Chapter 2

It will be remembered that horses originally came out of Egypt, and that the pure breed still found in Arabia was during Solomon's reign brought by his merchants for all the kings of the East. Those selected for Pharaoh's own chariot would not only be of the purest blood and perfect in proportion and symmetry, but also perfect in training, docile and obedient; they would know no will but that of the charioteer, and the only object of their existence would be to carry the king whithersoever he would go. So should it be with the Church of CHRIST; one body with many members, indwelt and guided by one SPIRIT; holding the HEAD, and knowing no will but His; her rapid and harmonious movement should cause His kingdom to progress throughout the world.

Many years ago a beloved friend, returning from the East by the overland route, made the journey from Suez to Cairo in the cumbrous diligence then in use. The passengers on landing took their places, about a dozen wild young horses were harnessed with ropes to the vehicle, the driver took his seat and cracked his whip, and the horses dashed off, some to the right, some to the left, and others forward, causing the coach to start with a bound, and as suddenly to stop, with the effect of first throwing those sitting in the front seat into the laps of those sitting behind, and then of reversing the operation. With the aid of sufficient Arabs running on each side to keep these wild animals progressing in the right direction the passengers were jerked and jolted, bruised and shaken, until, on reaching their destination, they were too wearied and sore to take the rest they so much needed.

Is not the Church of GOD to-day more like these untrained steeds than a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariot? And while self-will and disunion are apparent in the Church, can we wonder that the world still lieth in the wicked one, and that the great heathen nations are barely touched?

Changing His simile, the Bridegroom continues:--

Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair, Thy neck with strings of jewels. We will make thee plaits of gold With studs of silver.

The bride is not only beautiful and useful to her LORD, she is also adorned, and it is His delight to add to her adornments. Nor are His gifts perishable flowers, or trinkets destitute of intrinsic value: the finest of the gold, the purest of the silver, and the most precious and lasting of the jewels are the gifts of the Royal Bridegroom to His spouse; and these, plaited amongst her own hair, increase His pleasure who has bestowed them.

* * * * *

In verses 12-14 the bride responds:--

While the King sat at His table My spikenard sent forth its fragrance.

It is in His presence and through His grace that whatever of fragrance or beauty may be found in us comes forth. Of Him as its source, through Him as its instrument, and to Him as its end, is all that is gracious and divine. But _HE HIMSELF_ is better far than all that His grace works in us.

My Beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh, That lieth betwixt my breasts. My Beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna-flowers In the vineyards of En-gedi.

Well is it when our eyes are filled with His beauty and our hearts are occupied with Him. In the measure in which this is true of us we shall recognize the correlative truth that His great heart is occupied with us. Note the response of the Bridegroom:--

Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair; Thine eyes are as dove's.

How can the Bridegroom truthfully use such words of one who recognizes herself as

Black as the tents of Kedar?

And still more strong are the Bridegroom's words in chap. iv. 7:--

Thou art all fair, My love; And there is no spot in thee.

We shall find the solution of this difficulty in 2 Cor. iii. Moses in contemplation of the Divine glory became so transformed that the Israelites were not able to look on the glory of his countenance. "We all, with unveiled face [beholding and] reflecting as a mirror the glory of the LORD, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory [_i.e._ the brightness caught from His glory transforms us to glory], even as from the _Lord_ the SPIRIT." Every mirror has two surfaces; the one is dull and unreflecting, and is all spots; but when the reflecting surface is turned fully towards us we see no spot, we see our own image. So while the bride is delighting in the beauty of the Bridegroom He beholds His own image in her; there is no spot in that: it is all fair. May we ever present this reflection to His gaze, and to the world in which we live for the very purpose of reflecting Him.

Note again His words:--

Thine eyes are as dove's,

or

Thou hast dove's eyes.

The hawk is a beautiful bird, and has beautiful eyes, quick and penetrating; but the Bridegroom desires not hawk's eyes in His bride. The tender eyes of the innocent dove are those which He admires. It was as a dove that the HOLY SPIRIT came upon Him at His baptism, and the dove-like character is that which He seeks for in each of His people.

