Evening, May 1
Go To Morning Reading
“I am the rose of Sharon.”
Song of Solomon 2:1
Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ
possesses all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold degree. Amongst
flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more
beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens
of earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand.
He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day
are dark in comparison with him, for the King in his beauty transcends all . “I am the rose of Sharon .” This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not “the rose” alone, he is “the rose of Sharon,” just as he calls his righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of Ophir”—the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the
loveliest. There is variety in his charms . The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and
refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste
or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds
appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of his love is sweet . Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by
the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant
long afterwards, filling the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur
in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has
arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content
with Christ, nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate him.
Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the rose of Sharon. What
emblem can fully set forth his beauty? Human speech and earth-born
things fail to tell of him. Earth’s choicest charms commingled, feebly picture his abounding preciousness.
Blessed rose, bloom in my heart forever!