Richard Wurmbrand
Author of the bestseller Tortured for Christ

Sweetest

By the same author
Tortured for Christ
In God's Underground
Christ on the Jewish Road
Reaching Toward the Heights
Victorious Faith
From Torture to Triumph

THE SWEETEST SONG
By RICHARD WURMBRAND
LIVING SACRIFICE BOOK COMPANY
BARTLESVILLE OK   74005

©1988 by The Voice of the Martyrs, Inc., formerly called
Christian Missions to the Communist World, Inc.
Formerly published 1988 by Marshall Pickering.
Published by Living Sacrifice Book Company, P O Box 2273,
Bartlesville OK 74005-2273.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wurmbrand, Richard.
The sweetest song : the Song of Solomon expressed through the
lives of saints and martyrs / by Richard Wurmbrand.
p.       cm.
Originally published: Basingtoke, England       Marshall Pickering,
c!988.
ISBN 0-551-01652-3 (pbk.) : $5.00
1. Bible. O.T. Song of Solomon-Commentaries.    2. Persecution.
I. Title.
BS1485.3.W97    1993
223\906-dc20	93-18513
CIP
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

~ Contents ~
Introduction	7
Chapter 1	17
Chapter 2	76
Chapter 3	121
Chapter 4	137
Chapter 5	160
Chapter 6	174
Chapter 7	191
Chapter 8	201
Last Considerations	218
References	223

~ Introduction ~
In Zohar (The Light), main book of the Kabbalah, a work
which contains the Jewish mystical tradition, it is written:
The Song of Songs is superior to all songs that preceded
it, for those which were sung by Solomon's predecessors
ascended only to join with the songs chanted by the
company of angels; as for instance, the 'Song of Degrees
to David' [the literal translation of the Hebrew U David],
which means 'The song which celestial grades sing to
David' to solicit nourishment from him . . . But when
Solomon came, he sang a song that is higher even than
David's song, one that is the very same as that sung by
the great ones of the realms above, the pillars of the
universe, in honour of the Supernal King who is the
Lord in all peace and harmony. Other men send up
praises by means of lower chariots, but King Solomon
by means of higher chariots ...
On the day when this song was revealed the Shekinah
(God's glory) descended to earth, as it is written, 'And
the priests could not stand to minister because of the
cloud.' Why? Because 'the glory of the Lord had filled
the house of the Lord' (1 Kings 8:11). On that day this
hymn was revealed, and Solomon sang this song in the
power of the Holy Spirit, wherein is to be found the
summary of the whole Law of Moses, the whole work of
creation, the mystery of the Patriarchs, the story of the
Egyptian exile, and the Exodus therefrom, and the
Song of the Sea. It is the quintessence of the Decalogue,
of the Sinaitic covenant, of the significance of Israel's

wanderings through the desert until their arrival in the
Promised Land and the building of the Temple. It
contains the crowning of the Holy Name with love and
joy, the prophecy of Israel's exile among the nations, of
their redemption, of the resurrection of the dead, and
all else until that day which is 'Sabbath to the Lord'. All
that was, and shall be, is contained in it; and, indeed,
even that which will take place on the 'Seventh Day',
which will be the 'Lord's Sabbath', is indicated in this
song.
It is a song in which those who are above and those
who are below participate; a song formed in the likeness
of the world above, which is the supernal Sabbath, a
song through which the supernal Holy Name is
crowned. Therefore it is holy of holies. Why so?
Because all its words are full of love and joy.
In the Babylonian Talmud (another sacred book of the
Jewish people) the following words spoken by Rabbi
Akiba are recorded: 'No day in the history of the world is
so precious as the day on which the Song of Songs was
given to Israel; for all the other Scriptures are holy, but
the Song of Songs is holiest of all.' By the same token, we
could say that the lives of all diose who really deserve the
name of 'Christian' are holy. We are all sanctified by
faith, by the blood shed for us, because that blood was
Divine. But there are lives which are holiest of all - the
lives of die persecuted Church, the lives of those who
suffer in jail or in psychiatric asylums, in chains and in
hunger, deprived of their loved ones, because they follow
faithfully in the footsteps of the Master.
This book will be a kind of commentary upon
Solomon's Song. It will be a unique commentary - or
rather, a new translation of the Song. It will be a
translation of it into the lives of saints and martyrs, most
of them from our own times, who belong to the
Underground Church in the Communist countries.
8

The decision about which Jewish books should be
included in, and which excluded from the Old Testament
was taken by the Synod of Iabne. The Synod debated
very heatedly over the inclusion of the Song of Songs as a
sacred book. It was accused of being a worldly book,
because it spoke with simplicity about love between a man
and woman, and sometimes it employed sexual imagery.
But in the end the Song's opponents were overruled.
In this book, as in many other parts of the Bible, the
images of relationships such as those between bridegroom
and bride are only poetic devices to represent the union of
the believing soul and God, of the chosen people and their
Master. The author of Solomon's Song is a mystic: he
expresses himself in the normal language of mysticism.
If the inclusion of the Song in the Bible was a matter for
heated debate, it is no wonder that the Underground
Church in Communist countries is also hotly debated.
Some prelates and theologians consider it to be a bunch of
fanatics without any justification.
It is alleged that those who are imprisoned for Christ's
sake in Communist countries suffer from masochistic
tendencies, that they want to suffer, that they have a
'martyr complex'. It is said that they are not reasonable.
They refuse to make the compromise demanded by life
and by a dictatorship - compromises which would result
in liberty to worship within the limits prescribed by the
atheist government.
Not all souls are the same. Some rivers flow quietly
between their banks; others overflow. There exist choice
souls, whose love of God cannot be confined to the narrow
limits of what is considered a normal faith. Their cup runs
over. Their love of God burns.
Solomon's Song answers to the desires of such hearts.
Only men such as these are found in the Underground
Church.
Rabia of Basra, a Moslem mystic, used to pray: 'O
Lord, in public I invoke You in the way one invokes his

master. In public I say, 'O my God,' but when we are alone
I say, 'O my Beloved.' She also said: 'O Lord, if I adore
You because I fear hell, let me burn in hell; and if I adore
You because I hope for paradise, exclude me from paradise.
But if I adore You for what You Yourself are, do not
deprive me of the vision of Your eternal beauty.' She said to
God, 'I do not desire from You either this world or the one
to come. You are enough for me.'
Solomon's Song is written for such hearts. It is a poem
of love between Israel and his Saviour.
Spiritual greed
There is a burning spiritual desire which might well be
called 'spiritual greed' by sceptics, because it is outwardly
very similar to fleshly greed.
A beggar once said to an emperor who wished to give
him charity, 'Give me anything you like; but I will
impose a condition.'
The emperor was intrigued. He had never met such a
beggar. 'And what is that condition?' he asked.
'You must fill my bowl up completely.'
The emperor laughed. 'I can certainly do that,' he
replied. 'I can even fill your bowl with diamonds!'
He called for diamonds to be poured into the beggar's
bowl. As they fell in, they disappeared.
The emperor roared in fury. 'I will not be shamed by
this beggar, even if my whole kingdom disappears!'
But no precious stones that were poured into the bowl
ever stayed there; they always disappeared.
Finally the emperor swallowed his pride and asked the
beggar to tell him the secret of the bowl.
'It is made out of human selfishness,' he explained. 'It
covets all things, yet it remains always empty, always
hungry, never satisfied.'
10

Luxurious cars, big bank accounts, fine houses, high
position and reputation - they are only challenges to the
ego, serving only to whet its appetite for more. This, then
is fleshly greed.
Spiritual greed exists too. Some of the disciples asked
Jesus, 'Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Your right
hand, and the other on Your left, in Your glory' (Mark
10:37). They did not know what they were asking for.
In spiritual matters, the only real glory is in the
renunciation of glory. The jewels of personal glory and
self-aggrandizement will be swallowed up by the beggar's
bowl, even if they are jewels of the spirit. The bowl is
never satisfied. It is never filled.
Solomon's Song belongs to those who have made the
greatest renunciation of all: the renunciation of
themselves. For them, only the Beloved counts.
Singing the Jesus Song
The famous pianist Rubinstein was in the company of a
large number of music-lovers who were discussing the
works of Chopin. One of them asked, 'How would
Chopin himself have played his compositions?'
Rubinstein sat down at the piano and began to play.
When he finished, there were tears in his listeners' eyes as
they said, 'Now we have heard Chopin himself.'
Comment upon what King Solomon sang to the praise
of the Saviour in his rare moments of spiritual exultation
must be made in the same state of the spirit as Solomon's
when he composed his Song. When reading a
commentary upon the Song of Songs, the reader should
feel that he has heard Solomon himself at his best.
It is said that when David was a young boy at the court
of King Saul, he asked permission to play on a beautiful
11

harp that was lying unused in the throneroom. The king
said, 'It's useless -1 have been cheated. I paid a great
deal for that harp, because it was spoken of highly. But
the best harpists have tried it, and it was painful to hear
the ugly sounds it produced. ïi's the worst harp that you
could imagine.'
But David persisted, and because the king loved him
greatly, permission was granted. When he played, the
music was so beautiful that when it ended, all the court
wept. They had been moved to the depths of their hearts.
'How is it,' demanded the king, 'that so many tried to
play this harp, and only you succeeded?'
David replied, 'All the others tried to play their own
songs, and the harp refused to yield to their wishes. I played
to the harp its own song. You saw its joy when I reminded it
of the days when it was a young tree in the forest. I told it
about sunbeams playing in its branches, about chirping
birds, and about lovers embracing each other in its shadow.
The harp was glad to remember those days.
'Then I told the story of the evil men who came and
felled the innocent tree. It was a sad day. Its life as a tree
had finished. But I told the harp that death cannot
triumph over life. The tree has died as a tree, but its wood
has become a harp which can sing forever the glories of
the eternal God. And the harp, which had wept when I
told about her death, now rejoiced, made jubilant again.
'When the Messiah comes, many will try to play their
own songs on his harp. The results will be tragically
dissonant. On the Messiah's harp, you must play his own
song - the song of his eternal glory with God, the song of
his humiliation as a babe in a manger, the song of a life in
sorrow, opposition and poverty on earth, the song of his
being whipped and crucified and buried. But then also the
song of his resurrection, ascension and enthronement in
heaven.
'Then the harp will give a beautiful sound. Then his
congregation will shine like a sun.'
12

