Songs 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be you like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bether. To all the light is very dear, and more so perhaps because this life is a twilight season to all of us, we are all in the shadow. It is not all dark, neither is it all light, but it is full of shadows, shadows of sin, shadows of sorrow, shadows of sickness, of want, of disappointment, of death. The brightest life cannot be all sunshine, over rich and poor alike the shadows fall. The brightest eyes must be dim with tears sometimes, the gayest voices must turn to mourning sometimes, the merriest Church bell must toll sometimes. 1. The Church on earth has ever been in the shadow of trouble, its holiest members have had to suffer many things. In the Jewish Church there was the shadow of idolatry and unbelief, the shadow of self-will and bad government, ending in the darker shadow of captivity and exile. In the Christian Church there have been shadows of persecution, of division, of false doctrine, of lukewarmness, of tyranny. 2. So with ourselves, the individual members of the Church, we are all more or less in the shadow. (1) Some of us perhaps are under the shadow of a great sin, repented of, and so pardoned, but not forgotten. (2) Some of us perhaps are under the shadow of worldly loss. (3) It may be the shadow of a great bereavement which has fallen upon us. (4) Over some of us again the shadow of a great illness may have fallen. 3. We cannot make the darkness light, or scatter the shadows, or hasten the daybreak, Jesus alone can do that. He who once said "Let there be light," will say so again in answer to our prayers. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.). Parallel Verses KJV: Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. |
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