Evening, May 1
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Song of Solomon 2:1
"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 earth-born things fail to
tell of him. Earth's choicest charms commingled, feebly picture his
abounding preciousness. Blessed rose, bloom in my heart forever!