IT is when enjoying the highest communion realizing something of the light of the know ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ experiencing much of His love, drinking deeply of the living water that He gives, and ourselves dispensers of rivers of living water to others, that we realize in an eminent degree our own unworthiness, sinfulness, and unlikeness to God; just as here the bride, when drawn by loveliness, brought into the King’s chambers, glad and rejoicing in Him, remembering His love as a continual supply for her thirsting desire, that the words so unexpectedly break upon the ear, “I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem.”
The apostle Paul, who lived the most transcendental life heavenward and Godward, was the most sensitive of saints manward; and would not give offense either to Jew, to Gentile, or to the Church of God. And that the weakest saint in that Church might not be stumbled even at the allowable liberty of stronger Christians, he conciliates, explains, concedes; and in his epistles gives such instructions as we find in Romans 14, 15, and 1 Cor. 8, which are fitted to lead more advanced Christians to deny themselves, and graciously abridge their own liberty in Christ, rather than offend or injure the consciences of their weaker brethren.
And what was this but a following of Christ, who, lest He should “offend them” ―the exactors of the temple-service tax―instructed His apostle Peter to pay their tribute-money, Himself working a miracle rather than give trouble, or cause of stumbling to the tax gatherer (Matt. 17.)
Here the bride acts in a similar way towards the “daughters of Jerusalem.” She may seem to be all unfit for the high honor to which she is admitted, and she frankly admits it, but still at the same time she affirms her comeliness: “I am black but comely.”
There is a variety of view on this head; but that which appears to us most probably right, is, that the black refers to the estimation in which others held her: and as it was external and visible, it, refers to her circumstances rather than sins. But as it is a great Scripture truth that the Christian in himself is conscious of his own blackness just in proportion to his nearness of communion, we shall let a brother in the Lord give us a brief won in reference to the application of this confession in regard to sin in believers.
“I am black but comely.” Needed truth at all times, if we would preserve a well-balanced mind! The more thoroughly we know the worthlessness of the flesh, the more shall we appreciate thy worthiness of Christ, and the better shall we know the work of the Holy Spirit. When the total depravity of human nature is not a settled reality in the soul, there will ever be contusion in our experience as to the vain pretensions of the flesh, and the divine operations of the Spirit.
“There is nothing good whatever in our carnal nature. The most advanced in the divine life has said, ‘In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.’ How sweeping! ‘No good thing.’ But can it not be improved by diligence in prayer and watchfulness? No, never: it is wholly incurable. Long, long ago, this was affirmed by the God of truth. See Gen. 6: ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually;... and God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me.’ It is ‘evil,’ ‘only evil,’ and ‘evil continually;’ that is, plainly evil without any good, and evil without any cessation; and this is said of all flesh, observe, not of some merely: so that all are included.
“True, in some we may find nature polished, cultivated, and refined; in others, rough, rude, and rugged, ―but it is carnal nature in both. We may not be able to bend a bar of iron; yet it may be so beaten out as to become quite flexible, but it is the same iron still. Its appearance has changed, but its nature is the same.”
“Well, admitting that to be true as to our carnal nature, why call it ‘needed truth and necessary to a well-balanced mind?’ Because it enables us to distinguish between flesh and Spirit, and to know from which the thought, suggestion, or inclination may come. Seeing they are both in us, and the one unmixed good and the other unmixed evil, this is all-important. Endless confusion, trouble, perplexity, and in some cases deep melancholy, are the unhappy results of ignorance on this point. I mean the subject of the two natures. Nothing that is good can spring from our carnal nature. Suppose I meet a person who is in deep concern about his soul, and earnestly longing to know Christ and salvation: I know for certain the Holy Spirit is at work in that soul. such desires after Christ and salvation are good, and could never spring from a nature that hates both God and Christ, and loves the world better than heaven. The soul may indeed be in great distress and full of doubts and fears as to the issue, and even refusing to be comforted. But in God’s mind it is saved already. And when it believes the truth; it will rejoice. The good work was begun in the soul of the prodigal when first he said within himself, ‘I will arise, and go to my father.’ The Spirit of God will fully satisfy every desire which He creates. Christ himself is the perfect answer to every desire of the heart.”