In writing this book, I have no song of my own to sing.
I sing the Song of Jesus and of His bride as Solomon sang
it; and to make the song resound more beautifully than
ever, I illustrate it with lives of saints and martyrs. Let us
sing for him with the same burning love and adoration
with which the angels sang in Bethlehem at Jesus' birth.
A great sinner's song
There is something remarkable in the title of the book,
The Song of Songs which is Solomon's. God arranged
that the holiest book of the Bible should be written by one
of its worst characters.
There was much that was positive in King Solomon's
reign over Israel. He secured the nation a long period of
peace, but in his personal life he was beneath contempt.
He had a large number of wives and concubines. Every
one of them lived in palaces and was provided with
luxuries. He indulged in all the pleasures which fleshly life
can provide. This cost enormous amounts of money
which had to be raised by slave labour. He frequently
flogged men into complying with the demands of his
debauchery.
In the light of all this, many theologians have expressed
doubts as to whether Solomon has any part in God's
salvation. Happily, God does not always agree with the
theologians: he saves whom he wishes. Salvation is all by
grace and condescension. To demonstrate this, he gave
the inspiration to write his most beautiful book to one
whose moral achievements were very few.
Miracles are signs of the presence of God. Divine
inspiration of this book is proved by the miracle that such
a bad man wrote it. You would not have thought he was
capable of it. The only man we know for sure is in
13

paradise (because Jesus confirmed it) is a man who had
been a robber all of his adult life and only in his very last
moments said a few words expressing faith. One of the
foremost apostles, Saint Paul, had been a murderer.
Mary Magdalene had been a loose woman. One of the
most moral and profound of love stories, The happy prince,
was written by Oscar Wilde, a man convicted for
debauchery. There are many other similar instances. So
we should not be surprised that the most beautiful song in
the Bible was composed by a great sinner.
Think of Richard Wagner. He is described as ungrate-
ful in love and irresponsible in politics. He was conceited
and suffered from senile erotomania; he was also a fierce
anti-Semite. But this in no way diminishes the value of his
music.
We must learn to distinguish the value of a work from
the value of the man who is behind it. The fact is that God
sometimes uses very bad men for very good deeds, and
that sometimes very good men do poor work.
All the 'types' or foreshadowings of Jesus in the Old
Testament were men who had committed many bad
deeds. We could not expect it to be otherwise; the type is
always inferior to the typified.
Only one thing counts
One of the greatest accusations of the Soviet press against
the Underground Church is that many of its leaders are
former thieves, murderers and even war criminals whose
hands are stained with blood. This would not discredit
those church leaders in our sight, even if the things being
said against them were true.
The   Russian   poet,   Tiutchev,   wrote:   'You   can't
understand Russia with your mind. You can't measure it
14

with the usual yardstick. Russia is something unique; you
can only have confidence in it.' These words are even
truer when applied to the most beautiful part of the
Russian nation - its Christians gathered in the
Underground Church.
Where unique events happen, as in biblical times, very
bad characters can be inspired with the most beautiful
thoughts; robbers and murderers become illustrious
saints. The children of God can rejoice about this.
The following is one of the oldest sermon illustrations
used in the Christian Church. It is also a good test of
one's understanding of what Christianity is about.
There once lived a dwarf who was also a hunchback
and very, very ugly. Nobody ever invited him to a party;
nobody showed him love, or even attention. He became
disillusioned with life and decided to climb a mountain
and throw himself from its peak into the abyss.
When he ascended the mountain, he met a very
beautiful girl. He talked to her and discovered that she
was climbing the mountain for the same purpose. Her
suffering was at the other extreme. She had everybody's
attention and love, but the one whom she loved and who
had loved her too had forsaken her for another girl,
because the other was rich. She felt life had no meaning
for her any more. They decided to make the ascent
together.
While they continued to climb, they met a man who
introduced himself as a police officer in search of a very
dangerous bandit who had robbed and murdered many
people. The king had promised a large reward to the
person who captured him. The police officer was very
confident: 'I will catch him because I know he has a
feature by which he can be recognised. He has six fingers
on his right hand. The police have been looking for him
for years. For the last two or three, nothing has been
heard from him, but he has to pay for a multitude of
crimes in the past.'
15

The three climbed the mountain. Near its peak was a
monastery. Its abbot, although he had become a monk
only recently, had quickly attained great renown for
saintliness. When they entered the monastery, he came to
meet them. You could see the glory of God in his face. As
the girl bowed to kiss his right hand, she saw he had six
fingers. With this, the story ends.
Those who hear this story are perplexed; it can't finish
like this! What happened to the dwarf, the girl, the
policeman; and was the criminal caught?
The beauty of the story is that it does finish here.
Something beautiful has happened: a criminal hunted
because of his many robberies and murders has become a
great saint, renowned for his godly life. AU the rest is of
no further interest. The great miracle has been
performed. Christ has been born in the heart of a man of
very low character.
The Hebrew language has no superlative. It says
'vanity of vanities' for 'the most worthless vanity' or 'the
heaven of heavens' for 'the highest heaven.' With God
everything is possible: the Song of Songs (which means in
Hebrew, 'the superlative song') is written by a superlative
sinner.
Because of this, the heights of Solomon's song are
accessible to every one of us, whatever our past has been,
and however deep we may have fallen in sin.
16

Ä Chapter 1 ~
Only his kiss
The bride says, 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth: for your love is better than wine' (1:2).
The Zohar says that at Mount Sinai, when the Law was
given, every individual Israelite was asked by God if he
would accept him and all his commandments, to which
the reply came, 'Yes.' He was asked again, 'Will you
accept me and all the penalties attached to my Law?' And
again he answered, 'Yes.' Then he was kissed on the
mouth. Similarly, the bride in Solomon's Song says, 'Let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.' The Zohar
continues:
'No other love is like unto the ecstasy of the moment
when spirit cleaves to spirit in a kiss, more especially a kiss
on the mouth, which is the well of the spirit and its
medium. When mouth meets mouth, spirits unite one
with the other and become one - one love. '
The Hebrew word for 'love' is written A H B H. The
Zohar says, 'First comes the letter Aleph (our A). Then
comes the letter H which unites itself with the Aleph in
love. From these two other letters issue and spirits are
interlocked with spirits of love.'
Let us compare these words with the boring, prosaic,
annoying prayers which we say usually and we will realise
the distance between us and the soul enamoured widi
God - a soul which has a burning love like that of the ideal
bride. She knows no peace nor rest until she finds God
17

himself. Every other being, every other thing, only
increases her desire, her thirst to see him. She is never
satisfied with anybody or anything except himself. She
has drunk enough of the water of this world and she has
remained thirsty. Now she desires him, saying: 'Let him
kiss me with the kisses of Aw mouth.'
, A believer is attached to his spiritual leader - to his
pastor. But if the pastor is aware of his responsibilities, he
must strive to make the believer more and more inde-
pendent of him. A psychiatrist, having solved the
complexes of his patient, has a duty to free him also from
the complex of dependence upon the physician which has
arisen during the treatment.
A pastor must be like a matchmaker, who persuades a
girl to marry somebody else. He must be very careful that
the girl does not fall in love with himself, the matchmaker.
The pastor must be a guide enabling the believer to reach
the bridegroom. He must ignite a love for the bridegroom
in the hearts of the believers, so that after hearing one of
his sermons the congregation should not say, 'How
beautifully he has preached' but 'How wonderful Jesus
is!' Remaining attached to the pastor and not passing
through him to the Saviour about whom he preaches can
be a deadly danger for the believer. Pastors are men and
have all the temptations of men. Some of them are very,
very weak.
The movement called 'Christian Endeavour' within
the reformed churches is forbidden in Communist
Rumania, but exists underground. A girl belonging to
this movement was beaten and tortured to force her to
make accusing statements against her pastor. She
remained faithful to Christ and refused. But to her
surprise, when she was brought before a court that same
pastor came as a prosecution witness against her. He had
yielded to pressure without much resistance. His
testimony against her contributed to her being sentenced,
but her love for Christ did not depend upon the attitudes
18

and behaviour of the pastor who had brought her to
salvation. She had been freed from that attachment to
him. She continued to remain faithful, and she never said
one bitter word about the pastor who had been so
treacherous.
This was a soul who had a right to receive the kisses of
Jesus himself. When you are in his embrace, disappoint-
ments with pastors don't count anymore. The soul which
burns with love for Christ is not satisfied with his
messengers, even his finest messengers. They don't
answer the deep need of the soul. Their presence serves
only to irritate. The duty of a pastor is only to reveal to
men how unhappy they are without Jesus. Then he must
tell them how he has found Jesus, and how they can find
him too.
For the bride, the simple fact that she is surrounded by
messengers of the bridegroom is a proof of the sad fact
that the bridegroom himself is absent. She desires him,
only him. None of his messengers can adequately
represent him. None of them can take his place. The most
gifted preachers can only stutter about him. She has one
desire: 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.' She
longs for him, and yearns that his presence should show
itself through a kiss. In biblical times people kissed the
hand of the king, and even this was considered a
privilege. Until quite recently, everyone who approached
the Pope had to kiss his foot. The faithful Christian soul
desires a kiss from Jesus' mouth.
The relationship between God and the faithful soul is
really like the relationship between a bridegroom and a
bride. Both desire kisses. The heavenly Father, who
knows the desires of Jesus, in Psalm 2:12 commands us to
'Kiss the Son.' Jesus reproves a Pharisee, telling him,
'You gave me no kiss' (Luke 7:45). He could make this
reproach to many of us. We gave him many words; we
gave him our energy and our time; we put our money in
the collection boxes of the church. But we did not give
19

