SONG OF SOLOMON

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04600640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><B>BOOK OF JOB</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>    |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Content"><U>My Content</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Album"><U>Photo Album</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Favorite Links"><U>Favorite Links</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JOHNS GOSPEL"><U>JOHN'S GOSPEL</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PSALMS"><U>PSALMS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EASTER"><U>EASTER</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SERMONS ON MARK"><U>SERMONS ON MARK</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 2"><U>MARK 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 3"><U>MARK 3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 4 THRU 6"><U>MARK 4 THRU 6</U></A>   |   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U>BOOK OF JOB</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 7 THRU 12"><U>MARK 7 THRU 12</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 13 THRU 16"><U>MARK 13 THRU 16</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF REVELATION"><U>BOOK OF REVELATION</U></A>   |   <B>SONG OF SOLOMON</B>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TOPICAL SERMONS"><U>TOPICAL SERMONS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GODS NATURE"><U>GOD'S NATURE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JAMES"><U>JAMES</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IJOHN"><U>IJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIJOHN"><U>IIJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIIJOHN"><U>IIIJOHN</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>THE PRAISES OF LOVE   Based on Song of Songs</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>ROMANTIC AND RELIGIOUS LOVE  Based on Song of Songs 1:1f</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>LOVE AND LUST Based on Song of Songs 1:4</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>BLACK BUT BEAUTIFUL  Based on Song of Songs 1:5</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>WHAT IS BEAUTY  Based on Song of Songs 1:15-16</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE FRAGRANCE OF LOVE  Based on Song of Songs 1:1-17</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>ROMANTIC AND RELIGIOUS ROSES  Based on Song of Songs 2:1</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>SONG OF SOLOMON</I></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div> <B>THE PRAISES OF LOVE   Based on Song of Songs</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      A neurologist was flattered when a patient in a mental hospital said to him, "We like you better than any other doctor we have ever had."  "But why?" asked the doctor, </div> <div> with a smile, showing his delight.  "Because," replied the inmate, "You are more like one of us."  Sometimes flattery can be a flop. Even if it is sincere, it can come out wrong.  Like the woman who said to her pastor, "That message was like water to a drowning man."  He thought she meant it as a compliment, but he could never be sure.  Flattery can be used to deceive people in so many ways that it usually has a negative meaning.  The Jewish Talmud says, "A community where flattery prevails will end in exile."  </div> <bR> <div>      Almost every reference to flattery in the Bible shows it to be a tool of evil.  Paul wrote in I Thess. 2:5, "We never used words of flattery..."  When Paul said he was all things to all men, he did not mean he was even a flatterer.  Paul considered this to be deceitful and not an acceptable tool in evangelism.  It could be so used, however, for we all like to think well of ourselves, and we are always delighted with anyone else who can perceive our good points.  So we are all susceptible to flattery.  Benjamin Franklin said, </div> <div>           A flatterer never seems absurd:</div> <div>           The flattered always takes his word.</div> <div>           </div> <div>      In the realm of romance flattery is a dangerous weapon, for it is possible to so love the nice things that are said that one soon believes he, or she, loves the sayer of them.</div> <div> The sayer is even himself deceived, and many people get married, not because they love each other, but because they love themselves, and enjoy being told how wonderful they are.  Flattery can be used to deliberately deceive for the sake of immoral gratification as well, and many a foolish girl lets sweet talk her life sour.</div> <bR> <div>        Shakespeare said, "You play the Spaniel and think with waging of your tongue to win me."  A dogs waging tail is an honest expression of love, but a waging tongue of flattery is more often a tool of deceit.  David portraying a society which is totally corrupt says in Psalms 12:2, "Everyone utters lies to his neighbor with flattering lips and a double heart they speak."  Lying and flattery are like partners, as we see in Prov. 26:28, "A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin."  </div> <bR> <div>      Groucho Marx was an expert as using flattery in a negative way.  He was leaving a party he felt was exceedingly dull.  He said to the hostess, "I've had a wonderful evening, but this wasn't it."  Sometimes the truth does need to be told subtly.  Samuel Johnson said to an author, after reading his book, "Your manuscript was both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."</div> <div> That is telling it like it is, and is not really a negative use of flattery.  The person to be wary of is the person who agrees with everything you say and do.  Such flattery will hinder, rather than help.</div> <bR> <div>     How can we reconcile the negatives of flattery with the positives of compliments and honest appreciation?  If I tell a person they look sharp, am I guilty of flattery, and using my tongue for evil?  If I see value, talents, and gifts in people, must I keep silent because of the danger of flattery?  Definitely not.  The Song of Solomon is filled with constant compliments coming from the mouths of lovers.  They flatter each other, as </div> <div> most lovers do, as being the two most beautiful people on the planet.  The complimentary language of lovers is essential to their love.  Without beautiful words</div> <div> they would have a hard time expressing their love.  Yet, they may use all the same words that are used by the flatterer.  What is the difference?  </div> <bR> <div>      The difference between good and evil in so many areas of life is in love.  Love makes the difference.  If I have the tongue of men and of angels, but have not love,</div> <div> I am sounding brass and a clanging symbol.  All the evil of flattery is a matter of nice words without love.  When hate and deceit speak, they may use the best words for</div> <div> their evil ends.  Evil needs good words to get anywhere.  The evil of flattery could not exist without the use of good words, and so evil uses the very vocabulary of love. </div> <bR> <div>      When love speaks, it looks for the best in everyone.  It looks for a way of being constructive and encouraging.  Jesus was a master at the art of complimenting.  Instead of blasting sinners with words of condemnation, He said, "Go and sin no more," expressing confidence in their ability to do so.  He even said to the Gentile Centurion,</div> <div> "A greater faith have I not seen in Israel."  Jesus even complimented His enemies.</div> <div> He knew the Pharisees were good students of the law.  He taught that what they said was good, even if they didn't follow it, so He said to do what they say, but not what they do.  He complimented sinners by eating with them, and He did the same with the Pharisees.  Jesus could find good points in all people.  Jesus was not opposed to any man, or any group, but only to the falsehoods that corrupted them.</div> <bR> <div>      A legend is told about Jesus walking through the gates of Jerusalem.  He saw a crowd gathered around a dead dog.  The Scribes passing by kicked it with contempt,</div> <div> but Jesus stopped and said, "Behold the pearly whiteness of its teeth."  Jesus could find something to compliment even in a dead dog.  The reason He could is because He loved all men, and all creatures.  Love makes the difference.  </div> <bR> <div>      Lust, however, uses the same words.  In Prov. 7:21-22 we read of how the harlot ensnares a man.  "With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.  All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter..."  We see that smooth talkers can be female as well as male.  When words are an expression of true feeling, they are beautiful and positive.  When they are used as a method of getting our own way, they are negative and ugly. </div> <bR> <div>       Someone said there is really nothing remarkable about love at first sight.  It is after people have looked at each other for years that love is really remarkable.  True love goes on giving appreciation of the one loved.  Therefore, compliments and praise are a perpetual aspect of the lover's language.  When lovers cease to compliment one another, they are losing their admiration, and taking each other for granted.  Healthy love never stops singing the praises of the lover. </div> <bR> <div>        In the Song Of Solomon we have a song of lover's praise.  The Shepherd and Shepherdess are constantly complimenting one another on their beauty.  We also have the flattery of King Solomon, however, who tries by sweet talk to persuade the Shulemite girl to forsake her lover and become his.  </div> <bR> <div>      In verses 9-11, many feel we have an example of the kings flattery.  It does differ from the language of the Shepherd lover.  Solomon's flattery revolves around the externals and deals with the man made adornments of beauty.  Solomon compares her to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots, and speaks much of jewelry.  The compliments of the Shepherd and the Shepherdess to each other all revolve around natural beauty.  The contrast is between the beauty of the kings palace, and all the man made objects, and the beauty of nature so precious to these two country lovers.  </div> <bR> <div>      These two have no love for the adornments of the city.  Their hearts are filled with the pleasant realities of God's creation. In verse 12 she tells of the context she is in:  The king is on his couch.  A couch of fancy gold embroidery, no doubt, but she dreams only of the green grass of the field, so precious to the sheep, and so beautiful for the Shepherd lover, who rests on it under the shade of a tree.  The couch is green for them, and not gold, like that of the palace.  It is green and natural, and to them this is far superior.   In verse 16 the Shulamite girl says to her lover, "Our couch is green."  In verse 17 she says, "The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters are pine."  Again, she imagines looking up from the grass at the trees around them, and she longs for that kind of roof over her head, rather than the fancy roof of Solomon's palace.</div> <div> God's natural roof was her delight.  </div> <bR> <div>      The contrast in this song between the natural and the manufactured is one that men struggle with constantly.  It is always a danger for men to become so enamored with the products of their own cleverness that they live in an artificial world, and love only the handiwork of their own creation rather than that of the Author of all natural beauty.</div> <div> If we truly love Jesus Christ, we will love His handiwork, and enjoy with Him that which He has designed for our pleasure, as well as His own.  Those who get so involved with the creations of man are allowing themselves to be flattered away from full devotion to the Creator.  If a Christian gets so taken up with jewels, furs, clothes, and all of the externals of man's inventions, he will tend to let the internal beauty of the soul slide,</div> <div> and become a conformer to the world.  </div> <bR> <div>      This was the temptation of the Shulamite girl, but she had no ear for the flattery of the world.  She longed only for union with her true love.  In 2:16 we see the theme of her song:  </div> <div>           "My beloved is mine and I am his, he pastures his</div> <div>           flocks among the lilies."  The poet puts it:  </div> <div>           Yes, He is mine!  And nought of earthly things,</div> <div>               Not all the charms of pleasure, wealth, or power,</div> <div>           The fame of heroes, or the pomp of kings, </div> <div>              Could tempt me to forgo His love an hour.</div> <div>           Go, worthless world, I cry, with all that's Thine!</div> <div>           Go, I my Savior's am, and He is mine.</div> <bR> <div>       This is the theme running through the whole song as we see love's compliments win out over enticing flattery.  In  verse 7 the Shulamite girl refers to her Shepherd  as you whom my soul loves.  She loves him internally and intensely, and her flame burns for Him alone, and that is why she so desperately longs to be out of the palace, and in His presence.  To us it may not sound very romantic to forsake a palace for the environment of a flock of sheep, but true love desires the presence of the lover whatever the environment.</div> <bR> <div>      Our Shepherd lover is preparing a palace for His bride that where He is we may be also, but it is the person and not the place that is primary.  The Shulamite girl dreamed of the flocks, tents, grassy fields, and open forest, because that is where her true love was.  Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.  Most girls would feel obligated to yield to the king in such a setting.  He was offering her everything that wealth could buy.  He tells her in verse 11, he will make her beautiful jewelry with gold studded with silver.  It seems almost rude to turn down such an offer.  What good is the grass and trees and flowers?  They fade away, but jewels are lasting, and diamonds are supposedly a girl's best friend.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Shulamite, however, chooses to be rude and sings nothing of the joys of jewelry.</div> <div> She has no praise for the palace, but longs only for her true love, the Shepherd.  She does not indulge in any flattery of Solomon and his offer, but rejects it by rude neglect.</div> <div> Andre Maurois, the French writer who has much to say about love, says that a true lover must often be rude to be wise.  He tells of a young man who was invited to an estate in Normandy, and the daughter of the house showed an obvious liking for him.</div> <div> He could tell that the parents hoped he would marry her, but he did not find her beautiful, and had no desire to be tied to her for life.  </div> <bR> <div>      One evening as the stars were shining, and the apple blossoms were in bloom, he expressed a wish to take a moonlight stroll.  "What a lovely idea," said the hostess,</div> <div> "Marie will go with you."  He was half-trapped already, but as they walked though the orchard she stumbled, and instinctively he caught her.  She was in his arms and their lips were close.  "Ah," she said, "I always knew you loved me."  To undeceive her</div> <div> he needed to be ruthlessly rude, but he could not.  Their lips closed in the fatal kiss.</div> <div> When they went in they were engaged, and he spent the rest of his life with a woman</div> <div> he did not really love.  Maurios says, when it comes to love, whenever you think it necessary, be savagely rude.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is folly to become enamored with one you do not love.  The Shulamite girl was too wise for that, and did not let the wealth and flattery of Solomon sway her from her true love.  So the Christian must sometimes be rude to the appeals of the world.  All that offers to win our love and loyalty is vanity of vanities.  The world can be an enticing lover, but those who really love the Lord Jesus, and have set their affections on things above, will not be flattered into its arms.  </div> <div>           What is the world with all its store?</div> <div>                'Tis but a bitter sweet;</div> <div>           When I attempt to pluck the rose,</div> <div>                A pricking thorn I meet.</div> <div>           Here perfect bliss can  ne'er be found,</div> <div>                The honeys' mix'd with gall:</div> <div>           Midst changing scenes and dying friends,</div> <div>                 Be Thou my all in all.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Shulamite girl ignores the kings offer of precious jewels, and she sings the praises of her Shepherd lover in verse 13, and says, "A bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me."  Myrrh was carried by women of the East in little bags on their bosom to perfume themselves.  It made them feel good and smell fragrant.  Right below their own nose they were ever conscious of its presence, and the Shulamite girl says that her Shepherd lover was just like her bag of myrrh to her.  What a compliment:  To be ever in the mind of your lover.  Myrrh was a very precious perfume.  It was one of the gifts given to Christ at His birth, and was symbolic of His own preciousness.</div> <bR> <div>      In verse 14 the Shulamite says her beloved is to her a cluster of camphire, or henna blossoms, as other versions have it.  These were clusters of beautiful white and yellow flowers that women used to adorn their homes and their own persons.  This girl paid her lover the highest compliment she could in the language of her culture.  Her lover was everything pleasant and precious to her.  Whenever we sing a song in which we praise</div> <div> God for what He is to us, we are joining the Shulamite girl and turning her solo into a chorus of spiritual flattery, which we call praise.  Praise is positive because it is flattery from a heart of love.  It is an expression of true feeling.  Those who truly love Christ and feel loved by Him will be people of praise.  You cannot love Christ  and not praise Him.  </div> <bR> <div>      C. C. Colton adds another perspective when he says, "Imitation is the sincerest  flattery."  