[I send you a brief paper on this interesting book of Scripture. It may differ in its character from your ordinary communications, but I trust it may not on that account be uninteresting or unuseful to your readers.]
it is exceedingly important in this day for Christians to have their minds firmly established in the principle of the entirely human and at the same time absolutely divine character of the Scriptures. The books of Scripture, like all other books, are writings which are subject to the laws of human language, and, like them, are the communications of thought through an absolutely human medium. The peculiarities of mind and of human character, and style too, stand out as distinctly in the various writings of the books of Scripture as they would do if there were no such thing as inspiration connected with them. This is the case when the form of the writing is that of historic narration, or in the didactic portions of the Scriptures. But it is more especially manifest when it takes the mold of poetry, and -language is subjected to the artificial requisitions of versification, which is the case to a great extent in the Hebrew writings of the Old Testament, as in the Book of Job, the Psalms, Isaiah, &c. Nevertheless the divine thought is as absolutely conveyed as if it were subject to none of these conditions; if indeed an unconditioned mode of conveyance of the divine mind to man generally as a revelation could be conceived.
This principle is perhaps more perfectly illustrated in the structure and character of the elaborate composition of " The Song of Songs," than in any other book of the Old Testament:-in which only, and not in the New, the element of poetry is found. If this be laid hold of clearly it will go far toward establishing the ground on which it is to be interpreted as a divine communication.
These true " Idyls of a King" would not have found their place in the canon of Scripture, and thus have become the vehicle of delight and edification to the godly in every age, if they had not been the communication of the divine thought submitting itself to the poetic and idyllic form. And yet it is plain that if this writing had come down to us apart from the books of Scripture, as some fragment gathered from the wrecks of a former age, it would, indeed, have been admired as a poem for its vividness and ornate beauty, but it would not have produced the thought that there was anything beyond the delectation of the reader in its design. In a word, it would have been to us but a pastoral; distinguished indeed from all other pastorals by the chaste and simple dignity of its loves, and the freshness and sparkling beauty of the scenes in nature which it depicts, and the perfectness and purity of every emblem and of every figure that is laid under contribution for its embellishment.
As to its form, it is the passionate expression of conjugal affections that have never known a cloud and never experienced a chill, combined with the tranquility and attractive freedom of rural scenes. It combines, indeed, the luxuries of a palace with the purer taste and more quiet enjoyment that attaches to the scenes of nature, and develops itself in the tranquil homes of rustic life. There are the orchard, the garden, the vineyard, the hill side, the flowing streams, the flowers, the singing of birds, the flocks, the shepherds' tents, the freshness of spring, the fruits of autumn. What inartificial freshness breathes in these lines:-
" Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away: For to, the winter is past,
The rain is over-is gone;
The flowers appear on the earth,
The time of the singing is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig-tree hath ripened her green figs;
And the vines-the tender grape-give fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!"
In such scenes of tranquil beauty can the spirit of the inhabitant of a palace take delight. In poetry the two may be brought together, however they are sundered in actual experience. It tells perhaps of the uncorrupted taste of the writer—for I am speaking of the human element-which breaks away from the luxuries of a palace and the scenes of the crowded city, and goes back in thought to the simpler life of patriarchal times, if not to the scenes of enjoyment and of holy love in Paradise itself, before sin had defiled the bowers of Eden. Thence the writer seems to gather the primeval elements of human happiness and to weave them together in the texture of his song. Justly has it been said that, " The tradition of a Paradise is the germ of poetry." And what poetry like that of holy writ, which the Spirit of God has consecrated to His use!
But that which awakens the delight and wonder of the soul is that God should take up these elements, and in this form, and through these tastes, should convey His perfect thoughts to us! The medium of their conveyance in the book before us is pre-eminently human, and yet the thoughts conveyed are perfectly and absolutely divine.
From the religious affections which the perusal of this divine poem-as I may call it, or series of poems-has so constantly set in motion, perhaps it has seldom struck the mind of devout persons that the name of God does not so much as occur throughout the composition. And amidst the divine enjoyment it has so constantly ministered to the purest minds, perhaps it has been as seldom reflected on that, apart from its mystic meaning, there is not a single divine truth or principle enunciated in it, or a single utterance of piety proper to an individual believer throughout.
Now this, so far from its being used as an objection to its incorporation with the books of Scripture, as it has sometimes been, if rightly viewed, may become a very strong argument in its favor. Being found in the canon of Scripture, it has been assumed, both by Jewish and by Christian writers, to be a presentation under the form of the mutual expressions of conjugal love, of the reciprocations of confidence and affection of a heavenly bridegroom and His bride. But then this is so entirely beneath the surface-its under
And hidden meaning-that had a single expression obtruded itself of a didactic kind, or had there been a single utterance of individual piety directly expressed, it would have destroyed the harmony and divine instruction of the whole. It could no longer have been taken as an illustration of the principle of the apostle's words-" This is a great mystery; but I speak of Christ and the church." It would then have been individual piety, and no longer a sustained and mystic instruction, which the soul must penetrate, in order to reach the divine element in this book of heavenly purpose. Critics have had no difficulty in discerning the human element, but have lacked the divine intelligence which is necessary for the discernment of that which is divine.
It must be observed, that all the elements of grace, all that there is to attract the heart in his moral beauty,. all that can draw forth affection and confidence and desire toward Christ is presented in the mystic utterances of the bridegroom; while all the worship of the heart, and delight of the soul in Christ, and all the yearnings of spiritual affection toward Him, are exhibited in the ardent responses of love of the mystic bride. So that there is no place for what might be the sentiments of piety suitable to the heart of a godly man and woman, looked at in their individuality, and apart from the purport of presenting a mystic picture of the divine affections that are reciprocated by Christ and His people. To the careless and unspiritual mind, this book has always appeared to have no claim beyond that of an amatory poem, marked by singular grace and dignity and beauty-" an epithalamium," as it has been termed. But those who have looked beneath the surface to its latent meaning, as a book of Scripture, have as invariably found in it the perfection of enjoyment and delight. So interwoven are many of its expressions and figures with the natural thought and feelings of the heart toward Christ, that they are taken up oftentimes without even the consciousness that they owe their force entirely to their figurative and mystic meaning.
It has not been my purpose to present any interpretation of this book, which perhaps more than any other in Scripture has been commented on, and not without profit, it may be, wherever true spiritual affections have been brought to the task. Mine has been a simpler purpose; having chiefly to do with the human structure of a book, through which the divine thought and inspiration of God have been conveyed to man.