him the one, supreme thing for which he longs - a kiss.
The faithful soul's desire is the same as his. She sighs,
'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.'
This reciprocal desire has been frequently satisfied.
Mary Magdalene kissed the fçet of Jesus. After her, many
penitents have done likewise, and many prodigal sons
who have returned to the Father have seen him coming to
meet them, embracing them and kissing them repeatedly.
Only those who have ever received such a kiss can know
the sweetness of Jesus. Only the person who has humbled
himself for his sins or entrusted himself to God in great
dangers can say how dear are his promises: that now there
is peace between him and God, that God loves him and
will protect him.
We have to be careful that the kiss should be Jesus' kiss.
Souls in sorrow seek comfort, and accept it readily from
wherever it comes. But not so the true Bride of Christ.
There is only one object of her love. She does not even
consider it necessary to say whose kisses she receives. She
doesn't name him. For example, Mary Magdalene,
seeing the empty tomb of Jesus, tells the man whom she
supposed to be the gardener, 'They have taken away my
Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' (John
20:13). Who is the Lord about whom she speaks? Does
she have to pronounce his name? She thinks that only one
can be 'the Lord.'
For the Bride, only one person exists. She assumes that
others feel the same. She does not profane the Holy Name
by pronouncing it too often. The elect of God will
understand. The Beloved can't be anybody else but Jesus.
Young brides
Souls who have such an intimate knowledge of Jesus
20

adopt unique attitudes. One such soul is Leonas Sileikis.
When a seventh grade pupil at school, he was summoned
to a meeting of the school administration where his faith
was to be considered. Leonas' father came to the meeting
uninvited. Leonas was asked whether he had read the
atheistic books his teacher had given him. He had - six of
them in all.
'What do you think of these books?' they asked him.
'They're lies and slander,' Leonas replied.
After a long discourse against religion, the teacher,
Miss Misiuniene, asked Leonas, 'Do you renounce your
faith?'
'I believe, and I will continue to believe,' was the reply.
The teacher then explained to the father how religion
supposedly damages children. 'Nowadays, very few
people go to church, so one must go along with the
majority', she said.
To this, Leonas replied, 'Only a dead body is carried
along with the current. A live person can always swim
against the stream.'
Leonas will have to suffer for his faith. But he has
known the kiss of Jesus, and so the adversity of the world
does not count for him.
In Rumania, you cannot study in a university without
being a member of the Communist youth organisation.
You must render lipservice to its God-hating doctrines.
Lydia C. had been the first in all grades of high school.
Now a university education was guaranteed. As an
exceptional student she would also receive an allowance
for her further education. She had only to deliver a speech
at the inauguration of the year of study. The big shots of
the Communist Party were there.
She praised Communism, all right. She got great
applause. But she finished with the words: 'These things
one has to say, if you wish to advance in our society. But I
don't believe one word of what I just said. I believe in
God and will follow him.'
21

With this, she had ruined her whole future. Instead of
becoming a doctor as she had desired, she became a
seamstress. But souls who have received Jesus' kiss
cannot compromise. They can praise only him.
Where can you get his kiss?
It is not difficult to receive his kiss. This was no problem
for the Virgin Mary. Her Saviour was her obedient child.
She could receive his caresses whenever she desired. Mary
Magdalene and even Judas could kiss him. And there is
no doubt that he reciprocated their kisses.
Christ lives with every believer as much as he lived in
his mother's home, (though as a diamond yet unearthed,
enclosed within the ground), because we are his image,
members of his body. The Virgin Mary kissed Jesus' lips,
and his hair, his hands and his breast. She could kiss his
physical body. But Jesus is the only person who has two
bodies: that of the Jewish carpenter who lived 2,000 years
ago, which is seated now in heaven, and that of the
Church. So we can kiss him when we kiss our brothers
and sisters, and in the same way we can receive his kisses.
Jesus said, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall
see God' (Matthew 5:8). They will see him not only in the
next world. They will see him in every brother - yes, in
every human being. Those who sentenced to death St
Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity, 'looking
steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of
an angel' (Acts 6:15). They could see the angel in their
victim. Let us at least learn from them how to look upon
our brethren. Then we will be able to receive as many
holy kisses as the Virgin Mary was able to obtain from
Jesus.
Jesus taught also that anyone who feeds the hungry,
22

gives drink to the thirsty, takes in strangers, clothes the
naked or visits the sick and the prisoners does this to him
(Matthew 25:35-40). He identifies himself with the suf-
ferers. The kiss of a person starving, oppressed or longing
after love is his kiss.
For example, I know of a Christian prisoner in a Com-
munist prison camp. He was near to death; his wasted body
lay on the floor. Then he saw what seemed to be a girl bathed
in glory. She looked like a nun. In her hand she held the
living bread, and put it to his parched mouth. I know, too, of
a sister-in the USA. She had a vision in which she saw herself
in a Communist prison, putting bread to a prisoner's mouth.
No walls separate the persecuted Church from that which
enjoys freedom. The most amazing letter I ever received
came from Canada. It was from a man who had been in jail
for robbery. As a punishment for misbehaviour he had been
put into solitary confinement. There he sought God, but had
difficulty finding him. Then he heard an inner voice speak-
ing to him, comforting him and giving him counsel. He was
converted. Once out of jail, he joined a church. In a book-
shop he found a book that caught his interest. It was my
book, Sermons in Solitary Confinement. He recognised the
sermons. It had been my voice that had spoken to him. We
had been in solitary confinement at the same time - he in
Canada, I in Rumania. Angels carried my words to him.
Prison walls, two continents and an ocean had been no
barriers to them.
The kisses of his glorified body
The Bride desires Jesus' kisses. She wants her mouth to be
touched. Jeremiah says, 'The Lord put forth his hand and
touched my mouth' (Jeremiah 1:9). Isaiah says, 'Then flew
one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
23

and he laid it upon my mouth' (Isaiah 6:6-7). Thus the
iniquity of Isaiah was removed. The church fathers saw in
this burning coal a symbol of the Son of God incarnate. In
Christian Syriac poetry, Jesus is called Kemurta Denura,
which means 'the burning coal.' He must touch our lips, so
that we can praise him with fire.
I can be kissed by those who belong to his body on earth,
but is it possible to kiss Jesus who is in heaven? Can the lips
of his glorified body touch our lips? How can I know if my
prayer has been heard? How can I know if I have received
that kiss which I desire?
Some prominent saints have had this privilege. Saint
Anthony held Jesus at his breast. According to a legend,
Hermann Joseph presented an apple to an image of the child
Jesus; Jesus put aside his sceptre, descended from the image
and took the apple.
Henry Suso asked die Virgin Mary to show him the baby
and to allow him to kiss Jesus. He took Jesus into his arms;
he held in his arms die small baby who is bigger than the uni-
verse. One minute of such an experience transforms wolves
into meek men, angry people into quiet people, the proud
into the humble.
To St Mechtild, Henry's sister, the Child said, 'When I
was born into the world I was immediately wrapped in swad-
dling clothes in which I could not move; it demonstrated that
I and all that I brought with me have been given into the
hands of men, who may dispose of us as they wish. The
bound man has no might. He cannot defend himself. You
can take from him what he has. When I left the world I was
nailed to a cross. I could not move. It was a sign that I left all
men the good I had done for them.'
Saint Birgit of Sweden saw Jesus' birth. He was born
painlessly, in a moment, looking towards the east, while the
Virgin knelt in prayer. He lay naked and shining on the
ground, more radiant than die sun. When Mary realised
that he was born, she adored the child with great reverence.
'Welcome, my Lord and my son,' she said.
24

Thérèse of Lisieux became Jesus' toy. Charles de
Foucauld received at Bethlehem the illuminating revelation
that he ought always to take the least significant place, in
order to be small and helpless like his Master at his birth.
But what should we others do, who are not capable of
such mystic elevations?
Sanctified imagination
We all know the plague of erotic fantasies. In prison,
sexual obsession is one of the greatest sufferings of saints,
especially the younger ones. Many of them never saw
their girlfriends or their wives. I myself saw virtually no
women or girls for fourteen years. You sat on concrete in
a common cell with hands on knees, and you were
forbidden to move. You never had a book; you were not
allowed to speak, even whisper, to your cellmate;
sometimes you were on your own; you could do nothing
but fantasize or think. For hours, erotic images paraded
before the Christians' eyes. The more they were
suppressed, the more powerful they became.
Sometimes the Communist jails are very refined. They
used to parade girls in miniskirts in front of the sexually
hungry prisoners. They took prisoners to the beaches and
showed them girls in bikinis. They told them, 'This is
what you can have if you deny your faith.'
When Milan Haimovici, a Rumanian Hebrew
Christian pastor, was in prison they brought a prostitute
into his solitary cell and forced him to share his bed with
her, night after night, when for years he had been isolated
from the world. The wardens spied through the peephole,
watching to see if anything happened. They had cameras
ready to photograph him embracing her, so that they
could disgrace him.
25