“I am black” is a confession only made by true saints, or really quickened, Spirit-convinced souls. “I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” The real state of the sinner will never be confessed until a man is a saint. Saul the Pharisee never said, “sinners of whom I am chief;” and we find him writing it only after he had been thirty years a devoted servant of Christ. Before this he had recorded himself as “least of the apostles,” and “less than the least of all saints;” but it is only as he is stepping from a prison to glory that we find the record― “sinners of whom I am chief” The man who writes of himself― “as touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless,” when he was Saul the young Pharisee, writes himself chief of sinners, as “Paul the aged” Christian.
But, as I have already indicated, the words refer more to outward circumstances than to inward sin; and were I to enter into a full treatment of the subject, I would consider it: 1. Personally; 2. Ecclesiastically; and 3. Nationally, ―or, in other words, I would regard it in connection with the individual Christian, the saints collectively, and Israel nationally.
1. THE CONTRAST. ―God’s Zion is now “black:” as another has said, “Jewish experience being more of an outward, temporal, typical character the blackness of which he speaks is external.” It is a darkness of complexion―she is sunburnt: the warning word of the prophet has come to pass. “There shall be burning instead of beauty” (Isa. 3:2424And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. (Isaiah 3:24)). And because of this she feels the curious gaze of the daughters of Jerusalem: “Look no upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me.” The time was when the daughter of Zion was beautiful and glorious, a praise in the earth. “Thy renown,” says the prophet, “went forth among the heathen for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith, the Lord God” (Ezek. 1624That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street. (Ezekiel 16:24).) But because of her ingratitude and unfaithfulness, she had been reduced to the sad condition of a poor sunburnt slave. The Prophet Jeremiah also, in his “Lamentations” over the downfall of Jerusalem, describes, in the most touching manner, not only what she once was, but what through affliction and sorrow she had become. “Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire. Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.” Well might he exclaim in the bitterness of his soul, “How is the gold become dim? How is the most fine gold changed?” The term “black” is generally used in Scripture as expressive of affliction, sorrow, persecution. “My skin,” as Job says, “is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat” (Job 30:3030My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. (Job 30:30)). It is emphatically so with disobedient Israel. But here the confession is sweetly coupled with faith in Christ, and so becomes morally the truthful expression of all believers. “I am black but comely:” black as in myself, whiter than snow in Christ.
This will be the language of the God-fearing remnant of Israel in the latter day, who shall have passed through the depths of Jacob’s trouble: sorely scorched indeed shall they be by the burning heat of “the great tribulation;” not only shall they suffer persecution under Antichrist, the great oppressor, but even their own brethren after the flesh shall be turned against them. “Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed” (Isa. 65:55Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. (Isaiah 65:5)). This is what the now joyous bride refers to, “My mother’s children were angry with me: they made me keeper of the vineyards.” Like another Ruth, the vineyard which she was compelled to toil in become her own. And happy now in the love of her gray Deliverer, and rich Lord, she could speak freely ( what she had passed through, and what she still was in her own eyes― “Black as the tents Kedar―comely as the curtains of Solomon.” I this national reference, if the bride be the representative of the beloved city, Jerusalem, the earthly capital of the Great King, the “daughters of Jerusalem” may represent the cities of Judah. Hence we can understand their presence and place on so many occasions, yet never reaching to the position of the bride in the estimation of the King. According to the word of the Lord, Jerusalem must ever have the pre-eminence, “For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually” (2 Chron. 7:1616For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. (2 Chronicles 7:16)).
With regard to this view, as applied to the literal Jerusalem, how touching the description of a dear friend of ours on coming in sight of Jerusalem, and walking its streets for the first time! ― “We rode on, reached the summit, and could only weep! Strange and deep are the emotions that sight creates! O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! thou that stonest the prophets, and killest them that are sent unto thee” O city of the Great King! once so high, now so low! O scene of the death, agony, and crucifixion of the Saviour, who will yet establish His earthly throne in thy midst―do our eyes behold thee? can it be? is that Mount Zion, which God loves? Oh, how our eyes devoured it! and, I must confess it, how disappointed were our expectations.... Another thing for which I was hardly prepared was the ruined state of Jerusalem. I knew it had been repeatedly ruined and rebuilt, but did not expect to find it now literally a mass of ruins. Such it is to an indescribable degree ruins of ruins repaired and ruined again, ruins mended with ruins, ruined buildings built of the ruins of former buildings, and on the ruin of others. Heaps of stones everywhere and nowhere, save in a few European structures, anything else but ruins. The seventeen captures the city has sustained, of course account for this. Indeed, we are told the present level of the city is far above the original one. It is raised many feet on the ruins of its predecessors. You may dig down, down, down, and only get deeper in ruins and traces of antiquity.
