THE BRIDE OF CHRIST; OR, Explanatory Notes ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON. With Entroductory Preface, BY THE AUTHOR OF "MEMORIALS OF HEDLEY VICARS," ETC., ETC. SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY, FLEET-STREET LONDON. MDCCCLXI. INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. THE summer of 18- was drawing to its close. After a series of meetings with working men in different parts of Lancashire and Westmoreland, I was travelling on my way to Scotland, when the train stopped for an hour at a principal station. Three ladies on the platform, strangers to myself and to the beloved young relative who accompanied me, mentioned our'names, and inquired if we were in the train. In that rainy, dreary evening, they had come from some distance to refresh us with their Christian sympathy and love. They did refresh us; they sent us on our way rejoicing; and the remembrance of that warm impulse of their kindly Christian hearts is dear to us still. One of those three gentle friends is now before the throne of the Lamb; another is a patient sufferer of her Lord's will on earth; and the third, with whom circumstances since that time have enabled me to cultivate a personal friendship, is the author of the following pages. May He who alone can send the breath of heaven through the language of earth, bless the holy aspirations, and the deep experimental piety, of one taught of God, to the edification and comfort of many of His children. For them it is chiefly written. The Song of songs can only be sung by "the Bride, the LAMB's wife." It is her prelude to the new song, soon to be sung, as she sits down to the marriage-supper of the LAMB, "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; or as she arises to cast her " crown before the throne;" or as she is granted to sit with her Lord and Saviour in His throne, even as He also overcame, and is set down with His Father, on His throne. The theory which obtained for a comparatively short time, that the Song of Solomon was composed by him in honour of himself and of Pharaoh's daughter, was sufficiently disproved as much to the minds of the ancient Jews, and the early Fathers, as to those of earnest Christians of a later day, by its own internal evidence. a The daughter of the land, wherein sheep-feeding was held in contemptuous disgust, would scarcely have been insulted by her bridegroom, in a song of their affections, by being represented as shepherdess. Neither would the tenderly nurtured and carefully guarded princess have been a keeper of vineyards, and exposed to the chance of watchmen smiting her, and taking away her veil. In like manner, we cannot but conclude, that the Man of profound wisdom and high poetic genius would have had too delicate a perception to commit such an error of taste and of feeling, as to compose the most lavish praises of his own beauty and excellence, that he might enjoin his bride to sing them. It The Song of songs thus bears witness to itself that it had no foundation in earthly story, although earthly symbols are made use of throughout its verses, to shadow forth heavenly truths. is a sacred allegory, composed by King Solomon under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in honour of the "Prince of Peace," the "Chief among ten thousand," "the Altogether Lovely," the King, the Redeemer, and Bridegroom of the Church; revealing to us somewhat of His heart of love towards His Chosen, and the blessedness of her close communion with Him. |