Sermons on the Song of Songs

“Thy name is as oil poured out.”

Do you think, my brethren, that we have now, in our efforts to fathom the admirable mysteries concealed in our text, “Thy name is as oil poured out,” penetrated far enough into the sanctuary of God? Or do you wish that we continue our scrutiny, if aught still remains unexamined, and venture to follow the Spirit even into the Holy of Holies? For this Spirit “searcheth” not alone “the hearts and reins” of men, but also “the deep things of God.” Securely may we follow Him, “whithersoever He goeth,” in things divine or in things human. Only let us pray Him to guard our hearts and our minds, lest haply we should think Him to be with us when He is away, and mistaking our own spirit for Him, so wander from our course. He comes and goes as He wills, and none can easily know “whence He cometh or whither He goeth.” Such ignorance does not, perhaps, involve any risk to our salvation. But inability to recognise His coming and His going would manifestly be attended with the gravest peril. For when we do not observe most carefully these vicissitudes of grace, these advents and withdrawals of the Holy Ghost, designed in His providence for our good, the result is that He is neither desired when absent, nor glorified when present. He retires from the soul in order to excite us to seek Him the more eagerly. But how can this be, if we are unaware of His departure? Again, He graciously returns to console us. But how is it possible to Welcome Him with the honour due to His Majesty, unless His arrival attracts our attention? He, therefore, that is insensible to His going, lies open to the seduction of the enemy. He that observes not His coming can feel no gratitude for the gracious visitation.

Eliseus of old asked a favour of his master, the Prophet Elias, when he perceived that his (Elias’s) departure was at hand. But, as you know, he did not obtain his request except on condition that he should see the man of God when the latter was being taken up from him to heaven. This happened to them in figure, and has been recorded for our instruction. The example of Eliseus teaches and admonishes us to watch with solicitude over the work of our salvation, which the Holy Spirit operates within us unceasingly, with the marvellous skill and sweetness of His own divine art. My brethren, let us so attend to this gracious Spirit, Who is our Heavenly Mentor and “teacheth (us) all things necessary, that He can never be taken away from us, without our knowledge, if we do not wish to be deprived of His double gift. Let Him never, therefore, at His coming, find us unprepared, but always on the watch, with faces uplifted and hands stretched forth to receive a rich benediction from the Lord. What kind of souls does He condescend to visit? Such, we are told, as are “like to men who wait for their Lord, when He shall return from the wedding.” And surely this Lord never returns empty-handed from that heavenly table which is laden with such an abundance of good things. We must watch, then, we must be on the alert at all times, because we know not at what hour the Spirit will come, nor at what hour He will again take His departure. He goes and He returns; and the soul that kept her feet whilst supported by Him, must of necessity fall, when He withdraws His Hand. But, though falling, she “shall not be bruised, for the Lord putteth His Hand under “her again. Such alternations of fervour and abandonment never cease in those who are spiritual, or rather the Holy Ghost never ceases from “visiting early in the morning, and suddenly proving” those whom He designs to advance in spirituality. “The just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again.” Yet so, if he falls in the day, that is to say, if he sees himself falling and knows that he has fallen, and thus, desiring to rise, may seek the Hand of his Supporter, and say, “O Lord, in Thy favour, Thou gavest strength to my beauty; Thou turnedst away Thy Face from me and I became troubled.”

It is one thing, my brethren, to doubt the truth indeliberately, which is inevitable with us when the Spirit ceases to illuminate our souls by His inspirations; but it is quite another thing to embrace voluntarily what is false. This latter misfortune we may avoid by not remaining in ignorance of our own ignorance, so that we also may say, “And if I have been ignorant of anything, my ignorance is with me,” viz., “is known to me.” These, my brethren, are the words of holy Job. Do you not recognise them? Error and doubt are the two evil daughters of an evil mother, ignorance. Error is of the two the more wretched, doubt the more deserving of compassion. The former state is the more pernicious, the latter the more painful. But at the word of the Spirit both disappear, and there succeeds to them not simply truth, but the certain assurance of truth. For the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth, to which error is contrary. He is also the Spirit of wisdom, being the “Brightness of eternal life,” “reaching everywhere by reason of His purity and admitting nothing of the obscurity that belongs to error and ignorance. When He ceases to speak to us, we must be on our guard, if not against distressing doubt, which we cannot avoid, at all events against detestable error. In a state of uncertainty, there is a very wide difference between holding as probable this or that opinion, and rashly asserting what one has no real knowledge of. Therefore, either let the Holy Spirit never cease to commune with us, which, of course, depends entirely on His own good pleasure; or if He is pleased sometimes to remain silent, let Him at least give us warning of this, and so speak to us still by His silence. Otherwise, mistakenly supposing that He continues to lead us, we shall, with fatal security, follow, instead of Him, our own deluding spirit. If, then, it is His good pleasure to leave us sometimes in the perplexity of doubt, let Him not, at any rate, ever abandon us to the deception of error. There are some, my brethren, who say what is false, but sincerely and in good faith, and these, consequently, are not guilty of falsehood. And some there are who affirm the truth which they know not, and these are really liars. The former do not assert that to be a fact which is not, but simply that they believe what they really do believe, and so they speak the truth; although what they believe is not objectively true. Whereas, the latter, by pretending to be certain when they are not certain, speak falsely even when that which they say happens to be true.

Having premised this much for the instruction of such as are inexperienced in these matters, I will now follow the Spirit, Who, as I trust, precedes to guide me. Yet I will myself, as far as I can, observe the same precautions which I have recommended to you. I will endeavour to practise what I preach. Otherwise to me also it may be said, “Thou that teachest others, teachest not thyself.” Doubtless, it is necessary to distinguish between what is evident and what is uncertain, so that the former may not be called in question, nor the latter boldly maintained. But even for this, we must depend upon the assistance of the Holy Ghost, for our own efforts are insufficient. What man knows, for instance, whether the judgment passed by God upon the case of the Jew and the Gentile, as set forth in an earlier discourse (the third, I think, before this) was not preceded by similar judgment, pronounced even in heaven?