“But oh! how can I describe to you the present state of the city within the walls? My courage fails in attempting it! No words can convey an idea of it so well as the blessed Lord’s prophetic expression, ‘Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles.’ ‘Trodden down,’ trampled under foot, crushed to the dust, and groveling in it―that is the idea the first walk through its dark, dirty, ruinous, crowded, narrow, ill-paved streets, conveys to one’s mind. Inexpressibly sad, sorrowful, and astonishing is it to see with one’s own eyes the meaning, the fulfillment of these words. The motley melee of all nations that throng the streets, or dark filthy lanes as we should call them, especially at this season, when some thousands of Greek and Latin pilgrims are in the city for Easter; the variety of false and foolish forms of worship celebrated on these God-chosen and God-honored spots; the Turkish soldiery (a most degraded, ill-paid, evil-looking set of nondescripts), parading the areas of the Temple and Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and excluding Jew and Christian alike from the large quarter formerly occupied by the house of God, now by the Mosque of Omar; all these things speak in loud accents, ‘Trodden down of the Gentiles.’
“One’s very heart sinks at the spectacle! and at each step is ready to weep at the pitiful sights and sounds on every hand. Can this be Jerusalem? is this Mount Zion? we said continually to each other, as we ascended the steep street leading to the top of that hill, not more than twenty feet wide. A very roughly paved gutter is all the road, and there are no sidewalks; it is filthy beyond description, and the smells so offensive, that twice I was absolutely sick! Oh, how unlike that city that was beautiful for situation, and the joy of the whole earth! ―how unlike the Jerusalem that was, and the Jerusalem that shall be!
“This is the only thought that relieves the mind in contemplating her present degradation and misery. It is all foretold by the Spirit of prophecy, and the same unerring Spirit has also predicted another and a brighter state of things. God will yet create ‘Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy,’ and we who weep over her now will rejoice over her then. It is easy to see what a city it might be, easy to see that it is ‘beautiful for situation,’ and capable of being one of the most imposing, singular, and romantic of places. There is great beauty now in its deep ravines, in the steep, precipitous Vale of Hinnom, and the softer valley of Jehoshaphat, in the rocky summits of the city walls and towers, and in the varying views of surrounding hills and glimpses of distant country. But it is on what it might be that one likes to dwell, not what it is, for the sweetest spots on and around it are alike marked by ruin any degradation―misery is stamped on everything What a withering thing is the frown of God! Till that is removed, till Zion ‘in the blood of the victim shall wash her deep guilt away,’ her desolation―her awful blackness―must remain, and al that pass by must be astonished at her!”
What a contrast when she shall appear like a bride adorned for her Husband, and be as a royal diadem in the hands of the Lord!
2. THE CHURCH. ―The Church may say, “I am black but comely.” In spite of all that the Lord Jesus has done, and in spite of the presence teaching, exhortations, and warnings of the Holy Ghost, the Church that we read of as being so fair in all its life, grace, spirituality, separateness, devotedness, love, liberality, self-sacrifice, labor for Christ’s name, service in the Spirit, and all the unity which shines forth in its early days, how black has it become! Fallen from first love, faithless to her absent lord, slothful in His service, and dallying with the world, she has so sadly fallen that there is now no visible Church at all of the fair proportions, symmetry, and beauty it possessed when, on that memorable epoch of Pentecost, “all who believed were together;” and she is black with desolations, divisions, carnal connections, and worse than heathen corruptions; wasted by the ravages of worldliness, selfishness, and satanic delusions; broken up into a multitude of sects, and ranged under a mass of sectarian banners, instead of being the fair and engaging spouse of Him whose bride she professes to be. The desolation, degradation, humiliation, and trodden-down condition of the professing Church is, to those who have the Spirit-anointed eye, a thousand times more depressing and saddening than the terrible condition of Israel. Yet in the midst of this chaos the comely members of the body of Christ may be distinguished, and when the time of blackness is past He will present His Church to Himself, with exceeding joy, in all the comeliness of her bridal beauty “a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle; or any such thing―holy, and without blemish.”
