BY THE REV. M. MORRISON, LOCHINVER.
“I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”—Song of Solomon, ii. 1-3.
THERE is such a wonderful connection between these three verses that we cannot very well take one verse singly, without marring the relation which subsists between the parties, speaking in them. The figures made use of are significant. The realm of nature is a wide field of rich and beautiful variety, whence the Holy Spirit is pleased to borrow appropriate metaphors to set forth truths of deep spiritual meaning. Of such a character is the figurative language here employed; and may the Holy Spirit help us to understand, and speak upon these words.
It will be noticed that the person speaking in the first and second verses is the Lord Jesus the Saviour of Sinners. In the first, He speaks and describes Himself under the figure of a rose and a lily. In the second verse He gives a description of His Spouse, the Church, by comparing her to a lily among thorns. His loved one among the daughters is as the lily among thorns. In the third verse, we have the Church, which Christ loved and gave Himself for, commanding with all her might the Lord Jesus as her beloved, by resembling Him to an apple tree among the trees of the wood; and, further, adding her solemn confession of faith working by great love and great delight in the shelter and refuge afforded by His merit and righteousness, and in the fruit and nourishment yielded by His death and resurrection.
Let me endeavour for the present to say something on Christ as “the rose of Sharon.” There is a striking similarity between some of the expressions of the Old Testament and the New, in which the character of the Redeemer and the relation He sustained to His people are set forth. In the Gospel of John, for instance, He says:—”I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman,” and the mutual relation between Him and His people is declared by the relation subsisting between “the branches and the vine.” We discover the like beautiful idea in these words of the Song. When He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and commissioned him to go to deliver the children of Israel it was by the name of “Jehovah,” the “I am that I am” He revealed Himself. And while He reveals Himself here as the same “I am,” the same unchangeable, self-existent Being, He is pleased to predicate of Himself by the figure, “the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys,” something which at once suggests to us His marvellous condescension in coming to be a Saviour and Redeemer to sinful men.
- “I am the rose of Sharon.” This rose would appear to excel all other roses in nature and qualities. It was particularly noted for its natural beauty and glory; its sweet-scented perfume and fragrance; its attractive appearance; its rich and luxurious growth; the consoling and beneficial uses to which it was put; the desire it excited in one’s mind to have it in possession; and, finally, its free and easy accessibility. The word “Sharon” means in Greek, open spaces, as fields, etc., which are common to all. “The rose of Sharon,” therefore, is the rose of the fields. The fields of Palestine were fruitful in roses. This rose was not
confined to gardens, as if it were the property of a few; it grew by nature without the toil of human hands; it was the work of God. What a combination of qualities is in the rose of the field!
The Lord Jesus possessed a beauty and glory which was natural to Him as the eternal Son. The glory which is essential to Him as a divine person is a glory that cannot be known by angels or men. But He was pleased to give glimpses of His glory unto men, in stooping so low as to take our nature unto Himself and in what He did in that nature. He is elsewhere described as “the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His Person.” If the rose is regarded as an emblem of glory or majesty, how much of glorious majesty shone forth in this stupendous stoop of the Eternal Son? That glory which He had with the Father was by His incarnation veiled to human eyes, so that when He appeared in the form of Man He was regarded by Jew and Gentile alike as no higher than a mere creature. Christ Himself was fully conscious that by humbling Himself there was no diminishing of His natural and essential glory and majesty, but a veiling of it; the glory of His deity was hid from human sight by the covering over it of a true body and a reasonable soul. Just like the sun, when it is hid from our gaze by gathering and overcast clouds, but there is not on that account the least diminishing of its essential light and natural glory. The Lord Jesus as the “Rose of Sharon” at the marriage in Cana turned the water into wine, and “this beginning of miracles did Jesus . . . and manifested forth his glory.” Every miracle He wrought afterwards was an emanation of His divine glory, calculated to overawe the spirit of men and to make them whole-heartedly accede to His claims as the eternal Son and the Messiah that they expected. The words of His mouth, His dealings with people of varied conditions and character, were likewise reflecting heavenly glory. And what a lovely and glorious “rose” He was in His death. The rose combines deep-crimsoned hue and soft, lovely whiteness. This was true of Christ our blessed “rose of Sharon.” He combined in Himself the guilt of His people’s sin and perfect personal innocence, the curse of the law and infinite heavenly blessedness. He bore the wrath of God as the righteous Judge, while He was His beloved Son. He took the likeness of man while He was in the form of God. He became the servant of sinful men, while He was Lord of all. He, as man had nowhere to lay His head, and was nevertheless the
High and the Lofty One inhabiting eternity. He tasted death in soul and body, and yet as God neither suffering nor death could have any power over Him. He shed His blood in the amazing agony of Gethsemane and upon the accursed tree, and yet it was as the eternal Son He offered the sacrifice. Therefore it is called elsewhere in the Word the blood of God (Acts xx. 28).