The reason why David was not permitted to build the Temple was a very significant one. His life was far from perfect; and his mistakes and sins have been faithfully recorded by the HOLY SPIRIT. They brought upon him GOD'S chastenings, yet it was not any of these that disqualified him from building the Temple, but rather his warlike spirit; and this though many of his battles, if not all, were for the establishment of GOD'S Kingdom and the fulfilment of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Solomon, the Prince of Peace, alone could build the Temple. If we would be soul-winners and build up the Church, which is His Temple, let us note this: not by discussion nor by argument, but by lifting up CHRIST shall we draw men unto Him.

* * * * *

We now come to the reply of the bride. He has called her fair; wisely and well does she reply:--

Behold Thou art fair, my Beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our couch is green. The beams of our house are cedars, And our rafters are firs. I am (but) a rose of Sharon, A lily of the valleys.

The last words are often quoted as though they were the utterance of the Bridegroom, but we believe erroneously. The bride says in effect, Thou callest me fair and pleasant, the fairness and pleasantness are Thine; I am but a wild flower, a lowly, scentless rose of Sharon (_i.e._ the autumn crocus), or a lily of the valley.

To this the Bridegroom responds: "Be it so; but if a wild flower, yet

As a lily among thorns, So is My love among the daughters.

Again the bride replies:--

As the apple-tree (the citron) among the trees of the wood, So is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, And His fruit was sweet to my taste.

The citron is a beautiful evergreen, affording delightful shade as well as refreshing fruit. A humble wild flower herself, she recognizes her Bridegroom as a noble tree, alike ornamental and fruitful. Shade from the burning sun, refreshment and rest she finds in Him. What a contrast her present position and feelings to those with which this section commenced! He knew full well the cause of all her fears; her distrust sprang from her ignorance of Himself, so He took her aside, and in the sweet intimacies of mutual love her fears and distrust have vanished, like the mists of the morning before the rising sun.

But now that she has learned to know Him, she has a further experience of His love. He is not ashamed to acknowledge her publicly.

He brought me to the banqueting house, And His banner over me was love.

The house of wine is now as appropriate as the King's chambers were. Fearlessly and without shame she can sit at His side, His acknowledged spouse, the bride of His choice. Overwhelmed with His love she exclaims:--

Stay ye me with raisins, comfort me with apples: For I am sick of love. His left hand is under my head, And His right hand doth embrace me.

Now she finds the blessedness of being possessed. No longer her own, heart-rest is alike her right and her enjoyment; and so the Bridegroom would have it.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up nor awake My love, Until she[2] please.

It is never by His will that our rest in Him is disturbed.

You may always be abiding, If you will, at JESUS' side; In the secret of His presence You may every moment hide.

There is no change in His love; He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. To us He promises, "I will never leave thee, never fail thee, nor forsake thee"; and His earnest exhortation and command is, "Abide in Me, and I in you."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Loves = endearments, caresses.

[2] The pronoun here and in chapter iii. 5, and viii. 4, should not be "he" as A.V., nor "it" as R.V., but "she."

SECTION II

COMMUNION BROKEN--RESTORATION

Cant. ii. 8-iii. 5

_"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them."_--Heb. ii. 1 (R.V.).

AT the close of the first section we left the bride satisfied and at rest in the arms of her Beloved, who had charged the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up nor awaken His love until she please. We might well suppose that a union so complete, a satisfaction so full, would never be interrupted by failure on the part of the happy bride. But, alas, the experience of most of us shows how easily communion with CHRIST may be broken, and how needful are the exhortations of our LORD to those who are indeed branches of the true Vine, and cleansed by the Word which He has spoken, to abide in Him. The failure is never on His side. "Lo, I am with you alway." But, alas, the bride often forgets the exhortation addressed to her in Ps. xlv.:--

Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the KING greatly desire thy beauty: For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.

