Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.
Parallel Translations
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Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.
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Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
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Until the day breathe, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a gazelle or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Song of Solomon 2:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Song of Solomon 4:6 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.
- Song of Solomon 2:8-9 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice.
- Song of Solomon 8:14 Come away, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!
- Luke 1:78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the dawn from on high will visit us,
- Romans 13:12 The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light.
- Hebrews 8:5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.”
- Hebrews 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.
- 2 Peter 1:19 We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts:
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Church desireth Christ to be most ready to…
The Church desireth Christ to be most ready to help her in all dangers.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Son 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows…
Son 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
Ver. 17. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.] Until that day dawn, {a} that last and glorious day, when Christ the Sun of righteousness shall appear, and chase away the shadows of sin and misery wherewith I am here benighted.
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Turn about, my beloved.] And though thou leave me for a time, as "thou art a God that hidest thyself," {Isa 45:15} yet never forsake me, but let thine heart be ever upon me, and thine hand ready to help at a dead lift.
Yea, be thou like a roe or a young hart.] Come sweetly and seasonably to my relief and succour. To set thee a time were to set the sun by my dial. But when thine own time is come, then "come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," be as nimble as a roe or young hart upon the mountains of Bether, called elsewhere "Bithron," beyond Jordan, {2Sa 2:29} which mountains were much hunted by hunters. Mountains of division, some render it, and one {b} descants thus: The spouse of Christ in that heavenly marriage song calleth him a young hart on the mountains of division. Tell me, then, whither will you go for truth, if you will allow no truth but where there is no division?
{a} Umbra terrae noctem facit. The shadow of earth makes the night. - Isidor. Etym., lib. v. cap. 13.
{b} Dr Hall Epist., v. dec. 3.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Until the day break, and the shadows flee away;…
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away; until the morning of that great and blessed day of the general resurrection and judgment, when all the shadows, not only of ignorance, and sin, and calamity, but even of all ordinances and outward administrations, shall cease, and make way for the immediate enjoyment of my Beloved. And this clause may be joined either,
1. With the foregoing words; and so the sense is, Christ doth and will abide with his church as long as this life and world lasts; which agrees with Christ’s promises of being with his church to the end of the world, Mat 28:20. But neither that nor this place imply that Christ will then forsake his people, but only secures God’s people against that which was the chief, if not only, matter of their fear, to wit, lest Christ should leave them, and cast them off in this life, which, if he did not, they were assured that hereafter they should be
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ever with the Lord, 1Th 4:17. For it is well known, and hath been oft observed already, that the word until doth not always exclude the time to come. Or,
2. With the following words,
Turn thou, my Beloved, until the day break, & c.
Turn; return to me. For although Christ had come to her, and she had gladly received and embraced him, yet he was gone again, as is here implied, and evidently appears from the next following verse; which sudden change is very agreeable both to the nature and method of such dramatical writings and amatorious transactions, and to the state of God’s people in this world, where they are subject to frequent changes and vicissitudes of Christ’s withdrawing from them, and returning to them again.
Like a roe or a young hart, in swiftness; make haste to help me, for I am ready to faint.
Bether; a place in the Land of Promise, possibly the same called Bithron, 2Sa 2:29, where it seems those creatures were in great abundance, or where they were commonly hunted, and so being pursued, they made all possible haste to escape.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Until - Until the morning of that blessed day…
Until - Until the morning of that blessed day of the general resurrection, when all the shadows, not only of ignorance, and sin, and calamity, but even of outward administrations, shall cease. Turn - Return to me. For although Christ had come to her, and she had gladly received him, yet he was gone again, as is here implied, and evidently appears from the following verse. Which sudden change is very agreeable to the state of God's people in this world, where they are subject to frequent changes. A roe - In swiftness; make haste to help me. Of Bether - A place in the land of promise, where it seems those creatures were in great abundance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 17. Until the day break] Literally, until the…
Verse 17. Until the day break] Literally, until the day breathe; until the first dawn, which is usually accompanied with the most refreshing breezes.
