see objects in the same light with God, we see our interests to be the same. Men's interests, as individuals, are as various as their faces; but the believer's best interests are those of Christ and his cause. The promotion of holiness, and the advancement of vital christianity, are the believer's interest, and he prefers them to his chief joy.' Sectaries have all their interests-the interests of parties and denominations; but in proportion as we drink into the spirit of Christ, we shall endeavour to submit our peculiar views and interests to that common one of Christ and his church; and to say, with a pious versifier, 'Let names, and sects, and parties fall, We are too apt to measure Christ's interest by ours, and suppose that his cause must be best promoted in the advancement of our party: but the contrary ought, and as grace prevails, will be our conduct. Let our party die and be forgotten, if so be the general interests of Christ may thereby be promoted.-In fine, if we expect Christ to make our interest his, let us make his interest ours. Unity of interest implies unity of design. It is the grand design of God to promote holiness. Be this our grand object, both as it respects ourselves and others. Friendship has its duties as well as privileges, Ye are my friends,' saith our Lord, if ye do 'whatsoever I command you :' and it is vain and hypocritical to assume this character without a disposition to perform its obligations: A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly á and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a 'brother.' But our subject would rather lead us to commend the pleasures of friendship: Christ is a pleasant friend. His words are pleasant; and ⚫ pleasant words are as an honey-comb, sweet to 'the soul, and health to the bones.'-His countenance is pleasant: it is a pleasant thing for 'the eyes to behold the sun;' much more is it to behold the sun of righteousness. • In the light ' of the king's countenance is life', says Solomon. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us!'-His company is pleasant: 'one day ' in his courts is better than a thousand :'-' His 'riches perish with him,' says an old writer, who prefers all the riches and pleasures of the world to one hour's communion with Jesus Christ.' The adds-"Yea verdant is our carpet. spouse The reader is to recollect that the present scene is supposed to be the garden of the palace. The eastern gardens are laid out upon an extensive scale, including pleasure-grounds and plantations of various descriptions. The present spot appears to have been a plat or lawn, verdant' as a carpet.' The word which I have rendered verdant, does not refer primarily to colour, but to colour only as it is the effect of vigorous and lively vegetation. The other term, rendered carpet, 1 Prov. xvi. 15. 2 green, from pr to flourish vigorously, as a plant. Parkhurst. is in the common version bed; nor is the differ ence so great as may appear to a mere English reader; since the eastern beds are usually mats, mattrasses, or carpets spread upon the duan, à part of the room elevated above the rest. To these a green plat or lawn would very aptly correspond, and might be very properly stiled a ' verdant carpet;' just as an eastern poet speaks of the carpet of the garden' bespangled with gold'. But what is the design of this expression? Mr. HARMER, who supposes this scene to be at some distance from Jerusalem, understands the words as expressing a modest wish to delay the consummation of the marriage by protracting her journey; but we suppose that period to be past; and, if not, such an interpretation appears to me unnatural and inconsistent in a bride so much flattered with her new connexion, and so enamoured of her royal bridegroom. Dr. DODERLEIN considers the passage as the commendation of a rural life in preference to a residence in the metropolis; while, in the next verse, the bridegroom describes the splendour of a palace, of which the meanest parts were formed of cedars, and of fir, or cypress2. I Ensoof Zooleika, appended to White's Institutes of Tamur. • If Kiroth, p, mean beams, the corresponding word should be rafters, which the original is allowed to bear. Rahithe,, is supposed to be from the Chaldee 2777, currere, to run. [Buxtorf.] In the first instance it evidently means canals in which water runs for cattle, Gen. xxx. 33, 41. Сс But a learned and ingenious friend, who has favoured this version with his perusal, harmonizes the verses thus: He supposes that, while a verdant lawn, perhaps glowing with the intermixture of the most beautiful flowers, forms their carpet, they were seated in an alcove, artificially formed by the intervening branches of the cedar and the fir-tree, to shelter them from the scorching sunbeams. Thus the cedars and the firs might be poetically called the beams and rafters of their choisk, summer-house, or arbour.-This I confess appears to me far the most beautiful and elegant idea, and the moral or spiritual improve 2dly, It may here mean rafters, being so used both in the Misnah and in the Midrash, (as Dr. Gill observes from R. Sol. Farchi) because perhaps rafters are so laid as to form a resemblance of canals in their interstices; and 3d, in another part of this song, (chap. vii. 5.) it is used for galleries, ambulacrá (Buxtorf) which have also an evident resemblance to the primary meaning of the word. It must be confessed our common printed copies here רהיטנו but many MSS. and additions read : רהיטנו read Eight MSS. one edition, all the ancient versions, and a Greek MS. in the library of St. Mark, at Venice, read the word plural, either 10 or 1. [Vid. Doderlein Scholia in V. T. p. 193; Nota Crit. in Cant. in Repert. Bibl. et Or. t. vii. p. 224. et Paulus Repert. Or. t. xvii. p. 138.] Buxtorf, though he writes 777, places it under the root , and says, 'Scribitur cum ; sed juxta Masor. legitur per .' ברותים There is another doubtful word in this verse. according to Ainsworth, are brutine trees, (called by Pliny bruta') resembling the cypress, with whitish branches, and of an odoriferous scent. So the LXX. KUTаρiσσ, and Vulg. cypressina, cypress trees. But others suspect that, by the exchange of a single letter, this is used for 72, (which indeed is the reading of several MSS. both in Ken nicott and De Rossi) commonly rendered firs. ment will be founded on this simple thoughtthat wherever the presence of Christ is, there is every object dear and delightful to a believer. Wherever he treads, flowers of celestial beauty spring around his feet; wherever he rests, trees of immortal verdure bloom around his head. But my friend may be mistaken; and if my reader approve the more general idea, of a contrast between the verses, as marking the difference between a rural choisk and a royal palace, I am not willing to impede his spiritual improvement by with-holding a farther remark on this supposition; namely, that though the Lord doth often vouchsafe to his people much happiness and pleasure in retirement, and in private communion, yet his special presence and blessing are to be sought for in his public ordinances, in his holy temple: for the beams of his house are cedar, ' and his rafters are of fir.' 'No beams of cedar or of fir Can with thy courts on earth compare; Raise us to nobler seats above.' WATTS. The TARGUM applies this to the third temple, which the Jews expect to be built in the days of the king Messiah, whose beams will be of the cedars of the garden of Eden, and whose 'rafters will be of brutine, fir, and box.' Apply this to the Christian church, the true temple of Messiah, and it may lead us to remark, that this is composed of the most valuable and durable |