How “comely” will the Church appear when the stature of the “perfect man” is reached!― how beautiful when it has grown into a holy temple in the Lord, and it appears in its perfection of beauty when in the glory of God, as in Revelation 21. when its several gates are of one pearl, its pavement of burnished gold, its walls of all manner of precious stones, and the Lamb is the light of it!
We do not dwell on this aspect, but hasten to speak of the expression as it may be viewed in reference to individual Christians.
3. THE CHRISTIAN. ―Personally the Christian says, “I am black but comely.” ―The leading thought here is, that the circumstance of the bride’s being “black” in appearance was due to the action of others, not her own. “I am black―the sun has looked upon me―my mother’s children were angry with me— they made me the keeper of the vineyards―mine own vineyard have I not kept.” The explanation of her swarthy color is thus given. It is poetic language, and means, in simple prose, that she had been sunburnt when compelled to be under the sun’s scorching rays, engaged in the drudgery of the lowest menial, which she had been put to, through the jealousy and hatred of those of her own house who disliked her; and that that position was not her natural one, nor yet self-chosen. “Mine own vineyard have I not kept,” is generally explained of neglect or unwatchfulness; but it is not a confession of her unfaithfulness, but an explanation or excuse for her being in the degradation to which she had been subjected. It is as if she had said, I was not taking that low, exposed situation of my own accord, out of selfish attention to my own interest. No; the vineyards were not mine which I was forced to keep. I got this blackish hue not deservedly, but as suffering for righteousness’ sake. I would not for the world have done those things they attribute unto me. My soul loathes and abhors them. “I am black” in reputation only, because of the calumnies, misconstructions, unrighteousness, jealousy, and persecution of my “mother’s children;” but in reality I am “comely.” I belong to the “upright,” and “the upright love thee.”
This seems to be the true meaning; and the connection is obvious. She had been speaking of great privileges and enjoyments in the King’s chambers, and ended with “The upright love thee.” “I am black, but comely,” is her next word; and thinking of how she had been regarded and treated by others, she clears her character as being “upright,” and hence “comely,” by the explanations which she offered, the bearing of which we have just given.
In this, as another says, we are only like our Lord. “Christ, who was ‘the Lamb without spot and blemish,’ ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,’ was the One of all others whom His mother’s children’s ‘anger and causeless hatred made black’ beyond all, so that they called Him devil, blasphemer, mover of sedition, heretic, innovator in religion, Antinomian, and every evil name, and at last cried, ‘Away with Him! away with Him! Let Him be crucified.’ It is enough for the disciple to be as His Master; and if the visage of the Man of sorrows was so marred more than any man’s, and His countenance more than the sons of men, your countenance, believer, will oft be clouded by affliction, necessities, distresses, infirmities, reproaches; yet never are you more ‘comely’ than when your mother’s children are angry with you for your Master’s sake; and being driven from among them, the sun scorches you, for then, most of all, the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified” (1 Peter 4:1414If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. (1 Peter 4:14)).
Do ye think the Scripture saith in vain, “The spirit that is in us lusteth only to envy?” It has been so from the beginning. Joseph was black in the eyes of his brethren because he was comely in his father’s sight, and had a, future indicated superior to theirs. They said, “Behold that dreamer cometh,” and they cast him into the pit in the wilderness; drew him out, sold him to a passing caravan, who took and sold him into Egypt, where again, through calumnious reports, he was reputed so “black” as to be cast into prison; but God took him thence and made him prime minister of Egypt, and the saviour of his father’s house as well as of that land and the world; so that he could see the Lord’s hand in all his trials, and that, through His comeliness put upon him, he was “comely” in his circumstances, as he had been all along in his character.
