful, so fair to contemplate, so full of interest; there is nothing so pleasant, nothing whlch gives so much comfort and peace and joy a.s true and faithful love. 'Ihe king is happy in the bondage of which the chorus had spoken. Indeed, true love is not bondage in any proper sense of the word. It was God himself who ea.id, " It is not good for man to be alone ;.'' God who said, " I will make him an help meet for him." God gave man affections. When he made man after bis owa. image, be set in bis heart a. reflection of that love which more than any other of his. attributes enters into the very being .and essence of Almighty God. That love needs objects on which to exert itself; the lave of parent, chiid, or wife is a preparation, a training for the highest form of love, the blessed love of God. Loneliness, as a rule, is not good; it tends to concentrate a man's thoughts upon himself. He finds no outlet for the affections which God has given him: some of them, and those among the best and highest, are in danger of sinking into atrophy ; there is great risk of bis becoming a prey to selfishness, and the bondage of selfishness is hard and grinding and joyless. Sensual love is not love in the true sense; it is one of the worst and most unfeeling forms of selfishness; it thinks only of selfish plea.sure, and reeks nothing of the millery and ruin which it brings upon others; it makes a man the slave of evil passions; it tends to wretchedness. The service of God is perfect freedom ; so, in a lesser sense, is the service of any pure and holy affection. 'frue wedded love tends to set a man free from the -bonds of selfishness; it gives him scope for the exercise of hls best affections, and helps him to rise upwards towards that highest love which alone can give abiding happiness. Love, the bridegroom says, is among a.11 delightful things the fairest and the most pleasant. The bride in the next chapter expresses the same belief, "Love is strong as death." "Many waters cannot qr-ench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of uh1 honse for love, it would utterly be contemned." Wedded love is a parable of the holy love of God. The king in the song is led captive by the love of the bride. The saints of God, like St. Paul, St. James, St. Jude, delight in describing themselves as "the servants of God," " the slaves of God." God so formed our nature for himself that the soul can find an adequate object for its supremo affections only in him. Therefore he bills us love him with a.U lGS THE SONG OF SOLOMON. [clt. Vlt, 1-13,