The shadows flee away] Referring to the evening or setting of the sun, at which all shadows vanish.
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The mountains of Bether.] Translated also mountains of division, supposed to mean the mountains of Beth-horon.
There was a place called Bithron, 2Sa 2:29, on the other side of Jordan; and as the name signifies PARTITION, it might have had its name from the circumstance of its being divided or separated from Judea by the river Jordan.
With this chapter the second night is supposed to end.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Son 2:17. Until the day-break — Until the morning…
Son 2:17. Until the day-break — Until the morning of that blessed day of the general resurrection, when all the shadows, not only of ignorance, and sin, and calamity, but even of all ordinances, and outward administrations, shall cease. Turn, my beloved — Return to me. For although Christ had come to her, and she had gladly received him, yet he was gone again, as is here implied, and evidently appears from the following verse. Which sudden change is very agreeable to the state of God’s people in this world, where they are subject to frequent changes; be thou like a roe — In swiftness; make haste to help me; upon the mountains of Bether — A place in the land of promise, where it seems those creatures were in great abundance.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Break. Or "yield a refreshing air," (aspiret) in the…
Break. Or "yield a refreshing air," (aspiret) in the morning, (Haydock) and evening, when she begs he will return, (Theodoret) as she could not enjoy his company in the day-time, chap. i. 1., and iv. 6. --- Bether. Or the lower Bethoron, near Jerusalem. These short visits in the night, shew the vicissitudes of comfort and dryness in the most perfect. Those who are still addicted to their passions, and to the world, can have no pretensions to such favours, which amply repay any passing desolation. (St. Bernard, ser. lxxiv.) (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 17. Until the day, etc. — Hebrew, Until the…
17. Until the day, etc. — Hebrew, Until the day breathe cool and the shadows stretch themselves. The first clause might apply to evening or morning, either being the time of cool breezes, but the second clause fixes the sense to be “at evening.”
Be thou like a… hart — That is, “Return quickly.”
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Upon the mountains of Bether — Hebrews Over the mountains of separation. “The separating hills.” The speed of the Beloved has already been compared to that of a deer on its mountains.
At evening the Beloved did not return.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17. Alarmed for his safety, she now exhorts her…
17. Alarmed for his safety, she now exhorts her lover to depart till the evening when he might return with greater safety.
Until the day break] R.V. Until the day be cool, lit. until the day blow, i.e. until the evening wind rises; cp. Gen_3:8, where ‘at the wind of the day’ is properly rendered by the A.V. “in the cool of the day,” i.e. when the sun has lost its power. ‘When the shadows flee away,’ therefore, does not denote dispersion of the shades of night by the rising sun, but the disappearance of the shadows of rocks, trees, &c., when the sun sets.
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be thou like, &c.] make thyself like a gazelle or a young hart on the cleft-riven mountains, i.e. flee swiftly away. The Heb. for the last clause is al hârç bether. There are three possible ways of explaining the word bether. (1) It may be a proper name, as the A.V. takes it to be, following some of the Greek versions (cp. Hastings’ Bible Dict.). (2) It may mean a division or cleft. The analogy of the word bithrôn, 2Sa_2:29, which appears to denote a mountain ravine, as the words there are, “they went through all the bithron” or ravine, would support this. It may be that ‘the ravine’ had become a proper name, just as ‘the valley’ has become in some places; but it probably was originally a mere descriptive name. This is the view of the LXX, and if that analogy holds hârç bether would mean cleft-riven mountains, as we have translated it. In the only other passages where bether occurs, Gen_15:10, Jer_34:18-19, it means the part of an animal cut in two at the making of a covenant. Reasoning from this, Ewald and others prefer to render mountains of separation, i.e. mountains that separate; but if the view of the situation which we have taken be correct, the Shulammite is not separated from her lover by mountains, for he is at her window. (3) Some authorities take bether to be a contraction of μαλάβαθρον, Lat. malabathron, and hold it to be some aromatic plant. But there is a difficulty in finding out what malabathron was. If, as some maintain, it is the equivalent of the Sanscrit tamalapatra and means the betel plant, then our phrase would mean ‘hills planted with betel.’ But the betel palm which bears the betel nut grows only in S. India, Ceylon, Siam, the Malay Archipelago, and the Philippine Islands, and nothing is known of either it or the betel vine (the plant in the leaves of which the betel nut is eaten) having been grown in Palestine. Moreover, the betel nut and leaf are not used for their perfume, as most who take bether as betel seem to suppose. They are not aromatic to any great extent, and they are cultivated and collected only for use as a masticatory (Enc. Brit. III. 616). There would appear, however, to have been another malabathron (cp. Field’s Hexapla, II. 416, quotations, and Horace, Carm. II. 8 with Macleane’s note), from which unguents were made. This was specially associated by the Romans with Syria, but it may have been so only because it was from traders of that country they obtained it. But if the plant grew in Syria, then mountains of bether would be parallel to mountains of spices (ch. Son_8:4). Some would actually read here hârç besâmîm. Cheyne on the other hand would read hârç bìrôthîm, i.e. ‘mountains of cypresses.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (17) Until the day break.—Heb., breathe, i.e., becomes cool,…
(17) Until the day break.—Heb., breathe, i.e., becomes cool, as it does when the evening breeze sets in. The time indicated is therefore evening, “the breathing blushing hour” (Campbell). (Comp. Gen_3:8, “The cool of the day”—margin, wind. This interpretation is also fixed by the mention of the flying, i.e., lengthening shadows. Comp. Virg. Ecl. i. 84: “Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbræ;” and Tennyson, The Brook—
“We turned our foreheads from the falling sun,
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And followed our own shadows, thrice as long
As when they followed us.”)
Bether.—Marg., of division; LXX., of ravines or hollows, either as separating the lovers or as intersected by valleys. Gesenius compares Bethron (2Sa_2:29).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee…
Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. This is generally supposed to be the voice of the maiden addressing her suitor, and bidding him return in the evening, when the day cools, and when the lengthening shadows fall into night. Some have seen in such words a clear indication of a clandestine interview, and would find in them a confirmation of their hypothesis that the poem is founded on a romantic story of Solomon"s attempt to draw a shepherdess from her shepherd. But there is no necessity to disturb the flow of the bride"s loving recollections by such a fancy. She is recalling the visit of her lover. How, at first, she declined his invitation to go forth with him to the vineyards, but with professions of love appealed to him to return to the mountains, and in the evening come once more and rejoice in her love. But the words may be rendered, "during the whole day, and until the evening comes, turn thyself to me," which is the view taken by some critics. The language may be general; that is, "Turn, and I will follow." "The mountains of Bether" are the rugged mountains; Bether, from a root "to divide," "to cut," i.e. divided by ravines; or the word may be the abstract for the concrete mountains of separation" i.e. the mountains which separate. LXX, orh twn koilwmatwn , "decussated mountains." The Syriac and Theodotion take the word as for beshamim, i.e. offerings of incense (yumiamatwn ). There is no such geographical name known, though there is Bithron, east of Jordan, near Mahauaim. (2Sa_2:29) The Chaldee, Ibn-Ezra, Rashi, and many others render it "separation" (cf. Luther"s scheideberge). Bochart says, "Montes scissionis ita dicti propter rwcmouv et casmata ." The meaning has been thus set forth: "The request of Shulamith that he should return to the mountains breathes self-denying humility, patient modesty, inward joy in the joy of her beloved. She will not claim him for herself till he have accomplished his work. But when he associates with her in the evening, as with the Emmaus disciples, she will rejoice if he becomes her guide through the newborn world of spring. Perhaps we may say the Parousia of the Lord is here referred to in the evening of the world" (cf. Luke 24). On the whole, it seems most in harmony with the context to take the words as preparing us for what follows the account of the maiden"s distress when she woke up and found not her beloved. We must not expect to be able to explain the language as though it were a clear historical composition, relating facts and incidents. The real line of thought is the underlying connection of spiritual meaning. There is a separation of the lovers. The soul wakes up to feel that its object of delight is gone. Then it complains.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.
