Song of Solomon 2

Song of Solomon 2:1-17

THE GROOMSon_2:1-17.IN our last discourse from this Book, we dealt particularly with the speech of the black beauty in Solomon’s harem. We saw in her a type of Christ’s Redeemed, the Church, black by nature, deeply stained by sin, but washed and made white in the Blood, and beautiful as His Bride.We turn now to the Groom. The second chapter, while containing something of the dialogue, is, in its major portion, a response to the first; for in the first, the Bride is heard and in the second, the Husband responds, only to excite additional sentences of admiration on the lips of His love.In glancing over this chapter, we find it can best be treated under four heads: His Beauty, His Blessing, His Back-Coming and His Brightness.HIS BEAUTY Nature’s best but hints the same.“I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys” (Son 2:1).The average student wonders what is meant by the Rose of Sharon. We fear this phrase conveys little meaning to the casual reader.Sharon is that strip of fairly level land which stretches between the mountains and the shore of the Mediterranean, or from the sea to Carmel. It is said to be a place of deep, rich soil, extremely favorable to the growth of cereals. The orange, the vine and the olive attain great perfection there, and, in the season, it breaks into wondrous beauty on account of the many colored flowers native to this soil. Among them, the white narcissus most abounds, and it is believed by good Bible students that the reference here is to the narcissus rather than what is known to us as the rose.There are people who might think it an extravagant thing to liken the beauty of a flower to the graces of the Son of God; and, in fact, so it is. But what better can man do than draw figures from nature at her best?

In spite of sin’s defacing effect upon the earth, nature retains such charms and graces as to suggest God’s handiwork.Two years ago this autumn in the late September, Mrs. Riley and myself drove from Minneapolis to California via Denver and Salt Lake City.

We spent some days in crossing the desert and it happened that it was both the particular year and the exact season of the desert’s bloom. In my somewhat extensive travels on this side of the ocean and somewhat limited survey of the other side, I say, without hesitation, that I never saw beauty in such abundance. The desert was a riot of colors; the combinations, the rarest, ranging as they did from the brilliant yellows that copiously abounded to the most delicate shades of pastel, as mountain lights and shadows vied with desert bloom, to create a combination of earthly carpet and heavenly canopy that Heaven itself could only exceed by the introduction of beauties yet unseen and even undreamed by man. In addition to the elevation that brought us the rare air of that upper world, we had this wealth of beauty to suggest God and Heaven.So the oriental mind would quickly respond to this figure—the narcissus of Sharon and the lily of the valley.In Todd Hunter’s, “Theory of the Beautiful”, beauty is defined as “infinite loveliness which we apprehend both by reason and by the enthusiasm of affection.”It is doubtful if this definition ever found so full a meaning as when applied to Christ, “the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valleys”.His life fully justified the figure. He was “the Altogether Lovely”; “the Chiefest among ten thousand”, He; is “the Chiefest among ten thousand” (Son 5:10), the One “Altogether Lovely” (Son 5:16).Such a description doubtless had a dual application. We believe that Jesus Christ, before the hand of man marred His face and form, was the perfect One; that He exceeded all the Absaloms for beauty, all the Apollos for strength; but His rarest beauty was in character, and there He exceeded all saints and angels.Paul, writing to the Hebrews, tells us that“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets,“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds;“Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;“Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they.“For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee?

And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to Me a Son?“And again, when He bringeth in the First begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him.“And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.“But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy Kingdom.“Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows” (Hebrews 1:1-9).He alone is the sinless One. Only He could challenge men saying, “Which of you convicteth Me of sin”?

All others have fallen short; all others have stained their garments and scarred their souls. He stands alone without spot, or blemish, or any such thing, as beautiful as the rose of Sharon, as spotless as the lily of the valleys.His work lends value to His life.“As the apple tree 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” (Son 2:3).There are people who are handsome, but unholy. There are those who are handsome, but useless.Arthur T. Pierson in his volume on “Character Culture”, speaking of Cleopatra, one of the most beautiful women of all history, characterizes her worthless life by quoting approvingly the statement that when she applied the asp to her bosom, it was the only thing she had ever, done that brought a blessing to the race.It is not an altogether unusual thing to meet beautiful, but useless people. One might imagine that they were really worth something to the world; at least that they were ornaments, and that is true.