Girls or men whom you see only in your imagination,
when you kiss, embrace or mate in your sexual fantasy,
might not be physically present, but they are very
real - so real mat they can drive you mad.
The only defence against erotic obsession is to
spiritualise it, to see in every erotic image (as Solomon
teaches us) an image of our intimate love as brides of
Christ for our Bridegroom. Everybody can become a
bride of Christ, through faith. A male who is converted
becomes not a bridegroom, but a bride. (It was Jung who
identified a female element in men which he called the
anima, just as in women there is a male element, the
animus). Through assiduous spiritual exercises we can
train our imaginations. We can adopt the posture of the
bride longing for the Bridegroom, desiring and receiving"
the kisses of the holy Lover and finding our full joy in
him. Like many other visions of the saints, this can
become a spiritual reality in our lives. By dreaming about
an ardent union of his soul with Jesus, Pastor Milan
Haimovici overcame die temptations of the prostitute.
Souls who know the spiritual realities no more doubt
such kisses than one doubts a kiss received from an
earthly lover.
Saint Thérèse of Avila writes, 'As those who love each
other do not allow themselves to be disturbed, those who
have received this kiss despise all the things of the world,
according them very small worth. Having seen die vanity
of material things they despise them.' The person who has
received the kiss knows he has received it. Then he desires
to be kissed more and more, and to be left undisturbed by
anybody or anything, in sweet fellowship with Jésus.
Don't try to fight erotic fantasies head-on. Use the
expulsive power of sanctified imagination. You can't stop
a little girl playing with dolls. No educator's theories can
achieve diat. But there comes a time when the girl grows
up. She acquires new interests, and these displace from
her heart the pleasure of playing with dolls. In the same
26

way, if you let sexual imaginings alone, and if every
moment you are free of them you cultivate more and
more spiritual imaginings, in time the spiritual fantasy
will expel the mind's erotic obsessions.
In Nash Sovremennik, a Soviet magazine, the writer J.
Kasakov wrote in 1977 that he sometimes observed his
baby smiling in his dreams. His mother interpreted this to
mean that angels were playing with the child. (They were
Communists, who had not been taught about angels.)
Kasakov wrote, 'What is the smile? What does a babe
know that is concealed from grown-ups?'
Another Soviet writer, L. Vorobiov, tells of a father
and daughter eating in a monastery in Russia, which the
Communists had transformed into a restaurant. The
daughter said reproachfully, 'We drink beer and become
gluttons, where once monks ate their meals in piety.'
The father replied that the monks also drank.
She upbraided him for condemning monks for
hypocrisy, when the Communists today were no better.
Then she told him that she wanted to enter a convent.
'I suggest that you read some pornography,' he
answered.
'I have,' she said. 'I am bored by it.'
On the way back home, travelling by boat, the father
had a mystical experience in which he saw the golden
cupola of a cathedral advancing towards him. This
happened in 1976 in Moscow.
If the Communists can spontaneously experience
spiritual imaginings, how much more can the bride of
Christ, versed in Scripture, consciously bring before her
imagination the heavenly things. She can rejoice in them
with jubilation, and expel much of the harm of erotic
fantasies.
I will not, however, gloss over one difficulty. Many
who, over decades of imprisonment, have conquered
erotic obsessions, cannot so easily master diemselves
when, freed, they see real females again. It is the same for
27

Christian women when they were released. Instincts, long
restrained, took their revenge. Even with the best of
brides, the struggle never ends. But they can be finally
victorious, if they never give up. They can come to rejoice
in the embraces of Christ.
The mouth which is covered by kisses only
momentarily breaks free to speak words of love to the
beloved, which will indicate more kissing. When one has
received the heavenly kiss of unspeakable sweetness one
falls silent. One lady for years told everybody about her
experiences with Jesus. Then one day she had a real
experience with him. From that time on, she kept quiet.
Sometimes those who receive die heavenly kiss do not
know the Bible well, and cannot speak in biblical
language; but they too can know the Bridegroom's
embraces.
The Christian Mission to the Communist World has
often been threatened by terrorists. Its Swiss branch,
called 'Relief Action for the Martyr Church', received a
Üireatening letter from a group called the Red Army
Faction. The Swiss Christians remained unafraid and
continued their work, for which they were rewarded by
the Lord. One day diey received a letter'from a terrorist.
'I had an experience with Jesus and hesitate between
terrorism and God,' it read. 'I am out of balance, please
advise.' Anyone who has been kissed by someone
previously unknown but very lovable will know how he
felt.
The Christians established contact with him
immediately. Soon they received a second letter: 'Since
the age of seventeen I have been a terrorist. Now I have
surrendered my heart to Christ. It was terrible when I
realised how huge my sins were; they were higher than the
Himalayas. I was also an adorer of Satan. Now I would
not like to be the sort of Christian who only prays a little
and reads the Bible rarely, but rather a fighter in the front
line.'
28

His two natures
'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,' says the
bride at the beginning of Solomon's Song, 'for your love
is better than wine.' It is as if the bride is speaking about
two different persons: 'Let him kiss me . . . for your love
. . .' The bride is thinking about the two natures which
combine in the person of Jesus - the human nature and
the divine.
The love of Jesus' human nature is better than wine,
better than all die pleasures this world can offer. But the
bride wants more. She wishes to see the glorified Son of
God in all his splendour, and she desires the kisses of his
divine nature.
Some Christians' lives and deaths are far more painful
than our own. Equatorial Guinea was for many years
under the oppression of the dictator Marias Nguema,
who was supported by Soviet, Cuban and East German
advisers. At the time, refugees fleeing to Gabon from
there told of diirty-six Christians who were buried up to
the neck in the forest. The next day only two heads were
still moving. They were disfigured by insect bites and die
eyes had been eaten. In another incident, a prisoner had
his feet hacked off; in another, a girl who refused the
sexual advances made by her guards was tortured
unspeakably with a burning torch.1
Lukewarm Christians cannot endure such things. The
privilege of bearing such a heavy cross and remaining
faithful and hopeful is the monopoly of those who have
received die holy kiss of his divine nature, though they
may not have diought about or even heard of this biblical
phrase.
Bonaventura was the first Superior of the Franciscan
Order after the death of its founder. He was once asked
by Saint Thomas Aquinas where all his extensive
knowledge came from. He pointed to the crucifix on his
29

desk. 'That is the source of all my knowledge,' he said. 'I
study only Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' Bonaventura
had received the holy kiss of the divine nature of Jesus.
The savour of his ointments
In the Orient, perfumed wood was sometimes used in the
building of mosques. It is like hearing sermons preached
in a church in which incense is burned or in one
decorated with sweet-smelling flowers. But I have heard
the Word preached or recited in Communist prison cells,
in which sometimes 200 prisoners were crammed
together, in indescribable squalor. Some of us were
unable to wash for years. Our clothes were filthy. Water
was scarce, and so was soap. Overflowing barrels in the
cell served as lavatories for 200 people. Faeces and urine
filled one corner. Many of the prisoners simply suf-
focated. The windows were shuttered so that air could
not enter. Men would lie down on the floor so as to
breathe the draught from the tiny gap at the bottom of
the door.
In that situation there were some believers who dwelt
not only in these terrible earthly surroundings, but at the
same time in heavenly places. Scarcely breathing, like
asthmatics, they talked among themselves and with
others about the sweet savour of sacrifices brought to
God and of fragrances like those of heaven. They quoted
scriptures about frankincense and myrrh, about roses
and lilies.
The Jewish Talmud states that every meal at which the
conversation is about something other than the Word of
God is an idolatrous meal. When Christians were in the
Rumanian prison of Piteshti, they tried to think about the
Word of God while they ate, and to speak to each
30

other about it. However, their torturers then decided to
make them eat their own bodily waste. In Piteshti eating
excrement and drinking urine was a daily routine. But
while they did this, they thought of the Bible's words
about the savour of God's good ointments. They
meditated upon the perfumes described in the Word of
God. So in prison one is made aware of how independent
the spiritual life is from the life of die flesh.
A Russian priest, Nikiforov-Volghin, tells in his book
Dust on the Road of the following story, told to him by a
Christian he met in prison:
One day I arrived home and heard somebody cry out. I
found my wife, stabbed in the heart by somebody we
knew. The murderer fell at my feet, begging my
forgiveness. I said to him, 'Go, and do not do so
anymore.' I went to the police and accepted
responsibility for the crime. I was sentenced. Then in
Krasnoyarsk prison one prisoner murdered another.
For that, too, I accepted the blame. Now I am
sentenced to life imprisonment. I could not do other
than I did.
Loving God, I look on all men as I look upon angels.
My only prayer is, 'I am yours and you are
mine - have mercy on me.' If you had not been a priest
I would not have told you these things. You asked me
why I am here, and you are entitled to the truth.
When this prisoner died it was as though heaven had
opened. His last words were, 'Lord, I would like to
continue to suffer for others; but diy will be done.' Those
who are present at such a death, though prison squalor
surrounds them, sometimes detect a heavenly fragrance.
It is the odour of the high places in which the bride of
Christ lives.
31

What is in his name?
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the girl thought of her
lover's name. The two belonged to warring families. He
was a Montague, she a Capulet. Her family would never
have consented to their marriage. So she advised him to
change his name. 'What's in a name?' she asked. 'A rose
by any other name would smell as sweet. ' She was right
about roses. A rose is called a 'rose' only in the English
language; in other languages it has different names. And
she was probably right about Romeo as well. She could
have loved him even if his name had been Sebastian or
Antonio.
I do not rule out the possibility that some love Jesus by
another name. They have never heard the name 'Jesus' but
they love Love. They love self-sacrifice, they love
forgiveness and goodness. They love Divinity coming down
to earth, and earthly beings uniting with Divinity. They love
the poor and oppressed, those who represent Jesus on earth.
You can love Jesus without knowing his name.
Many who call in prayer upon Krishna, Buddha or
some other name may perhaps in reality mean 'Jesus'.
But with Jesus his name is important. In Hebrew it is
Yeshua, which means 'salvation'. His very name
proclaims what he stands for! You say 'Jesus', and it is
like the pouring-out of ointment. Because of that name
you know that there is salvation for you and for all people.
Another of his names, 'Immanuel', means 'God is with
us.'
Only the bride can say to the Saviour, 'Your name is
an ointment poured forth.' Jesus did not have a good
name in the world. He was called a glutton, a winebibber,
a Samaritan (which at that time was the same as calling
him a heretic); he was called a deceiver, they said that he
had a devil, and so on. To this evil talk about Jesus the
bride is deaf.
32

