Sermons on the Song of Songs

“My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, shew me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears; for thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely.”

“My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall.” It is not only in the clefts of the Rock, my brethren, that the dove finds a secure refuge. She has also a safe asylum in the hollow places of the wall. Now if we take this wall to mean, not a structure of material stones, but rather the communion of saints, let us consider lest perchance by the hollow places of the wall are designated the places in that blessed society which the angels who fell through their pride left empty, so to speak, and which, like the fissures of a ruin, have now to be built up and repaired with the living stones of human spirits. It is in this sense the Apostle Peter exhorts us, saying, “Unto Whom coming, as to a Living Stone, be you also built up, a spiritual house.” Nor do I think we should be far wrong if we conceived the guardianship of the angels to be the enclosing wall, as it were, of the Lord’s vineyard, which is the Church of the predestinate. For St. Paul says, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” And the Psalmist witnesses to the same in the words, “The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him.” Assuming this to be so, our text may be explained as follows. There are two things which console the Church in the time and the place of her banishment, namely, the recollection of Christ’s sufferings in the past, and, as regards the future, the thought and the confidence that she shall be received one day into the society of the holy angels. With her memory and her hope, as with two eyes, one behind and one before, she lovingly and insatiably contemplates both these objects, namely, the Lord’s Passion and her own future bliss. Each of the two visions is a source of consolation to her, because in each she finds a refuge from what the Psalmist calls “the trouble of evils and sorrow.” It is her perfect consolation that she knows not merely what she ought to hope for, but the ground and reason of her hope as well. Joyous and assured must be the hope which has been confirmed by the death of Christ. Why should the magnitude of the reward make her diffident, when she calls to mind the worth of the ransom? How gladly does she visit in spirit those “clefts of the Rock,” those Wounds of the Saviour through which flowed the thrice-holy Blood of her redemption! How gladly does she explore the “hollow places,” the inns and the mansions, many and various, which are in the Father’s house, and in which He is pleased to place His children according to the variety of their merits! At present, indeed, nothing better being as yet in her power, she reposes there only in thought, and mentally visits the heavenly habitations above. But the day will come when she shall “fill up the ruins”; when she shall dwell in the hollow places of the wall in body as well as in mind; when with the multitude of her children she shall occupy and adorn the tabernacles left untenanted by the fall of their original possessors. Then hollow places shall no more be seen in the celestial wall, but it shall rejoice everlastingly in the bliss of its consummation and in the restoration of its integrity.

But perhaps you will be better pleased if I say that these hollow places are not so much found by devout and studious minds as effected and formed. Do you ask, by what means? “By thought and desire.” For the spiritual wall, like a structure of soft material, readily yields to the desires of the soul, readily yields to pure contemplation, readily yields to frequent prayer. We read in Holy Scripture that “the prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds.” It is not meant surely that humble prayer can cleave this corporeal atmosphere, diffused around in its wide expanses, as does the flying bird with the oars of its wings. Nor are we to suppose that prayer, like a sharp sword, cuts its way, in a material sense, through the high and solid dome of the visible heaven above us. But there are the heavens of blessed spirits, my brethren, the living, rational heavens, which “show forth the glory of God.” These, on account of the fostering love which they feel for us, gladly incline to our prayers; and whenever with a pure intention we knock at them, their affection yields to the force of our devotion, and through the hollow thus made we obtain admission to their interior. For “to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Therefore it is in the power of each one of us, even during the present time of our mortality, to form for himself such hollows in the heavenly wall, and in whatever part of it he may choose. For whenever we please we can visit the patriarchs, or salute the prophets, or associate ourselves to the august council of the apostles, or mingle with the choirs of the martyrs; nay, we may even pass through and examine, with all pious curiosity, the various orders and mansions of the pure celestial spirits, from the lowest of the angels to the Cherubim and the Seraphim, according as each one’s devotion shall incline him. And if we stand and knock there whither our attraction draws us, the Holy Ghost, guiding us by His grace as He wills, a hollow shall at once appear in the living wall of happy spirits, who will affectionately curve themselves to enfold us, so that we may enjoy a little repose amongst them. Well pleasing to God are the face and the voice of every soul that thus hollows the heavenly wall. Her face is pleasing because of its beauty, her voice on account of its praise. For, as the Psalmist says, “Praise and beauty are before Him.” Hence every soul that is such hears herself addressed in the words, “Shew Me thy face, let thy voice sound in My Ears.” Now the voice of the soul is the holy admiration she feels in contemplating the things of God and also her thanksgiving for the divine benefits. And God takes great pleasure in those hollows of the wall whence proceeds the voice of thanksgiving, the voice of admiration and praise.