But it is also true that it is with men as with trees, if they are nothing other than ornaments, they cumber the ground on which they stand and sap the strength from the same.When I was a lad, the most beautiful apple tree on the farm stood just outside our spring house. Doubtless the overflow of the well watered its roots.

Every spring it bloomed in beautiful profusion, and for a time it scented the entire orchard with its sweetness. But never a particle of fruit was found on the same in fruit season, and nothing, not even grass itself, grew in its shade.Life, to be beautiful, requires more than a combination of color and figure. As Knight contended, “It must work for mutual helpfulness toward a reasonable aim.” Beauty itself needs to be beautified by some worthwhile service. The woman to whom God has given the most marvelous physical graces is only a travesty of her sex, unless she adds mental and spiritual graces to the same.Someone speaking of such an one said, “We should prefer to look on an enameled tea cup, since from it we would expect nothing.”Moving on toward Toronto, the railway train carried in one of its coaches a. tall young man, conspicuously well dressed, with finely chiseled features. The passengers noted his striking appearance, as one by one they walked by him in search of a seat. On the same train was a woman, evidently a foreigner, cumbered by one baby in her arms and two other small children tugging at her skirts, and a whole collection of nondescript bundles.

The brakeman stuck his head into the car door and shouted the station. In spite of her ignorance of English, it sounded like the place for which she was bound, and she sprang up, only to stand bewildered, wondering how she could get her brood and bundles down the aisle and out to the platform.The handsome young man, looking up from his book, instantly took in the situation.

Flinging aside his book, he stepped to the end of the ear seat, and taking up the bundles with one arm, and one of the babies with another, he motioned her to follow. He led her safely out to the platform, put the bundles down carefully, and deposited the child beside them. Then lifting his hat as if to a queen, he walked silently back to resume his seat and the study of his book, apparently unconscious of any observation and oblivious to the eyes of approval that had followed him. Passengers were heard to whisper under their breath, “Beautiful!”In the last analysis, service lends value to sweetness. That is what makes Christ “Chiefest among ten thousand”, He is the “servant of all”, “the One Altogether Lovely”. His infinite strength is ever at the call of man.HIS “He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love.“Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.“His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me.“I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till He please” (Son 2:4-7).Certainly these verses are full of suggestion.He makes abundant provision.“He brought me to the banqueting house”.Everywhere in Scripture the provisions of grace are presented as a feast, a veritable banquet indeed.

The Old Testament annuals were feasts before the Lord; and in the New Testament we have God’s provisions of grace set forth by a figure with which all are familiar.“A certain man made a great supper, and bade many;“And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.“And they all with one consent began to make excuse”.If any faint and starve it will be through their failure of response, not from lack of adequate provision. I noticed a day or two ago that a certain cafeteria in the town had both improved the meal above the usual and reduced the price below the custom.

It was crowded with customers. Such is the greed of men for physical satisfaction, but, alas, for our failure in appetite for the spiritual!The “Outlook of Missions” recently published the following: “Five per cent of all church members do not exist; ten per cent of them cannot be found; twenty-five per cent never go to church; fifty per cent of them never contribute a cent to the same; seventy-five per cent of them never go to the mid-week prayer meeting; ninety per cent of them have no devotional hour in their homes; while ninety-five per cent never attempt to win a new convert for Christ.” Oh, the shame of such a response to such provisions of grace as Christ has made!But even this failure in no wise affects His provision; it is both abundant and adequate.The story is told of a little girl who took her first long journey by train. Like all children she kept her face against the window pane, watching to see what was coming. Again and again she saw the train approach a great river, and her heart was filled with fear lest it should plunge in and all be drowned. But each time, just as they reached the river, she noticed that there was a bridge and the train crossed in safety. When this had happened a half dozen times, she settled back into her seat with a sigh, saying, “Somebody has put bridges for us all the way.” Even so!

Such is our Saviour’s provision, abundant and adequate. He brings us to the banquet house.His banner over us is love. “Charity (love) never faileth”.