Souls who truly believe in Jesus are also widely
slandered. In the Soviet press faithful pastors are called
'scoundrels, hooligans and villains'. They call
Solzhenitsyn, the distinguished Nobel prizewinner, a
traitor.
Concerning the finest Christians of all, the
Communists spread the rumour that they are stool-
pigeons of the communist authorities and secret agents of
the police. As a result they are beaten up by their fellow-
prisoners. However, they know that in the eyes of their
Bridegroom, their name is good.
Holy love
The bride says, 'No wonder die virgins love you!' (1:3),
and there is no jealousy in what she says. This is what
distinguishes holy love from worldly love: not merely that
we who love him are not jealous, but that we want many
other souls to love him as well, and we desire him to pour
out on them his caresses and his kisses.
In Australia a Christian lady stopped a young girl in the
street. 'You look so sad! You are crying. ï am a Christian.
Could I be of help? Could I share your sorrow?'
'Thank you for your kindness,' replied the girl, 'but
nobody can help me. The man I love has left me.'
Our sister said, 'Don't worry. I have a beautiful
Bridegroom. I will give him to you.'
The girl, thinking she was being made fun of, said
'Why are you mocking my grief?'
Then our sister spoke to her about her heavenly
Bridegroom - about Jesus. She explained that he can
share his love with many, and yet to every one of them he
gives all his love. The girl was brought to Christ.
Those who preach Jesus are not in competition with
33

one another. They are fellow-workers. So if a soul that
was attached to one flock moves to join another, there is
no need for sadness. It simply means that the spiritual
atmosphere of the first flock did not suit that particular
soul. No Christian teacher can claim that he is equally
helpful to every individual.
It is not absolutely necessary that somebody should be a
member of my church. Let him go to any church where he
can grow spiritually, and I will accompany him there with
my prayers.
'Draw me'
The bride s*ays, 'Draw me, we will run after you. The
king has brought me into his chambers; we will be glad
and rejoice in you, we will remember your love more than
wine; the upright love you' (1:4). She prays, 'Draw me.'
She prays like this because she knows that she is still very
far from him. 'Whilst we are at home in the body, we are
absent from the Lord' (2 Corinthians 5:6). She prays like
this because she longs to arrive at union with him.
It is not enough that he should draw her by convincing
her. She does not have the moral power to follow her
convictions. He must draw her with supernatural grace.
He has to give her the will to come to him and the means
to fulfil diat will. He has said it himself: 'No man can
come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him'
(John 6:44). Nobody can come to Jesus by his own will.
Looking to the ascended Jesus, my prayer is 'Draw me.'
What could hinder the fulflhnent of this prayer? The way of
ascension is open for everyone. Elijah was a man who had
the same weaknesses as we all have, and he ascended into
heaven. Everyone who consents to ride in a chariot of fire,
as Elijah did, can ascend like him. Jesus said, 'He that shall
34

humble himself shall be exalted' (Matthew 23:12).
We can come to where Jesus is; we can sit with him on
his throne (Revelation 3:21). But we have to follow the
way he went, 'Who, being in the form of God . . . made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a
servant and was made in the likeness of men; and being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.
Wherefore God has also highly exalted him and given him
a name which is above every name.' (Philippians 2:6-9).
God is not only the Father of the Lord Jesus, but also
our Father; and we can all ascend to him if we follow the
way of Jesus. He lived for thirty-four years on earth in
misery, poverty and unmeasured sorrows. Let us beware
of wealth and exalted situations as of a burning fire, and
our prayer to be drawn by him will be fulfilled.
Running after him
The bride says, 'Draw me, we will run after you.' We
have not to walk after the Lord, but to run. The apostle
Paul tells the believers, 'Let us run with patience'
(Hebrews 12:1), 'So run that you may obtain the prize' (1
Corinthians 9:24); 'I therefore so run, not as uncertainly'
(1 Corinthians 9:26). Only running can symbolise a living
longing for God and a vigorous faith in him. Psalm
119:32 says, 'I will run the way of your commandments.'
It is written of die children of Israel that when they
worshipped the golden calf, they 'sat down to eat and to
drink' (Exodus 32:6). While Joseph was sitting, his
brothers conferred as to how to sell him. (Genesis 37:25)
It is a great catastrophe when the people of God sit down;
they must run - run with all their heart, not listening to
whispers or shouts from different sides, but violently
35

rejecting any hindrance to their running. We have to run
with our bodies stretched forward to seize the prize,
before our feet arrive at our goal.
We have to run with extreme speed. Jesus told us we
are lights. Light has greater speed than anything else in
the natural world. In telling us that we are lights, Jesus
told us to run with the speed of light. It is not the case that
souls who run slower don't arrive in the end, but they do
lose the prize reserved for those who arrive first.
In the bride's words, 'Draw me, we will run after you,'
we observe the sudden passing from the singular to the
plural in the midst of the sentence. The bride is saying,
'Jesus should draw me alone; then we - many of us - will
run after him. You, Jesus, take care of me, drawing me
with all your might, that I might influence others.' King
David, too, says, 'Restore unto me the joy of your
salvation, and uphold me with your free spirit, then I will
teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be
converted unto you. ' (Psalm 51:12-13).
Let the words, 'We will run' stay in our minds. Are we be-
lievers who are running? This is easy to find out. The one
who runs quickly covers a great distance in a short time. How
great a distance have you covered since you came to God?
Communists who found Christ
Communists hate not only Christians, Jews, Moslems,
patriots and those belonging to other political parties;
they also hate one another. It once happened that five
Russian Communists were in a prison cell, sentenced to
death by their own comrades. While awaiting execution,
one of them paced up and down in the cell, singing over
and over, Safe in the arms of Jesus. Just those few words.
The others asked.him what he meant, but he did not
36

know. He only knew that his mother had sung a song that
began with those words. His mother died when he was
young. What had remained fixed in his memory was that
there is a place where one is safe. This place is called 'In
the arms of Jesus.'
Another of the Communists said, 'I once saw an ikon of
Jesus with his arms stretched out on a cross.' Now they
knew two things - that Jesus died on a cross and that, in
his arms, you are safe. A third said, 'In Russia, even
now, we call the first day of the week Voskresenie
(Resurrection). Is the one who was resurrected the same
one who stretched out his arms on the cross? Is this what
gives us safety, even in death?'
From these fragments of knowledge the Communists
reconstructed the essence of the gospel. They went to their
deaths singing, Safe in the arms of Jesus.
That is the speed at which the light was spread in death
row. In no time at all, one had been drawn by Christ; and
all the others followed him. You may not know very much
about Jesus. But share quickly the little that you do know
with others. There could be great consequences.
In Red China, where Christians were fiercely
persecuted, somebody wrote on a wall, God loves every man.
The next day he found more writing below: even the
Communists. These words were probably written by a Red
Guard who had found assurance that God loved him, too.
The light had passed quickly from one soul to another.
The responsibility of soul-winners
The bride says, 'Draw me, we will run after you' (1:4).
The faithful soul wins other people for Christ. By so
doing, it takes upon itself a huge responsibility. In the
Free World a soul-winner does not readily perceive this.
37

The man he wins for Christ will become a church
member, sing in the choir, marry a nice Christian girl and
lead a quiet Christian life. But to be a soul-winner in a
Communist country — to be an evangelist in the Under-
ground Church - burdens you with heavy problems.
When St Paul preached in Rome he knew that those
who responded to his message could be thrown to the wild
beasts and devoured in the circus arena. They could be
crucified or burnt on stakes. Should he preach, in such
circumstances? Or would it be better for him to remain
silent? Is it right to propagate an idea if it will bring men
to prison, to torture and to death? How many unbelieving
wives, parents and children must have cursed Paul,
because his preaching brought such sorrow to their
families? But when you are drawn by Jesus, you must
make others run after him.
I was in jail with a man whom Traian Dorz, the famous
Rumanian poet, had brought to Christ. He was sentenced
for his faith, and he had left a wife and six children at
home. I asked him, 'Are you resentful towards Dorz, for
taking you out of your life of tranquillity and setting you
upon this dangerous path?' He said, 'I can't thank him
enough.'
During World War II, Mrs Roosevelt, the wife of the
President of the USA, carried in her purse this prayer:
Dear Lord,
Lest I continue
My complacent way,
Help me to remember
Somewhere out there
A man died for me today.
As long as this fight continues,
I then must ask and answer -
Am I worth dying for?
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Every ruler and every officer who sends soldiers to
die - yes, every conscientious citizen - must ask himself
or herself the same question.
In the Underground Church the pastor gives
assignments to his church members which might result in
their death. He asks them to organize secret printing
presses, to secretly transport Christian literature from
place to place. If they are caught these people will go to
prison. Because of those printing presses, many people
have died.
The Christian Mission to the Communist World has
sent couriers into Communist countries to smuggle holy
books in. One of these, Wang-Shin-Mei, was beaten to
death in China. Two others, Tom White and Mel Bailey,
were caught in Cuba; they received prison sentences of
twenty-three years each. Others were wounded while
taking Bibles into Communist Mozambique.
A soul-winner in the Underground Church is not
allowed to be complacent. He must remember that his
brothers and sisters may die for what he has told them to
believe and to do.
In the Free World, Christians must be taught to carry
crosses and to learn to renounce. The soul-winner must
know and practise this himself, before he teaches it to
others.
In the king's chambers
The bride prayed, 'Draw me', and the prayer was granted
immediately. The king brought her into his chambers.
We read of Blessed Ann Marie Taigi (1769-1837), a
woman of simple background and mother of seven
children, that she saw a mysterious sun suspended before
her, a little above head height. By its light she saw all the
39