Son_2:17
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.
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Darkness before the dawn
The spouse sings, Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, so that the beloved of the Lord may be in the dark. A child of God, who is a child of light, may be for a while in darkness; first, darkness comparatively, as compared with the light he has sometimes enjoyed, for days are not always equally bright. Yes, and he may be in positive darkness. It may be very black with him, and he may be obliged to cry, I see no signs of returning day, Sometimes, neither sun nor moon appears for a long season to cheer the believer in the dark. This may arise partly through sickness of body. But yet it can be only temporary darkness. The same text which suggests night promises dawn: Until the day break, etc.
I. First of all, let us consider our prospect. Our prospect is, that the day will break, and that the shadows will flee away. We may read this passage ill many ways, and apply it to different cases. Think, first, of the child of God wire is full of doubt. He is afraid that, after all, his supposed conversion was not a true one, and that he has proved it to be false by his own misbehaviour. He is afraid, I scarcely know of what, for so many fears crowd in upon him. His eyes are looking toward the cross, and somehow he has a hope, if not quite a persuasion, that he will find light in Christ, where so many others have found it. I would encourage that hone till it becomes a firm conviction and a full expectation. The day will break for you, dear mourner, the shadows will yet flee away. This expression is equally applicable when we come into some personal sorrow not exactly of a spiritual kind. I know that Gods children are not long without tribulation. As long as the wheat is on the threshing-floor, it must expect to feel the flail. Perhaps you have had a bereavement, or you may have had losses in business, or crosses in your family, or you have been sorely afflicted in your own body, and now you are crying to God for deliverance out of your temporal trouble. That deliverance will surely come. Yes, in the darkest of all human sorrows there is the glad prospect that the day will break, and the shadows will flee away. This is the case again, I believe on a grander scale, with reference to the depression of religion at the present time. We want--I cannot say how much we want--a revival of pure and undefiled religion in this our day. Will it come? Why should it not come? If we long for it, if we pray for it, if we believe for it, if we work for it, and prepare for it, it will certainly come. The day will break, and the shadows will flee away. I believe that this is to be the case also in this whole world. It is still the time of darkness, it is still the hour of shadows. I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, and I cannot foretell what is yet to happen in the earth; it may be that the darkness will deepen still more, and that the shadows will multiply and increase; but the Lord will come. That glorious advent shall end our weary waiting days, it shall end our conflicts with infidelity and priestcraft, it shall put an end to all our futile endeavours; and when the great Shepherd shall appear in His glory, then shall every faithful under-shepherd and all his flock appear with him, and then shall the day break, and the shadows flee away.
II. Now consider our posture, until the day break, and the shadows flee away. We are here, like soldiers on guard, waiting for the dawn. It is night, and the night is deepening; how shall we occupy ourselves until the day break, and the shadows flee away? Well, first, we will wait in the darkness with patient endurance as long as God appoints it. Whatever of shadow is yet to come, whatever of cold damp air and dews of the night is yet to fall upon us, we will bear it. What next are we to do until the day break? Why, let there be hopeful watching. Keep your eyes towards the East, and look for the first grey sign of the coming morning. Then, further, while we maintain patient endurance and hopeful watching, let us give each other mutual encouragement. What further should we do in the dark? Well, one of the best things to do in the dark is to stand still and keep our place. We are not going to plunge on in a reckless manner, we mean to look before we leap; and as it is too dark to look, we will not leap, but will just abide here hard by the cross, battling with every adversary of the truth as long as we have a right hand to move in the name of the Almighty God, until the day break, and the shadows flee away. What else ought we to do. Keep up a careful separateness from the works of darkness that are going on all around us. If it seems dark to you, gather up your skirts, and gird up your loins. The more sin abounds in the world, the more ought the Church of God to seek after the strictest holiness.
