MEDITATIONS.

CHAPTER VI.

VER. 1.-" Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee."

CHRISTIANS, take courage! though with faltering voice (s)
You magnify the Saviour, He is strong

To make your weakness influential strength; (t)
Though stammering are your lips that speak His praise,
Yet by the foolish He confounds the wise, (u)

Nor scorns Hosannas from the feeblest tongue. (v)
You, who delight to dwell upon His name

As "chiefest of ten thousand,"-(w) who rejoice,
In strong affection's colours to pourtray
Him, "altogether lovely " as He is-
And were it possible would win all souls
Back to an orbit which regained is peace-(x)
Though oft you seem to speak unto the deaf,

(s) Exod. iv. 10; Jer. i. 6.

(u) 1 Cor. i. 27. (w) 1 Cor. ii. 2.

(t) Exod. iv. 11, 12; Jer. i. 9. (v) Matt. xxi. 15, 16.

(x) Job xxii. 21.

Paint for the blind, and argue with insane, (y)
Not always thus your strenuous efforts lose
Though many may despise, and more neglect,
Some are persuaded, (2) some induced at last
To scrutinize a portrait so divine,

And say admiring, "We will go with you ; (a)
Henceforth we turn our faces Zionward ; (b)
Is He so precious? then we marvel not

That deep dejection clouds His sickening (c) Church,
When for her sins, (d) or trial of her faith, (e)
The Lord she loves is hidden from her view-
Tell us, O purest of a world impure,
Where is thine excellent Beloved gone,
That we may join the all-important search, (ƒ)
And share with you its beatific close."

VERS. 2, 3.- "My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine, he feedeth among

the lilies."

Where fragrant spices testify His care, (g)

And cultured fig-trees, barren (h) now no more,
Where the rich grapes of

(y) 1 Cor. ii. 14.

(a) Ruth i. 16; Zech. viii. 21.
(d) Isa. lix. 2.
(f) Zeph. ii. 3.
(g) Ps. xlv. 8.

every

cherished bough

(z) Numb. x. 29; 2 Cor. v. 11.
(b) Jer. 1. 5. (c) Can. v. 8.
(e) Job xxxiii. 29, 30; and
xxxvi. 8-10.
(h) Luke xiii. 8, 9.

(Pruned (i) in due season) of His watered vine,
Offer Him food that He delighteth in ; (k)
Yea, in His gardens, is my gracious Lord;
Culling His lilies with judicious hand

And placing them in safety. (1) Some He leaves
For beauty and delight, (their cups contain
The limpid, sanatory drop perhaps

Of future solace to a soul He loves) (m)
Others become His temple's ornament, (n)
Healthful, and loaded with their graceful buds—
But oft He cuts them in their beauteous prime,
Oft in their opening freshness, when He sees
The coming storm (o) or hot meridian beam
Too trying for the frail and bending stem:
Home then He takes them, and their bloom is there (p)
Where mortal vision penetrateth not.

Ever, oh! ever to His office true,

"My well-beloved," saith His grateful Church,
Visits His spice-beds, in His garden feeds
Among His lilies-His believing saints-
Who evidence the love that wrote their names
On life's blest record, by their love to Him; (q)
"I am my Saviour's, (r) and the Saviour mine."

(i) John xv. 2.

(k) John xv. 8.

(1) Isa. lvii. 1, 2. ("The righteous is taken away from the evil to come; he shall enter into peace.")

(n) 1 Kings vii. 19; 1 Tim. i. 16.

(p) Rev. xxi. 4.

(m) Phil. ii. 27, 28.

(0) Isa. xxvi. 20; 2 Pet.

(q) 1 John iv. 8, 19.

ii. 9; Rev. iii. 10.

(r) Can, ii. 16.

VER. 4.-"Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah,* comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners, [or dazzling as the bannered hosts +]."

No boast presumptuous issued from thy lips
In that profession of undoubting trust,
That certainty of faithfulness from me, (s)
True witness for thy Lord! a city thou
High, and in prominent position set,

That men may all behold thee (t)—Thou hast stood,
Tirzah-the beautiful!-upon a hill

In cold and heat, in battle (u) and in peace,
Long witnessing thy builder's dignity,
And pleasant is that witness to His soul! (v)
Attractive thou as once Jerusalem, (w)

The joy of the whole earth. Thy dazzling light (x)
To Satan and his host is terrible; (y)

And o'er benighted Gentiles it has flashed,

(s) Ps. xxxi. 23.

(t) Matt. v. 14; 1 Cor. iv. 9.

(u) 1 Cor. i. 9.

(v) Rev. ii. 13.

(w) Ps. xlviii. 2, 3; Ps. lxxxvii. 2, 3; and cxxii. 1, 2.
(x) Ps. 1. 2; Luke ii. 78, 79.
*Tirzah (beautiful city).

(y) Acts xvi. 16.

+(Dazzling as the bannered hosts.) A modern traveller mentions that caravans of 1,000 or more persons sometimes traverse the desert by night, marshalled in companies, each preceded by its standard, and the individuals all carrying torches, so that the country is illumined for miles around. This must be an imposing sight, and such a scene imagined, may well illustrate this verse as referring to the witnessing of Christ's Church, which enlightens with divine truth a world in darkness.

With wonder-working brightness-healing beams! (≈)
As, suddenly, the thousand-flambeau'd train
Which bears him back to sympathy and hope
Shines on the pilgrim of the wilderness,

Who, plundered, wounded, left alone half dead,
Sits with quench'd torch and mourns his misery-
So luminate the world thy rays benign. (a)

As Tirzah the fair city,—thou art fair—
And irresistible as bannered hosts,

Marched through a country weak and weaponless,
When by thy great and glorious Captain led. (b)
Yea, thou art comely as Jerusalem,

Whither the tribes went up. (c) The nations say,
Let us ascend the mountain of the Lord, (d)
The God of Jacob!-God who heareth prayer!
He by His people tells us of His ways,

And to His paths, retrieves our wandering feet-
From Christendom goes forth His loving law,
His word she publishes-We hear and live-

VERS. 5, 6, 7.-"Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me; thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead. Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them."

Raised to my throne, have thy imploring eyes
Asked and prevailed not, O my waiting Church? (e)

(2) Isa. ix. 2; Rom. xv. 16, 19-21; Col. i. 6.
(b) Acts v. 38, 39; and xi. 15, 18.
(d) Isa. ii. 2.

(a) Isa. lxii. 1, 2. (c) Ps. cxxii. 3, 4

(e) Ps. x. 17; and xxxiv. 17, 18.