visible and invisible things of earth. She penetrated also
into the depths of the abyss and into the high places of
heaven, just as St Paul rose to the third heaven (2
Corinthians 12:2). With great clarity she observed the
fates of diverse men and the secrets of nature and grace.
She could discern the secret thoughts of people near at
hand and far away.
For her, there was no time; she could see men and
events in the past and the future. Everything happened in
that single moment, in die mystical sun. In one glance she
perceived a multitude of things, with perfect knowledge
and in complete detail.
Ignatius of Loyola saw, in a rapture, divine things.
While sitting near a river and allowing his eyes to rest on
the water, his sight was opened and he understood many
things - secrets of faith and revelations from the realm of
natural science - with such an overwhelming clarity that
he had no doubt it was a revelation from God.
These were people who had been in the King's
chambers. I have myself known men who have been
there. In jail, I was thrown together with a Christian
sentenced to death. He sang songs which he had
composed. He told us, 'Death does not scare me. I sing
here; I will do the same after I am shot. Only the songs
will be different. Here, my hymns somehow centre
around myself, telling of my longings, how sinful I have
been, how I was saved, although the Lord taught us in his
prayer to pray without using the word "I". Heavenly
songs are different. The angels sing that God is thrice
holy, and that the earth is filled with his glory. They
rejoice over it, and they have nothing to ask. About
themselves they say nothing, neither good nor bad. At
Christ's birth they sang "Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth, peace to men on whom his favour rests." There
was no petition for personal needs. '
My Christian cellmate went to his execution singing
one of the new songs which he had learned in the
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chambers of Jesus. In his spirit, he had been in heavenly
Jerusalem, the city far away, before his physical death.
We are all meant to visit the chambers of Jesus and to
learn these new songs.
•We will be glad'
The bride says, 'The king has brought me into his
chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in you' (1:4). The
grace given her affects many others. Once again she
passes from the singular case to the plural: 'The king has
brought me into his chambers; we will rejoice.' It is
enough that one single soul should be in right fellowship
with God, and the whole Church of which he is a part will
be blessed, and will have joy and gladness.
There are no useless words in the Bible. It is written,
'We will be glad and rejoice,' and it might seem that this
is repetitious. But there is a progression here from inner
joy to outward gladness. Gladness can be faked. It must
be united to a joy in the heart which makes it genuine.
Many people display gladness even though their stony
hearts have been long incapable of knowing true joy. God
continually insists that joy and gladness must go together;
there should be neither laughter without the heart's
participation, nor a joy in the heart too miserly to show
itself outwardly and thus gladden others. The archangel
Gabriel said to Zacharias the priest, 'You shall have joy
and gladness' (Luke 1:14). The prodigal son's father said
to his other .son, 'It was meet that we should make merry,
and be glad: for this your brother was dead, and is alive
again' (Luke 15:32). Jesus tells us to 'rejoice . . . and leap
for joy' (Luke 6:23). So rejoicing should be accompanied
by outward signs of jubilation.
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Loving unto death
The bride says, 'We will remember your love more than
wine' (1:4). The wine represents the king's gifts, as
distinguished from his person. That he himself unites with
us is of more value to humanity than all the things he
gives to us.
'The upright [literally, 'uprighteousnesses'] love you.'
They love Jesus even unto death. Bishop Seraphim of
Phanarion in Greece was martyred, on 4 December 1601.
He had been falsely accused of plotting and rebelling
against the Turks. They shouted at him, 'Rebel and
subverter of our authority! Behold, thou hast come into
our hands, and thou wilt receive that which is thy
due - unless, perchance, thou shouldst wish to abandon
thy faith and become a Moslem. Then we would forgive
thee, and honour thee greatly, for by this we would know
that thou hadst repented and become as one with us.'
The saint was an upright man who loved Jesus. He
desired martyrdom for Christ and did not become in the
least fainthearted. He said to them with a clear and serene
countenance, 'I will never agree in any circumstances to
forsake my faith, so that I might be spared my death. I
will never forsake my most sweet Jesus, my God and my
Creator.
'Now, because I suffer unjusdy, I have the more hope
on that account that I shall receive from my Master even
greater honour. I would never deny my faith; nor shall I
ever be separated from my sweetest Master and God,
Jesus Christ. Though I shall die ten thousand deaths for
his holy name, I would count it all joy and gladness. O,
Ruler! Be it slaughter or mutilation, do whatsoever is
within thy power.'
The ruler, Hamouza Bey, then ordered him to be
flogged and his nose to be cut into small pieces. This
upright man loved Jesus. He endured all these torments
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as if they were happening to somebody else, thanking God
and blessing him.
The next morning he appeared before Hamouza Bey
again, and his attitude was die same. 'I will never
abandon my Lord Jesus, my Creator who shaped me,
only to believe in a mortal man - an illiterate - an enemy
and blasphemer of my Christ!'
They tore him to pieces. But even his merciless
executioners marvelled to sec that he endured it all with
thanksgiving, and that his face was bright and joyous as if
he were at a feast. In the end he was impaled.
Legends often arise around such great saints. It is said
that his head and those of others condemned as criminals
were placed on spears and arranged in a row facing west.
This was done each evening, and by morning the heads
would be as they had left them, except for that of
Seraphim: his head would be found looking toward the
east, towards Jerusalem, the Holy City.
The Kenyan periodical Target reported that the
Anglican Bishop of Uganda, Janani Luwum, was shot in
front of President Amin because he refused to kneel and
beg for mercy. The same demonic spirit seems to be at
work in Communist Cuba as well. Fidel Castro attended
the execution by firing squad of a Christian. As his hands
were tied behind his back, Castro urged him, 'Kneel, and
beg for your life.' The Christian shouted back 'I kneel for
no man!' A sharp-shooter put a bullet first through one
knee, then the other. Castro exulted: 'See! We have made
you kneel!' The man was finished off slowly by being shot
through the non-vital parts of die body, so diat die agony
was prolonged. This incident is described by John
Martino in his book / was Castro's prisoner.
The devil himself works through these anti-Christian
dictators. We are reminded of the words he addressed to
the Lord: 'All diese things will I give you, if you will fall
down and worship me' (Matthew 4:9).
Christians such as these I have described are each one a
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personification   of   'uprighteousness. '    Therefore   the
Hebrew text says, 'Uprighteousnesses love you.'
'Black and comely'
The bride says, *I am black [but] comely, O you
daughters of Jerusalem,' (1:5). An important emendation
to the translation is needed here in the Authorized
Version. We read, 'I am black but comely.' This gives
the impression that black people are usually ugly, and that
Solomon's bride was an exception, comely despite her
blackness. There is no trace of this idea in the Hebrew
original, which reads simply, 'I am black and comely.'
There are as many beautiful black girls as beautiful white
girls or yellow girls. There is no hint of racism in this
verse.
Blackness is absence of light, and it is in this sense that
the Bible uses the term. The Church is black because
some believers do not obey God; but she is beautiful
because of her saints and perfect Christians. She is black
in the eyes of men, because those whose souls are blind
cannot perceive the beauty of the kingdom of God within
us, but she is beautiful before God.
We are black because of our own weakness, but
beautiful and strong through God's grace, which is ours
in abundance. A man can be black because he is guilty of
many sins, but beautiful in God's eyes from the very
moment he puts his joyful trust in Jesus, the Saviour of
sinners, who forgives him and will change his soul.
Today's decayed Church can be black on account of
her deeds, but she is beautiful on account of those who
have gone before in faith. She is beloved because of the
first generation of Christians who were aflame with gentle
love,  just   as   Israel,   even   though   it  rejected Jesus,
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remains beloved because of the Jewish patriarchs.
Though she may be blackened by persecution, the
Church is beautiful through her penitence. She may be
weak, but the words of Psalm 45 apply to her: 'The king's
daughter is all glorious within' (verse 13).
Never be afraid when you discover your weakness and
sinfulness, when you discover the lack of light or
blackness. You are only one in a large flock. A small part
of a body can be affected by disease while the body as a
whole remains healthy. Similarly you are 'healthy' or
beautiful by virtue of the Church to which you belong,
which possesses the beautiful characters of the saints.
Their beauty reflects upon you.
In Red China, a wedding took place at an execution
ground. Zhou Wen Yong and Chen Tie-Zhun had been
workers together in the Underground Church and had
both been sentenced to death. They were in love. At the
place of execution Zhou asked Chen, 'Will you be my
wife?' She consented. He declared 'So we are married
before God! Let the Communist bullet be the seal of our
wedding. We will feast our marriage in paradise.'
A Soviet prisoner wrote from jail, 'I bow my head in
humility before our mother, the Church. I thank God for
die education she gave me. The Church of Christ has
many sufferings, but also an overflow of joy. In die
Siberian cold, we warmed the icy winter's embraces with
the Word of God.'
Let us thank God that we belong to this Church which
has such saints as members, even if we ourselves are
unworthy. We are black and beautiful.
Every believer is tempted at some time to think, 'You,
who are so black - how can you speak about the Lord?'
Every preacher at some time thinks, 'How can I, who am
so wicked, even climb into the pulpit?' Our courage
evaporates when we consider what state we are in.
But look at the apostle Peter. He, who had denied
Christ with oaths and curses, stood in the Jerusalem
45

marketplace and rebuked the people: 'You denied the
Holy One and the Just' (Acts 3:14). He who had himself
committed this very sin, in the most heinous manner,
rebuked others for the same sin, though they were much
less guilty. He could do this because he knew that he was
not only black but beautiful - not only sinful, but also
forgiven and beloved by God. The darkness in him did
not make Peter despair. He knew he was wicked, but he
also knew that when he preached, it was not him speaking
but Christ, who lived in him.
The night is black, but it gives rest to the earth. Black
bread is very nutritious. A pastor who by his own deeds is
in darkness but is beautiful by the grace he receives from
God, can feed a hungry flock. I trust Jesus' taste more
than my own! I see myself as black, he sees me as
beautiful. He sees himself mirrored in us. He sees us as
we shall be.
The bride compares her blackness to that of the tents of
Kedar and the curtains of Solomon (1:5). Kedar was a
district of Arabia inhabited by Bedouins. They made their
tents from black goat hair. The curtains at Solomon's
palace were also said to be black. Black curtains keep out
the light from a room. This image means that great care
was necessary to ensure that the many sins committed by
the bride should not come to light.
Do not be critical
The bride admonishes, 'Look not upon me as being
blackish' [the meaning of the Hebrew word] 'because the
sun has looked upon me' (1:6). She had described herself
as 'black' (shechorah), but now, pondering the fact that
she is also beautiful, she no longer calls herself
'black'.   She  is  only  'blackish'  (shecharchoret).   Men
46