III. Now notice our petition: Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, etc. I am not going to preach about that part of our text, but only just to urge you to turn it into prayer. Turn to me, O my Beloved, for Thou hast turned away from me, or from Thy Church, Turn again, I beseech Thee, Pardon my lukewarmness, forgive my indifference. Turn to me again, my Beloved. O Thou Husband of my soul, if I have grieved Thee, and Thou hast hidden Thy face from me, turn again unto me! Smile Thou, for then shall the day break, and the shadows flee away. Come to me, my Lord, visit me once again. Put up that prayer, beloved. The prayer of the spouse is in this poetic form: Come over the mountains of division. As we look out into the darkness, what little light there is appears to reveal to us Alp upon Alp, mountain upon mountain, and our Beloved seems divided from us by all these hills. Now our prayer is, that He would come over the top of them; we cannot go over the top of them to Him, but He can come over the top of them to us, if He think fit to do so. Like the hinds feet, this blessed Hind of the morning can come skipping over the hills with utmost speed to visit and to deliver us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Things to be awaited
We can speak confidently of such things only as we now know in part, beginnings that here have no completion, germs that come to leaf and bud, but not to fruit, in the soil of this world; processes that have promise of great results but are cut short of them, desires and aspirations that now have no full satisfaction.
I. We wait for rest. If the question were raised: Is man made for toil or for rest? the answer would be a mixed and qualified one. He is appointed to toil, he is destined to rest; one is his condition, the other is his end. If man is made in Gods image, he is made to share in Gods condition; and both Christian revelation and heathen conjecture unite in conceiving of Deity as in repose, eternally acting yet in eternal rest. If it be said that man can never attain this repose because he can never reach the eternal perfection and power, it may be answered that it does not depend upon the proportions of the being, but upon the harmony of his powers and upon his adjustment to his external condition. One whose nature has been reduced to perfect harmony may have perfect peace within, and also without, if also he is in a world entirely adapted to him. But we have not this rest at present except in some foretaste of it in our spirit. Unceasing toil is the largest feature of human life. It is divinely appointed, but it is painful; it is a blessing, but also a suffering; an evil thing, but with a soul of goodness in it. It is wise, for, if remitted, vice creeps in, but it is no less a bond that chafes, a burden that weighs down, a trial that wearies the spirit. Some morning, this shadow will flee away. In the church of St. Nazaro in Florence is an epitaph upon the tomb of a soldier, as fit for the whole toiling race as for his own restless life: Johannes Divultius, who never rested, rests,--hush! We say of our dead, they rest from their labours. Whatever the future world may be to us or require of us, it is not clothed in the guise of toil, but offers seats of eternal rest; it is the contrast of earth, the other side of mortal existence as spirit is the other side of matter.
II. We wait for the renewal of lost powers. However we answer the question, if life is a process of loss or gain, it cannot be denied that real or apparent loss is one of its largest features, even when life is at its best. Is this loss absolute, or do we regain that which seems to pass? Shall I never,--so we are forced to ask ourselves,--shall I never have again the buoyancy of youth, the zest, the innocence, the unquestioning faith, the ardent desire and unconquerable will, the bounding vigour of body and mind, with which I began life? We do not get halt: way through our allotted years before these riches are gone from us. If they are gone for ever, one half of life, at least, is spent under an ever-deepening shadow. It is difficult to believe that existence is so ordered; that Gods increated gifts are annihilated; that the impress of His hands, the similitudes of Himself, are blotted out for ever. St. Paul speaks of the redemption of the body as something that is waited for. He means no narrow doctrine of a physical resurrection, but a renewal of existence,--a restoration of lost powers. It changes the whole colour of life, and its character also, if we take the one view or the other,--if we regard existence as a dying-out process, or as passing into temporary eclipse, to emerge with all its past glories when the shadows of death flee away.
