Sermons on the Song of Songs

After using this similitude, the Bridegroom addresses the Spouse as His “love.” He indeed was her Lover, even before her deliverance from the bondage of sin; for had He not loved her He certainly would not have set her free. But it was in consequence of the benefit of emancipation that she became His love, that is to say, filled with His love. Listen to herself bearing testimony to this truth, “not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us.” I now ask you, my brethren, to recall to mind the marriage of Moses to the daughter of the Madianite Raguel, and to recognise in that a foreshadowing of the spiritual union of Christ and the penitent soul. I also ask you to say, if you can, what it is you find most pleasant and consoling in your meditations on that sweetest of mysteries, whether the gracious condescension of the Word, or the inconceivable exaltation of the soul, or finally, the amazing confidence of the sinner. Moses was unable to render fair Sephoia’s swarthy complexion. But what he could not do for the Madianitess, Christ can and does accomplish for the soul He espouses. Hence we read in the following verse, “Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle dove’s.” But I reserve this for another sermon, so that we may always partake with eager appetites of the good things set before us on the Bridegroom’s table, and then pour out our souls unto the praise and glory of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.