In this section the bride has drifted back from her position of blessing into a state of worldliness. Perhaps the very restfulness of her new-found joy made her feel too secure: perhaps she thought that, so far as she was concerned, there was no need for the exhortation, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Or she may have thought that the love of the world was so thoroughly taken away that she might safely go back, and, by a little compromise on her part, she might win her friends to follow her LORD too. Perhaps she scarcely thought at all: glad that she was saved and free, she forgot that the current--the course of this world--was against her; and insensibly glided, drifted back to that position out of which she was called, unaware all the time of backsliding. It is not necessary, when the current is against us, to turn the boat's head down the stream in order to drift: or for a runner in a race to turn back in order to miss the prize.

Ah, how often the enemy succeeds, by one device or another, in tempting the believer away from that position of entire consecration to CHRIST in which alone the fulness of His power and of His love can be experienced. We say the fulness of His power and of His love; for he may not have ceased to love his LORD. In the passage before us the bride still loves Him truly, though not wholly; there is still a power in His Word which is not unfelt, though she no longer renders instant obedience. She little realizes how she is wronging her LORD, and how real is the wall of separation between them. To her, worldliness seems as but a little thing: she has not realized the solemn truth of many passages in the Word of GOD that speak in no measured terms of the folly, the danger, the sin of friendship with the world.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him."

"Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with GOD? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of GOD."

"Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath CHRIST with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? . . . Wherefore:--

Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the LORD, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, And will be to you a FATHER, And ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the LORD ALMIGHTY.

We have to take our choice: we cannot enjoy both the world and CHRIST.

The bride had not learned this: she would fain enjoy both, with no thought of their incompatibility. She observes with joy the approach of the Bridegroom.

The voice of my Beloved: Behold He cometh Leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My Beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart; Behold He standeth behind our wall, He looketh in at the windows, He glanceth through the lattice.

The heart of the bride leaps on hearing the voice of her Beloved, as He comes in search of her. He has crossed the hills; He draws near to her; He stands behind the wall; He even looks in at the windows; with tender and touching words He woos her to come forth to Him. He utters no reproach, and His loving entreaties sink deep in her memory.

My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, And the vines are in blossom, They give forth their fragrance. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.

All nature is responsive to the return of the summer, wilt thou, My bride, be irresponsive to My love?

Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.

Can such pleading be in vain? Alas, it can, it was!

In yet more touching words the Bridegroom continues:--

O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the steep place, Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice: For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

Wonderful thought! that God should desire fellowship with us; and that He whose love once made Him the Man of Sorrows may now be made the Man of Joys by the loving devotion of human hearts.

But strong as is His love, and His desire for His bride, He can come no further. Where she now is He can never come. But surely she will go forth to Him. Has He not a claim upon her? She feels and enjoys His love, will she let His desire count for nothing? For, let us notice, it is not here the bride longing in vain for her LORD, but the Bridegroom who is seeking for her. Alas that He should seek in vain!

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards; For our vineyards are in blossom,

He continues. The enemies may be small, but the mischief done great. A little spray of blossom, so tiny as to be scarcely perceived, is easily spoiled, but thereby the fruitfulness of a whole branch may be for ever destroyed. And how numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises with the world; disobedience to the still small voice in little things; little indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes of policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the beauty and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed!

We have a sad illustration of the deceitfulness of sin in the response of the bride. Instead of bounding forth to meet Him, she first comforts her own heart by the remembrance of His faithfulness, and of her union with Him:--

My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feedeth _His flock_ among the lilies.

My position is one of security, I have no need to be concerned about it. He is mine, and I am His; and nought can alter that relationship. I can find Him now at any time, He feedeth His flock among the lilies. While the sun of prosperity shines upon me I may safely enjoy myself here without Him. Should trial and darkness come He will be sure not to fail me.

Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away, Turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a gazelle or a young hart Upon the mountains of Bether.

Careless of His desire, she thus lightly dismisses Him, with the thought: A little later I may enjoy His love; and the grieved Bridegroom departs!

Poor foolish bride! she will soon find that the things that once satisfied her can satisfy no longer; and that it is easier to turn a deaf ear to His tender call than to recall or find her absent LORD.

