D. Scott Meadows

“I am the rose of Sharon.” —Song of Solomon 2.1

Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold degree. Amongst flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens of earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark in comparison with him, for the King in his beauty transcends all.

“I am the rose of Sharon.” This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not “the rose” alone, he is “the rose of Sharon,” just as he calls his righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of Ophir”—the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest. There is variety in his charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of his love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ, nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate him. Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the rose of Sharon.

What emblem can fully set forth his beauty? Human speech and earthborn things fail to tell of him. Earth’s choicest charms commingled, feebly picture his abounding preciousness. Blessed rose, bloom in my heart for ever!

—C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, 1 May PM

On Song of Solomon 2.1

“I am the rose of Sharon.” In his commentary on the Song of Solomon, John Gill wrote that “the more commonly received opinion is, that these words are the words of Christ, owning all the glory and praises the church had given him in the former chapter, and setting forth more largely the beauties of his person the more to effect, enamor, and ravish her soul, and make her seek and long for him” (in loc.). Spurgeon seizes upon this text as an opportunity to lavish praise upon his greatest love, the Lord Jesus Christ, with respect in particular to His beauty, a conspicuous trait of roses.

In this, Spurgeon follows a long-established Christian tradition where beauty was considered theologically important and epitomized in Christ. Beauty is a weighty matter in Augustine’s writings. Truth, goodness, and beauty loomed large in medieval discussions of transcendentals, with God as the perfection and source. John Owen’s works reference “beauty” or the “beautiful” almost a thousand times; John Gill’s writings do so even more frequently. While Spurgeon was noticeably a child of the Elizabethan age in his manner of expression, the substance of his observations are timeless.

Thomas Aquinas described “the beautiful” as “something pleasant to apprehend” (STh., I—II q.27 a.1 ad 3). True beauty is divine; we “should praise the beauty of holiness” (1 Chron 16.29; Psa 96.9). All the beauty of creatures do but weakly testify about God. The highest beauty is spiritual; physical beauty is derivative and inferior. “Favour [or, charm] is deceitful, and beauty is vain: But a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised” (Prov 31.30). Peter exhorts that one’s beautiful adorning should not be merely outward, but “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit” (1 Pet 3.3, 4), because this is a spiritual gift of God. Nothing more ravishes the soul of people created and being restored to God’s image than God Himself. We were designed from the beginning to appreciate, delight in, and praise Him. As the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest revelation of beauty. It is a pity that the religious category of beauty has been all but lost in typical modern expressions of Christianity. In this way, Spurgeon renders a great service, besides stirring our hearts toward Christ.

The structure of this devotional message

I. Christ’s beauty is far greater than anything in the material world
II. Christ’s beauty is superlative, varied, lasting, satisfying
III. Christ’s beauty is incomparable and most desirable

Points for further reflection

1. God is most pleasingly revealed to us in the superlative beauty of Jesus Christ. His identity as God Incarnate explains the reason. In Christ, “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim 3.16 KJV). Though veiled in humble humanity, the revelation of God’s glory is so perfect in Jesus that He said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14.9).

2. In this devotional message, Spurgeon sets a high and faithful example of Christian worship. He illustrates an obsession with the person of Christ. This message is not dealing with matters peripheral to Christ. It is not filled with self-reference of Spurgeon’s personal devotion to Christ. Rather, the preacher describes Christ Himself in rich language with compounding interest. So many “praise songs” and even sermons are poor on account of failure here. Such praise of Christ is still precious today, among other reasons, on account of its scarcity. Let us take this to heart and increase the treasure. Ω