Song Of Solomon 3:1-5 - Homilies By S. Conway

Love's dream.

It is a dream that is told of in these verses. It was natural for her who tells it to have dreamt such a dream. Lifting up the story to the higher level of things spiritual, what these verses say suggests—

I. CONCERNING DREAMS GENERALLY . They are often revelations of life and character. Sometimes they are mere folly, the misty vapours exhaled by a gross and over-fed body. But at other times, as here, they have a deeper meaning. They show the manner of a man's life, the bent of his inclinations, the character of his soul. Our dreams never play us false. The motives that govern their acts are the motives that govern ours. A man dreams about the sins he loves too well; about the sorrows that haunt his life; about the joys on which his heart is set. Dreams have played a large part in God's governance of men. They often show us what we should avoid and what we should seek after. Though some are foolish, we cannot afford to despise them as if all were so.

II. CONCERNING THIS DREAM . In both its stages it reveals the fervent love of the dreamer.

1 . It began sorrowfully. She thought she had lost her beloved ( Song of Solomon 3:1 , Song of Solomon 3:2 ). This the deepest of distresses to the renewed soul (cf. Psalms 77:1-4 ). If heaven would cease to be heaven, as it would were Christ's presence withdrawn, how much more must this life be all dark and drear if we have him not! And she tells how she sought him.

2 . It ended joyfully.

III. CONCERNING THE AWAKING . Song of Solomon 3:5 shows that she is awake, and conscious of the love of her beloved, and would not be torn therefrom until he pleased (cf. on So Song of Solomon 2:7 ). But, awake, the soul finds that what was sad in her dream was but a dread, but what was joyful is an abiding reality. We cannot lose Christ really, though we may think we do; and the soul that seeks him shall find him.—S.C.