See how her earnest, longing, yearning search for Christ excited the wonder and curiosity of these daughters of Jerusalem, and notice their evident admiration of herself, “O thou fairest among women!" Happy for us when our beauty, which we have from Christ, can be seen of others, arresting those about us. Depend on it, one real believer in Christ is worth a congregation full of professors! The admiration of the daughters of Jerusalem for the bride proves that they were not of this world, for the people of this world see no spiritual beauty either in Christ or his servants. They never recognise Christ's image in his children, they see their amiability and charity, and all that is admirable to the eye of sense, no doubt, but they attribute it to their good nature and kindliness of disposition, and that is one reason why those who belong to Christ should confess him before men, that they may know whence these blessings are derived. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." People are too often content to be secret believers, they profess to love the Lord, but never speak of him. Let us be ever ready to confess that whatever may be at any time attractive in us, we owe it entirely to him. We love him because he first loved us, and we have neither grace, nor beauty, nor love, nor independent life, but what comes from him, who is our all in all! "My Beloved," is the language of the bride. "What is 'thy' Beloved?" the inquiry of the daughters of Jerusalem. It astonishes them to see one so beautiful, as she appeared, thus taken up with a Beloved whom, for the most part, all others slighted and ignored. Her desolation and anguish at his absence, and her indifference to rough treatment and misunderstanding in her search for him, convinced the daughters of Jerusalem that there must be greater attractions in Christ than they had hitherto any idea of. Alas! that the watchmen failed to see and appreciate a beauty and spirituality in the desolate bride that even the daughters could discern! 66 What is thy Beloved more than another beloved? See they repeat the question, "What is thy Beloved?" they are in earnest, they ask from their hearts, they would see Jesus, they feel there must be something to be had, and seen, and enjoyed in Christ that they have no idea of. "What is thy Beloved?" yet there is much ignorance and infirmity implied in the question. Alas! for the many who know but little of him, they do not inquire "who," but WHAT he is, they were not ignorant of who he was, their previous association with the bride had taught them who he was (see i. 5, ii. 7, and iii. 9-11), and they were not ignorant of her delighted intercourse with her Lord, "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem," and in verse 11 she had invited them as daughters of Zion to "behold their King," and so they could not ask who, but "What is thy Beloved?" What are those excellencies in him which make him more to be desired in his absence than the presence and enjoyment of all other beloveds? Learn here that one of the fairest objects in earth or heaven in the eyes of God or man is a soul seeking Christ, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth" (2 Chron. xvi. 9) to find such a one, the "Father seeketh such to worship him," they are rare ones and accordingly, as they see her in her yearning desolation and anxiety seeking after Christ, they call her "the fairest among women," and they are not mistaken, for we read in Psa. xlv. 13, which is but an epitome of this Song of Solomon, "The King's daughter is all glorious WITHIN.” She is sanctified, justified, adopted, spotless, and unblameable in his sight. His grace makes her beautiful, (ii. 2), “ As the LILY among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." She is beautiful in his own beauty, which he puts upon her. "What is thy Beloved?"-We may read their question in another sense "What is thy Beloved?" Why has he gone and left you? He seems to neglect you. His very watchmen seem not to recognise you? Thou art in a sorry plight, you must be mistaken, it cannot be that he loves you as you think, and if he did, would he leave you thus? How often the heart, in its bitterness, will go over such reasonings as these! It is easy to trust God in the light. But it is in times and seasons of distress, and anguish, and darkness, when he hides his face from us, and outward and inward shadows are around us, that the true believer's light, the light of faith, shines forth. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," as it is written, “Let him that walketh in darkness and hath no light, trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God." What a privilege to be permitted to manifest to those who see us walking in darknesss, that Christ is the light of our souls. What is thy Beloved? Christ's name is known to many to whom his worth is unknown! dawnings of spiritual life is when we WHAT is Christ more than others? One of the first begin to inquire "What is thy Beloved," &c., every word is weighty, "WHAT is thy Beloved more than another beloved, that THOU dost so charge Us?" that thou shouldst appeal to us, and with such earnestness? We all have something as a beloved! The world is full of rival candidates for poor sinners' hearts. Some find a beloved in the pleasures of life, some in popularity and the flattery of men, but such beloveds do not make us happy. Others in home, in self, in sin, in gain, but all is vanity and vexation of spirit. It is ignorance of the loveliness and preciousness of Jesus, which causes the world and professing Christians to put other things in competition with, or in preference to, him. Is he not the brightness of the Father's glory? Does not the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwell in him? Has he not all the riches and treasures of wisdom, grace, and glory incarnated in himself? Is he not more excellent and more satisfactory than all things else? Everything short of Christ leaves us unsatisfied. He is most durable, for he changes not, "The same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Is he not more loving, more kind, more willing, more able, more attainable? He causes his people "to inherit substance" promises to fill their treasury! (Pro. viii. 21). and When a soul comes to know Christ, other attractions fall away. whether in type, allegory, or heavenly language, the glories of his person, and by none more effectually than the beloved ones whom Christ has sought, found, redeemed, and justified, and whom, as Shepherd, King, and Bridegroom, he preserves from every evil way unto his heavenly kingdom. My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand."-SONG V. 10. We have now to study the portrait of her Beloved as it was written on the heart of his repentant and sorrowing bride! No The description is one of enwrapped admiration and affection, it is superlatively glorious, and uttered in brief and comprehensive language, highly figurative no doubt, but wholly spiritual. There is nothing carnal in the bride's description of her Beloved ! man had ever appeared on earth corresponding in the least degree to the picture here presented for our admiration. The inspired author of this book is speaking from the standpoint of prophecy, and of the types and shadows of the Old Testament. The promised 156 |