If we truly feel that our Shepherd lover is the fairest of 10,000,  we will strive to be like him, and imitate him.  We will want the beauty of Jesus to be seen in us. It is only flattery if we sing of His glory, and then continue to walk in darkness.  It is like saying to someone, "I just love your new suit," and then turning to another and saying, "I wouldn't be caught dead in that."  What we really think is beautiful, we strive to  imitate.  True love for Christ does not just praise Him for what He is, it strives to become what He is.  Lovers long to be alike.  William Kirkpatrick put the true lovers desire in poetry, and it fits so well the conflict of the Shulamite girl.  </div> <div>           </div> <div>           Oh, to be like Thee!  Blessed Redeemer,</div> <div>                This is my constant longing and prayer.</div> <div>           Gladly I'll forfeit all of earth's treasures,</div> <div>                Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.</div> <div>           Oh, to be like Thee!  Oh, to be like Thee!</div> <div>                Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art!</div> <div>           Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness,</div> <div>                Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.</div> <bR> <div>      May God help each of us to resist the false, but subtle, flattery of the world, and to offer up to our wonderful Lord the true praise of love.                 </div> <div>      </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>ROMANTIC AND RELIGIOUS LOVE  Based on Song of Songs 1:1f</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      Love makes the world go round, says the one time popular song, and there are very few who will deny it.  History reveals that one of life's greatest tragedies is to die unloved.  During the Civil War, Charles Sumner was assaulted in the Senate chamber,</div> <div> and was seriously ill for months.  He regretted he had to leave his battle against slavery unfinished, but this was not his deepest pain.  He wrote, "But in the midnight watches, my keenest heart-gnawing regret was that, if I were called away, I had never enjoyed the choicest experience of life, that no lips responsive to my own had said, </div> <div> I love you."  </div> <bR> <div>      He expressed the minds of millions who would agree.  It would be terrible to live and die and never hear anyone say to you, I love you.  Love may not make the world go round, but it makes men happier as they go around with it.  Love has enabled men to die with heroic valor.  During the great battle of Gettysburg, Pickett was ordered to charge the Union artillery.  As he went to the head of his lines, Wilcox, another commander, rode up to his side, and taking a flask from his pocket said, "Pickett, take a drink with me.  In an hour you will be in hell or glory."  He refused the drink saying,</div> <div> "I promise the little girl who is waiting for me down in Virginia that I would keep fresh upon my lips until we meet again, the breath of the violets she gave me when we parted."  Faithful to his love, he rode off to die without whiskey on his breath.  No one can calculate the power of human love in overcoming evil.  </div> <bR> <div>      Love is the major theme of the Bible.  The two great commandments that sum up the whole Old Testament are love commandments.  Love of God and love of man are the highest values of life.  In the New Testament love is not only the highest virtue and the first fruit of the Spirit, it is the very foundation of the Gospel.  God so loved, is the beginning of the Gospel, and the end result is, we love Him because He first loved us.</div> <bR> <div>      It is of interest to note that love is the greatest theme of man's songs whether they be sacred or secular.  The world revolves around romantic love, and the church around religious love.  The one appeals to the flesh, and the other to the spirit.  It is a serious mistake, however, to conclude that the two are opposed.  They are not necessarily in conflict, for spiritual people also enjoy the experience of romantic love.  In fact, it is only as Christians that we can experience the best of both worlds.  The Christian can love one the physical level and the spiritual level.  In Scripture the two become one, and are linked as closely as the body and spirit.  Each affects the other, and, therefore, romantic love is everywhere in Scripture used as a symbol of religious love.  In other words, God has taken the most common and universal experience of mankind and used it to illustrate the ideal relationship He desires to have with man.</div> <bR> <div>      The Song of Songs is a great love song that deals with love on the level of the physical.</div> <div> All the delights of an ideal romance and marriage are dwelt with in beautiful poetic language.  The Bible would be sadly lacking if it had nothing to say about one of life's most important realms-the realm of romantic love.  Few, however, have been content to leave it as a romantic song.  It is true that God is not mentioned in the song, and there are no religious words.  Yet, Jews and Christians alike have always seen the secular language of the Song as symbolic of the sacred.  Just as the physical Temple was symbolic of the heavenly Temple, so earthly human love is symbolic of the eternal love union of God and man.  It is no mere accident that eternity begins with a marriage banquet of Christ and His bride.  Heaven is seen as an eternal honeymoon.  </div> <bR> <div>      This is the Song of Songs, that is, the supreme Song, like the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  The ultimate in songs does not deal with romantic love only, but with the love of God and man.  Religious love does not eliminate romantic love, however, but exalts it.  According to I Kings 4:32 Solomon wrote 1,005 songs.  No doubt many of them dwelt with the theme of love, but this one is the Song of Songs and became a part of Scripture because it deals with love on all levels.  It is the worlds greatest love song.</div> <bR> <div>      Some Christians have been embarrassed by the romantic and physical love of the Song of Solomon.  They have attempted to explain it away as if romantic love was the devil's invention.  The New Testament says in Heb. 13:4 that marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled.  If the Song of Solomon is seen as a pure and honorable love relationship, there is no reason whatever to be embarrassed by its frankness. It is true that the language of the Song is usually reserved for the privacy of the lovers and is not uttered in public, but the fact that the Bible makes it public shows that true and honorable love if God ordained. Man's big problem is he cannot adequately distinguish between love and lust and the result is confusion. Love words can make us think lustful, for they both use the same language and this can be shocking to our minds. </div> <bR> <div>      If there is great confusion over love and sex, then it would be tragic if the Bible did not give us a description of what true love is all about.  It does, however, and we have it right here in this Song of Songs.  Like most poetry dealing with love it is not always easy to  understand.  In fact, sometimes it is very difficult, just like real love in real life. </div> <div> Poetry tend to lend itself to a variety of interpretations, and there has been a great deal of variety in interpreting this book.  Most everyone agrees it is hard to expound on this</div> <div> Song, but Bernard of Clairvaux, in the middle ages, preached 86 sermons on it, and this two monks who could never marry.</div> <bR> <div>      From the more liberal perspective, the Interpreter's Bible says, "Of all the books in the Old Testament  none is so difficult to interpret as the Song of Songs."  From the conservative side we read from Dr. James M. Gray, for many years president of Moody Bible Institute, "Of all the books of the Old Testament, I feel myself least competent to speak of the Song of Songs.  I am not ignorant of what others have thought and written about the book, but personally I have not grasped it's contents...."</div> <div> Only a person who has done little study, or who has a great deal of pride, would claim</div> <div> to fully grasp this great love song.  My own approach will be eclectic.  It will attempt to see the truth and the values of the different interpretations held by men of God, both ancient and modern.  </div> <bR> <div>      The most commonly held modern interpretation is that the Shulamite is a beautiful shepherdess girl in love with a young shepherd.  They are engaged to be married, but one day King Solomon traveling by spotted this lovely creature.  When he inquired and found she was not yet married, he ordered his noblemen to bring her to the royal pavilion.  Solomon woes her and treats her like a queen, but all the glory and splendor of Solomon the mighty king could not take the place of her love for her shepherd.  She longs to return to her true love, and forsake the riches of Solomon's palace.  This view</div> <div> is spelled out in detail in the Amplified Bible.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Song is largely her song of love, and her desire to be true to her shepherd lover, and him only, inspite of all the appeals to forsake true love.  She urges the ladies of Solomon's court to stop trying to divert her love from the shepherd to the king.  She is persistent in resisting the charms of Solomon, and dreams only of her lover.  When the ladies of the court ask why she is so loyal to her shepherd, she describes him in eloquent poetry.  Finally, true love triumphs, and she is released, and goes to meet her shepherd lover.  In 8:7 she sums up her experience with these words:  "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.  If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned."  </div> <bR> <div>      True love is permanent and cannot be bought.  She would rather be the wife of a simply shepherd she loved, than number 701 among the wives of King Solomon.  Here was a girl who could say no, even to the king, because she had surrendered herself to her one and only love.  </div> <bR> <div>           I love thee-I love thee!</div> <div>           Tis all that I can say;</div> <div>           It is my vision in the night</div> <div>           My dreaming in the day.</div> <bR> <div>      It is not difficult to see how this interpretation has a spiritual application.  Love, loyalty, and faithfulness to the Savior is what the Christian experience is all about.</div> <div> As part of the bride of Christ, every Christian goes through what this young girl of the Song goes through.  Every Christian is tempted by the glory of the world to be unfaithful to Christ.  Israel was lured away time and time again by other lovers than her husband Jehovah.  She became an adulterous wife and the whole book of Hosea is about how God in His great love sought her out to forgive and restore her.  The Song of Solomon, however, is a song where the ideal love is maintained.  The bride does not go astray, but remains faithful, and that is why it is the Song of Songs.  </div> <bR> <div>      Paul LeBotz wrote, "The Song of Solomon is the world's greatest love song, because it is an allegory of the world's greatest love story, that of Christ and His Bride."  The romantic experience of falling, and growing in love is the most intense and interesting experience of life.  It is the nearest thing to a religious experience, and that is why romance and religion are linked all through Scripture.  Paul used the language of love to describe the relationship of Christ and the church.  He says that every Christian is engaged to be married, and it is his hope that they will be virgins when the time comes,</div> <div> and not be unfaithful to the Bridegroom.  Listen to II Cor. 11:2-3 in the New English Bible.  "I am jealous for you with a divine jealousy; for I betrothed you to Christ, thinking to present you as a chaste virgin to her true and only husband.  But as the serpent in his cunning seduced Eve, I am afraid that your thoughts may be corrupted</div> <div> and you may lose your simple-hearted devotion to Christ." Paul fears they will follow</div> <div> false Christ's and be untrue to their true Lover-the Good Shepherd.  </div> <bR> <div>      Sex and satisfaction go hand in hand.  The Bible makes it clear that  your sex life can either help or hinder you in your spiritual life.  If you are loyal in your love to your mate, the chances are very good you will be loyal to Christ in the spiritual realm.  If you allow Satan to lure you into an immoral relationship, the chances are very good he will succeed</div> <div> in luring you into spiritual infidelity.  Romance and religion are as close as body and spirit,</div> <div> and what happens in one realm affects the other.  In the final analysis of life, according to the closing chapters of Revelation, every person will fit into one of two categories.  They will either be a part of the Bride of Christ, or part of the Great Whore, who is judged and condemned.  God uses sex symbolism to describe the ultimate destiny of men.  It will be an eternal marriage or everlasting divorce.  </div> <bR> <div>      If Christians ever needed to stress the importance of, and the beauty of, a pure sex life,</div> <div> it is today.  We live in a world where the greatest competitor with Christ is sex.  The world does not have idols of wood and stone, but living idols which seek to lure us from our Lord.</div> <div> It is a constant repetition of the story of the Song of Songs.  Romance, love, and sex need to be diligently studied from a Christian and Biblical point of view, if we expect Christians to be faithful to Christ, as the Shulamite was to her shepherd lover.  </div> <bR> <div>      Even a pure and noble sex relationship can be embarrassing, however, because we are stuck with a fallen nature which is far short of the ideal.  Adam and Eve could look upon nakedness, before the fall, and feel no shame.  This is no longer the case, and the result is,</div> <div> not all of the Song of Solomon can be expounded in public.  There are many things that are pure and beautiful between mates that are inexpressible in public.  Some of these intimate</div> <div> things are found in this great love song, and should be read in the privacy of your home.</div> <bR> <div>      Someone may object, and insist that all Scripture is given by God, and is profitable,</div> <div> and therefore, all Scripture should be publicly expounded.  This objection fails to take in consideration the fact that the Bible was written for adults.  There is no part of the Bible,</div> <div> to my knowledge, that was written for children.  The Bible is an adult book, and some parts of it are such that only an adult can handle it without being affected in a negative way.</div> <div> Remember, the devil used the Scripture to tempt Christ, and he continues to do so, and an immature person could even be led into immorality through the reading of some Scriptures.</div> <div> I do not say this as a theory, for I have read the history of how the Bible has been used</div> <div> for the promotion of immorality.  </div> <bR> <div>      Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, preached many sermons on the Song of Solomon,</div> <div> but he said, "The song is, in truth, a book for full-grown Christians."  It was one of his favorites, but he recognized it would be a blank to many Christians who had not gone far nor deep in their love for Christ.  He said, "It's music belongs to the higher spiritual life,</div> <div> and has no charm in it for unspirited ears.....The historical books I may compare to the outer courts of the temple:  The Gospels, the Epistles, and the Psalms, bring us into the holy place or the Court of the priests;  but the Song of Solomon in the most holy place:</div> <div> The holy of holies, before which the veil still hangs to many and untaught believer."  </div> <bR> <div>      Many Christians fail to grasp the beauty of this Song because of personal problems</div> <div> in their own lives.  These make impossible for them to link the sexual and spiritual.  The great expounders of the book were men who loved their wives and their Lord, and could see the beauty of both, and how one illustrated the other.  G. Cambell Morgan wrote, </div> <div> "It is, first, a revelation of the true nature of human love.  It is, secondly, an  unveiling</div> <div> of the highest religious experience."  Then he said, "The cool, calculating, mechanical</div> <div> man who dislikes this book has never been in love, and probably never will be."  According to Morgan, the reading of this part of Scripture can be a good test of your capacity to love.  If it is disgusting to you, you are wired wrong, and could use some counseling.  If it is delightful to you, you have the capacity to attain to God's ideal for both romantic and religious love.  </div> <bR> <div>      The value of studying this book is that it can lead us into the depths of the two most important love relationships of life:  Love of a man and woman, and love of man and God.  We will better grasp the intensity of Christ's love for us as we see how it relates to the passionate love of human lovers.  Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  And here is the part of the Bible that tells it in powerful romantic poetry.  All love songs are an attempt to express the inexpressible.  There are no end to them, for none ever succeed in saying it all.  The Song of Songs says it better than any other,</div> <div> however, and gives expression to numerous values we will be considering.  We need to keep in mind that we are dealing with the love of Christ, the most intense love that can be known.  The poet put it-</div> <bR> <div>           One there is above all others,</div> <div>                Oh, how He loves!</div> <div>           His is love beyond the brother's,</div> <div>                Oh, how He loves!</div> <div>           Earthly friends may fail or leave us,</div> <div>           One day soothe, the next day grieve us;</div> <div>           But this Friend will ne'er deceive us,</div> <div>                Oh, how He loves!