This sentence from the Apostle’s pen must refer to the Divine love, for the love of man does fail. Those who were here when I spoke to you last week will not forget Matheson’s experience; and his sore disappointment, and the song that followed: “O Love that will not let me go”.In that song he contrasted the unfailing strength of Divine love as compared with the fickleness of human affection. However, we find, at times, in the actions of men, a faint hint of Divine affection.Mr. Moody used to tell the story of a young man who was engaged to be married to the young woman of his choice in New England. Then the Civil War carried him off to the battle front. He went through battle after battle unscathed, but in the battle of the Wilderness he was not only shot down but both arms, being riddled with bullets, had to be removed.

Some weeks went by and no letter reached the waiting girl whose anxious face appeared daily at the Post Office to inquire for mail. Finally, when he was sufficiently recovered to dictate, a comrade wrote for him.

In the letter he related what had happened to him.He told how both arms were now gone. And then he added, “You are as dear to me as ever, but I shall now be dependent upon other people for the rest of my life and I do not want to impose myself upon you; hence my friend, writing for me, permits me to say that I release you now and forever from your engagement.”There was never a written reply, but on the next train she came to the scene of the conflict, sent word to the hospital of her presence, and asked the privilege of visiting the soldier lad. They brought her into the extemporized sanitarium and when her eyes fell upon the one for whom she was looking, her feet seemed winged, and reaching the side of the cot, she dropped on her knees, put her arms about his neck, and between kisses, declared, “I will never give you up! With these hands it will be my joy to support you while life lasts. My love will be your sufficiency.”That is the true interpretation of this Song, “His banner over me was love!”His embrace is the believer’s bliss.“His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me” (Son 2:6).This figure of marital affection is an eminently fit one to express the affection Divine. Of all the hymns that have ever been written, I love best the one that brought me to decide for Christ. It holds the exact sentiment of this text and runs after this manner: “I will arise and go to Jesus He will embrace me in His arms,In the arms of my dear Saviour, Oh, there are ten thousand charms!”In the hour, when one realizes what a wreck sin has wrought, to have one appear as Saviour, how precious! After all, nothing known to the human life has the same uplifting, inspiring and sanctifying influence that love exerts. Bishop William Quayle, in the opening address at the General Conference in Des Moines, a few years since, asked, “What is celestial service?” and answered, “Loving!” and then added, “A woman was seated beside her sick husband. She looked at him as he lay upon the bed, and in a feeble voice he asked, ‘Dear, what are you doing?’ She answered, ‘Just loving you; that is all!’ What else could she do that was comparable to that? What service could she render that would have the same inspiration, the same impelling power?” “His banner over me was love”. His embrace is bliss! “Have you learned when cares oppress the heart,With Christ to come apart.And find in Him sweet comfort blestAnd rest?Do you close the sanctum door on martAnd throng and each distracting guest?“Do you seek Him early, ask His plan For you, in the day that just began,What wordHe wishes you to speak, or thought unheardOn which your soul should meditate, or deed to manOf kindness, long by you deferredBecause of vision blurred?“As you then on His bosom leanIn the innermost circle of love, sereneAnd calm and still,Do you list to His whispered confidence, untilNo clamoring voice can come betweenYour best desires and His most holy will?If thus you gaze unhurried on that face,So tender with condoning grace,Till loveLinks your affection firm with things above,Be sure the impress of that holy placeNo beauteous charm can from your soul remove.“Then let earth’s pleasures pale, so Christ shall beA living bright reality,A Heavenly Bridegroom, with His BrideBy faith to abide.In sweetest fellowship, till HeShall call the purified, made white, and triedTo be forever at His side.”HIS BACK COMING“The voice of My Beloved! behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.“My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, He standeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windows, shewing Himself through the lattice.“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 putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away .What a suggestive series of sentences.First of all, they teach that He will come surely and soon!“He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”.The figure is that of a rushing return. And so the New Testament teaches. He will come again. “In such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh”. Suddenly the cry will be heard, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh”. “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the Coming of the Son of Man be”. Lightning speed—swifter than the leaping of the hart!The King is Coming SoonThere’s a whisper from the Glory of the Coming of the Lord,Oh, the joy my heart is tasting as I rest upon His Word;And what peace amid earth’s tumult doth this precious truth afford—Hold fast!