III. We wait for the full perfecting of character. I do not mean, of course, that we are to wait in the sense of relaxing effort after perfection--such waiting may end in an eternal failure of character, but rather that the effort that now only partially succeeds will finally reach success. There is nothing that weighs more heavily upon a right-minded man than the slow progress he makes in overcoming his faults. There is nothing a right-minded man desires so much as entire right-mindedness. Will it never come? Yes--but it must be awaited. Entireness is nowhere a feature of present existence, else it could not be a world of hope and promise. On no thing can we lay our hand and say, Here is finality and perfection. The adamant is crumbling to dust; the orderly heavens oscillate towards final dissolution, and foretell new heavens; in every soul is weakness and fault. We are keyed not to attainment, but to the hope of it by struggle towards it. And it is this struggle, and not the attainment, that measures character and foreshadows destiny. Character is not determined by faults and weaknesses, and periodic phases of life, nor by the limitations and accidents of present existence, but by the central purpose, the inmost desire of the heart. If that be turned towards God and His righteousness, it must at last bring us thither.
IV. We await the renewal of sundered love. When love loses its object its charm is interrupted, for love is oneness and cannot brook separation. It is impossible to believe that God has organized into life an incurable sorrow; that He has made love, which is the best conceivable thing--being the substance of Himself,--the necessary condition of the greatest misery. Love may suffer an eclipse, but it is not sent wailing into eternal shadows. It is as sure as God Himself that human love shall again claim its own. But this eternal union must be awaited. It begins here, springing out of mysterious oneness; it grows up amidst unspeakable tenderness, rising from an instinctive thing to an intellectual and moral union, losing nothing, and weaving into itself every strand of human sympathy till it stands for the whole substance of life, and so vanishes from the scene. If this prime reality is an illusion, then all else is. If it does not outlast death, then all may go. But love is not a vain thing, and God does not mock Himself and us when tie makes us partakers of His nature.
V. We wait for the mystery to be taken off from life. The crucial test of a thoughtful mind is a sense of the mystery of life in this world. This highest order of mind is not antagonistic to faith; it is simply conscious of the incomprehensible range of truth. None but an inferior mind has a plan of the universe; it is to the thoughtless that all things are plain. What is life? What is matter! What is the relation between them? What is creation? Granting evolution, what started the evolving process? Assuming God, what is the relation of creation to Him? What the relation of man? What is this that thinks and wills and loves--this I? And then, what is it all for? Is there a final purpose and an order tending to it, or is it but the whirl of molecules, the dust of the universe circling for a moment in space, of which we are but some atoms? Is there a bridge between consciousness and the external world, or a gulf that cannot be spanned or fathomed? Is life a reality, or is it a dream from which we may awake in some world of reality to find that this world was but the vision of a night? It is useless to deny that this mystery carries with it a sense of pain. It is alien to mind, a condition foreign to our nature. And the more thoroughly mind is true to itself, the more painfully does it feel the darkness. When Goethe, dying, said, Let the light enter, he uttered, not the highest and best hope of the heart, but the dearest satisfaction of the intellect. He felt that lie was going where the shadows that hang over this world would flee away, and he could find some answer to the questions that had vexed him here. So, too, those commoner questions, Why does evil exist? Why do the innocent suffer? Why does one suffer on account of another? Why does life end untimely? Why is man so subject to nature? Why is the experience of life so long in ripening the fruit of wisdom? Why are the chances so against man that he spends his days in sorrow and evil? Why is there not more help from God? Why does life gradually assume the appearance of a doom, spent in vanity and ending in death? We get no full answer to these questions in this life. Shall these questions never be answered? It is not easy to believe that mind will for ever be harassed by an alien element; it may always require something other than itself to stand upon, or as a toil like that which the jewel-merchant puts under precious stones to reflect their colour, but it will not for ever wear this other as a clog and burden. The mystery of the present life is due to the fact that it is so heavily conditioned by its material environment; matter contends against spirit. But as existence goes on, if it is normal, it throws off these conditions and presses towards absolute action and full freedom. This is the eternal state, and this action is eternal life, and the world where it is achieved is the eternal world.