</div> <bR> <div>      If we expect to inner into the experience of this Song of Songs, then our prayer should be that which Dr. Chalmers prayed when he began his study of this book:</div> <div> "My God, spiritualize my affections, give me intense love to Christ."  </div> <bR> <div>       </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> ROMANTIC AND RELIGIOUS KISSES  Based on Song of Songs 1:2</div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      The story is told, and it could very well be true, of a Danish couple who decided to break off their engagement.  "It is best I suppose that we give back each others letters," he said.  She agreed, and replied, "We should at the same time return each others kisses."  By the time they had finished their exchange, they agreed to renew their engagement.  There is something about a kiss that does more than merely bring about a union of the lips.  It has the power to also bring about the union of lives.  Kissing is a matter of the spirit as well as of the body, and that is why kissing is never to be taken lightly.  Treating the kiss as a minor matter has led many into relationships where they very carelessly tamper with the deep inner being of others.</div> <bR> <div>      The Italians say, "A kiss is like a grain of dust which anyone who would be rid of it can wash away."  The Germans looking deeper respond, "A kiss may indeed be washed away, but the fire in the heart cannot be quenched."  Kissing is so directly linked with love that to engage in it without love is certain to open the door to lust.</div> <div> A kiss awakened Sleeping Beauty, and it can awaken sleeping lust in anyone.  There are many different kinds of kisses, and we will be looking at the most significant of them.  The true romantic kiss is to be reserved for that one you desire to one with you on all levels.  </div> <bR> <div>           What is a kiss?  Why it is this-</div> <div>           It is the cement, it is the glue</div> <div>           Of love that makes me one with you.</div> <bR> <div>      There are all kinds of definitions of a kiss.  Scientifically it is the ovicular juxtaposition of the oral protrusion of the outer cavity.  From the negative view, it is the mutual interchange of salivary bacteria.  More romantic is the view that a kiss is a secret told to the mouth instead of the ear.  More passionate is the definition of Paul </div> <div> Verlaine who defines the kiss, "As the fiery accompaniment on the key board of the teeth of the lovely songs which love sings in a burning heart."  However you look at it,</div> <div> one thing is sure, kissing is a pleasant reminder that two heads are better than one.</div> <bR> <div>      The Song of Songs begins with the problem of a deep desire for kissing, but only one head.  The Shulamite girl longs for the kisses of her lover, but she is separated from him.  The Song does not begin calmly and build to a climax, but it begins with a burst</div> <div> of passionate frustrated love.  "O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth!"  When people have been separated for a long time, and then reunited, the first thing they do is kiss.  Lovers often take the kiss for granted until they are separated,</div> <div> and then they realize how much they long to embrace and kiss the object of their love.</div> <div> The Shulamite can think of nothing better than the kisses of her lover.  She dearly misses her lovers kisses.  </div> <bR> <div>           With kisses of his mouth, said she,</div> <div>           Let him, now reconciled, kiss me.</div> <div>           Thy love, said she, when it is mine,</div> <div>           Is better than the choicest wine.</div> <bR> <div>      Anyone who has ever been separated from a loved one can enter into the intense craving of this young girl, but the question is, what is the spiritual significance of her longing?  There is a direct parallel to this romantic longing in the realm of the spirit.</div> <div> Many times the believer's soul feels separated from God, and longs for the good old days of close and loving communion.  We sing, everyday with Jesus is sweeter than the day before, but in reality we know this is not so.  Many days we can look back and long to return to a former day when our loves seemed sweeter and stronger, and when we sense the presence of Christ more intimately in our lives.</div> <bR> <div>      From a spiritual perspective this Song begins with an intense need for the lover of our souls to draw near, and give satisfaction to the longings of our heart.  It is a lovers cry which reveals a desperate need to be loved.  It is appropriate that this opening cry for love should come from the girl.  Studies indicated that women feel the need to be loved more than men.  Spiritually it is fitting as well, for the church, the Bride of Christ,</div> <div> feels the need for love more than does Christ.  He is self-sufficient, and does not feel the loneliness or the hunger for love that we do as believers. </div> <bR> <div>       Believer's, like this lonely shepherd girl, cannot be happy and satisfied until they experience the kiss of the Shepherd.  This was true for the Old Testament saints who looked for the coming of the Messiah.  They looked at this lovers cry and said, that is us, Israel crying out to God to come down.  We have been kissed by the mouth of Moses and the prophets, but we want the Messiah Himself, for this would be the very kiss of God.  </div> <bR> <div>      A lady took her nephew to her church one Sunday.  He had not been in church before, and was very observant.  When the service was over, he was busting with excitement.  He said, "Auntie-did you see God's kiss?"  "Whatever do you mean by that?" she asked.  "I saw it-God's kiss-on the window of the church.  I make my kisses crooked when I write my letters, but God's kiss is straight up."  Then she realized he was referring to the cross.  It was no childish mistake.  It was a profound theological insight.  The cross was indeed the kiss of God.  A kiss is a means of reconciliation, and that is what the cross was in God's plan of redemption.  Is it just a coincidence, or is it providential that our symbol for a kiss is a cross?  God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, is equivalent to saying, He so loved us that while we were yet sinners, He kissed us.  He came to us with a kiss of peace and reconciliation.  The cross is the greatest love symbol in the world, and to the Old Testament saints it was the fulfillment of their desire for the kiss of God.  </div> <bR> <div>      For New Testament believers, the longing is for the Great Shepherd and Lover of our souls to come again.  We can look back to the incarnation and the great love of Christ, but, like the Shulamite girl, it is the very love of the past that makes her long for more.  One who has never known the joys of love, and the kisses of a lover, cannot crave for them, as can those who have already enjoyed them.  The New Testament believer, therefore, has a deeper desire for union with Christ than did the Old Testament saints. </div> <bR> <div>      Religious love, like romantic love, varies in it's intensity from day to day, depending</div> <div> upon health, energy, and many circumstances.  But when a Christian is feeling his best, </div> <div> he should long to be possessed by the love of Christ, and kissed into ecstasy by His indwelling presence.  He should feel something of what the poet expresses: </div> <bR> <div>                Jesus, Thy boundless love to me</div> <div>                     No thought can reach, no tongue declare;</div> <div>                Oh, knit my thankful heart to Thee,</div> <div>                     And reign without a rival there!</div> <div>                 Thine wholly, Thine alone I am,</div> <div>                Lord, with Thy love my heart inflame.</div> <div>                Oh, grant that nothing in my soul</div> <div>                     May dwell, but Thy pure love alone!</div> <div>                Oh, may Thy love possess me whole,</div> <div>                     My joy, my treasure, and my crown!</div> <bR> <div>      The kiss has been called love's great artillery, and by the kiss of the cross our Shepherd lover defeated the divorce plan that Satan had set in motion, and He reconciled God and man.  Sin still separates us, however, and we can still have lover's quarrels, and division, which leaves us feeling cut off from the love of Christ.  In the spirit realm, as in the romantic, we need to learn to kiss and make up.  In fact, Psa. 2 ends with this verse,</div> <div> "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye parish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but  a little.  Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." </div> <bR> <div>       The kiss had a very religious significance all through Bible times.  To kiss can mean to acknowledge one as Lord.  The picture of kissing the Pope's foot, and kissing idols, goes way back in history, when the kiss had a religious meaning.  Listen to what God said to Elijah in I Kings 19:18, "Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."  To have kissed Baal was to have submitted to him as Lord.  And so, to have kissed Christ is to have submitted to Him as Lord.  Kissing the Son, therefore, is the only way to escape the wrath of God, and enjoy the romance of eternity.  Kissing is a very serious religious matter.  </div> <bR> <div>      Kissing and idolatry went hand in hand all through the Old Testament.  Worshippers of the sun and moon would express their loyalty to these false deities by kissing their hands and pointing to the sun or moon.  Job refers to this practice, and he denies he was ever guilty of it in Job 31:26-28.  "If I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor, and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand;</div> <div> this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false</div> <div> to God above."  If men do not kiss the true Lover of their souls, they will be kissing some deceiver.  Idolatry is simply kissing a false lover.  It is a giving of your souls affection to something, or someone, who cannot love and save your soul.  The point is, religious kisses,</div> <div> like romantic ones, must be kept exclusive.  </div> <bR> <div>      Men have always gone astray when they kissed any other than the one and only Lover of their soul.  It fits the whole pattern of Old Testament history that Judas should betray Jesus with a kiss.  God's people have always betrayed Him with a kiss.  They offered their love to Him, but then went after other gods and kissed them as well.  That is what Judas was doing.  He kissed Jesus, but then longed to kiss the thirty pieces of silver that he got</div> <div> for betraying Him even more.  True love keeps its kisses exclusively for the lover.  Spurgeon wrote, "The kiss is a mark of worship; to kiss Christ is at the same time to recognize Him as God, and to pay Him divine worship."  Those who never kiss the Son in this religious sense will never experience the love of God, and the salvation that comes because of it.  </div> <bR> <div>      Because kissing had such a religious significance in ancient history, and in Biblical culture, it became a part of the every day life of the early Christians.  Peter closes his first Epistle by writing, "Greet one another of the kiss of love."  Paul in Rom. 16:16 writes, </div> <div> "Greet one another with a holy kiss."  He says the same thing in I Cor. 16:20, and in </div> <div> II Cor. 13:12.  Then in I Thess. 5:26 he writes, "Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss."</div> <div> There was obviously a lot of kissing going on in the early churches, which is foreign to us to day.  We still kiss in the church, but only after weddings, and even there you had better be careful.  One guy said to another, "How did you get that black eye?"  He said, "I kissed a bride after the wedding."  "Why everyone does that," the other guy said, mystified.  </div> <div> "Yeah," responded the injured man, "But this was two years after the wedding."  Kissing the bride has to be timed right, or else.  The New Testament seems to indicate, however, </div> <div> that the Bride of Christ was to be almost continually engaged in kissing one another as</div> <div> a form of greeting.  </div> <bR> <div>      This practice has had quit a history.  In the 13th century it was practiced in France where women kissed women, and the men kissed men.  It developed in many areas that men would kiss women on the hand as a greeting.  In England, in the 13th century, a special instrument was used to help the faithful obey Paul's command.  It was a metal disc</div> <div> with a holy picture on it, and it was passed around the church for all to kiss.  This did not prove to be very helpful as a kiss of peace, since it started a lot of quarrels as to who deserved the honor of kissing it first.  It also led to youthful shenanigans in church, for the boys tried to sit next to pretty girls and kiss it after them.  And old poem says, </div> <bR> <div>                I told the maid that she was fair,</div> <div>                I've kissed the Pax just after her.</div> <bR> <div>      The reformation abolished all this type of thing.  The Greek church still practices the kiss of peace on Easter Sunday.  Kissing as an act of respect and reverence was common</div> <div> in days past, but this is no longer the case.  Men kissed each other all the time in Biblical days, and it was a normal part of life.  In the middle ages, knights kissed before a duel, </div> <div> just as boxers today shake hands before a fight.  The hand shake has become to us what the kiss was to the early Christians.  A hand shake today is equivalent to a holy kiss.</div> <bR> <div>      We ought not to think that the kiss is no longer important.  A kiss has always been a sign of acceptance as well as reconciliation.  Jacob and Esaw kissed when they met after a long separation.  The father of the Prodigal Son kissed him when he returned.  The kiss</div> <div> that expresses love and acceptance should never be out of style.  A pastor told of an 83 year old woman who had been bed ridden for over 20 years.  He visited her, and when he rose to leave he felt a flow of affection go through him.  He bent over and kissed her on the cheek.  A look of amazement came to her face, and she said, "Why, I'm not ugly after all.</div> <div> I'm not ugly after all."  The kiss gave her assurance of being accepted.  That kiss was truly a holy kiss, and a kiss of peace.  It was Christ expressing His love and acceptance</div> <div> through a member of His body.  </div> <bR> <div>      The desire for acceptance makes kisses very important on the romantic level also. Studies show that if a man comes home and does not kiss his wife it can stir up negative thoughts and emotions which can lead to a fight later on.  She unconsciously wonders if she looks terrible, and doubts her attractiveness.  This negative mood can have a very negative effect on the rest of the evening.  Kissing is the fuel that keeps the flame of love burning, and true lovers never tire of it.  Shelly wrote, </div> <bR> <div>                See the mountains kiss high heaven,</div> <div>                     And the waves clasp one another;</div> <div>                No sister flower would be forgiven</div> <div>                     If it disdained its brother;</div> <div>                And the sunlight clasps the earth,</div> <div>                     And the moonbeams kiss the sea;</div> <div>                What are all these kissings worth,</div> <div>                     If thou kiss not me.</div> <bR> <div>      This is how all lovers feel-both romantic and religious.  If sin has led us to a separation from God, then we need to look again to the cross, the kiss of heaven, and let God deal with that sin as only He can.  Beecher said, "God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgetfulness."  Bret Harte wrote, </div> <bR> <div>                Never a lip is curved with pain,</div> <div>                That can't be kissed into smiles again.</div> <bR> <div>      Kissing is a powerful reality in both romance and religion.  The greatest kiss of all is God's kiss of peace, which He gives to all who receive His Son as Savior.  By that act of faith they become a part of the Bride of Christ, and they will enjoy His kisses forever. </div> <div>                </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>LOVE AND LUST Based on Song of Songs 1:4</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      A French pilot, by the name of Guillaumet flew over the Andes on a regular basis.</div> <div> One time he disappeared for a week, and hope that he would be found was given up.</div> <div> He was eventually rescued, however, and his first intelligible sentence was, "I swear that I went though what no animal would have gone through."  For two days and two nights he lay helpless.  Then he walked five days and four nights through deep snow.</div> <div> When he was found his hands and feet were frozen.  He had no food and no tools.</div> <div> He had to crawl up walls of ice in 20 degrees below zero.  Many times he said it would have been pure pleasure to give up and go to sleep, yielding to the cold hand of death.</div> <div> He had not read the Song of Solomon 8:6 which says, "Love is strong as death."  But he was demonstrating it, for it was love that kept him going.</div> <bR> <div>      All he could think about was his wife.  He knew that when a man vanished his death was not legally acknowledged for seven years, and so if he died where no one could find him, his wife would be left in poverty.  He had to get to a place where his body could be found so she could get the insurance.  It was this loving concern for  his wife that drove him to super human efforts, and it save his life.  He lost his memory, and was little more than a frozen vegetable stumbling through a wilderness, but still he kept going,</div> <div> because of love.  Had he not been a loving man, he would have been a dead man.  </div> <bR> <div>      Very few ever have to put their love to that kind of test, but there are enough such examples to prove the truth of what the Shulamite girl said, "Love is strong as death."</div> <div> This is the kind of love that the Song of Songs is all about.  