I’m coming soon!In the glory of His promise I am living day by day,And the light of Heaven is dawning on earth’s dreary, desert way,While I wait that sweetest whisper, “Up, My child, and come away”—The King is coming soon!There’s a glory on the mountains and a glory on the sea,And the valleys are now glowing, and the desert way can beJust a pilgrimage to Glory since He whispered it to me—Hold fast! I’m coming soon!He does not forget while absent.“He standeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windows, shewing Himself through the lattice”.This is rather a startling fact, that while Christ is absent, so far as visible form is concerned, He is present both in person and in interest.

He watches us indeed, and with all the interest that the tenderest mother feels for her own child, as from her sitting room and workshop, she keeps an eye toward the window that opens to the lawn where the child plays.Phillip Brooks, that marvelous Boston preacher, commenting on the passage, “Lo, I am with you alway”, said, “Sometimes it comes to us with a strange surprise. When we are living on as if we lived alone; when we are sitting working silently in some still room which we think is empty but for our own presence, when we are busy in some work which seems as if it were our work, to be done as we should please; slowly, sweetly, surely we become aware of a richer presence which is truly with us, of a love which enfolds us, and an authority which controls us. We are not alone. The work is not our work but His. The strength to do it with is not to be called up out of the depths of ourselves, but taken down from the heights of Him. The room is full, the world is full of Jesus.

He is doing what He said He would do. He is with us as He said He would be; and as we answer love with love and authority with obedience, we find that we are indeed lifted into a sober and serious happiness which nothing can evade, a joy which no man can take from us.”His return will end the winter.

For when He comes to catch away his Church to that trysting place in the Heavenlies where He shall meet His own, we shall be able to say,“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 putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away”.No wonder that Charles Wesley wrote:“What a blessed hope is ours! While here on earth we stay,We more than taste the Heavenly powers And antedate that day;We feel the resurrection near, Our life in Christ concealed,And with His glorious presence here Our earthen vessels fined.”Finally,THE “O My dove, thou art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.“Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.“My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feedeth among the lilies.“Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a toe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether”.How is it that men and women scarred by sin can be so described? Is it not because they reflect His image? And their prospect is His protection? “Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall Appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is”. God only sees us in Christ, but as Christ shall finally perfect us. In fact, in our faces God beholds the face of His Son, for He waits, as we wait, for that day when translation will be the experience of redeemed men and all the beauty lost by sin will be recovered in a full salvation.His Coming will end the night. It will bring the day as before His face “the shadows flee away”.

What consolation the Christian believer has and holds! With Paul he can say: “Whether I live or die, I am the Lord’s.” If I live till He comes, I shall see Him and in a moment, in the wink of an eye, I shall be changed from mortal to immortal!

If I die I shall go to be with Him and in all blissfulness abide until the body be risen, and redemption be complete!Children often have a clearer conception of simple Christian truths than do their seniors. With an illustration of this fact we conclude this sermon.The “Union Gospel News” is our authority for the story. A writer to the same said, “I knew a family in Detroit who were heartbroken and bereft on a certain Saturday night. The Saturday night before there were three; but on this Saturday night, but two. The tie that, bound them was drawn more closely than when the clergyman originally voiced the same, for the light of their lives seemed gone out with the Home-going of their little son. The father was a railroad man.

His duties called him from home three-fourths of the time. It was his habit whenever he was about to start for home to telegraph his wife, and in the telegram to mention the little four-year lad. “Tell Arthur I shall sleep with him tonight.” The baby boy was very proud of these “teledrafs” as he called them.

One night he was smitten with a fever. Slowly it pulled him down till even he, in his infancy, understood that death was near. The mother bending over the bed bedewed it with her tears. But he looked up and said, “Don’t ky, mamma; I shall seep wif Dod tonight. Send Dod a teledraf and tell Him I shall seep wif Him tonight!”The message required no wires; it went straight and was understood in Heaven.