Sermons on the Song of Songs

“Behold He standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices.”

“Behold He standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices.” Taking these words, my brethren, in their literal signification, we learn that He Who was observed approaching with leaps and bounds, has now drawn nigh to His loved one’s dwelling; but being too bashful to enter, He remains behind the wall, eagerly watching His Spouse through the windows and other apertures. According to the spiritual sense also, we are given to understand that the Beloved has arrived. But the actions mentioned in this place must be so interpreted as that they shall appear not unworthy either of being performed by the Word or of being described by the Holy Ghost. For the true and mystical meaning of this verse can admit of nothing unbecoming the Majesty either of the Bridegroom, Who is revealed here as the Agent, or of the Spirit Who has recorded His doings. Let us therefore say that the Word approached the wall when He united Himself to our nature. The wall signifies the flesh, the drawing near of the Bridegroom the Incarnation of the Word. Furthermore, by the windows and lattices, through which He is represented as looking, we are to understand our bodily senses and human feelings and affections, which He made His own, in order, so it seems to me, that by them He might have personal experience of all our human miseries. For “He hath borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows.” Therefore, being now made man, He used as windows and lattices, our corporeal faculties and natural sensibilities, for the purpose of acquiring an experimental knowledge of the evils men endure, that so “He might become merciful.” Our wretchedness was known to Him even before He took flesh, but in a different manner. Thus, the “Lord of virtues” could never have been ignorant of the virtue of obedience, and yet we are assured by the Apostle that “He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.” In the same way, He learned mercy, although “the mercy of the Lord is from eternity,” as the Psalmist says. We are informed of this also by the Doctor of nations, where he tells us that Christ was “tempted in all things, like as we are, without sin, that He might become merciful.” Do you not see, my brethren, how He became what He was already, how He learned what He knew before, and how He sought for Himself in our nature windows and lattices, through which He could observe more closely our misery and wretchedness? And He found in the chinky and dilapidated wall of our humanity as many spy-holes as were the evidences of our infirmity and mortality which He experienced in His Body.

It is in this sense, therefore, that the Bridegroom appeared standing behind our wall, and looking through the windows and the lattices. And rightly is He represented as standing, because He alone has ever really stood in the flesh, Who alone knew not the sin of the flesh. We may also piously consider that the same Christ Who lay prostrate through the infirmity of the flesh, was enabled to stand erect by the power of His Divinity, according to what is written “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” It seems to me that this view receives some support and confirmation from what the Psalmist said of the Lord, speaking with reference to the same mystery. For David was a prophet, and it is as a prophet he spoke here. And although he has the name of Moses on his lips, it is not of Moses but of Christ he is thinking. Christ indeed is the true Moses, “Who came by water,” indeed, yet “not by water alone, but by water and blood.” The Psalmist therefore sings, “And He—viz., God the Father—said that He would destroy them, had not Moses, His chosen, stood before Him in the breaking to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them.” In what way, I ask, could Moses have stood “in the breaking”? If he were broken, how was it possible for him to stand? And if he stood, in what sense could he have been broken? But allow me to tell you, my brethren, who it was that really stood “in the breaking.” None other, I believe, could have done this, except my Lord Jesus, Who certainly lived even in death; Who by His Divinity was standing with His Father, the while His Body hung broken upon the cross; Who on Calvary was making supplication as a Man amongst men and for men, whilst in heaven showing mercy as God with God. And so He was standing behind the wall whilst the weakness whereby He lay prostrate, as it were, was manifested in the flesh, and the strength wherein He stood remained hidden behind the flesh, He being in both one and the same Bridegroom, revealed in His Humanity, concealed in His Divinity.

But in another sense the Bridegroom, as I judge, stands behind the wall for each one of us who desire His coming, because this body of ours, which the Apostle calls the “body of sin,” hides His Face from us for a time, and shuts out His presence. For “while we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord,” as St. Paul declares. He does not mean, while we are in the body simply, but in this body, which is the “body of sin,” and cannot be without sin. And if you would know for certain that it is not our bodies but our sins which stand as a wall between the Bridegroom and ourselves, listen to the Prophet Isaias: “Your iniquities,” he tells us, “have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid His Face from you.” But would to God the wall of my body were the only one! Would to God the sole obstruction were the sin which exists in my flesh, and that between the Bridegroom and me there were not multiplied fences of vice! For I fear I have added, by my personal guilt, innumerable other walls to the one which my nature inherits, and thus placed a barrier exceedingly wide in the way of the Beloved; so that, if I wished to be sincere, I should acknowledge that in my regard He stands behind, not one wall, but many.

I will try and make this plainer. In virtue of the immensity of His Divine Majesty, and the omnipotence of His power, the Bridegroom is equally and indiscriminately present to all the works of His Hands. But, as regards His rational creatures, whether angels or men, He is said to be near to some and far from others, according as He communicates or withholds His grace. Hence the Psalmist says, “Salvation is far from sinners.” And the same Prophet asks, “Why, O Lord, has Thou retired afar off?” But in the case of His friends, although by a gracious dispensation of His love He occasionally conceals His presence from them, it is only for a time and in part. From sinners, on the other hand, He is always and distantly remote, and that not in mercy but in anger. For of these it is written, “The pride of them that hate Thee ascendeth continually”; also, “Their ways are filthy at all times.” Wherefore holy David prays to God and says, “Decline not in Thy wrath from Thy servant.” He begs Him not to decline in His wrath, because he knew that He might also decline in His mercy. The Lord, therefore, is nigh to His saints and His chosen, even when He appears far removed. Nevertheless, He does not make Himself equally present to all but to some more, to others less, according to the diversity of their merits. For although “the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him in truth,” and also “nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart,” still perhaps He is not so nigh to all as that they can truly say, “Behold He standeth behind our wall.” But to the Spouse He is singularly present, because in her case there is only one dividing wall. Hence she desires to be dissolved, so that, when this wall of separation has been broken down, she may enjoy the company and vision of Him Who as she trusts is standing behind.