It is not about wishy washy sentimental infatuation; and not about superficial lust, which when satisfied forsakes its object, but true love, which is able to overcome all obstacles which threaten to detour it off its course of faithfulness and loyalty.  </div> <bR> <div>      In verse 4 the Shulamite girl gives us the first hint as to her predicament, and why it is she is separated from her true love, and why she so desperately longs for him to come to her.  She says, the king has brought me into his chamber.  King Solomon has brought her to his chamber to try and persuade her to be one of  his wives.  Many would be flattered, and would have forsaken their country lover without a tear.  It was the chance of a lifetime, but here was a rare girl who wanted love rather than riches in a royal harem.  That is why she cries out for her Shepherd lover to come and make haste, for it is his love alone in which she rejoices.  </div> <bR> <div>      Solomon, no doubt, sought to weaken her resistance to his charms by the use of wine, but she is not taken in by this, for she has tasted love, and what it wine compared to love?  Love is what she will sing about.  Let those who give up love to be in Solomon's harem sing songs of the glory of wine, for that is all they have to keep them warm and happy.  The choice between love and wine is one that is the theme of thousands of love stories and films.  Four times the word love is used in the first four verses of this song, and two of them refer to the conviction that love is better than wine.</div> <div> This conviction is a challenge to the values of many in both the ancient and modern world. </div> <bR> <div>       Wine was as a god all through ancient history, and every nation had its wine songs, including Israel.  Wine was the source of joy and happiness.  It was the means by which sorrows were escaped and burdens endured.  It even helped cure physical problems.  It was to the ancients what the doctor, psychiatrist, and TV is to the modern man.  It is entertaining, exhilarating, and a means of escape.  Spurgeon said, "The fruit of the vine represents the chiefest of earthly luxuries."  The Shulamite girl says, however, what good is all of life's luxuries without love.  To wine and dine and live like a princess is no match to goats milk, lamb chops, and the Shepherd man I love.   </div> <bR> <div>      Love is personal, but wine and the luxuries it represents are impersonal.  Those who try to find fulfillment in the impersonal, pervert their own nature which was made for love.  They turn to drugs and sex, and in their search for what only love can provide,</div> <div> they develop loves greatest counterfeit which is lust.  Love and lust not only begin with the same letter, they are very much alike.  Sometimes the difference between good and evil is very slight.  In fact, sometimes they are identical twins, but just going in different directions.  Angels and demons, for example, have the same origin.  They were once identical, but  now are radically different because one resides in the will of God, and the other rebels against it.  </div> <bR> <div>      The noble lover and the brutal rapist are both governed by passion, but one is expressing love, and the other lust.  The pure sex relationship and the immoral one cannot be distinguished by observation.  The mechanics of love and lust are the same,</div> <div> but one fulfills God's will, and the other violates it.  Lust is like love going in the wrong direction.  Most evil is a good gone wrong, or to an extreme.  The same sun that helps produce a lovely garden can also produce a barren desert.  So it is with love and lust.</div> <div> Ella Wheeler Wilcox put it in poetry.</div> <bR> <div>           Passion is what the sun feels for the earth,</div> <div>                When harvest ripens into golden birth.</div> <div>           Lust is the hot simoan whose burning breath</div> <div>                Sweeps o'er the fields with devastating death.</div> <bR> <div>      Solomon sought to persuade the beautiful Shulamite girl to yield to lust, but she remains steadfast in her loyalty to love.  This is a story of a great temptation, and a powerful testing of love.  We see love and lust in combat seeking to win the maidens heart, and we learn to distinguish between the two.  We want to examine the main characteristics of love which make it different from lust.  The first is-</div> <bR> <div> I.  LOVE IS EXCLUSIVE.  True love, be it romantic or religious love, can only have one lover.  God is a jealous God and will not tolerate men saying they love Him, and then bow down to other gods.  This was the conflict all through Israel's history, and it still is today.  You cannot serve God and mammon.  God, and nothing else, must be your first love, or you are not a true lover.  So it is on the romantic level.  A sailor was looking at some valentine cards, and the clerk said here is a good one, to the only girl</div> <div> I've ever loved.  The sailor said it is a good one, give me a dozen of them.  Here is a good illustration of lust in contrast to love.  The person who is tossed about by every wind of affection does not understand love.  </div> <bR> <div>           I will be true.  The fickle tide, divided</div> <div>                Between two wooing shores, in wild unrest.</div> <div>           May to and fro shift always undecided;</div> <div>                Not so the tide of Passion in my breast.</div> <div>           With the grand surge of some resistless river</div> <div>                That hurries on, past mountain, vale, and sea, </div> <div>           Unto the main, its water to deliver,</div> <div>                So my full heart keeps all its wealth for Thee.  </div> <bR> <div>      This loyalty of love to one lover, even in the face of a charming enticer like Solomon, </div> <div> is what makes love so different from lust.  Lust does not feel any particular need to limit itself to one partner.  Lust is not exclusive, it is promiscuous.  Love is fire which is confined, but lust is fire uncontrolled.  Fire under control is a great power for good, but once out of control it is a great power for destruction.  Love and lust are not two different emotions, but the same emotion, either under control, or out of control.</div> <bR> <div>           This fire from God's altar, this holy love flame,</div> <div>                That burns like sweet incense forever for you,</div> <div>           Might now be a wild conflagration of shame, </div> <div>                Had you tortured my heart, or been base or untrue.</div> <bR> <div>      The emotion that is a precious gift of God when kept under control, and directed exclusively toward one's lover, can suddenly become a negative emotion when it forsakes exclusiveness, and is directed toward more than one.  The Song of Solomon is designed to inform us of the subtle temptation toward letting love go out of control, and to inspire us with an example of love that resisted that temptation and maintained control.  The Interpreters Bible says, "This book, without mentioning it, frowns upon polygamy, upon infidelity, and sings of the ardor and unalloyed passion of a love that is stronger than death."</div> <bR> <div>      The fact that the Shulamite girl had to go through this testing reveals that true love is often under pressure to turn to lust.  Evil is so effective in the world because it seems to be good.  The difference between a feast and gluttony is so slight that it is easy to go from good to evil and not be aware of it.  God commands feasts, and He is the author of the joy</div> <div> and fun in eating, but once this blessing is not kept under control you end up allowing a </div> <div> good thing to become evil.  Gluttony is simply allowing the pleasure of appetite to go to an extreme.  Too much a good thing is a bad thing.  </div> <bR> <div>      Perfume we saw was good, both for romantic and religious purposes, but it can be used to promote evil also.  In Prov. 7:10-27 we read of how prostitutes use perfume to entice men into lust.  Evil uses the same means as good.  Evil often camouflages itself as good, </div> <div> for men do not deliberately choose what will injure them.  Most choose evil because it looks like a very appealing good.  Good and evil are potential in everything we do, and that is why it is essential to have standards by which we determine if we have things under control or not.  Not understanding this leads many who want to promote love ending up </div> <div> falling into lust.  </div> <bR> <div>           The world makes great error judging these things,</div> <div>                Great good and great evil are born in one breast.</div> <div>           Love horns us and hoofs us-or gives us our wings,</div> <div>                And the best could be worst, as the worst could be best.</div> <bR> <div>      A good machine is a machine under control.  That same machine out of control can be exceeding dangerous.  The sexually of man is a good thing, a gift of God.  Out of control, however, it becomes a dangerous power.  The more loving a man is the more dangerous is his potential for lusting, and that is why Christians must know God's standards, and take every precaution so as to keep the fire of their love within the bound of marriage.  Because the Song of Solomon is a poem about true love, rather than impure lust, its frank and passionate descriptions are beautiful and not obscene.  The very same words could be obscene in a context which is describing lust.  Passionate language for love is good and right, as we see in this poem.   </div> <bR> <div>            Her beauty stirs my heart to maddening strive, </div> <div>           And all the tiger in my blood is rife;</div> <div>           I love her with a lover's fierce desire,</div> <div>           And find in her my dream, complete, entire, </div> <div>           Child, mother, mistress-all in one word-Wife.</div> <bR> <div>      Some may be wondering, why is it necessary that a poem of pure passion and love be in the Bible?  Simply because every age is an age of lust, and men of every age need a reminder that all that lust offers can be gained and maintained on a far superior level through love.  </div> <bR> <div> II.  LOVE IS EXALTING.   Lust degrades, but love exalts.  The Song of Solomon by its promotion of love over lust was a radical step in the exaltation of women.  When lust reigns, as it did in Solomon's world, women are mere toys.  When love reigns, as in this Song, women rise, not only to the level of men, but higher, where they become an inspiration to lift men's vision toward the love of God.  A beautiful and pure woman is called an angel because she is like a heavenly being whose love can lead a man to spiritual heights.  Most of the ancient world had a low view of women.  A good one was rare, and the question of Proverbs was, who can find a virtuous woman?  They were degraded, and used like work animals.  They were mere sex objects, and few would ever think of praising a woman in the ancient world.  An ancient Arab said it in poetry:</div> <bR> <div>           Whenever you're in doubt, said a sage I once knew,</div> <div>           Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,</div> <div>           Ask a woman's advice, and whate'er she advise,</div> <div>           Do the very reverse, and you're sure to wise.</div> <bR> <div>      Most women were thought to be immoral, and not to be trusted.  Bathsheba, the wife of a lowly soldier, submitted to the enticement of the king.  It was no shock to people.  They doubtless would expect as much.  But here in the Song of Solomon, the very son of Bathsheba is trying to repeat the folly of his father David, but instead, he finds resistance, and a woman whose loyalty to love is unbreakable.  This Song is in great contrast to the songs of the ancient world.  It says, in effect, that if men would love women, rather than use them as mere objects of lust, they become a part of God's plan to  exalt the whole race through the lifting power of pure love.  Where love is real, women are God's greatest creation.  </div> <bR> <div>           O woman, lovely woman, nature made you</div> <div>           to temper man:  we had been brutes without you;</div> <div>           Angels are painted fair to look like you;</div> <div>           there's in you all that we believe of heaven,</div> <div>           Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,</div> <div>           Eternal joy, and everlasting love.</div> <bR> <div>      The Song of Solomon, by exalting true love, exalts women, and by exalting women it raises the level of men from lust to love, and true love on the romantic level opens the door to the possibility of experiencing the love of God.  </div> <bR> <div>      Sex is the frosting on the cake of love.  Like frosting, it is to make the whole cake attractive so we will eat it.  Children will often scoop off the frosting, and leave the cake.</div> <div> This is what immature people do when they separate sex from love.  After awhile the sweet frosting gets nauseating, and they fear they are not in love.  They haven't even really tasted love, but have only skimmed the surface, and have stayed on the level of lust.</div> <div> Lust we have in common with the animals, and love we have in common with God.  If we do not add the Godly dimension of love to our relationship, we  miss God's best of what he intended for us on the level of romantic love.  Lust leaves people feeling let down, but love lifts and makes them feel fulfilled.  Roy Craft wrote,</div> <bR> <div>                           I love you, </div> <div>                                  Not only for what you are,</div> <div>                                  But for what I am,</div> <div>                                  When I am with you.</div> <bR> <div>      If we move from the romantic level of life to the religious level we see the same characteristics are true of love for God.  A true love for God is exclusive and exalting.</div> <div> We are commanded to love God with our whole being.  We are to love Him so exclusively that nothing outside of the will of God can find any room in our lives.  The drive that leads people into the occult, and all sorts of weird man made religions, is spiritual lust.  It is the desire for spiritual reality and power solely for the sake of the self.  Men like the supernatural to serve them and meet their needs, and this is simply spiritual lust and not love.  Lust only wants the other, not for the sake of the other, but for the sake of self.</div> <div> Many want God for what He can do for them, not because they love Him for Himself, and desire to serve Him, and be like Him.  </div> <bR> <div>      True love on any level cries out with the Shulamite girl to her lover, "Draw me, we will run after thee and rejoice in thee."  Here is desire to be with the lover and delight in him for himself.  Love exalts the lover, and true spiritual love for Christ will acknowledge Him as Lord of life, and desire to let Him be sovereign over one's life. </div> <bR> <div>           Jesus, Thy boundless love to me</div> <div>                No thought can reach, no tongue declare;</div> <div>           O knit my thankful heart to Thee, </div> <div>               And reign without a rival there.</div> <bR> <div>      Submissive love like that leads to exaltation, and those who so yield to Christ prove their love is real.  They have the joy of knowing the truth that love is better than wine.</div> <div> Paul said we are not to be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit.  You can be filled with the Spirit by being filled with love for the Lover of our souls.  We ought to begin each day with these loving words of longing to Christ-draw me.   </div> <div>      </div> <bR> <div>           </div> <div>           </div> <bR> <div> <B>BLACK BUT BEAUTIFUL  Based on Song of Songs 1:5</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      A woman who stalled at the corner watched the traffic light go from red to yellow to green, and again, red, yellow, green.  After several times a policeman went up to the </div> <div> side of the car and said politely, "What's the matter lady, ain't we got any colors you like?"  She didn't have any choice, but when we do have a choice, colors make a big difference in whether we go or stay, in many ways.  Color determines most of our </div> <div> shopping habits.  </div> <bR> <div>      A meat market which had sold the choices meats for years had its display room repainted.  The management expected an increase in business as a result.  Instead, business began to fall off.  They called in experts to find out why.  A color specialist detected the problem.  It was their color scheme.  They had painted the walls bright </div> <div> yellow, not realizing that when you look at red after looking at yellow, there is a blue </div> <div> after image.  People looked at the red meat and it looked bluish.  This made them </div> <div> think it was spoiling, and they bought less.  After they painted the walls blue-green,</div> <div> the red looked redder than ever, and sales went up.  </div> <bR> <div>      Studies have proven that color has a very definite psychological effect on what</div> <div> we enjoy in life.  Food must look good to us to taste good.  An experimental banquet</div> <div> was arranged with the most appetizing foods available for all the guests.  Special</div> <div> lights were installed so the colors of the food were changed.  The steaks were gray,</div> <div> the celery pink, the eggs blue, the milk blood-red, and coffee was yellow.  Most of</div> <div> the guests lost their appetite immediately, and those who forced themselves to eat</div> <div> became ill afterward.  The food would have been enjoyed under proper lighting, but</div> <div> the mirror change in color made it unpalatable.  It proved that we eat with our eyes</div> <div> as well as with the sense of taste and smell.  </div> <bR> <div>      Color effects us in numerous ways.  We are programmed to respond to certain colors </div> <div> in certain ways by our training.  Red can make a bull charge, for it stirs up the emotion</div> <div> of anger.  The same thing use to happen to a zealous anti-Communist when he saw the </div> <div> red flag.  