VI. We wait for full restoration to the presence of god. There are hours when the whole world, and all it contains, shrivels to nothingness, and God alone fills the mind; hours of human desolation, seasons of strange, mysterious exaltation, times of earthly despair, or of joy; the height and excess of any emotion bears us away into a region where God Himself dwells. But even if we have taught ourselves to make the impression of these hours constant, there is still an unsatisfied element in the knowledge. We long for more, for nearness, for sight or something that stands for sight, for the Father at hand, and the home of the soul. I know that in many and many of Gods children there is a longing for God that is not satisfied, because they are children and are away from the Fathers house. And I know still better that the unrest of this weary world is its unvoiced cry after God. This full, satisfying presence of God, must be awaited. It is contended against by sense, by the world of things, by the limits that shut out the infinite, and by our own slow and hesitating departure from the evil and the sensual--a muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close us in; hut when this falls off, and these earthly shadows flee away, we shall see face to face, and know as we are known. (T. T. Munger, D. D.)
The saints might and day
I. A soul once truly married to Christ, will from thenceforth look on the lifetime in this world as a night-time, a shadowy one, as indeed it is.
II. To those that are truly married to Christ, the day will break in the other world, and the shadows flee away; and they should live in the comfortable expectation of it. Consider the days breaking, and the shadows fleeing away thereupon. I am to speak of the days breaking in the other world to those that are married to Christ. And here I shall show what a day will break to them there. A clear and bright day (Isa_60:1-2). A fair day and calm. There are no storms nor tempests, no blustering winds nor rains in Immanuels land (Rev_21:4). A glad and joyful day (Psa_126:5). An eternal day. Let us next see how this day will break there to those who are married to Christ. As coming near their night-journeys end, they enter the passage betwixt the two worlds, the darkness and shadowiness of the night will come to a pitch. For as the darkest hour ordinarily goes before daybreak, so is it here, the hour of death is so in a signal manner, the valley of the shadow of death (Psa_23:4). As soon as they are got over to the other side, immediately the day breaks, and it is fair daylight to them. I proceed to consider the shadows, upon this breaking of the day, fleeing away. What is that fleeing away of the shadows? The utter removal of everything interposing betwixt God and them, and intercepting the light of His countenance (Rev_21:3). The removal of all dark, gloomy, and melancholy things out of their condition (Mat_25:23). The removal of all imperfection of light, and whatsoever gives but a faint and shadowy representation of Christ and the glories of the other world (1Co_13:12; Rev_22:4). What are the shadows that will flee away when that day breaks? The shadow of this world will then flee away (1Co_7:31). The shadow of sin (Heb_12:23). The shadow of temptations (Rom_16:20). The shadow of outward troubles will flee away, of troubles on your bodies, relations, names, affairs, etc. (Job_3:17). The shadow of inward spiritual troubles, through desertions, and hidings of the Lords face. The shadow of ordinances will flee away (Rev_21:23). The shadow of all manner of imperfections (1Co_13:12). I shall now confirm this point, That the day will break, and the shadows flee away, as to those who are married to Christ. It was so with their Head and Husband, and the procedure with them must be conformable to that with Him (Heb_12:2). The nature of Gods work of grace in them; it cannot be left unperfected (Psa_138:1-8.). The bounty and goodness of God to His people. God is essentially good, and He is good to them in Christ His Son. It is inconsistent with the goodness of His nature to keep them always in the darkness of the night, and horror of shadows. The nature of the covenant, which is everlasting, and cannot be broken. Consider believers living in the comfortable expectation of the days breaking to them in the other world and the shadows fleeing away. It implies these following things:
(1) Their looking on themselves as travellers only through this world, who are not to stay in it (Heb_11:13).
(2) Their laying their account with the continuance of the night and gloomy shades, while they are here.
(3) A contentedness to leave this world, and go to the other (Luk_2:29).
(4) A faith of the day, the clear and bright day that is in the other world (Heb_9:13).
(5) A desire to be there in the other world, where the day break, s and the shadows flee away (Php_1:23).
(6) A hope and expectation of the day s breaking to them there, and the shadows fleeing away (Rom_8:23-24).
(7) A comforting themselves in this world with the prospect of the other world (2Co_4:17-18).
III. It will be the great concern of those married to Christ during their night-journey in this world, that he may turn and come to them, till the day breaking and the shadows fleeing away, they get to him in the other world.
