Song of Solomon 8:5

Again, there is a comparison of times three by three, as of the origin, promotion and fall of the Synagogue; and in the Church, the times of its beginning, expansion, and consummation. Hence, in the Canticle, there are three expressions of wonder: "Who is this," …

When these senses have been recovered, while the soul sees and hears, smells, tastes, and embraces its spouse, it can sing as a bride the Song of Songs, which was composed for the exercise of contemplation according to this fourth degree, which no one grasps …

"Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord?" To the summit of this mountain, that is, to the perfection of virtue, whoever undertakes to strive, will know indeed how arduous the ascent is, and how vain the effort without the help of the Word. Happy …

Holy Church, or any holy soul, ascends from the desert, because being placed in the exile of this pilgrimage, she reaches toward heavenly joys with her mind and thoughts. Whence Paul also said: Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). She abounds in delights, because …

Who is this who ascends from the desert, etc.? But the Church of the gentiles ascends from the desert, because she who had been abandoned by her Creator for a very long time, now advancing with steps of faith and good works, has reached His …

Under the apple tree, I awakened you, etc. The apple tree most aptly symbolizes the wood of the holy cross, on which He deigned to hang for the salvation of all; about which the Church said above in praise, "As an apple tree among the …

Faith is a union of the Head with the body. The shining of light as related to faith is called allegory, and it is twofold, one directed to the Head and the other to the body. For there is one directed to the crucified Head, …

The third comparison between the Old and the New Testaments is related to a threefold division, for there is a time when the Synagogue was initiated, another when it was promoted, and yet another when it failed. Likewise, in the New Testament, there is a …

Who - This and the next clause are the words of the bridegroom, who proposes the question, that he may give the answer following. Her beloved - He speaks of himself in the third person, which is usual in the Hebrew language.

(Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness?....

The scene changes from Jerusalem to the birthplace of the bride, where she is seen coming up toward her mother’s house, leaning on the arm of the great king her beloved. Who is this - Compare and contrast with Son 3:6. In the former scene all was splendor and exaltation, but here condescension, humility, and loving charm. I raised thee up ... - Beneath this apple-tree I wakened thee. The king calls the bride’s attention to a fruit-tree, which they pass, the trysting-spot of earliest vows in this her home and birthplace.

The first words of Jesus Christ to the bride since her going to the garden of nuts (So 6:9, 10); so His appearance to Paul is the only one since His ascension, So 8:13 is not an address of Him as visible: her reply implies He is not visible (1Co 15:8). Spiritually, she was found in the moral wilderness (Eze 16:5; Ho 13:5); but now she is "coming up from" it (Jer 2:2;

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CAREFUL readers will have noticed that in the verses which precede my text, the spouse had been particularly anxious that her communion with her Lord might not be disturbed. Her language is intensely earnest, "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, until He please." She valued much the fellowship with which her Beloved solaced her. She was jealously alarmed lest she should endanger the continuance of it, lest any sin on her part or on the part of her companions should cause the Beloved to withdraw Himself in anger. Now it is a very striking fact that immediately after we read a verse so full of solicitous care concerning the maintenance of communion, we immediately fall upon another verse in which the upward progress of that same spouse is the theme of admiration. She who would not have her beloved disturbed is the same bride who comes up from the wilderness, leaning herself upon Him, from which it is clear that there is a most intimate connection between communion with Christ and progress in Divine Grace. Therefore the more careful we are to maintain fellowship with our Lord, the more successful shall we be in going from strength to strength in all those holy Graces which are landmarks on the road to Glory. The wellhead and fountain of growth in Grace is well-sustained communion and manifest oneness with Christ. We may strive after moral virtue if we will, but we shall be like those foolish children who pluck flowers and thrust them into their little gardens without roots. But if we strive after increasing faith in Jesus, we shall be as wise men who plant choice bulbs and living seeds, from which shall, in due time, rise up the golden cups or the azure bells of lovely flowers— emblems of things that are lovely and of good repute.

CAREFUL readers will have noticed that in the verses which precede my text, the spouse had been particularly anxious that her communion with her Lord might not be disturbed. Her language is intensely earnest, "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, until He please." She valued much the fellowship with which her Beloved solaced her. She was jealously alarmed lest she should endanger the continuance of it, lest any sin on her part or on the part of her companions should cause the Beloved to withdraw Himself in anger.

That cometh up from the wilderness - Perhaps the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, who, seeing the bride returning from the country, leaning on the arm of her beloved, are filled with admiration at her excellent carriage and beauty. I raised thee up under the apple tree - The original of this clause is obscure, and has given birth to various translations. The following is nearly literal: “Under the apple tree I excited thee (to espouse me): there, thy mother contracted thee; - there, she that brought thee forth contracted thee (to me). Or it may be understood of the following circumstance: The bridegroom found her once asleep under an apple tree, and awoke her; and this happened to be the very place where her mother, taken in untimely labor, had brought her into the world.” And here the bridegroom, in his fondness and familiarity, recalls these little adventures to her memory. The Vulgate gives this an abominable meaning. Sub arbore malo suscitavi te: ibi corrupta est mater tua; ibi violata est genetrix tua; “I raised thee up under the apple tree: it was there that thy mother was corrupted; it was there that she who brought thee forth was violated.” Spiritually, all this is applied to Eve losing her purity by sin; and Jesus as the promised seed raising her up by the promise of mercy, through the blood of his cross. But the text says nothing of this.