Red is a color that stirs up emotion.  It is a action color.  A man who drives a </div> <div> bright red car is telling us something of how he feels.  He wants to be on the move, </div> <div> and like a red fire engine, he wants to be where the action is.  Nobody ever paints the </div> <div> town green.  It is always red, for red, like fire, is wild and on the move.</div> <bR> <div>      Green, on the other hand, is the color of rest.  The quietness of the cemetery is in </div> <div> the color green.  Forest Lawn and Gardens of Rest are names connected with green and</div> <div> grass.  Dr. C. W. Valentine in Psychology Of Beauty, tells of a test in London which </div> <div> revealed that red is the favorite color of youth, but green advances in rank right along</div> <div> as people get older, until it becomes number 1.  The older people get the more they </div> <div> delight in rest, and the more they prefer the color green.  F. W. Borham, the great </div> <div> Australian preacher, said when Mrs. Alexander wrote the song, A Green Hill Far Away,</div> <div> "She displayed a flash of real psychological and spiritual insight.  Calvary allures the </div> <div> weary.   Tried hearts love the lawn."  </div> <bR> <div>      The Bible is full of color symbolism.  From the rainbow above the Ark of Noah to the</div> <div> rainbow around the throne of God, the Bible is a book of color.  It is like Joseph's coat</div> <div> of many colors.  How we think about color is important, for this affects our attitude and</div> <div> our actions.</div> <bR> <div>                It's what you think that makes the world</div> <div>                     Seem sad or gay to you;</div> <div>                Your mind may color all things gray,</div> <div>                     Or make them radiant hue.</div> <bR> <div>      This is especially true for us to day when we think of the color black.  To some, </div> <div>  black is beautiful, but to others it is ugly.  In our study of the Song of Songs we will </div> <div> come across many descriptions of the male and female lovers, but it is of interest </div> <div> that the first reference, here in verse 5, is a reference to color.  The Shulamite girl</div> <div> says, "I am black but comely."  She is saying, I am black but beautiful.  What </div> <div> commentators see here all depends on how they interpret color.  If black always </div> <div> means evil to you, then you will see here, as many do, a negative description.  Black</div> <div> has come to be associated with sin and evil.  We have terms like black market, black</div> <div> magic, black sheep, black list, black balled, and on and on it goes with black always</div> <div> as a negative color.</div> <bR> <div>      William Pannell, a black staff member of Youth For Christ, says, the very language</div> <div> we use hinders race relations among Christians.  In Sunday school classes teachers</div> <div> will put a row of little black figures, he says, and explain that these are the sinners,</div> <div> and black represents the sinful heart.  It is no wonder that children grow up with a </div> <div> fear of black people, when this color is always associated with what is evil.  John</div> <div> Hefley, who wrote a story of Wycliff Translators, suggests that Christians ought to </div> <div> stop using black in a way that the Bible does not use it, for it promotes prejudice.  </div> <div>  </div> <div>      The color of sin in the Bible is not black, it is scarlet.  Isa. 1:18 says, "Come now,</div> <div> let us reason together says the Lord:  Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be </div> <div> white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."  The </div> <div> contrast is not between black and white, but red and white.  White is very clearly a </div> <div> color which is symbolic of purity and righteousness.  In heaven the saints will wear the</div> <div> white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.  However, just as black can be both </div> <div> negative and positive, so white also can be negative and evil.  The white spots of </div> <div> leprosy were terribly frightening, and there were many laws to avoid any contact with</div> <div> this whiteness which was unclean.  Jesus in Matt. 23:27 says, "Woe to you, scribes </div> <div> and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like white washed tombs, which outwardly </div> <div> appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness."  Paul</div> <div> said to the high priest in Acts 23:3, "God shall strike you, you white washed wall."  </div> <bR> <div>      When it comes t color symbolism, we must recognize that the meaning can very with</div> <div> the context.  Centuries ago St. Bernard recognized this when he preached on this black</div> <div> but beautiful girl.  He said, "Not everything which is black is necessarily on that account</div> <div> ill-favored.  For instance, blackness in the pupil of the eyes is not unbecoming.  There</div> <div> are black gems which are highly prized in ornaments, while black hair contrasted with </div> <div> a pale complexion augments the beauty and charm of the face."  </div> <bR> <div>      Numerous commentators fail to see this girl is dark because of a deep suntan, and so</div> <div> they see a negative in her black skin.  Today women will lie in the sun for hours to get</div> <div> their white skin darker, because it is a sign of greater activity and beauty.  The </div> <div> Shulamite girl was a farmer girl.  She worked out in the sun, and she was a great </div> <div> contrast to the ladies of Solomon's court, who were sheltered and lily white.  They </div> <div> looked upon her as radically different because of her dark skin.  She does somewhat </div> <div> apologize for her skin.  She explains why it was she got so much sun.  It is folly to read</div> <div> into this that she is confessing that she is sinful, and that her black skin refers to that </div> <div> fact.  However, numerous commentators insist that black is evil and that this is a confession of her sinful nature.  Lebotz, a modern commentator writes, "A true picture of the natural man living in the natural light, not realizing that daily he becomes blacker and more stained with sin."  </div> <bR> <div>      Matthew Henry also sees here a reference to the church, blackened by sin, failure,</div> <div> and sorrow.  The black but beautiful is a reference to being black by nature, but </div> <div> beautiful because of redemption from that sinful nature.  The poet puts this view-</div> <bR> <div>                I'm sinful, yet I have no sin;</div> <div>                     All spotted o'er, yet wholly clean.</div> <div>                Blackness and beauty both I share,</div> <div>                     A hellish black; a heavenly fair.</div> <bR> <div>      The problem with always finding a sinful meaning in the color black is that if you </div> <div> are consistent, you end up contaminating even our sinless Savior, for later on in this</div> <div> love song there is the famous passage which describes the Shepherd lover, who is </div> <div> symbolic of our Lord.  In 5:11 it says of him, "His head is the finest gold, his locks</div> <div> are wavy, black as a raven."  He is tall, dark, and handsome, this lover, who is </div> <div> fairest among ten thousand.  Black is beautiful here, and can never be seen as any-</div> <div> thing other than beautiful.  There is no way to connect this black with sin.  </div> <bR> <div>       The Shulamite girl may have been self-conscious about her scorched skin before</div> <div> all the pale beauties in Solomon's court, but her lover does not consider it a defect.</div> <div> In verse 8 he calls her the fairest among women.  Her dark skin set her apart as far</div> <div> as was concerned, and in verse 9, which many feel is Solomon's flattery to her, he too</div> <div> is impressed with her beauty, and detects no defect in her darkness.  An ancient poem</div> <div> shows that men saw beauty in dark skin, even if some pale women didn't like it.  </div> <div> Theocritus wrote, </div> <bR> <div>                Charming Bambyce, thought some call you thin,</div> <div>                And blame the tawny color of your skin;</div> <div>                Yet I the luster of your beauty own</div> <div>                And deem you like Hyblaem honey-brown.</div> <bR> <div>      In the light of the male response to the beauty of the Shulamite, the apology for her</div> <div> blackness has to be seen in the context of her speaking to the daughter of Jerusalem.</div> <div> Then, it can be seen that she is simply saying, do not scorn me.  I know I have been </div> <div> over exposed, and I am not as feminine looking as you.  I am a country girl, and you are city girls.  I have had to labor under difficult conditions.  She describes how her angry brothers forced her to keep the vineyards.  She is like poor Cinderella who is stuck  with the menial jobs, and she is all dirty and unkempt, while the others prepare for the ball.</div> <bR> <div>      It is unfair, and abuse of Scripture to give symbolic meaning to words that are being</div> <div> used literally, and not as symbols.  As a symbol, the whole world agrees that black stands</div> <div> for the negative, and white stands for the positive.  All races use white as a positive </div> <div> symbol.  Even the black tribes of Africa use white to symbolize wisdom and purity.  The </div> <div> blacks of Northern Rhodesia associate good luck with white, and misfortune with black.</div> <div> In other words, as symbols, even the blacks use black as negative and white as positive.</div> <div> However, when color is not being used as a symbol, but simply as a fact, it can be use-</div> <div> ful and beautiful even if it is black.  Yellow when used symbolically means chicken or</div> <div> cowardly, but who because of that will deny the beauty of yellow in the flowers of </div> <div> creation, or in the beauty that man can produce with yellow?  So it is with black.  Black</div> <div> print on white paper is the foundation for most all of our reading, including the Bible.</div> <div> What color is the Word of God?  It is black in most Bibles.  God's truth reaches our</div> <div> minds primary though black words.  No one feels black in this context has any symbolic</div> <div> meaning that is negative.  Covers of Bibles are often black, and no one sees any</div> <div> relationship to the negative or evil.  </div> <bR> <div>      Since there is not the slightest hint in the context to indicate any negative meaning,</div> <div> and since the males in the story feel the Shulamite is a flawless beauty, it is wrong to</div> <div> read into this use of black the sin and evil that so many commentators do.  She is simply</div> <div> sensitive to her deep suntan in comparison to the whiteness of the ladies of the court.</div> <div> Positive thoughts should be read into the text, rather than negative ones that </div> <div> encourage the problem of prejudice.  Instead of seeing black in conflict with white,</div> <div> we should look at how they compliment each other.  </div> <bR> <div>      When Piccard first went up into the stratosphere he used a black gondola.  Black</div> <div> absorbs heat, and the result was, the temperature in the gondola went up to 100 degrees.</div> <div> On his second trip he used a white gondola, and because white reflects heat the </div> <div> temperature went below the freezing point.  After that, gondolas were made half </div> <div> black and half white.  The black absorbed enough heat to keep it warm, and the white</div> <div> reflected enough heat to keep it from getting too warm.  Black and white together </div> <div> gave the needed balance for comfort.</div> <bR> <div>      What color is appropriate does not depend upon their symbolic meaning, but upon</div> <div> what their function is in God's natural law.  God made both black and white useful for</div> <div> different things.  Since black absorbs heat, members of polar expeditions learned that </div> <div> they could keep their drinking water from freezing by painting the water bags black.</div> <div> The outside air could be 20 below zero, yet the black bags would absorb the heat of </div> <div> the sun, and keep the water unfrozen.  It was a life saver, and many an explorer could</div> <div> look at his dull water bag and honestly say, "Black but beautiful."  </div> <bR> <div>      On the hand, if heat is the problem, then white is the color for comfort.  White horses do not suffer from the heat like black ones do.  Black beauty may have been black but beautiful, but the Lone Ranger's white stallion felt more beautiful on a hot day.  When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, those who were wearing white clothing were not burned nearly as bad as those with colored clothes.  White had the power to reflect even the terrific heat of an atomic explosion.  People who wore patterns were burned deep, but white garments gave only surface burns.  </div> <bR> <div>      This fact about color and heat may very well explain why all creatures in heaven wear white.  Angels are always portrayed in white, and the saints in heaven will be clothed in white.  This is not only because of the symbolic meaning of purity, but for protection from the glory of God.  Without white we would be consumed by His infinite glory.  It is only speculation, of course, but the very heat of hell could be caused by the fact that the lost are not clothed with the white robes of righteousness, but with the dark and filthy rags of their own sinfulness.  Their blackened souls burn with the absorbed heat from the glory of God.  Just as the sun is the source of both the life of the garden, and the death of the desert, so God's glory is the source of both the light of heaven, and the heat of hell.  What we know about the nature of colors supports this speculation.</div> <bR> <div>      Symbolically, Jesus became black that we might be cleansed and be made white.</div> <div> In II Cor. 5:21 we read, "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."  Jesus became black with our sin,</div> <div> and took upon Himself the heat of hell that we might receive garments washed in His blood, and made white, which protects us from that heat.  We are to be ever getting whiter as Christians until we are, as the Bride of Christ, without spot or wrinkle, and ready to face the fullness of His glory.  In II Cor. 3:18 Paul says, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another."  </div> <bR> <div>      This means that even though the believer is still tainted with sin, and not yet ready to enter the marriage banquet, he is seen as black but beautiful in the eyes of Him who is the fairest of ten thousand.  Many in His body are literally black, but apart of His Bride is also red, yellow, and white, because Christ is the author of all colors.  He does not look on the outward appearance, but He looks on the heart, and His love is not in any way determined by color.  Christ died for all colors, and therefore, no matter what the color, or how dark the past, those who put their trust in Christ are in His eyes always black but beautiful.  </div> <bR> <div>      </div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B>WHAT IS BEAUTY  Based on Song of Songs 1:15-16</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      Every woman wants to be beautiful, and that is why the beauty business is a seven billion dollar a year industry, and the largest advertiser in America.  American women actually worship beauty.  They will do almost anything to attain it, including fasting if it is necessary.  They will try anything, and the result is sometimes tragic.  In his book,</div> <div> Love In America, David Cohn writes, "These martyrs to physical beauty are buried or hustled to hospitals while millions of their sisters, quite undaunted, continue their fanatically persistent search for the perfect figure, grimly making their way through tasteless diets, gymnasiums, dancing classes, and plastics surgeon's offices with a fatalistic tenacity unmatched except by lemmings marching to destruction."  </div> <bR> <div>      Why do women have this drive to be beautiful?  The answer is very simple-men.</div> <div> A woman's deepest desire is to be attractive to men, and her greatest fear is to lack that attraction.  This leads to all kinds of vanity.  A woman came to a pastor and confessed she had a problem with the sin of pride.  She said, "Sometimes I sit before my mirror for hours admiring my beauty."  The pastor responded, "That is not the sin of pride.  Your problem is an over active imagination."  </div> <bR> <div>      Many women imagine they are beautiful because they try all the gimmicks, and use all the products that promise beauty.  Arlene Dahl has taken a more logical approach.</div> <div> She wrote a book titled, Always Ask A Man.  She spent years asking men what they</div> <div> felt made a woman beautiful.  She says that by listening to men you can learn what qualities every Adam looks for in his Eve.  She learned that the ideals of men vary, </div> <div> but she writes, "But without exception-every man put one quality above all others in describing his ideal.  That one essential attribute which all men seek and admire in a woman is femininity."  She then quotes a host of famous men on the subject, and shows</div> <div> that they all agree.  Yul Brynner summed it all up, "Simply femininity is the most important thing about a woman, and it is a quality a great many women are in jeopardy of losing.  Women are being emancipated out of their femininity in this modern age."</div> <bR> <div>      It is not just modern men who feel this way about feminine beauty.  We can go back to Washington, the father of our country, and discover the same feelings.  We so often see George Washington in cold stone, or metal statues, that we seldom think of him as a man with warm affections, and a love of beauty.  From his youth he struggled with his passions for pretty girls, and he wrote a poem about it.</div> <bR> <div>                O ye gods, why should my poor resistless heart</div> <div>                    Stand to oppose thy might and power,</div> <div>                At last surrender to Cupid's feathered dart,</div> <div>                    And now lays bleeding every hour.