Consider the sweet-scented fragrance arising from the “rose of Sharon” to heaven. In all the steps of His humiliation this sweet perfume was felt by His Father and by His angels in heaven. He was well pleased with His beloved Son in all He said and did. His Father bore testimony to His pleasure in Him when He was baptised by John on the banks of Jordan, and the Holy Spirit alighted on Him in the form of a dove—”This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” Christ’s obedience to the holy law of God in our room; His zeal for the honour of the Deity; His hatred of sin and whatsoever was contrary to His holy nature exhaled a sweet odour which reached the very heavens. He spoke as never man spoke, and His words were full of heavenly grace, which was felt by many that heard Him. The wonderful graces He exhibited had this heavenly perfume—His patience under suffering, His meekness in the presence of accusers, His lowliness of mind in all His exercises, His pity towards the miserable, His love for righteousness as well as for penitent sinners. It is, however, as we approach Gethsemane and as we come to behold Him dying on the cross when He offers Himself a sacrifice of sweet-smelling saviour to God that we have an illustration of the significance of the sweet-scented “rose of Sharon.” This sweet saviour filled the throne of God, and filled the Church to which His Name is as ointment poured forth. It is so felt in the experience of every one who believes in the Lord Jesus. The sweet odour they inhaled from this sacrifice delighted and rejoiced all their spiritual senses.
- We come now to consider the attractive appearance of the “rose of the field.” It drew one’s eye towards it; and so a person was sweetly and delightfully compelled when in sight of the rose to yield attention. To blind people the rose of Sharon is nothing. They see no more beauty in it than in the thorn bush, because they are not able to make any distinction for the want of sight. Christ Jesus was and is to the unregenerate world as a rose is to a blind man. Isaiah tells us that “He shall grow up before
him as a root out of a dry ground, having no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.” But those whose eyes are opened like the man who said—”One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see,” see somewhat of the beauty and glory of Christ. They beheld in some measure “His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Their minds are enlightened in the knowledge of Christ as the “rose of Sharon.” They behold Him as suitable to their case as sinners, as all-sufficient to pay all their debt and meet all divine claims in their room. They were drawn sweetly by the cords of love and by the hands of a man. And “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” The eye of faith looks wistfully towards this “rose of Sharon” for pardon for the sinner through His blood, for acceptance of his person and duties, for the grace of sanctification, for the supply of all his wants for time and eternity.
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We come now to consider the rich and luxurious growth of the “rose of Sharon.” The whole world, the heathen nations, are a howling wilderness and a desolate waste. There was nothing to be seen but thorns, thistles, and briars. But when the gospel came to them and the Holy Spirit breathed on them, the thorns and the thistles were uprooted and the “rose of Sharon” was planted among them until they were made in some measure “to rejoice and blossom as the rose.” The religion of Christ spread mightily in the first centuries, and it has prevailed powerfully and effectually ever since, and shall continue to do so until the whole earth, as is predicted in the Seventy-second Psalm, will be filled with His glory. Thus John’s words are fulfilled—”He must increase, but I must decrease.”
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Then there is the consoling and beneficial uses to which the “rose” is put. There is a healing and mollifying virtue in the sap of the rose. So the Lord Jesus healed every manner of physical and spiritual disease. He quickens the dead, He gives life, He fills the soul with His grace, He gives happiness and contentment. There is a balm in Gilead and there is a physician there, He heals all the spiritual distempers and disorders under which poor sinners labour; He melts the heart and sheds His love abroad in it; He dispels the darkness of the mind, and removes hardness of heart; He makes sinners smart under a sense of their sins in order to their spiritual recovery; He renews and
enlarges them inwardly, so that the spices thereof may flow out. He cheers their hope and strengthens their faith.
- Further, the fragrance and the beauty of the “rose of Sharon” awakens a desire to have it in one’s possession. Thus Christ is said to be “the desire of all nations.” When a soul gets a saving view of the “rose of Sharon,” it excites a great desire to have this “rose” for oneself, in order to satisfy him within and to adorn him without. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
But, lastly, there is free and easy access to Christ as to the “rose of the field.” There are no intermediaries between us and Him. Whatever there was of this in ancient times, under the Gospel dispensation we have boldness to come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy. There is none excluded, all are alike welcome to come. Christ is freely offered in the Gospel to all who hear it. No matter how great a sinner you are, and it is as such you must come to Christ, you have every warrant to take Him as your personal Saviour. He is for all who will have Him on His own free and gracious terms.