Reader, let us pause a moment and say, Is this all-desirable Jesus our beloved, and our friend? If so, we may sing with the sweet evangelical poet, I have so often cited:

All over glorious is my lord;

• Must be beloved, and yet ador'd:
His worth, if all the nations knew,
'Sure the whole earth would love him too.'

Chap. VI. Ver. 1-3.

Virgins. Whither is thy beloved gone,

O most beautiful of women?

Whither is thy beloved turned aside ?
And we will seek him with thee.

Spouse. My belovedis gone down into his garden,
Unto the beds of aromatics;

To feed in his garden, and to gather lilies.
I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine:
He feedeth among the lilies.

This short passage is encumbered with no difficulties in its literal sense, and may be dismissed with a very brief remark or two.-1. The commendations given to Christ by his church have a tendency to excite the enquiries and affections of others.-2. The spouse concludes her beloved was gone down into his garden, because there she knew was his delight; for the Lord delights in the plantations of his grace. But neither of these ideas can be better expressed than in the lines of our favourite paraphrast :

"When strangers stand, and hear me tell
'What beauties in my Saviour dwell,
'Where he is gone they fain would know,

That they may seek and love him too.

My best beloved keeps his throne
On hills of light, in worlds unknown:
But he descends, and shews his face
In the young gardens of his grace.

WATTS:

Bridegroom.

SECTION X.

Chap. VI. Ver. 4-9.

Beautiful art thou, my consort, as Tirzah,

Comely as Jerusalem, formidable as bannered

[towers.]

Turn away thine eyes from me,

For they have overcome me.

Thy hair is like a flock of goats

Which [come up] sleek from Gilead;
Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep
Which ascend from the washing;
All of them bearing twins,
And none of them miscarrying.
Like the flower of the pomegranate,
Are thy cheeks behind thy veil.

Threescore queens are they, and fourscore con-
cubines,

And virgins without number.

An only one is my dove, my accomplished one;
The only one of her mother,

The darling of her that bare her.

The daughters saw her, and they blessed her;
The queens and concubines, and they praised her :
Who is this that looketh forth as the dawn,
Beautiful as the moon, splendid as the sun,
And awful as the streamers?'

THIS passage opens a new scene, and the time is probably the evening. The spouse

seeking her beloved finds him in the gardens, or pleasure grounds, belonging to the palace, and there again receives his commendations.

Tirzah was a royal city, the residence of one of the antient princes of Canaan', and afterwards of Jeroboam and his successors. From its name, which signifies well-pleasing, it appears to have been famous for the beauty of its situation, or its buildings, and perhaps for both. Jerusalem, if not more beautiful, was certainly, as the capital of the kingdom, and the joy of the whole earth, more noble, august, and grand. From the laws of climax we should expect the third image to rise proportionably upon the two former; but its exact import is not easily ascertained. The original term2 seems applicable to any object bannered; and the antient eastern banners, I suppose, were streamers with pots of fire, in the nature of beacons, on their tops. In the present instance analogy leads us to apply this image to those lofty towers

1 Josh. xii. 24. 1 Kings xiv. 17. xv.

ba, both here and in ver. 10. some MSS. read but as I conceive the two roots and a to be very near of kin, I suppose the difference unimportant. The radical idea of 5 I suppose to be borrowed from the solar flame, with a particular reference to its conic form, whence a cluster, a tower, &c. 2 (with the transposition of one letter) means a standard or streamer; either from its resemblance to a flame, or from a fire kept burning in an iron pot upon its top, especially in the night. [See Harmer's Observations, vol. I. p. 225, &c.] This root has occurred before. See note (1) page 297.

and splendid domes' in the East, which were richly gilt and decorated with streamers, and in some parts contained perpetual beacons on their summits. This will preserve the climax, and the harmony of the images, while it presents an ob. ject, I presume, not unworthy of the sacred poet. The spouse is represented fair and beautiful as Tirzah-comely, handsome, noble as Jerusalem -brilliant, dazzling, terrible, as the most formidable towers, with flaming spires and streaming banners. And this leads to the true meaning of the next sentence, Turn away thine eyes, for they have overcome me';' that is, I am surprised charmed, and conquered by the beauty of thy person, the elegance of thy dress, and splendour of thine ornaments: just as a stranger might be overcome with astonishment, on beholding the beauty and splendour of these cities, and their ornaments. The same idea occurs, though dif ferently expressed, in chap. iv. 9. Thou hast

1 A fair paraphrast gives, I observe, an interpretation somewhat similar:

• Should Tirza with its lofty turrets rise,

'Or Salem's golden spires the landscape paint,
A finer prospect in her face I view.'

MRS. ROWE.

2 Few passages have been renderd more variously than this. The sense I have chosen appears to me most agreeable to the context, sufficiently literal, and, beside coinciding with the common translation, has good authorities. LXX. αποστρεψον οφθαλμός σου απεναντιον μου. Montanus : Averte oculos tuos e regione mea: Withdraw thine eyes from my station.' . e. from looking steadfastly on me,

ravished my heart my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart.'

The following lines (verses 6 and 7), are, with the difference of one word, the same as occur in the 4th chapter (ver. 1-3), which has induced some critics rashly to pronounce them an interpolation'. The ancients, however, and even the modern poets of the East, are not so scrupulous of repetition; and the same rule of criticism would rob us of many other passages in this song -in the Proverbs-and in the Psalms. It is surely not unnatural for a lover to dwell upon the praises of his beloved, or to repeat his commendations.

In the next paragraph, the only question is, What queen and concubines are here referred to? I confess I am unwilling to believe that Solomon had, at this period of his life, formed a numerous seraglio, though afterwards we know it was his sin and folly so to do; on the contrary it seems intimated that at this time she was his only one : nor do I think his queens and concubines would have been disposed so to admire and extol a rival. But if we refer this passage to the court and family of Pharaoh, and the compliments his daughter received on setting out for Judea, I think the passage becomes more natural, spirited, and beautiful; and we wholly avoid the difficulty of supposing the author of a sacred allegory so far sunk

1 These words are in the Septuagint and Targum, though the former, it must be confessed, is not correct, as it omits one clause and adds another.