</div> <bR> <div>      He fell in love several times, but his proposals for marriage were refused.  We have other poems he wrote to his sweethearts.  When he fell in love with a widow, Martha </div> <div> Custis, he finally found one who would marry him, and they had a great love, and a great life together.  So passionate was their love that before she died Martha Washington destroyed all his letters to her, for she felt such love deserved to be kept</div> <div> secret.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Song of Solomon, however, records for us the universal experience of love, </div> <div> and the universal love of beauty.  The Shepherd lover of this great song feels toward his shepherd maiden just like men have always felt about the women they love.  Throughout the song he praises her feminine charms, and expresses delight in every aspect of her beauty.  He makes it clear that beauty does include the physical, for he describes how he adores her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, neck, and breasts.  All of these are described in the first few verses of chapter 4.</div> <bR> <div>      Beauty is not only in the eyes of the beholder, but is an objective reality visible to all.  Someone said the average man can tell all he knows in 2 hours, and after that, he begins to talk about women.  Men do not claim to understand women, but they do understand beauty.  A man does not need to know anything about flowers to appreciate and enjoy them.  So also, ignorance cannot rob men of the one thing they do know about women, and that is their beauty. </div> <bR> <div>      Abraham loved Sarah, and she was beautiful to him, but he knew other men could see her beauty as well, and so when he went to Egypt he said to her in Gen. 12:11, </div> <div> "I know that you are a woman beautiful to behold, and when the Egyptians see you,</div> <div> they will say, this is his wife, then they will kill me, but they will let you live."  He persuaded her to say she was his sister.  The text goes on to say the Egyptians thought Sarah was so beautiful, so they told Pharaoh, and he took her into his harem.  She was spared, however, and God saw to it she was returned to Abraham undefiled.  Beauty,</div> <div> we see here, was objective, and could be the cause of a great deal of trouble in the life of a woman, or in the life of a man who marries her.</div> <bR> <div>      Confucius was at least partially right when he said, "She who is born beautiful is born with sorrow for many a man."  Uriah got himself murdered because he married </div> <div> the beautiful Bathsheba.  I remember an old Abbott and Costello film in which Lou Costello was determined to marry a homely girl.  He said, "If I marry a pretty girl she may run away."  Abbott thinks that is stupid logic and says, "But a homely girl may run away too."  "I know," said Costello, "But if a homely girl runs away, who cares?"</div> <bR> <div>      Beauty can be a problem, but it can also be a blessing.  In Esther 2:7 we read of her,</div> <div> "The maiden was beautiful and lovely."  In her case, many lives were saved because of her beauty.  The Jews would have suffered a great slaughter had it not been for the kings love for this beautiful woman.  The Jews celebrate to this day a yearly feast in </div> <div> remembrance of their deliverance because of a beautiful woman.  The Jews have always had a very positive attitude toward the beauty of women.  Ibn Ezra said, </div> <div> "Rather little with beauty than much without it."  Ben Siriach said, "The beauty of a woman maketh bright the countenance," and, "As the lamp shining on the holy candlestick, so is the beauty of a face on a stately figure."  </div> <bR> <div>      We could go on stressing the importance the Old Testament gives to beauty in a woman, but to relate it all to our passage in the Song of Songs, we need to see that beauty is not limited to the feminine.  Males can also be beautiful.  In I Sam. 16:12</div> <div> we read of David, "Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome."</div> <div> His son Absolom was even more so, for we read in II Sam. 14:25, "Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his beauty as Absolom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him." </div> <bR> <div>       Beauty is a two way street and covers both male and female.  This is what we see in the 15th and 16th verses of this first chapter. In verse 15 the Shepherd says to the Shulamite girl, "Behold you are beautiful, my love, behold you are beautiful."  The repetition is a method of expressing superlative and surpassing beauty.  In verse16,</div> <div> most commentators agree, we have her response, and she returns the compliment,</div> <div> behold, you are beautiful my beloved."  Leigh Hunt said, "The beautiful attracts the beautiful."  Here are two beautiful people trying to out do each other in expressing their adoration.  This is the kind of mutual love and admiration we see between the lovers in this greatest of songs.  Beauty is one of the themes that runs all through this song, because beauty and love go together, and that is why beauty, like love, is a great power.  </div> <bR> <div>      Beauty can motivate both men and women to live lives of loyalty and sacrifice.</div> <div> When Paul wrote to the Philippians he said in 4:8, "Whatever is lovely, whatever is</div> <div> gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about</div> <div> these things."  Paul probably did not have lovely looking people in mind, but the fact </div> <div> is, the power of positive thinking is aided by the beauty of people.  Power can be used </div> <div> for good or evil, and so the devil himself uses the power of beauty, for he can be an angel of light.  The world is full of beautiful lights and beautiful places to lure people into the ugliness of sin.  Evil cannot succeed on its own.  It must make use of something good to </div> <div> get anywhere, and that is why beauty is one of its primary resources.  </div> <bR> <div>      Nevertheless, it is God who is the author of beauty, and it is a great power for good.</div> <div> Joanna Bailie wrote, </div> <div>                To make the cunning artless, tame the rude,</div> <div>                Subdue the haughty, shake the undaunted soul;</div> <div>                Yea, put a bridal in the lion's mouth, </div> <div>                And lead him forth as a domestic cur,</div> <div>                These are the triumphs of all-powerful Beauty!</div> <bR> <div>      Micheal Angelo said of his love, that her beauty led him up from low desires and made </div> <div> him want to strive for heaven's best.  He said, "How good, how beautiful must be the God</div> <div> that made so good a thing as thee."  History is full of great men of God whose greatness,</div> <div> in part, was due to their love of one they felt was beautiful.  Johnathan Edwards, the </div> <div> giant intellect, had some awful burdens to bear.  Without his wife Sarah it is doubtful he </div> <div> could have survived his trials.  He was so captivated by her beauty that he wrote to her</div> <div> concerning a speedy wedding, "Patience is commonly esteemed a virtue, but in this case</div> <div> I may also regard it as a vice." </div> <bR> <div>       The beauty he saw was physical, but love does deepen the beauty of lovers so that it is far more than a mere matter of the skin.  That beauty is only skin deep is a skin deep saying.  External beauty is for attraction, but it is internal beauty that will bind two people together even when age or circumstances rob them of the external.  Lasting beauty is inner beauty, and that is why Peter urged Christian women not to labor for surface beauty, but to beautify the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit.  Sir Hunt wrote,</div> <bR> <div>                What is beauty?  Not a show</div> <div>                of shapely limbs and features. No.</div> <div>                       These are but flowers</div> <div>                       That have their dated hours</div> <div>                To breathe their momentary sweets, then go.</div> <div>                       Tis the stainless soul within</div> <div>                       That outshines the fairest skin.</div> <bR> <div>      The French say, "Beauty without virtue is a flower without perfume."  Capito said,</div> <div> "Beauty alone may please, not captivate; If lacking grace, tis but a hookless bait."  We </div> <div> must recognize that the real power of beauty depends upon its depth.  If it does not go </div> <div> into the very heart of the person, then however enchanting the external beauty, it will </div> <div> not have a lasting effect.  This is not just a Christian teaching, but has been recognized</div> <div> by all wise men.  The ancient Greek poet Euripides said, "More precious in a woman is</div> <div> a virtuous heart than a face of beauty."  Not only is the virtuous heart a vital element,</div> <div> but intelligence is also an important part of a truly beautiful person.  The surface specialist forgets this aspect of beauty.  Margaret Fishbeck wrote, "Women are wacky.  Women </div> <div> are vain.  They'd rather be pretty than have a good brain."  </div> <bR> <div>      If the internal aspects of beauty are neglected, and only the externals are emphasized,</div> <div> beauty becomes a negative thing, and a source of vanity.  That is why Prov. 31:30 says,</div> <div> "Charm is deceitful and  beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."</div> <div> The beauty that has the power to please God is the beauty of mind and soul.  It is still</div> <div> true, however, that external beauty is a great value and power.  The Shepherd lover says</div> <div> to the Shulamite girl that her eyes are doves.  He repeats this again later.  He is deeply </div> <div> moved by the beauty of her eyes.  In love poetry the eyes are a key focus of attention.</div> <div> Heine wrote, </div> <bR> <div>                Two sapphires those dear eyes of thine,</div> <div>                     Soft as the skies above thee;</div> <div>                Thrice happy is the man to whom </div> <div>                     Those dear eyes say:  I love thee.</div> <bR> <div>      The reference here to eyes like a dove refers to their gentleness and purity.  The dove</div> <div> has meek and gentle eyes.  They are very feminine, and not like the fierce eyes of the </div> <div> hawk or vulture.  The dove is symbolic of the Holy Spirit because of its affectionate nature</div> <div> and fidelity of its mate.  The spirit of a woman is reflected in her eyes.  Byron wrote,</div> <bR> <div>                She walks in beauty like the night</div> <div>                of cloudless climes and starry skies;</div> <div>                and all that's best of dark and bright</div> <div>                meet in her aspect and her eyes.</div> <bR> <div>      All Christians should have beautiful eyes.  If the spirit of Christ is allowed to fill us,</div> <div> then the dove-like gentleness of the Holy Spirit should fill our eyes with love.  As we </div> <div> look at the love language of this song, it is so easy to forget that though it deals with </div> <div> literal lovers, it also has reference to the spiritual love of Christ and His church.  This means that beauty is an important aspect of the Christian life.  Jesus is the author of all </div> <div> beauty, and He loves beauty, and especially the beauty of people who are being conformed </div> <div> to His image.  He became ugly for a while as He went through the agony of the cross that </div> <div> we might become beautiful forever.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus was a beautiful person Himself.  Many fail to realize this because of a misunder-</div> <div> standing of one passage in Isa. 53:2 which says, "He had no form or comeliness that we</div> <div> should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him."  Some have concluded </div> <div> that Jesus must have been homely, but the context makes it clear that this refers to Jesus</div> <div> only in His hour of rejection when He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  </div> <div> Before the cross all the evidence points to Jesus as being one of the most handsome</div> <div> of men ever to live.  John Gill, the great Puritan commentator, referring to the virgin birth </div> <div> of Christ, "As it was free from sin, so was no doubt free from all the blemishes and defects</div> <div> of nature.....and in this sense, ...may He be said to be fairer than the children of Adam."</div> <div> No sacrifice could be offered to the Lord if it was not perfect and without blemish.  Jesus</div> <div> was the perfect once for all sacrifice for the sins of the world, and He, therefore, had to </div> <div> be a perfect specimen of mankind.  </div> <bR> <div>       The body of Jesus is the ideal toward which we all move, for we shall ultimately be </div> <div> like Him.  When we sing, "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me," it is true, we think of</div> <div> His internal beauty, but the fact is, in glory, when we are like Him, it will be a likeness</div> <div> also to His external beauty.  Jesus was the brightness of His Father's glory, and the expressed image of His person.  It is not likely Jesus had any defect in His body, or anything that would be inconsistent with the image of God.  All people were drawn to Him.</div> <div> Women and children, and great husky fishermen were moved by His charm and personality.  He was an ideal man, and nothing in Scripture indicates otherwise.  If I see</div> <div> a person known for their beauty who has been in an accident, and I come and tell you </div> <div> they look terrible, you would not conclude that that person was ugly.  You would know that</div> <div> the accident had marred them, and made them ugly to behold.  So it is with Christ on the</div> <div> cross.  His beauty was marred by man's cruelty, but He was a beautiful person before the</div> <div> cross, and a beautiful person after His resurrection.  </div> <bR> <div>      We do not have a homely lover of our souls on the throne of majesty.  One day we will</div> <div> see the King in His beauty and behold His glory.  Even now Paul says the light of the </div> <div> knowledge of the glory of God is given us in the face of Jesus Christ.  There is great power</div> <div> in the beauty of Christ to move us to acts of love, and to transform us into His likeness.</div> <div> The hymn says,</div> <bR> <div>           Jesus!  I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art;</div> <div>           I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.</div> <div>           Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul;</div> <div>           For, by Thine transforming power Thou hast made me whole.</div> <bR> <div>      Whether it be a romantic or a religious love, there is no escaping the importance of </div> <div> beauty.  Men must be attracted by beauty before they can love.  If Jesus can look at us</div> <div> like the Shepherd looked at the Shulamite girl, and say we are beautiful, and our eyes are</div> <div> doves, then we are beautiful people.  We are people whose life and attitude express the gentle love of the Holy Spirit.  If we find the fire of love is going out, and we do not care </div> <div> for those for whom Christ died, then we need to get a spiritual beauty treatment, and pray,</div> <bR> <div>                Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,</div> <div>                     With all thy quickening powers;</div> <div>                Kindle a flame of heavenly love</div> <div>                     In these cold hearts of ours.</div> <bR> <div>      We can get by without beauty of body, but there is no substitute of beauty of soul.</div> <div> D. L. Moody in his book, Secret Power said, "A man may be a very successful lawyer</div> <div> and no love for his clients...a man may be a very successful physician and have no love</div> <div> for his patients...a man may be a very successful merchant and have no love for his</div> <div> customers.....but no man can be a co-worker with God without love.....We cannot work</div> <div> for God without love.  It is the only tree that can produce fruit on this sin-cursed earth</div> <div> that is acceptable to God."       </div> <bR> <div>      George Pinwell painted a famous picture he called, The Elixir Of Love.  A charlatan</div> <div> is standing in the village square offering for sale a love potion which he guarantees will</div> <div> awaken love, and make you beautiful to your lover.  Young lovers are crowded around</div> <div> wondering if it can be true.  Older people purchased some in expectation that it will bring</div> <div> back the glow of love's younger days.  People of all kinds are portrayed as being hungry</div> <div> for a taste of that which will make them beautiful.  With keen spiritual insight the artist</div> <div> represents the charlatan standing at the foot of the village cross.  Above him the arms of</div> <div> the cross are stretched out, symbolic of the all encompassing love of Christ who longs </div> <div> to make all men beautiful before God, by forgiving and cleansing from sin.  None give</div> <div> heed, however, but go on buying that which will not satisfy. </div> <bR> <div>       Beauty is possible for all, but what is beauty?  It is Christlikeness, and can only be attained by those who love Christ and adore Him as the Shulamite girl did her Shepherd lover.  A loyal love is not only beautiful in itself, it is the key to growth in beauty.  Loving people are beautiful people.  Just as we have an obligation to be loving, we  have an obligation to be beautiful, and being loving and beautiful means to be like Christ.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THE FRAGRANCE OF LOVE  Based on Song of Songs 1:1-17</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      Napoleon and Josephine adored violets.  She often wore the extremely expensive</div> <div> violet scented perfume as her trade mark.  Only the wealthiest people could afford it.</div> <div> When she died in 1814, Napoleon planted violets at her grave, and just before his exile to St. Helena he made a pilgrimage to it.  