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) To make your weakness influential strength; (t) Nor scorns Hosannas from the feeblest tongue. (v) As "chiefest of ten thousand,"-(w) who rejoice, (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) And say admiring, "We will go with you ; (a) That deep dejection clouds His sickening (c) Church, 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, (y) 1 Cor. ii. 14. (a) Ruth i. 16; Zech. viii. 21. every cherished bough (z) Numb. x. 29; 2 Cor. v. 11. (Pruned (i) in due season) of His watered vine, And placing them in safety. (1) Some He leaves Of future solace to a soul He loves) (m) Ever, oh! ever to His office true, "My well-beloved," saith His grateful Church, (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 That men may all behold thee (t)—Thou hast stood, In cold and heat, in battle (u) and in peace, The joy of the whole earth. Thy dazzling light (x) 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. (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! (≈) Who, plundered, wounded, left alone half dead, As Tirzah the fair city,—thou art fair— Marched through a country weak and weaponless, Whither the tribes went up. (c) The nations say, And to His paths, retrieves our wandering feet- 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 (2) Isa. ix. 2; Rom. xv. 16, 19-21; Col. i. 6. (a) Isa. lxii. 1, 2. (c) Ps. cxxii. 3, 4 (e) Ps. x. 17; and xxxiv. 17, 18. |