and adversity, joy and sorrow; and as it is with Christ's mystical body, so is it also with the individual members of which it is composed. The frames of the believer are various and changeable; often suddenly so: at one time joy, delight, and triumph in the Lord: at another, coldness, dejection, and distress: now the brightness of an unclouded day; anon the darkness of a moonless night.

2. In such seasons of darkness and affliction the absence of the Redeemer is sensibly felt, and his return to be ardently desired. If this night be applied to the Jewish state, under that dispensation the pious believers longed earnestly for the dawn of the gospel day, when the Sun of righteousness was to arise and chase the darkness and the gloom of that shadowy dispensation. If we apply it to the present state, and look forward to the future life, as an everlasting day of intelli gence and joy, we know how indispensable the presence of our divine Shepherd is to carry us comfortably, or even safely, through this valley of the shadow of death.

3. The return of this divine Saviour is the only rational way in which we can look for returning light and joy.

The night may be illuminated by ten thousand torches, but still darkness reigns around: or it may be softened by the pale moon-beams and the twinkling stars, yet is it still night; neither of these can chase the shadows of the night, and bring the dawn,

The beautiful imagery here employed merits farther observation: until the day breathe' ' and the shadows flee.' The dawn of day in countries bordering the sea is constantly accompanied by fresh breezes from the water, which, in the east, particularly, are considered as equally salubrious and delightful; and to these the prophet has been thought to allude when he says, the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing ' under his wings'.' Thus indeed he arose, and at his rising the prophetic Spirit, that heavenly 'wind,' also awoke, and gave health and healing, both literally and spiritually, to the nations among whom he arose.

What was the state of the world when Christ - came? Darkness covered the earth, and gross 'darkness the people :' but when he arose, he came, as it were, on the wings of the morning, and the shadows fled away. His doctrine dispelled the clouds of ignorance, which had been raised by Jewish priests and Gentile philosophers; and his example exhibited a bright and shining light,' which has already illuminated more than half the world.

Until the day break'-(bw) according to the Hebrew text,' says Dr. Gill, until the day breathe.' Until the day blow fresh,' says Bp. Percy; who adds, In those hot countries the dawn of the day is attended with a fine refreshing breeze, much more grateful and desirable than the return of light itself.'

See the Christian's Elegant Repository, p. 33.

SECTION V.

Chap. III. Ver. 2—5.

Spouse. Upon my bed by night I sought him whom my soul

loveth :

I sought him, but I found him not.

I will arise now, and go about the city;
In the streets, and in the broad ways,
'I will seek him whom my soul loveth.'
I sought him, but I found him not.

The watchmen, who go round the city, found me ;
Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth?'

Scarcely had I passed from them,

When I found him whom my soul loveth:

I held him, and would not let him go,

Until I had brought him to my mother's house,
To the apartment of her who bore me.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the antelopes, and by the hinds of the field, That ye disturb not, nor awake this lovely one until he please.

THIS scene evidently opens with the morning and I confess myself well satisfied with the hypothesis of Hufnagel, Dathe, and Doderlein, that this and the similar passage in chap. v. relate the dreams of the spouse; indeed the latter passage is express, for no language can more justly and beautifully describe a dream than that of the spouse, I slept, but my heart wak• ed.' And though the same introduction is not used here, a parity of circumstances, and similitude of style, lead us naturally to the same conclusion.

Solomon says

6 a dream cometh from the mul

*titude of business:' and, without entering into the theory of dreaming, we may observe from our own experience, that the same objects which exercise the mind by day, often agitate it by night. The merchant dreams of business, the sportsman of the chace, and the lover of the beloved object. Thus it is with the spouse here. She had been ardently desirous of the presence of her beloved, and in her dream she anticipates his return Upon my bed by night I sought

' him.'

But there is another reason which might lead Solomon to adopt this figurative mode of speaking. It was in this mode that God usually revealed himself to the prophets, and in particular to the author of this poem.

This method of interpretation silences many objections, and answers many queries, hard, if not impossible, to be answered on any other bypothesis. Such as, How should a princess be suffered to ramble about the city in the night, and be assaulted by the watchmen? &c. A thousand circumstances combine in vision which never can exist together in reality. But let us examine the vision.

By night on my bed I sought him'.' Inter

1 Two circumstances have puzzled the commentators without reason, namely, the absence of the beloved by night; and the spouse leading him to her mother's house. As to the former we have already observed, (p. 154) that after the consummation it was usual for the Hebrew bride and bridegroom to pass the remaining nights of the week separate. This appears also to have been the custom, at

preters generally consider this bed as the image of a state of supineness and of sloth: and suppose that the reason the spouse found not her beloved was, because she sought him in her bed. But is this appropriate and just? Has not a bride a right to expect her husband to be the partner of her bed?

Taking the passage according to our hypothesis, I may be permitted to offer the following re flections.

First. This dream shews how much the mind of the spouse was occupied with the object of her affection. He was the subject of her enquiry both by day and night. This will apply spiritually to the case of believers. DAVID tells us repeatedly how much his mind was occupied with God his Saviour in the night season: and it appears that this was the grand subject of the prophetic vision.-Jacob saw him on the celestial ladder; David beheld him on the right hand of God; and Daniel in the clouds of heaven.

2. There appears a restlessness in the con

least for one night of the week, among the Greeks. In this case it is said the bride lodged at the house of her parents. [See Potter's Antiq. vol. II. p. 294.] As the Greeks borrowed many of their customs from the east, it is probable such a practice might obtain among the Hebrews during the nights of separation. But how could Pharaoh's daughter sleep at her mother's? Suppose only, that her mother had accompanied her from Egypt, (a circumstance probable also from ver. 1. of this chapter) and had a suit of apartments assigned for her in the palace, and it is easy to be accounted for. Though, after all, as I consider this only as a dream, I am not concerned to bring all the circumstances within the verge of probability.