He picked some of the violets and put them in</div> <div> a locket which he wore around his neck to the end of  his life.  Here were lovers who were linked by their noses, and a special fragrance kept that memory of their love alive even after death.  </div> <bR> <div>      Solomon would not be surprised by this, for his love song is filled with the fragrance of love.  From the beginning to the end the nose is playing a prominent role in the romance.</div> <div> Solomon may not have known that we breathe about 23,000 times a day and move 438 cubic feet of air.  He may not have known that man is capable of detecting over 10,000 different odors, but Solomon knew that the sense of smell has more to do with love than most people ever dream of.  His love song is filled with perfume, incense, fragrant spices, flower and spring garden smells of all kinds, and also the smells of trees, plants and fruits.</div> <div> I doubt if there are so many references to romantic smells, in so short a space, in any literature on earth.</div> <div>   </div> <div>      Rather surprising is the fact that the first reference to perfume refers to the male.</div> <div> In verse 3 the female lover says pleasing is the fragrance of your perfume.  Not only is his wearing of perfume surprising, but it is plural-perfumes.  The male lover has more than one kind, and he is giving her multiple pleasant sensations.  The mystery is easily solved by a study of the role of perfume in the ancient world.  We use deodorants, after shave, and cologne today, but we are conservatives compared to the ancient world where men use more perfume than women do in our day. </div> <bR> <div>       John Trevenar in, The Romantic Story of Scent writes, "The men of the ancient world were clean and scented."  Keep in mind, we are talking about the Biblical world where it was hot and dusty, and you could perspire at the drop of a toga.  Smelling good was so much of a part of that world that we have detailed records of how they perfumed themselves, and even washed their clothes in perfume.  Two of the three gifts the wise men brought to Jesus were frankincense and myrrh.  These were two of the oldest and most expensive perfumes in the ancient world.  When Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt they were hot, and Joseph would have used as much of the perfume as Mary, for it was vital to a man to smell good.  </div> <bR> <div>      We could spend hours just looking at the evidence to confirm the reality of Solomon's song, but let me just share one paragraph from Diane Ackerman's, A Natural History Of The Senses, which was published in 1990.  </div> <bR> <div>      Ancient he-men were heavily perfumed.  In a way, strong scents</div> <div>      widened their presence, extended their territory.  In the pre-Greek</div> <div>      culture of Crete, athletes anointed themselves with specific aromatic</div> <div>      oils before the games.  Greek writers of around 400BC recommended </div> <div>      mint for the arms, thyme for the knees, cinnamon, rose, or palm oil</div> <div>      for the jaws and chest, almond oil for the hands and feet, and marjoram</div> <div>      for the hair and eyebrows.  Egyptian men, attending a dinner party</div> <div>      would receive garlands of flowers and their choice of perfumes at</div> <div>      the door.  Flower petals would be scattered underfoot,  so they could</div> <div>      make a fragrance stir when guests trod on them.  Statues at these</div> <div>      banquets often spurted scented water from their several orifices. </div> <div>      Before retiring, a man would crush solid perfume until it was an</div> <div>      oily powder and scatter it onto his bed so that he could absorb its</div> <div>      scent while he slept.  Homer describes the obligatory courtesy</div> <div>      of offering visitors a bath and aromatic oils.  Alexander the Great</div> <div>      was a lavish user of both perfumes and incense, and was fond </div> <div>      enough of saffron to have his tunics soaked in its essence.</div> <bR> <div>      Her elaborate research has led to dozens of pages of this kind of information, yet she </div> <div> says, as a world authority on odors, "The most scent-drenched poem of all times is the </div> <div> Song of Solomon."  This song makes the fragrance of love a major issue, and Christians who do not heed this revelation lose a valuable tip.  For centuries Christians ignored this book and did not take it seriously.  They developed the idea that it was worldly to use perfume and smell good.  They felt it was more holy to be dirty.  The Puritans did not go that far, but they did reject perfume as worldly.  To this day, the nose is not honored in romance, and the result is many a Christian couple damages their love life.  </div> <bR> <div>      If God says the nose is part of His design for love, who are we to ignore the Designers plan?  In some cultures lovers kiss with their noses, and their word for kiss means smell.</div> <div> They get great pleasure in breathing in the odor of the one they love.  In Madagascar </div> <div> they believe that every soul has it own unique scent.  And when they kiss they breathe in</div> <div> that unique odor of their loved one, and mingle their souls.  They experience a spiritual</div> <div> and physical intimacy.  In the Philippines some have so refined their sense of smell that by sniffing a pocket handkerchief they can tell if it belongs to their lover.  They send bits of linen to each other when they are separated so they can keep each other in mind by inhaling each others scent.  </div> <bR> <div>      We laugh at nose kissing, but it is because we have little awareness of the role of the nose in romance.  When Ruth went to meet Boaz and stimulate his interest as taking her as a wife, her mother-in-law Naomi gave her good advice in Ruth 3:3.  She told her to wash</div> <div> and put on perfume.  A bad impression on the nose is a sure way to quench the spark of romance.  William Erb put it in poetry.</div> <bR> <div>                The shades of night were falling</div> <div>                     Around us thick and fast:</div> <div>                I stood beside Matilda</div> <div>                     The first time and the last.</div> <div>                I tried to give her kisses</div> <div>                     According to etiquette,</div> <div>                But she had eaten onions,</div> <div>                     Me thinks I smell them yet.</div> <bR> <div>      If he kissed you once, will he kiss you again, is not a modern question.  That poem was written in 1897, and similar thoughts go back into ancient history.  On the other hand, it has also always been true that, "Aroma is beauty, and beauty is the stimulant to passion."</div> <div> The question, of course, is what does this obvious truth in the realm of romance have to do with our religious and spiritual love?  The Bible makes it clear that the nose is important</div> <div> in religious love, just as it is in the realm of romance.  The Jews were proud of their Semitic noses.  Levi Haytha said, "The Supreme Architect created man with a spout over his mouth, and it constitutes his beauty and his pride."  The nose was important in the worship of God, and still is to the Jews today.  Zohr wrote, "What would the world do without fragrance?  We would pine away without it, and so we burn myrtle at the conclusion of the Sabbath."  </div> <bR> <div>      If we go back to the Old Testament days, we see that the sacrifices of animals was a major part of their worship.  If you enjoy meat cooking on a grill, then you can imagine the delicious odors as cattle and sheep were cooked on the altar by the hundreds and even thousands.  The smell was magnificent.  We know this for Scripture indicates that God enjoyed the smell of the offerings.  When Noah left the ark, and made his sacrifices to God, we read in Gen.8:21, "And Jehovah smelled the delicious odor and said I will never do it again."  He promised never to destroy the world again with a flood. </div> <bR> <div>      All through the Old Testament sweet and delicious odors were to fill the temple.  Incense was to mingle with the sweet-smelling offerings.  The reason we enjoy a good roast cooking, and sweet perfume, is because we are made in the image of God who also delights in pleasant fragrance.  He is the author of sense of smell, and all the fragrant aromas in the world of nature.  He is also the author of the very first perfume recipe known to man.  It was a very exclusive secret formula to be used in the temple, and for anointing holy objects, and the priests.  The formula and the description of its uses can be found in </div> <div> Ex. 30:22-28.  It was a sacred formula that could only be used for the special purposes that God stipulated.  Any other use was strictly forbidden.  </div> <bR> <div>      Worship and pleasant smell were linked together.  When the Jews went after other gods, they would burn incense to them.  They could not conceive of any truly religious love</div> <div> and devotion without the presence of pleasant fragrance.  There are hundreds of text in Scripture dealing with various kinds of perfume and aromatic materials.  The main point of it all is, pleasant smell is associated with religious love just as it is with romantic love.  </div> <div> Prov, 27:9 says, "Oil and perfume rejoice the heart."  All relationships are made better</div> <div> with the presence of pleasant odor.  </div> <bR> <div>      When we move into the New Testament, we discover that Paul had a real nose for nice smells.  He expressed his thanks to the Philippians Christians for their support by writing </div> <div> in Phil. 4:18, "I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God."  Paul connected spiritual love, and</div> <div> the sacrifice of Christ, with a sweet smell in Eph. 5:2.  "And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."  Our great Shepherd lover was never more fragrant than when he breathed out His last breath and said, "It is finished."  God did not let His Son see corruption in the tomb.  Lazarus was </div> <div> stinking after four days in the tomb, but no foul odor was permitted to come upon the body of our Lord.  He became, by His death, the eternal lover, whose fragrance is like that of an eternal rose.  </div> <bR> <div>      When Jesus came to the home of Mary and Martha just shortly before the crucifixion,</div> <div> we read of this unique event in John 12:3, "Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure</div> <div> nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was</div> <div> filled with the fragrance of the ointment."  Here was  a great act of love, with great symbolic meaning.  Jesus said it was for the day of His burial.  Many other spices and perfumes were put upon the body of Christ when He was buried, but this event hints that </div> <div> death would never leave its ugly smell on Christ, for He was the very embodiment of love and fragrance.  </div> <bR> <div>                In Him all excellence is found.</div> <div>                His name a fragrance sheds around,</div> <div>                Like that most costly oil of nard,</div> <div>                Which Mary poured upon her Lord.</div> <bR> <div>      The Shulamite girl says her lover's name is like perfume poured out.  That is exactly how the church, the Bride of Christ, feels about Him and His name.  Bonar wrote, </div> <bR> <div>                I love the name of Jesus,</div> <div>                     Immanuel, Christ the Lord,</div> <div>                Like fragrance on the breezes,</div> <div>                     His name abroad is poured.</div> <bR> <div>      The most significant passage in all the Bible which relates to smell, love, and the Gospel of Christ, is II. Cor. 2:14-16.  "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.  For</div> <div> we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those</div> <div> who are perishing.  To one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life."  In this passage Paul links the very issues of heaven and hell to the nose.  To </div> <div> spread the Gospel is to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ.  Has anyone ever told you, you smell like a Christian?  How is a Christian suppose to smell?  According to Paul, he is to smell sweet and pleasant, like the perfume of God in Christ.  </div> <bR> <div>      Billy Graham has every one of his counselors put a mint in their mouth, just as he gives the invitation, for it is hard to lead a soul to love Christ if you smell like onions, or have some other foul odor.  Religious love is aided by pleasant smell.  Pleasant odor was very important to Paul, for he was dealing with people in Greek culture, and if you study how the Greeks love perfume you will understand Paul's concern.  Listen to Antiphones as he describes the bath of an Athenian man of fashion.  </div> <bR> <div>                In a large gilded tub he steeps his feet</div> <div>                and legs in rich Egyptian unguents.</div> <div>                His jaws and breast he rubs with thick palm oil,</div> <div>                and both his arms with extract sweet of mint,</div> <div>                his eyebrows and his hair with margoram, </div> <div>                his knees and neck with essence of ground thyme.</div> <div>                </div> <div> Descriptions of a Greek banquet are unbelievable in the costly perfume used.  Xenophones describes an unique method by which all were showered with it. </div> <bR> <div>           He slipped four doves, whose wings were saturate</div> <div>           With scents, all different in kind-these doves, </div> <div>           Wheeling in circles round, let fall upon us</div> <div>           A shower of sweet perfumery, drenching, bathing</div> <div>           Both clothes and furniture and lordlings all.</div> <bR> <div>      The Romans were also fanatics for perfume, but time does not permit us to explore.</div> <div> In a world like that, Christians had to have a pleasant appeal to the nose of people in </div> <div> order to win their attention.  The pleasant appeal was, of course, the name of Jesus.  </div> <div> His was, and is, the only name on earth that rid men of the foul odor of sin.  All though the Bible the word stink, and the word stank, are used to describe sin and its consequences.</div> <div> Hate is linked to a stench in the nostrils.  Every man either stinks before God, because he is a sinner, and has no deodorant that can cleanse him, or he is like perfume before God,</div> <div> because by his faith in Christ he has covered himself with the sweet-smelling sacrifice of the cross.  A rotten breath can hurt romance, and a rotten soul hurts your relationship with God.  Jesus Christ is God's only remedy for the foul breath of the sinful soul.  If you put your trust in Him you can come out of this foul world smelling like a rose.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>ROMANTIC AND RELIGIOUS ROSES  Based on Song of Songs 2:1</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      Ernest Hemmingway wrote about the experience of Mungo Park, who, on one of his travel adventures, got lost in the vast wilderness of an African desert.  He was all alone,</div> <div> and so dead tired he could not go on.  His legs were numbed, and he gave up, and laid  down to die.  He opened his eyes, and right by his face was a small wild flower of extra</div> <div> ordinary beauty.  The whole plant was no bigger than his finger, but it forced new thoughts</div> <div> into his hopeless mind.  He said, "I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and capsules without admiration." </div> <bR> <div>       He went on to reflect, "Can the Being who planted, watered, and brought to perfection in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and suffering of creatures formed after His own image?"   He concluded, surely not, and then thoughts generated by that little wild flower brought him out of his despair.  He got the adrenaline flowing in his veins again, and with new hope he traveled forward, and found relief, and his life was spared.  He was saved by a flower.  Here was one man who believed in flower power.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus Christ also believed in flower power, and He used flowers to encourage His </div> <div> followers to positive thinking.  "Behold the lilies of the field," he said, "They do not</div> <div> toil or spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."  Jesus was</div> <div> saying, if God so cares for the flowers, which so quickly pass away, how much more</div> <div> does He care for you, who are His children, and who will live forever.  Do not worry</div> <div> about clothing, but let flowers keep you ever conscious that there is never a lack of</div> <div> beautiful clothing in the kingdom of God.  Jesus said flower power is a part of God's</div> <div> plan.</div> <bR> <div>      Our outward life requires them not, then, wherefore had they birth?</div> <div>      To minister delight to man, to beautify the earth, </div> <div>      To comfort man-to whisper hope, when'er his faith is dim,</div> <div>      For He who careth for the flowers, will care much more for him.</div> <bR> <div>      It is no wonder that our Lord is identified with flowers.  He is called the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valley.  He is a saving flower who gives encouragement and </div> <div> strength to all who behold Him, and He adds beauty to all of life's deserts.  The land</div> <div> where Jesus grew up was the land filled with flowers.  A British botanist recognized </div> <div> 500 species in Israel, common to that native soil,  and almost another half a thousand</div> <div> that are unknown beyond Bible lands. Flowers blossomed on a variety of trees, and </div> <div> there images were craved in many places in the Temple.  In spite of all the flowers,</div> <div> only three garden varieties are mentioned in the Bible:  The rose, the lily and the</div> <div> henna blossom.  It is of interest that all three are in this context.  The rose and the</div> <div> lily in verse 1 of chapter 2, and the other in verse 14 of chapter 1.  This song of love</div> <div> is also the song of flowers, because flowers and love are closely linked.  