The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 200

kYvs him with II love like that c,f Ruth: "The Lord do so to me, nnd more also if aught but death part thee and me" ( ltuth i. 17). 'l'hat love, strong as death, the l~vo of thn~c wedded souls who in true affection have plighted their troth, oilhor to other "till dPath us do part," is a figure of the holy love that is betwixt Christ and hi~ Church. Indeed, the love of the heavenly Bridegroom was stronger than death; ~twngcr than a death of lingering torture, a death of ignominy and horror. "We love him, because he first loved us." His Church, drawn by the constraining power of his most holy love, has striven to return it. Many of his saints have loved him with 11 love strong a.s death; they have proved by the m11rtyr's death the strength of their loYc. How should we have acted if we had lived in those days of fiery trial? It is a question which we should often and earnestly press upon ourselves, for the Lord has taught us that "he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal" (John xii. 25). St. Stephen, and the long line of saints who followed him, the noble army of martyrs, loved not their lives unto the death. How would it be with the many half-hearted, careless Christians who come to church, and call themselves disciples of the crucified Saviour, bnt have not learned to take up the cross and deny themselves for his sake-how would it be with them if they were suddenly summoned to choose between Christ and death? Which of us would be faithful unto death? Which of us would deny his Lord? It is an awful question-a question full of the deepest interest; for it is only such a love, a love strong as death, which can give us strength to overcome temptation, and to fight the good fight of faith. He who for the love of Christ endures hardness now, who puts aside his own wishes, and does habitually for Christ's sake things which but for the love of Christ he would not have done; he who habitually for Chri./it's sake leaves undone things which but for the love of Christ he would have. gladly done,-he is learning to love Christ with a love strong as death, a love which is giving him strength to ki II out of his heart worldly thoughts and earthly ambitions, so that, dying unto the world, he may live unt.o Christ. We must all pray and strive for that love strong as death; it should be the object of our highest ambition, our most fervent longing. , We_ need it now as much as the saints and martyrs of the Lord needed it in the old times. For if they had to lay down their lives for Christ, we have now to give him our hearts, our lives; and to do that always, in times of anxiety, or s~ckness, or lassitude, requires a great love; a love strong as death; a love which we can only learn of the Master who loved us with a love stronger than death, who himself set us the high example of self-sacrificing love, and now helps and teaches us by the gracious influences of the Holy Ghost, the other Comforter, whom he sendeth to abide for ever with his people. Love is strong as death, and jealousy is hard as the grave, (Sheol, or Hades). Death is strong; he is the last enemy, the king of terrors. Hades is hard and stern; .it is rapacious; it hath never enough; it holds its. prisoners :firm.. But love is strong as death and Hades. Christ, who is Love, hath overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; the gates of Hades shall not prevail against his Church, Neither death nor life can separate from his love those who love him with a true love, a love strong as death; they, too, are more than conquerors through him who loved them. And when love is strong as death, the jealousy (in the good sense of the word), which is one of its developments, is hard, tenacious, as Hades. God is love, the infinite love, and he is a jealous God. "Thou shalt worship no other God: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exod. :xxxiv. 14). He asks for our whole heart; he is jealous of a divided service; he will not accept a service to be shared with another master. Such a service is stigmatized in Holy Scripture with the stern name of adultery. "Ye adulteresses," says St. James, in language of awful severity, "know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? . . . Do ye. think that the Scripture saith in vain, The Spirit which he hath made to dwell within us, jealously ycarneth after us?" or, as the words may also be rendered, "he jealously yearnet~ for 1he spirit which he made to dwell within us" (Jae. iv. 4, 6). God once breathed rnto man's nostrils the breath of life. He gave to man as his distinguishing possession a SJ ,irit. "I pray God," says St. Paul to the Thessalonians, "that your whole spirit and 6ou I and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord J.esus Christ" (1 Thess. v. 23). That spirit, his special gift, should be wholly his. It is that part of ,1,1r complex nature which is receptive of the Holy Spirit of God, which, when illumined cu. vm. 1-14.J THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 1()1