1. I am to show what is Christs turning and coming to those married to Him, that will be their great concern to have.
(1) His affording them His presence. That will be their great concern to enjoy during their night-journey; that if they must have a dark and shadowy night-journey of it through the world, He would not leave them, but be with them in it (Exo_33:15).
(a) His seen or sensible presence with them, of the want of which Job complains (Job_23:8-9), and in the enjoyment of which the Psalmist triumphs (Psa_23:4).
(b) His operative or efficacious presence in them (Php_3:8; Php_3:10).
(2) His affording them His countenance, the shining of His face, and the manifestation of His favour (Psa_6:6).
2. The import of this concern of those married to Christ, that He may turn and come to them, till the days breaking and the shadows fleeing away, they get to Him in the other world.
(1) That during the night-journey in this world, Christ sometimes turns away and withdraws from His people; so that seeking Him they cannot find Him (Son_3:1).
(2) The travellers to Zion, when Christ is away, though it be night, they readily miss Him (Son_3:3).
(3) A holy dissatisfaction with all things while He is away.
(4) A holy resolution to give Him a welcome reception, if He will turn and come again; then the doors should be cast wide open to receive Him (Son_8:1-2).
(5) Earnest outgoings of the heart after Him in desires for His return (Isa_62:1).
(6) A holy restlessness in the soul, till He turn and come again (Son_3:1).
3. The reasons of this concern in those married to Christ, that He may turn and come to them.
(1) Their superlative love to Christ (Son_1:3-4).
(2) Their comfort in their night-journey depends on it; without it they must go drooping, for nothing will make up the want thereof.
(3) Their experience of the desirableness of His presence and countenance in their night-journey (Psa_63:1-3).
(4) Their felt need of it; they know not how they will ever make out the night-journey without it (Exo_33:15).
(a) The sense of their liableness to mistake their way, that they need Him for their direction and guidance (Jer_10:23).
(b) The sense of their weakness for the journey, that they need to go leaning on Him, as a weak woman on her husband (Son_8:5).
(c) The sense of the great opposition and difficulty to be met with in the way (Eph_6:12-13).
4. We shall now confirm this point, That it will be the great concern of those married to Christ, during their night-journey in this world, that He may turn and come to them till the day breaking and the shadows fleeing away, they get to Him in the other world.
(1) Christ their Lord and Husband has got their heart above all other, and it rests in Him.
(2) They are partakers of the Divine nature (2Pe_1:4), partakers of Christ, of His Spirit, His grace, His image; and like draws to like; the carnal worldling to the world, and the Christian to Christ.
(3) All believers may be observed to be great miscounters of time, when Christ is turned away from them in their night-journey (Isa_54:7).
(4) When they are themselves, they are resolute for His presence and countenance (Eph_6:15.) (T. Boston, D. D.)
In the shadow
To all the light is very dear, and more so perhaps because this life is a twilight season to all of us, we are all in the shadow. It is not all dark, neither is it all light, but it is full of shadows, shadows of sin, shadows of sorrow, shadows of sickness, of want, of disappointment, of death. The brightest life cannot be all sunshine, over rich and poor alike the shadows fall. The brightest eyes must be dim with tears sometimes, the gayest voices must turn to mourning sometimes, the merriest Church bell must toll sometimes.
1. The Church on earth has ever been in the shadow of trouble, its holiest members have had to suffer many things. In the Jewish Church there was the shadow of idolatry and unbelief, the shadow of self-will and bad government, ending in the darker shadow of captivity and exile. In the Christian Church there have been shadows of persecution, of division, of false doctrine, of lukewarmness, of tyranny.
2. So with ourselves, the individual members of the Church, we are all more or less in the shadow.
(1) Some of us perhaps are under the shadow of a great sin, repented of, and so pardoned, but not forgotten.
(2) Some of us perhaps are under the shadow of worldly loss.
(3) It may be the shadow of a great bereavement which has fallen upon us.
(4) Over some of us again the shadow of a great illness may have fallen.
3. We cannot make the darkness light, or scatter the shadows, or hasten the daybreak, Jesus alone can do that. He who once said Let there be light, will say so again in answer to our prayers. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.