We want to</div> <div> examine the most popular of all flowers, the rose.  We want to see it in the light of its</div> <div> romantic and religious significance.  </div> <bR> <div> I.  THE ROMANTIC USE OF THE ROSE.  It would be easy to spend all of our time</div> <div> looking at the romantic us of roses.  This has been the flower of romance all through</div> <div> history.  Botanists speculate much about the Biblical rose.  Some feel it was the tulip,</div> <div> or some other flower, but most refer to it as the rose.  There is hardly a people of the</div> <div> past who have not used roses to represent love.  If you rearrange the letters of rose</div> <div> by taking the e off the end, and putting it on the beginning, you get eros, which is the</div> <div> Greek word for romantic love.</div> <bR> <div>      The rose can be a symbol of either the male or female lover.  The ancient Greeks</div> <div> called it The King of Flowers.  But Sappho, The Greek poetess, urged that it be </div> <div> called the Queen of Flowers.  The fight for equality has been a long battle.  In a </div> <div> sense she won, in that many women are named Rose, but seldom or never does a </div> <div> man bare that name.  In her ode to the rose, which she wrote in 600 B. C., she said,</div> <bR> <div>           Would Jove a Queen of Flowers ordain,</div> <div>           The Rose, the Queen of Flowers, should reign.</div> <div>           What flower is half so lovely found, </div> <div>           As when, with full-blown beauties crown.</div> <div>           The fame magnificent will all agree, </div> <div>           The Rose, the Queen of Flowers should be.</div> <bR> <div>      Shakespeare said, "Fair ladies masked are roses in their bud."  The beauty of the</div> <div> rose cause men to use it to identify with the beauty of the one they adore.  Volumes</div> <div> of poetry and songs could be filled with the references to roses and love.  </div> <bR> <div>                Is it the beauty of the rose</div> <div>                Unfolding to my view,</div> <div>                That stirs again this heart of mine</div> <div>                To gentle thoughts of you.</div> <div>                Along the garden ways just now,</div> <div>                I heard the flowers speak:</div> <div>                The white rose told me of  your brow,</div> <div>                The red rose of your cheek.</div> <bR> <div>      Roses became a part of marriage customs all over the world, including those of </div> <div> the American Indian.  We cannot take the time to elaborate, except to say, more </div> <div> things are done with roses than most men ever dreamed of.  A partial list would </div> <div> include rose wine, rose jelly, rose pudding, rose oil, rose water, and you name it.</div> <div> You can eat them, smell them, sleep on them, decorate with them, and do many </div> <div> things to make a more pleasant environment.  Almost everyone agrees, however,</div> <div> that Cleopatra over did it when she received Mark Anthony.  Among other </div> <div> extravagant things, she had the floor of the banquet hall strewn with rose pedals</div> <div> eighteen inches deep.  Nero was also a great user of roses.  In that period of history</div> <div> the rose was so popular that some feared there would be no land left for raising </div> <div> crops.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is of interest to note that the rose was never used in black magic, but only in </div> <div> white magic.  That is, it was used to make love potions to insight romance, or rekindle</div> <div> the love of a mate.  It was not used for curses.  It became so popular as a potion that</div> <div> it was believed to be good medicine.  If it helps love sickness, why not all sickness?</div> <div>           When pain afflicts and sickness grieves, </div> <div>           Its roses' juice the drooping heart relieves.</div> <div>           </div> <div>      History has kept this belief alive, and roses have been consumed by millions for </div> <div> medicine.  When William Penn came from London, he brought 18 roses to Pennsylvania</div> <div> where he raised them, and wrote recipes for how they could be used.  Here is one:</div> <div> "To comfort ye brains, and for ye palsy, and for ye giddiness of the head.  Take a </div> <div> hand full of rose flowers, clover, nutmeg, all in a powder, quilt in a little bag and </div> <div> sprinkle with rose water....and lay it in ye nod of ye neck."</div> <bR> <div>        We might laugh at such a use of the rose, but in 1856 it was discovered that the rose does have food value and minerals.  During World War II, when citrus fruit was scarce, British chemist discovered that rose hips have 400% more vitamin C than oranges.  In 1941 the greatest medicinal use of roses in modern times began, as hundreds of tons of rose hips were converted into syrup.  This fascinating side line could be pursued, but </div> <div> it would take us far afield.  Its value is in the fact that it reveals how anything that God</div> <div> makes has many values.  The healing value of the rose only adds to its value as a </div> <div> symbol of the Great Physician.</div> <bR> <div>      We cannot even mention the numerous love stories and operas that use the rose</div> <div> as their theme.  Before we look at the religious use of the rose, however, let me share</div> <div> one more romantic use.  Swedish folklore says, if two lovers are buried in the same</div> <div> grave a rose will grow from the mouth of each.  There are many stories of this type of</div> <div> thing being found.  The grave tree is what it is called.  Oscar Wilde's famous poem of</div> <div> a burial of a prisoner in a prison yard suggests it is God's way of revealing something.</div> <div> He wrote, </div> <bR> <div>           Out of his mouth a red, red rose!</div> <div>                Out of his heart a white!</div> <div>           For who can say by what strange way,</div> <div>                Christ brings His will to light.</div> <bR> <div> The best known example of this belief is the ballad of William and Margaret.  </div> <bR> <div>           Margaret was buried in the lower chancel,</div> <div>                And William in the higher;</div> <div>           Out of her breast there sprang a rose,</div> <div>                And out of his a briar.</div> <div>           They grew till they grew up to the church top,</div> <div>                And then they could grow no higher;</div> <div>           And there they tied a true lovers knot</div> <div>                Which made all the people admire.</div> <bR> <div>      Strange as it sounds, there are even stranger ideas connected with the rose and</div> <div> romance.  Song of Songs would have been lacking a universal concept had it left out</div> <div> all reference to the rose.  There is much debate as to whether this first verse is a </div> <div> reference to Christ, or to the Shulamite girl.  Is it the male or the female speaking?</div> <div> The ancient commentators said it is the male, and modern commentators tend to think</div> <div> it is the female.  I am convinced the modern interpreters see the story more accurately,</div> <div> but one does not need, therefore, to forsake the insights of the old view.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Shepherd girl is really putting herself down here.  She is saying, I am a mere</div> <div> flower of the plain, and a common flower of the valley, I am not to be compared with </div> <div> the beauties of Solomon's court.  I am a wild flower, not one of these frail and delicate</div> <div> hot-house blooms.  Her lover responds with a great compliment to knock that nonsense</div> <div> out of her pretty head.  He says that she is such a beautiful flower that she makes all</div> <div> the beauties of the court look like thorns in comparison.  Neither of the lovers magnify</div> <div> themselves, but each is magnified and adored by the other.  So it is to be with Christ</div> <div> and His Bride, the church.  The rose, then, is a reference to the girl, and so also the </div> <div> lily, but for centuries the rose was symbolic of Christ, and it has developed a vast </div> <div> amount of symbolic significance, and so we want to look at-</div> <bR> <div> II. THE RELIGIOUS USE OF THE ROSE.  Let us keep in mind that the rose already</div> <div> had a strong place in religion before Jesus came into history.  There is hardly a god, </div> <div> goddess, or great person of antiquity, who is not in some way identified with the rose.</div> <div> Greeks have dozens of stories, and the Mohammedens tell of how their great prophet</div> <div> once rode swiftly to Jerusalem on his sacred steed Al Barak.  Both he and the horse</div> <div> were sweating profusely, and perspiration falling to the earth from his forehead brought</div> <div> forth white roses, and that from his horse brought forth yellow roses.  </div> <bR> <div>      Numerous are the legends of how the rose became red.  Most of them involved </div> <div> blood.  For example:  Venus, the goddess of love, was weeping over the slain Adonis,</div> <div> and she turned and stumbled:</div> <bR> <div>           Her naked foot a rude thorn tore,</div> <div>                From sting of briar it bleed,</div> <div>           And where the blood ran evermore,</div> <div>                It dyed the roses red.</div> <bR> <div>        The point is, the whole ancient world was full of stories, songs, and poems of roses,</div> <div> and they were a part of the religious rites of most all pagans.  Therefore, the hierarchy </div> <div> of the Christian church rejected any use of the rose as a Christian symbol.  Clement</div> <div> of Alexandria felt it was abhorrent for a Christian to use roses or lilies.  In his culture</div> <div> they were used constantly to beautify the immorality of the pagan religions.  It seemed </div> <div> the best approach to reject the use of the rose. </div> <bR> <div>       The church soon learned a lesson,  however, we all must learn.  You cannot cease to use a beautiful gift of God just because others abuse it.  Christians loved roses, and felt they were a beautiful part of God's creation.  They felt they were worthy of a place in Christian symbolism.  The totally negative approach had to be forsaken.  If you can </div> <div> praise God for anything, and use it properly, you should do so.  The Christian does not</div> <div> stop taking medicine with alcohol in it just because millions make fools of themselves</div> <div> with alcohol.  If some mad scientist is caught using soar milk to develop a bacteria to </div> <div> wipe out the human race, I do not have to give up eating cottage cheese.  The evil abuse of something is no valid reason for abandoning the proper use of it.  Such logic finally persuaded the church to use the rose as a symbol.  A rose crown was given to martyrs, and numerous churches were built with rose symbolism.  Roses became the symbol of heavenly joy.  Artists painted both angels and the redeemed wearing roses in heaven.  The rose came to represent divine love, and stories of saints and roses became numerous.  Theodore Parker said, "Every rose is an autograph from the</div> <div> hand of God on His world about us."  </div> <bR> <div>      In England, the Order of the Rose had its knights where three rose pedals on their</div> <div> sleeves as symbolic of the Trinity.  Coins and jewelry also bore the image of the rose.</div> <div> From the cradle to the cross stories developed about Jesus and the rose.  One popular</div> <div> story was that of the Shepherd girl Madelon who followed the shepherds to Bethlehem,</div> <div> and stood outside weeping.  The angel Gabriel asked her why, and she said because</div> <div> she had no gift for the Christ child.  Whereupon, Gabriel touched the ground and there</div> <div> appeared a bouquet of Christmas roses, and these were the first gift of a female to Jesus.</div> <bR> <div>      Christians told of how the thorn crown on the brow of Christ on the cross burst into</div> <div> beautiful roses after He died.  The rose became symbolic of both the beauty and the </div> <div> horror of the cross.  Its thorns remind us of the suffering He endured, and the blossoms</div> <div> of the beautiful salvation he purchased by that suffering.  The rose is an excellent flower to symbolize what Jesus did on the cross.  </div> <bR> <div>           Men saw the thorns on Jesus's brow,</div> <div>           But angels saw the roses.</div> <div>      </div> <div>      Men could see the roses later, however, and they interpreted the five petals of </div> <div> the red rose as symbolic of the five wounds of Christ.  Rutherford spoke frequently</div> <div> of Christ as God's rose.  "Christ is His Father's Noble Rose casting a sweet smell</div> <div> though heaven and earth.  He is a Rose that beautifieth all the upper Garden of God."</div> <div> Whatever Jesus is, He is the best of it, and Isaac Watts sang, </div> <bR> <div>           Is He a Rose?  Not Sharon yields</div> <div>                Such fragrancy in all her fields;</div> <div>           Or if the Lily He assume,</div> <div>                The valleys bless the rich perfume.</div> <bR> <div>       Hans Christian Anderson, one of the great story tellers of all time, has a deeply</div> <div> symbolic tale called The Loveliest Rose In The World.  It is about a Queen who </div> <div> loved flowers and had a glorious garden full of them.  Some grew so high they began</div> <div> to creep through the windows of her chamber where she lay dying.  The wise men said</div> <div> there is one thing that can save her.  Bring her the loveliest rose in the world, a </div> <div> symbol of the purest, brightest love, and she will not die.  Young and old alike search</div> <div> the hills and valleys looking for such a rose.  After many failures, one day her little</div> <div> son came into the room and said, "Look at what I have read," and he read to her of</div> <div> one who suffered on a cross.  A glow came into the Queen's cheeks, and a rose</div> <div> blossomed from the leaves of the Bible.  It grew out of the passage dealing with the</div> <div> blood shed for sin.  The Queen said, "Now I see.  He who beholds this, the loveliest </div> <div> rose on earth, will live and never die."  </div> <bR> <div>      No preacher ever preached more eloquently about Jesus, as the loveliest rose </div> <div> in the world, then Charles Hadden Spurgeon.  We don't have time to quote him as </div> <div> much as he should be heard, but this one paragraph gives you a good taste.  </div> <div> "....Christ is lovely to all our spiritual senses.  The rose is delightful to the eye, but </div> <div> it is also refreshing to the nostril.....So is Jesus.  All the senses of the soul are ravished</div> <div> and satisfied with Him, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or </div> <div> the spiritual smell, all charms are in Jesus."</div> <bR> <div>                None among the sons of men,</div> <div>                None among the heavenly train,</div> <div>                Can with Sharon's rose compare,</div> <div>                None so sweet none so fair.</div> <bR> <div>      All of this eloquence and poetry may sound far removed from practical everyday</div> <div> living, but this is not so.  Flowers are not only beautiful, they are practical, because</div> <div> their beauty and aroma have a positive effect on the mind, and nothing is so practical</div> <div> as a positive mind.  That is why Paul said, "If there is anything lovely think on it."</div> <div> When Martin Luther was engaged in his great controversy with Eck, the learned</div> <div> champion of the Catholic church, he kept a bunch of flowers in his hand.  As his </div> <div> adversary denounced him with fierce arguments, he smelled the flowers and main-</div> <div> tained calmness and confidence with positive thoughts of God.  Flowers can encourage</div> <div> the whole man by means of the nose.  Let the aroma of every rose remind you of </div> <div> Christ, and a rose can be a wonderful friend.</div> <bR> <div>                The Rose that Bethlehem saw bloom</div> <div>                Out of a heart all full of grace,</div> <div>                Gave never forth its full perfume</div> <div>                Until the cross became its vase.</div> <bR> <div>      On May 20, 1918 the best American aviator in France was shot down by a German</div> <div> plane.  Major Lufbery had won 18 battles with the German planes, and he was a </div> <div> great hero in France.  The funeral procession included 200 American and French</div> <div> officers.  As this large group stood around the grave, one American plane after an-</div> <div> other flew over, shut off the engine, and as they glided by, threw out bunches of red</div> <div> roses.  They floated down over the coffin, and the bowed heads of the crowd.  These</div> <div> roses from heaven were symbols of their love for this man.  The Rose of Sharon</div> <div> is that rose from heaven that is the symbol of God's love for us.  We can be saved by</div> <div> the power of this flower from God.  </div> <bR> <div>      Our fellowship with Christ is to bless us, but also to make us a blessing, as the </div> <div> sweet aroma of His Spirit brings forth in us all of the fruits of that Spirit.  A Persian</div> <div> fable tells of how a potter selected a piece of common clay to work with, but it </div> <div> smelled so pleasant, he asked it, "O clay where hast thou thy perfume."  The clay</div> <div> responded, "I once was a piece of common clay, but I was laid for a time in the </div> <div> company of a rose, and I drank in its fragrance, and now I am scented clay."  The</div> <div> fragrance of the rose clings to all in its presence.</div> <bR> <div>           You may break, you may shatter, the vase if you will,</div> <div>           But the scent of the rose will hang around it still.</div> <bR> <div>      May God make us willing to be clay in His hands that absorbs the fragrance of </div> <div> Christ, that others might see the beauty of Christ in us, and smell the scent of the</div> <div> Rose of Sharon.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>      </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>