The day became cool, and the shadows did flee away; but He returned not. Then in the solemn night she discovered her mistake: It was dark, and she was alone. Retiring to rest she still hoped for His return--the lesson that worldliness is an absolute bar to full communion still unlearned.

By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth: I sought Him, but I found Him not!

She waits and wearies: His absence becomes insupportable:--

_I said_, I will rise now, and go about the city, In the streets and in the broad ways, I will seek Him whom my soul loveth: I sought Him, but I found Him not!

How different her position from what it might have been! Instead of seeking Him alone, desolate and in the dark, she might have gone forth with Him in the sunshine, leaning upon His arm. She might have exchanged the partial view of her Beloved through the lattice, when she could no longer say "Nothing between," for the joy of His embrace, and His public confession of her as His chosen bride!

The watchmen that go about the city found me: _To whom I said_, Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them, When I found Him whom my soul loveth.

She had already obeyed His command, "Arise, and come away." Fearless of reproach, she was seeking Him in the dark; and when she began to confess her LORD, she soon found Him and was restored to His favour:--

I held Him, and would not let Him go, Until I had brought Him into my mother's house, And into the chamber of her that conceived me.

Jerusalem above is the mother of us all. There it is that communion is enjoyed, not in worldly ways or self-willed indulgence.

Communion fully restored, the section closes, as did the first, with the loving charge of the Bridegroom that none should disturb His bride:--

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, (By all that is loving and beautiful and constant), That ye stir not up, nor awake My love, Until she[3] please.

May we all, while living down here, in the world, but not of it, find our home in the heavenly places to which we have been raised, and in which we are seated together with CHRIST. Sent into the world to witness for our MASTER, may we ever be strangers there, ready to confess Him the true object of our soul's devotion.

How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living GOD. Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: They will be still praising Thee. . . . A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my GOD Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD GOD is a Sun and Shield: The LORD will give grace and glory: No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee!

FOOTNOTE:

[3] See note on p. 26.

SECTION III

THE JOY OF UNBROKEN COMMUNION

Cant. iii. 6-v. 1

O JESU, KING most wonderful, Thou CONQUEROR renown'd, Thou sweetness most ineffable, In whom all joys are found! Thee, JESU, may our voices bless; Thee may we love alone; And ever in our lives express The image of Thine own.

WE have been mainly occupied in Sections I. and II. with the words and the experiences of the bride; in marked contrast to this, in this section our attention is first called to the Bridegroom, and then it is from Himself that we hear of the bride, as the object of His love, and the delight of His heart. The daughters of Jerusalem are the first speakers.

Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all powders of the merchant?

They themselves give the reply:--

King Solomon made himself a car of state Of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple, The midst thereof being paved with love (love-gifts), From the daughters of Jerusalem. Behold, it is the litter of Solomon; Threescore mighty men are about it, Of the mighty men of Israel, They all handle the sword, _and_ are expert in war: Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, Because of fear in the night.

In these verses the bride is not mentioned; she is eclipsed in the grandeur and the state of her royal Bridegroom; nevertheless, she is both enjoying and sharing it. The very air is perfumed by the smoke of the incense that ascends pillar-like to the clouds; and all that safeguards the position of the Bridegroom Himself, and shows forth His dignity, safeguards also the accompanying bride, the sharer of His glory. The car of state in which they sit is built of fragrant cedar from Lebanon, and the finest of the gold and silver have been lavished in its construction. The fragrant wood typifies the beauty of sanctified humanity, while the gold reminds us of the divine glory of our LORD, and the silver of the purity and preciousness of His redeemed and peerless Church. The imperial purple with which it is lined tells us of the Gentiles--the daughter of Tyre has been there with her gift; while the love-gifts of the daughters of Jerusalem accord with the prophecy, "Even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour."

These are the things that attract the attention of the daughters of Jerusalem, but the bride is occupied with the King Himself, and she exclaims:--

Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon, With the crown wherewith His mother hath crowned Him in the day of His espousals, And in the day of the gladness of His heart.