Desire after God.
Translated into language more congenial to our ordinary Christian thought, these verses may be taken as a parabolic setting forth of the blessed truth contained in the well known words of the psalm, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" It surely would be speaking blasphemy, and an abasement of the Bible, if we were to look on the sensuous words with which these verses begin as meaning nothing more than they say in their ordinary plain and literal meaning. We, therefore, feel bound to lift them up from such low level, and to look upon them as telling—no doubt in a vivid, Oriental way—of the soul's desire after God, the holy thirst of which the verse from the psalm is the expression. And we observe—
I. THAT THE CONSCIOUS POSSESSION OF THE LOVE OF GOD IS THE SOUL'S DEEP NEED AND DESIRE. Men try all manner of other delights, but they turn out mere apples of Sodom. He who wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes had left untried no single source of earthly joy. All were within his power, and he did his best to get their best out of them. And no doubt he succeeded. But what then? Was he satisfied? did they content him? "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!"—that is his verdict upon them all. And his experience is that of myriads more, all which goes to prove that the love of God alone can satisfy. "Nostrum cor inquietum est donec requiescat in te." This saying of St. Augustine's is the sober truth, which finds such impassioned expression in our text. And the soul's desire for that love is the fruit of that love. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me," said our Lord; and it is because of his gracious drawings, the mighty lure with which he attracts our wills, that we are possessed by this desire.
II. THE DIVINE LOVE IS THE EXHILARATION OF THE SOUL. "Thy love is better than wine." "Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit," says St. Paul; and he thereby teaches us, as does the text, that there is a likeness between the two—wine and the Spirit of God. And the resemblance lies here—in the stir and joy of heart which wine for a while causes; and this, though in no mere physical sense, is the blessed effect of the Spirit of God. For his office it is to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, and that causes joy indeed.
III. AND IT IS FRAGRANT WHEREVER IT DWELLS. It is likened to "perfume poured forth" and it fills "all the house."
IV. THE PURE IN HEART LOVE IT. "Therefore do the virgins love thee." The desire for the Divine love is not universal—far from it. But "the pure in heart" "see God," and hence their desire.—S.C.