The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 196

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-4.- Wis11es of the bride. 1. That she had known the bridegroom always~ The bride continues the address of eh. vii. She is still speaking to the king, tellin<>' him of her love. He had again and again called her his sister-his sister-bride, Sb; now wishes that he were to her as a brother ; that they could have bren children of the same mother; that they could have known one another from infancy. So in the close union of love between husband and wife there comes sometimes such a longing, a desire that each could have known the other from the beginning; that instead of the years in which they were strangers, and never heard one another's voice, or touched one another's hand, they had always lived together, and known one another through and through in all the varied experiences of child-life, of girlhood or of boyhood; sometimes there comes a sort of innocellt envy of the brothers or sisters who then knew one or other of the wedded pair when they were unknown to one anothe~ The bride wishes that she had always thus known the bridegroom; that she could have loved him always with a sisterly affection; that their mutual endearments might have been, like those of brothers and sisters, without shame, attracting no observation. How often the converted soul longs with an intense longing that it had always from the beginning known and loved the heavenly Bridegroom I How utterly wasted and lost those years now seem which were spent without that knowledge of Christ which· is eternal life! How ardently we wish that they could be blotted out of our remembrance, with all their ignorance and all their sins, as we humbly hope that through the atonement of the precious blood they are blotted out from the handwriting" that was agninst us, that was contrary to w" (Col ii. 14) ! Blessed be God we have his holy promise, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return nnlo me; for I have redeemed thee" (Isa. xliv. 22). We know that in hi~ gracious mercy he so putteth a.way the sins of them that truly repent that he remerubereth them no more (Jer. xxxi. 34; Heb. viii. 12; x. 17). But though we believe in the forgiveness of sins, and thank God heartily for th11.t blessed revelation of his love, yet we cannot bnt long-and that the more earnestly the nearer we draw to him-that we had always known him with the knowledge of faith and love, that we had always remembered him, that we had kept our heart pure from other loves, and loved him always. There is a difference between the love of the forgiven penitent and the love of saints like Enoch or Samuel, who, as far as human imperfection allows, have always in the main bent and purpose of their lives striven to walk with God. The love of the penitent ill more demonstrative, more pas5ionate-if the word may be used, more enthusiastic; the love of men like Samuel is calmer, quieter, fuller, dominating the entire life in all its pursuits and amusements; aud just because it is not intermittent, but uniform, it is not so much observed of men. The still wnters run deepest; the interpenetration of the heart by the long-continued influences of the Holy Spirit, without any marked and sudden change visible to the eyes of men, produces a \cry high type of Christian character. Euoch seems to have walked with God all his life. "He was not, for God took him;" "He had this testimouy, that he pleased God" (Heb. xi. 5). It is a poor offering to give the dregs of our life to God, when the temptations of youth have lost their power over us; "when the evil dnys come, aU(l the years draw nigh when thou aha.It say, I have no pleasure in them" (Eccles. xii. 1). A life dedicated to God from early childhood must be a. thing well pleasi1,g in his sight, as Holy Scripture tells ue it was in the case of Enoch. Such a life i£ very rare, aud we may well be full of thankfulness to Almighty God for hi.ii CHI, VIII. 1-H.] 'fHE SONG OF SOLOMON. 187