Christian missions.
"I am my beloved's," etc. The scene is still in "the king's chambers" at Jerusalem. What Solomon has said to her whom he would win is of no avail; her heart is true to her beloved. This emphatic redeclaration of her love for that beloved one is all the response that the king's flatteries have obtained. She speaks as if she were already away from the palace and back at her country home; once more occupied in her usual occupations and enjoying her former happy intercourse with her beloved. But the going forth to her work suggests the idea of going forth in spiritual work, and the language she uses points to the manner in which such work may be successfully done. We may take the section as an allegory concerning Christian missions. It suggests—
I. WHAT PROMPTS THEM. (Song of Solomon 7:10.) The profound and delightful realization of Christ's love towards and within us. Such work, if done only because we are afraid of the judgment day, when we all must give account of our stewardship; or from mere sense of duty; still less when the motive is ecclesiastical ambition; or even when pity for the ignorance and general sad condition of the heathen is the motive;—all such promptings have but partial, some very partial, power. The true motive is that which the rapturous expression of Song of Solomon 7:10 reveals—
II. HOW THEY SHOULD BE CARRIED ON. "Come, my Beloved, let us," etc.
1. The presence of Christ should be invoked. (Song of Solomon 7:11.) "Let us go forth," etc. Then:
2. There should be the going forth. Away from accustomed haunts, away from the place of ordinances and privileges, to where none of these things are enjoyed.
3. With diligence. "Let us rise early" (Song of Solomon 7:12).
4. With watchfulness, not alone in planting, but for growth and progress.
III. THEIR TRUE. NATURE. (Song of Solomon 7:12.) "There will I give thee," etc. They are an acceptable offering of our love to Christ and its true manifestation. A love to Christ that is not expansive, that does not go forth to bless others, is no true love, but something very different (1 Corinthians 15:10).
IV. THEY SHALL BE REWARDED WITH DELIGHTFUL SUCCESS. (Song of Solomon 7:13.) May not the lack of this—though, indeed, it is not entirely absent—be owing to some grave defect in motive or manner?
V. ALL THE GLORY WILL BE RENDERED TO CHRIST. "Which I have laid up for thee." (Song of Solomon 7:13.) Cf. the account of the first missionary meeting and report (Acts 14:27).—S.C.