David was a man after God’s own heart, and He anointed him with His holy oil to be king over His people Israel; and yet even his “mother’s children” imputed naughtiness of heart and motives of vanity, when he came to visit them with presents in the valley of Elah, when Goliath of Gath defied the armies of the living God, and he would go out and fight with him. Even after he had slain the giant and delivered Israel, he is of so little account that he is in the lowly place of minstrel to the unhappy Saul; and by and by he is so incensed against him, and David becomes so “black” in his eyes, that he hunts him as a partridge on the mountains, and he is compelled through his anger against him, and his incessant persecution, to become an exile from the land over which God had anointed him to reign. And yet how “comely” David’s conduct towards Saul all the time he was pursuing him with murderous intent Even when in his power he would not stretch forth his hand against him; and his lament over him and Jonathan after they were slain by the Philistines is truly “comely.” “The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places.” “How are the mighty fallen!” “The shield of Saul is vilely cast away as though he had not been anointed with oil; the sword of Saul returned not empty, Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their deaths they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions: ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul.” He was in Saul’s eyes “black as the tents of Kedar:” but in reality he was “comely as the curtains of Solomon.”
God’s “comely” one is always the world’s “black” one. He whom God anointed, and sent to unfold His grace, though He was full of grace and truth, was despised and rejected of men; His own received Him not. “This is the Heir; come let us kill Him;” “they hated me without a cause.” And when the cities of Galilee rejected Him, and considered Him as having “no form nor comeliness,” He falls back upon His consciousness of what He was as the beloved Son of God, and that He was so “comely” in the Father’s eye that He had “delivered all things into His hands;” and, when He was defamed, He entreated, and at last asked. His accusers, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” So full of moral beauty and purity was His whole life, that He was making manifest and condemning sin in the flesh by His Holiness wherever He passed as “the Light of the world.” And like Joseph and David, who were types of Him, God interposed and vindicated Him whom earth had treated as “black,” by raising Him from the dead, setting mm at His own right hand, and crowning. Him with glory and honor. “Thou art fairer than the children of men,” is the Spirit’s testimony. He who was the world’s foulest is heaven’s fairest. His “mother’s children” “slew and hanged Him on a tree;” “but God raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory.”
And He warned His disciples that they might expect similar treatment to that which they had given Him: “Ye shall be hated of all men for my, name’s sake. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of His household.” And in preaching the gospel, His disciples were subjected to incessant persecution and tribulation, and that from the anger of the Jews— their “mother’s children.” The record of them reads thus, “Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us and they please not God, and are contrary to all men;” and now mere professors and carnal Chris tians take their place, and blacken all God’s fairest of men.
Who so like Christ, or so fully in communion with His mind, as the apostle Paul? And who so black? “We are made a spectacle to the world to angels, and to men. We are weak, despised we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; reviled, persecuted, defamed, we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day” (1 Cor. 4): yet who so comely? He writes of himself, “Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed; but in all things commending ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. 6).
I do not know a more apposite parallel passage than this to the one we are considering: “I am black, but comely.” (See also 2 Cor. 11 and 12). “Black as the tents of Kedar, comely as the curtains of Solomon.” How different spiritual Christians are from what they are thought to be! They are certain to come in collision with ordinary profession if wholly devoted to Christ, and to be regarded as “black,” be suspected, distrusted, regarded as scheming, crafty, crooked, extreme, unreliable, forward, proud, self-righteous, and hypocritical; but to the inner circle that really knows them, the longer they are known the more engaging, attractive, and “comely” they become. But the really separated ones will have few to appreciate them when they live, or to stand with them in wholehearted consecration to the Lord or in testimony to His name, just as “Paul the aged,” who, when a young man, had “multitudes” to hear him and applaud, and follow with him, but when nearing the end of his course (as in Second Timothy), complains, “All they of Asia have forsaken me.” “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” So when we follow Christ for His own sake, and reek not of reputation, goods, friends, position, or prospects, or even of life itself, then will even Christian friends drop off right and left, as they did from Christ, and leave us alone; but as He said, and Paul proved (2 Tim. 4:1717Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. (2 Timothy 4:17)), “not alone,” for the Father will be with us, and the Son will sustain us, and the Holy Ghost will fill us with divine power, and so the preaching shall be fully known, to the praise of the glory of His grace. “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”