phetic description. We would hear the united cry of the elder world condensed in the sentence, "We would see JESUS."

JESUS CHRIST is our aim. We have no other; nor do we look for Him as the embodiment of a doctrine, but as a distinct and present Person; and the acts of His life as facts, not ideas.

With this view the Psalms are to us so important and blessed a manual; without this view they are comparatively powerless-beautiful-heavenly still; but beautiful only as a bird is without the ascending power of its wings, when read or used apart from the clearer recognition of their allegorical and typical meaning.

It is with this view that the Church in all ages has given so great a prominence to the Psalms in her acts of worship and embodied them in every service; without this view we should find it difficult to justify or understand the large use of them in our own English forms.

To no portion of the Old Testament are these principles so referable as to the Song of Solomon. If we see in it JESUS CHRIST and the Church, it becomes the most powerful ex

pression of their reciprocal love and devotion to each other which the world contains; if we do not see Him in it, it becomes less than pointless as a study. It embodies the whole question of the typical nature of the Old Testament writings. With this stamp placed upon it by the Church in every age, it is indeed startling to hear men calmly propose its expulsion from the Canon of Scripture. An expulsion, which if it took place, would cast grave doubts on the position and claims of the body which authorized it.

2. Before I approach any analysis of the Song of Solomon it is well to consider the claims with which it comes before us.

Though written very possibly by Solomon with reference to the daughter of Pharaoh, it seems evidently to have had a deep symbolical meaning from the beginning. All things in Scripture are for CHRIST's sake from the beginning of the world. In one sense Isaac bore his wood for the sacrifice, because CHRIST has to carry the Cross; and Joseph was sold by his brethren, because He was to be sold by His. David ascended Mount Olivet weeping to foreshadow the tears which JESUS shed over the guilty and apostate city; and the Jews re

turned from their Babylonish captivity because they were hereafter to have a greater return from a greater captivity. The Church of the wilderness and the first temple were the pictures of the Church of the Gospel; and the forms which floating by cast their shadows on the elder world were shades of that greater Figure which was to absorb the attention of mankind and of the Church for ever and ever. Such is the power which underlies the Song of Songs.

Guided by a Voice they felt but did not hear, and a Form they perceived but could not see, holy men of old, through the song, the history, and the rhapsody, uttered the hidden meanings of external forms. Το their eye GOD manifested Himself to them through the visible creation in a way He did not to the world, and which the world did not understand. To them the visible earth and the histories of mankind were a great sacrament; everything had a deeper meaning than could come out to the ordinary eye. There was a continual reflexion on the upper waves and still waters of life which presented itself to the eye of the observer; but deeper and deeper down continually was the pavement of jewels

on which the foot was finally to rest; and that pavement was the Incarnation. That underlies the history of man. All short of that is but the shifting reflection of water-the evanescence of an impalpable shadow. We creep amid allegories. In heaven, and there alone, we shall dwell among substances.

The Church ever realized this of old. What men of to-day call the fanciful interpretations and far-fetched meanings of her writers are really the results of that deep view which she took of all things as hiding CHRIST, but to reveal Him to the earnest eye and watchful heart. All things were what they were because JESUS was so. All things lovely-all things true all things honourable received their character from Him. Abraham's fidelity, Jacob's affection, Joseph's forgiveness, Moses' leadership of the chosen people, the sweet loveliness of David's harp, Solomon's wisdom, and Job's patience, all were what they were because of Him Who said, "Before Abraham was I am." They were but repeated reflections of portions of His Incarnation for which the world was waiting expectant.

So it is that the Church has ever in her days of earnestness and special devation used the

sion.

Song of Solomon. It has been the thermometer of her condition; when and where her energy and love were strong, then and there the Song of Songs became the mode and form of her expresS. Bernard's commentary bears witness to this: the love that the monks of Citeaux in their day of fresh and quickened energy bore to it is a strong proof of the estimation in which it was then held. And what is true of Bernard and Citeaux in the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been true of the Church in every age. Even in this age we are not without our witness to the same truth. There are passages which men among us are in the habit of quoting frequently which show how naturally love for JESUS and religion flow into the stream of that song, though men may not remember always the part of Scripture from which they borrow expressions almost proverbial.

JESUS is often spoken of as "the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely;" as "the rose of Sharon and lily of the valley;" the conviction is often expressed that "His banner over us is love ;" the longing is uttered that the

day may break and the shadows flee away.' How many of us have known and quoted the words scarce thinking whence they came? "O