Sermons on the Song of Songs

“My Beloved is like a roe, or a young hart.”

“My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart.” These words, my brethren, must be understood with reference to what precedes. He Who has been described as running and bounding in His hurry to reach the Spouse is now aptly compared to a roe or a young hart. I say “aptly,” because such animals are remarkable for fleetness of foot and agility in leaping. The Spouse of course, is speaking of her Bridegroom, Who is Himself the Word of the Father. And it is of the Father the Prophet says, “His Word runneth swiftly.” This agrees very well with the passage now under consideration, where the Bridegroom, the Word of God, is represented as leaping and skipping, and consequently likened to a roe or a young hart. Such, I take it, is the meaning of this comparison. However, lest the similitude should seem, in the very least point, to be lacking in significance, I may mention that the roe is distinguished as much for keenness of vision as for fleetness of foot. And it is the same perfection of sight that is attributed to the Beloved in the foregoing verse, where He is said to appear not only leaping, but skipping over. For were He not possessed of sharp and penetrating sight, He could not possibly, whilst running at full speed, discriminate between what was to be leaped upon and what skipped over. And the roe is introduced as typifying this property; for to designate the Bridegroom’s rapidity of approach the similitude of the young hart (which is particularly noted for speed) whould have been sufficient. But although the Bridegroom here shows Himself all on fire with love, and hurrying as fast as He can to the embraces of His Spouse, nevertheless He knows how to direct His steps, or rather His leaps, with prudent consideration, even while He runs, and is careful as to where He plants His Feet. Therefore, the similitude of the roe, which expresses the discrimination of the divine election, is as necessary as that of the hart, representing the eagerness of God’s desire to save us. For Christ is both just and merciful. He is our Saviour and also our Judge. Because He is our Lover, “He will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And because He is our Judge, He “knoweth who are His,” He “knoweth whom He hath chosen from the beginning.”

Let us therefore believe that the Holy Ghost is here bringing before our minds, under the figure of the hart and the roe, the Bridegroom’s attributes of mercy and justice, to the end that we may testify to the fulness and perfection of our faith, and say with the Psalmist, “Mercy and judgment I will sing to Thee, O Lord.” I have no doubt that those who are curious and well-informed concerning such things, could point to many additional properties of the above-mentioned animals, which might serve to illustrate, usefully and aptly, other of the Bridegroom’s perfections. But what has been said is quite enough, I think, to account for the comparison. Yet I would have you notice also how beautifully the Holy Spirit uses the image, not of the hart, but of the young “of the harts” (hinnulo cervorum) in order to make mention of the “fathers, from whom is Christ according to the flesh,” and also of the Saviour’s childhood. For the Child Who was born for our sakes truly revealed Himself as a young hart. But do you, my brethren, who long for the Saviour’s advent, be afraid of the scrutiny of the Judge, dread the Eyes of the Roe, be afraid of Him Who has said by His Prophet, “And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps.” I He is very keen-sighted, and His Eye shall leave nothing unexamined. He will search even the “hearts and the reins”; yea, the very “thought of man shall confess to Him.” What, then, can be safe in Babylon if even Jerusalem shall be scrutinised? In my opinion, the Prophet by the name of Jerusalem here signifies those who live a religious life in this world, imitating as well as they can, by the practice of virtue and the observance of discipline, the life and conversation of the dwellers in the heavenly Jerusalem, and who have nothing in common with the natives of Babylon, that is to say, with such as waste their souls in the tumult of vices and the disorder of sin. For the offences of these are open and manifest. They precede them to the judgment, and await, not scrutiny, but chastisement. But I seem to be a monk and a Jerosolymite, and my sins are covered with the religious name and habit. It is therefore necessary that they be subjected to a more strict and minute examination and that lamps should be used, so to speak, to dispel the darkness in which they are hiding.

I can also present you with a verse from the psalms which confirms what is said here concerning the scrutiny of Jerusalem. “When I shall take a time,” sings the Psalmist, speaking in the person of God, “I will judge justices.” Hereby the Lord declares His intention, if I do not mistake, to examine and investigate the ways and the works even of the just. When that time comes, my brethren, we have much reason to fear lest, under so strict a scrutiny, many of our justices—as we suppose them—shall turn out to be sins. However, one hope still remains to us. If only we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. O blessed judgment, which delivers and hides me from that most searching divine investigation! For me certainly, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.” I desire to be presented before the face of His anger as one already judged, rather than as one awaiting judgment. “The spiritual man,” says the Apostle, “judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man.” Therefore, I will judge whatever is evil in myself; but I will also judge whatever seems to be good. I will endeavour to atone for my sins by the performance of good works, to wash them away with tears, to punish them with fastings and the other painful practices of holy penance. As to what may appear commendable in my conduct, I will entertain humble sentiments; I will repute myself, according to the precept of the Lord, an unprofitable servant, who has but done that which he was bound to do. I will be careful not to offer cockle instead of wheat, nor chaff with the grain. I will consider all my actions and all my affections, so that He Who is to “search Jerusalem with lamps,” may find in me nothing unscrutinised, nothing unexamined. For He will not judge anew that on which judgment has already been pronounced.