should not even regard her as that. They should learn to
see her beautiful side.
The believer should regard nobody as 'black'; he
should be careful not to slander even his weakest brother.
The apostle Peter says, 'God has shown me that I should
not call any man common or unclean' (Acts 10:28). The
bride is blackish, but listen to her defence! 'I am blackish
because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's
children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of
the vineyards.' If my brother has sinned, the reason may
be the many sufferings, temptations and persecutions
which he has endured. When the Spirit of God does his
work, my brother will confess his sins himself, like the
bride in Solomon's Song.
To explain how she came to be 'blackish', she reviews
her past life. 'My mother's children' - that is, the
members of the Church, which is the believer's
mother — 'were angry with me; they made me the keeper
of the vineyards' - an occupation in which you get
heavily sunburnt. 'I have been given great assign-
ments,' the bride complains. 'I have been appointed a
pastor, a teacher of the brethren.' Other believers
might well envy her situation, but it was in that
situation that she was burned by the sun and became
blackish.
Christians, don't compete for the honour of being
leaders in the Church. It is a calling that should make you
tremble. Saint James writes, 'My brethren, be not many
masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater
condemnation' (3:1). Christians, don't judge. Coventry
Cathedral in England was destroyed by German bombs
during World War II. When it was rebuilt two charred
logs from the old building were made into a cross bearing
the inscription, 'Father, forgive'. There was no 'them' at
the end. The British knew that they too needed to be
forgiven.
Terrorists sin. So do all Arabs who do not love Zionists.
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And Zionists have committed sins towards Arabs.
Communists sin. Christians in Communist countries sin
too, because they are not being holy and zealous enough
to prevent men from becoming Communists. The best of
pastors sin more than all of diese. God gives them a
vision, but they neglect many of their duties.
For all of us, our only hope is die Lord's sacrifice on
Good Friday; the Easter event, his resurrection, is our
only source of peace. So do not misuse your moudi by
criticizing, and especially by criticizing the bride of
Christ.
The dangers of the pastorate
Be very cautious before you accept the office of pastor, a
keeper in God's vineyard. The believer's preference is for
a hidden life with God. Listen to a biblical parable:
Once, die trees went forth to anoint a king over diem.
And diey said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.' But the
olive tree said unto diem, 'Should I leave my fatness
wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to
be promoted over the trees?'
And die trees said to die fig tree, 'You come and
reign over us.' But die fig tree said unto diem, 'Should
I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be
promoted over the trees?'
Then said die trees unto die vine, 'You come and
reign over us.' And die vine said to diem, 'Should I
leave my wine, which cheers God and man, and go to
be promoted over die trees?'
Then said all die trees unto the bramble, 'You come
and reign over us.'
And die bramble said unto die trees, 'If in truth you
48

anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust
in my shadow. And if not, let fire come out of the thistle
and devour the cedars of Lebanon (Judges 9:8-17).
Only valueless Christians long for important positions in
the Church of God and rejoice when they are given them.
They are misguided, because important positions in the
Church leave no time for maintaining the beauty of your
own vineyard. You become so concerned with caring for
others that you don't care about yourself. You will be in
danger of the same catastrophe which overcame ancient
Israel, to whom the apostle Paul wrote: 'You therefore
who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who
preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who
say that a man should not commit adultery, do you
commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit
sacrilege?' (Romans 2:21-22).
The only man who should become a pastor or a
missionary is the man who cannot be anything else. He
who can say with the prophet Jeremiah, 'His word was in
my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was
weary with forebearing, and I could not stay' (Jeremiah
20:9). Young converts, don't push yourselves forward for
leading positions in the churches and in missions! Don't
begin preaching at the earliest opportunity out of a sense
of obligation! It is better to keep the beauty of your own
vineyard.
Where can he be found?
The bride says, 'Tell me, O you whom my soul loves,
where you feed, where you make your flock to rest at
noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the
flocks of your companions?' (1:7).  She gives Jesus a
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beautiful name, 'You Whom My Soul Loves'. The
Church is the beloved of God's soul, and God is the
Beloved of our souls.
The bride wants to know the exact place where her
Beloved is. She wants to go to the place where he rests,
where he feeds his flock, because in her diffidence she
does not want to distract him from his preoccupations by
asking him to come to her. She will go to him, and will be
able to speak with him while helping him in his work. She
will not abuse his time. But she must know exactly where
he is. She does not want to wander around among his
companions' flocks. She does not want to find herself
among die flocks of the other founders of religions, who
are not like him.
Jesus has given us an exact address where we can find
him. It is written that on the day of the Last Judgement,
men will hear these words from him: 'I was in prison and
you came to me,' or these: 'I was in prison, and you
visited me not' (Matthew 25:36, 43). And then he will
explain: 'Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have
done it ... [or] did it not to one of the least of these my
brethren, you have done it ... [or] did it not unto me'
(25:40, 45). Whoever wishes to meet Jesus must meet him
in places where brothers and sisters of Jesus are hungry,
thirsty, naked, unwanted, sick or in prison. Whoever
keeps himself distant from these places remains distant
from Jesus.
In his book The Unmasking, G. Dumitrescu - a former
jail inmate in Communist Rumania - writes:
Prisoners were so tortured that nobody dared to use a
hand for making the sign of the Cross. We did it with
our tongues. We had to stay the whole day with hands
lifted, even when at toilet. We had to put the dish with
food on the floor, kneel near it, and lick the food
without using the hands. We were animals. The food
burned our lips. We were beaten with sticks on the
50

shinbones, but could not rub our feet. The hands had to
stay unmoved. Every prisoner was asked to beat his
best friend, his brother in faith. If he refused, the
brethren were tortured until they agreed to beat him
with truncheons on the soles.
The prisoner, Nuti Patrashcanu, had become a
sadistic torturer of his friends. Then they tortured him
almost to death. Twelve of them sat on his body; he
excreted and was made to eat his own excrement.
The Patrashcanu mentioned above later shared a prison
cell with me, and God gave me the grace to bring him to
Christ. His bride* who was free, was also converted. He
later died in jail.
The last words of the Christian Sherban Gheorge, who
was killed in an atrocious manner in Piteshti, still echo in
our ears: 'The Communists' crimes are too horrible. I
can't pray for them to God from a distance. I must go to
him to speak on their behalf. Do not avenge my death. '
Jesus' companions
The bride says, 'Why should I be as one that turns aside'
by the flocks of your companions?' (1:7). In this verse the
founders of other religions are called the companions of
Jesus, not his competitors. Jesus has no competition. He
is not threatened by all those who have inscribed high
thoughts about God in the Vedas of the Indians and in the
holy books of other nations; he is not threatened by
Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Muhammed and other
founders of religion who, in the measure of the light which
they had, tried to bring men to better ways.
The bride's question as to where the Beloved sleeps
arises from a legitimate desire to see his face; but it does
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not receive a direct answer. On the last evening, Thomas
asked the Lord, 'We know not where you are going: and
how can we know the way?' (John 14:5). But Jesus had
already replied: 'Where I go you know, and the way you
know' (14:4). He concedes to no man the possibility that
he would not know what his duty is, that somebody
sincerely seeking the King of Kings would not be able to
distinguish between him and one of his companions or a
deceiver, that he would not know how to distinguish
betwen the lilies with which he feeds his flock and the
simple grass of the others. That would be to despair of
human thought. Jesus believes that men are capable of
thinking correcdy.
Only love Jesus with a perfect love, from your whole
heart, and you will know where he feeds his flock as surely
as every man who loves drugs or alcohol knows where to
find them. 'What man is he that fears the Lord? Him shall
he teach in the way that he shall choose' (Psalm 25:12).
The difficulty is not lack of knowledge, but a moral
weakness. His bride cannot make the decision to go to the
place of deep suffering, which is the surest place of
encounter with the greatly-Beloved.
Would you like to know where Jesus feeds his flock?
Deny yourself and take up your cross. Then you can be
sure of following him. Would you like to know where he
rests at noon? Once, he rested in the bosom of the Father;
now he rests in the heart of every believer who gives him
room. But he is pre-eminently resting in the hearts of the
believers who are undergoing suffering; in the hearts of
those who have purified themselves from attachment to
created things, so that they may remain entirely
indwelling in the Creator.
I remember a Good Friday in a cell in the Rumanian
jail, Jilava. We were all very hungry, but that day when
the bowl of gruel was brought we refused to eat. We
fasted. Good Friday is the only fast-day described by the
Lord himself: 'The days will come, when the bridegroom
52

shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast'
(Matthew 9:15). Days of fasting, with deep repentance for
our past sins, are the greatest gifts anybody can give to the
Underground Church and the missions which help it.
As a punishment for refusing the food on Good Friday
we were made to stand to attention for the whole of Easter
morning. That provided a captive audience for a sermon!
If anybody had desired to be with Jesus on that day, he
should have travelled in spirit to be in fellowship with us.
Jesus was in jail with his disciples on that day. Prison is
one of the places where we should look for him. I wonder
at the numbers of Christians from the Free World who
visit Communist countries but never ask permission to
visit a jail and encourage their brothers and sisters in
pain.
In Solomon's Song Jesus did not say directly where he
feeds his flock. He wants us to think for ourselves. But on
the Day of Judgement we will be reproached or approved,
according to whether or not we have been among this
world's sufferers.
By the footsteps of the flock
In the Song, Jesus' reply to the bride's question is: 'If you
do not know yourself - so the Hebrew reads - 'O you
fairest among women, go your way forth by the footsteps
of the flock, and feed your kids by the shepherds' tents'
(1:8). The Bridegroom calls her, 'The fairest among
women.' Nothing is more beautiful in God's sight than a
believing soul. He is blind to its weaknesses.
The Bridegroom shows us a simple way to find him. If
she wishes with all her heart to come to where he is, the
bride must 'go by the footsteps of the flock.' In this world
there are men who bear the visible sign of being Jesus'
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sheep. Go after them; imitate their example. Do as they
do. They are in fellowship with Jesus. If you follow in
their footsteps you will come into fellowship with him too.
When in Central Africa the first pygmy came to believe
in Jesus, another pygmy, Kiwebulaya, who could not
understand what his friend was talking about, decided to
follow him to find out the secret of his changed life. One
day he saw him leave the village. He went after him,
unobserved, into the jungle. He watched his friend kneel
in the grass, fold his hands, and speak with his new
invisible friend Jesus.
Now Kiwebulaya knew what he had to do. After his
friend had finished praying and departed, he went to die
same place, knelt in the depressions in the grass left by his
friend, folded his hands as he had done and said, 'Jesus,
you who made my friend happy, make me happy too.'
A voice replied: 'Come unto me, you pygmy who
labour and are heayy laden, and I will give you rest.'
Kiwebulaya said, 'I would come to you, Jesus, but I don't
know how.' He received a reply again: 'I will be with you
always.' When he rose from his praying, Kiwebulaya's
face shone with happiness just as his friend's face shone.
He had come to where Jesus was by following in the
footsteps of one of his sheep.
But be very careful that those whom you follow are
really Jesus' sheep. To use another animal analogy,
hunters sometimes have useless dogs. They run after die
real hunting dogs, and if they were persistent they would
arrive at the kill widi the others. But instead they stop at
every bush and every curiosity. The hunting dogs we
should follow are the real ones, which go through fire and
water.
The Bible says, 'Walk in the way of good men, and
keep die paths of the righteous' (Proverbs 2:20). Paul
says, 'Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ' (1
Corinthians 11:1). He also says, 'Be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit
54

the promises' (Hebrews 6:12). The best way of advancing
in the life of faith is to take as our examples the most
worthy believers of die Church's history, not those who
have the latest fanciful doctrines. In art galleries one can
see many young painters copying the masterpieces of
painters of die past. Young believers must copy die
outstanding saints of die past.
When die Communists took over Angola, they began
to threaten and persecute die Christians. Those who were
true believers remained unafraid. One Sunday morning
die Communist soldiers entered die Evangelical Church
in die town of Chiasso. They drove catde into die church,
slaughtered diem and mounted the animals' heads on die
pulpit and the communion table. A sign on die pulpit
announced, 'These are die gods you now worship.'
The believers were given a choice: eidier to die, or to
deny their faith. The pastor, Aurelio Chicanha, and 150
church members remained steadfast and were murdered
there and dien. The mission compound was turned into a
military base. Similar killings and appropriations of
churches have happened in Chissamba, Dondi, Bungue
and Elemde.
These believers were real sheep, whose example we can
follow. Not all of us are called to die a martyr's death, but
all of us are called to have die same spirit of self-sacrifice
and love to the very end as diese martyrs had.
My former fellow-prisoner Ion Stanescu, a Rumanian
Orthodox deacon, died from tortures suffered in prison.
He once told me die following story.
Colonel Albon, die director of the slave labour camp
where Stanescu was imprisoned, was informed that
someone had dared to preach in Stanescu's cell. He
entered carrying a cane and demanded to know the
culprit. When nobody answered, he said, 'Well dien,
everybody will be flogged. Unbutton!'
He started at one end of the cell, and there was the
usual yelling and tears. When he came to Stanescu, he
55

said, 'Not ready yet? Strip this minute!' Stanescu replied,
'Neither I nor the others will be beaten any more. There
is a God in heaven, and he will judge you.'
With that the fate of Stanescu appeared to be sealed.
Surely he would be beaten to death! But just at that
moment, a guard entered the cell and said, 'Colonel, you
are wanted urgently in the office. Some generals have
come from the Ministry.' Albon left, saying to Stanescu,
'We will see each other again soon.'
However, the generals arrested the colonel
(Communists hate and jail one another for no apparent
reason) and, after an hour, Albon was back in the cell,
this time as a prisoner. Many of the inmates jumped to
lynch him. But Stanescu defended his defeated enemy
with his own body, taking many blows himself as he
protected the torturer from the beaten prisoners.
Stanescu was a real priest. We have to follow in the
footsteps of men like this, loving our enemies but also
resisting their evil deeds.
It is easy to walk 'by the footsteps of the flock' because
sheep follow only beaten tracks, and will never take even
one step to the right or to the left away from it. But again,
let us be careful to walk only by the path of Jesus' sheep.
Not all sheep have virtues to be imitated. Some can be very
cruel. Any farmer will tell you about sheep who, by with-
holding milk, let their lambs die of starvation. Sometimes
they even smash the lambs' heads against a wall. Also,
certain sheep of different breeds hate one another; those of
the Hampshire breed cannot tolerate those of the Suffolk
breed. Avoid Christian sheep of this kind.
Where to feed our kids
The Bridegroom tells the bride, 'Feed your kids beside the
56

shepherds' tents.' The meaning of these words is clarified
by this Jewish proverb: 'If you wish to smell pleasant,
stand near those who sell perfumes.' The nearer a faithful
soul is to his pastor, the more he will make his valuable
teachings his own and the clearer he will see the face of
Jesus.
Saint Basil the Great said, 'When you are sick, you
don't go to any physician but the best. Neither should you
listen to sermons at random. Seek the pastor who
prepares conscientiously the best food for your souls.' The
leaders of the Church must take care that only men of
spiritual maturity and great abilities preach. These words
of the Bridegroom are also a challenge to pastors. The
believer will have to feed his kids beside the shepherds'
tents. Can somebody feed the kids near you? Are you like
Jesus, a good man on the bosom of whom others are able
to rest?
We can take as an example Gheorge Calciu, the
Rumanian Underground priest. He is Orthodox, but had
warm brotherly relations with the persecuted Protestants.
He was at one time a fellow-prisoner of mine. Arrested at
the age of twenty-one, he spent twenty-two years in jail
for belonging to a patriotic organisation. In jail he
suffered the worst torture. He was one of those forced to
eat his own excrement and to drink his own urine. One
could escape these atrocities by claiming to have been re-
educated in the Communist spirit and proving it by
torturing one's friends. Calciu cracked for a while under
the pressure, but he received grace from God and he was
converted. Freed, he became an Orthodox priest and a
heroic one. All fear to which he had yielded for a while
was gone. From great depths of sin he rebounded to the
heights of holiness. Seminary students and other young
people flocked to hear him preach. When the
Communists locked the door of the seminary to prevent
students from going to hear him, the students jumped in
through   the   windows.   The   Communists  locked  the
57

church; Calciu preached on its steps. He protested about
the tearing-down of Orthodox churches in Bucharest and
in the provincial towns, though he was warned that in
Communist countries priests must be on the side of the
atheists who are in power.
He continued his stand despite threats of detention in a
lunatic asylum. Later he was sentenced to ten years in
prison. Calciu valued courage, the rare gift of God, like a
precious stone. From his story we can see that a man who
has sinned can become a good pastor, near whose tents
brides of Christ can feed their kids.
Pharaoh's chariots
The Bridegroom says to the bride, 'I have compared you,
O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.'
With these words he rebukes the numerous believers who
ignore the advice that they should follow in the footsteps
of the flock. On first reading the comparison is hard to
understand. How could he compare his beloved, 'the
most beautiful among women', to horses?
Solomon's Song is an ancient book, written in a time
when people thought about animals differently to us
today. Julius Caesar erected a marble effigy of his horse in
a temple. The Emperor Nero nominated his horse to be a
senator. The Emperior Caligula made his horse a consul
and invited the animal to dinner and waited upon him.
In the Bible we find these words 'The Lord of Hosts has
visited his flock, the house of Judah, and has made them
as his goodly horse in the battle' (Zechariah 10:3). The
patriarch Jacob pays his son a compliment by saying,
'Issachar is a strong ass' (Genesis 49:14). Jesus calls his
believers 'sheep'.
There is nothing insulting in comparing a human being
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to an animal. Ancient Egypt was famous for its horses,
which were the finest in the world, so the Bridegroom
compared his beloved girl to a horse. But these words also
contain a rebuke. Huge possibilities of spiritual victories
lie ahead. He wishes to lead us in his chariot of trials.
Seated there, we can conquer all fears, temptations and
sins. But instead of accepting his invitation, we allow
ourselves to be harnessed to the chariot of Pharaoh. We
do not sit with him in the chariot. We have to pull it, and
in it Pharaoh sits alone.
Why should we sweat in his service? Why should we
draw his cart? Why should we be harnessed to the chariot
of sin? Why be yoked in an uncomfortable yoke with
unbelievers? Why does a believing soul need to stoop to
dirty politics - even dirty ecclesiastical politics? You
might only be a horse pulling the chariot of some
unbelieving president or prime minister who cares
nothing for you. What good are dishonest transactions
and ugly amusements to you? Don't let yourself be
harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot. Ride with the noblemen
in Jesus' chariot of triumph.
Being harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot is not pleasant.
Drawings from ancient bas-reliefs in the Nile region show
that the ancient Egyptians did not understand the
anatomy of the horse, nor the correct way to harness it.
They attached the reins to the horse's throat, almost
suffocating it. Instead of allowing its neck to be extended
in the normal way, they held the head in line with its
chest, sometimes pulled even back further. Just as the
ancient Egyptians did not know the horse's anatomy,
neither do Pharaohs know the intimate structure of a
believer's soul. They harness these souls in a way that
torments them.
It is sad that the Bridegroom must so rebuke his bride.
There are Christians who support the terrorist Palestine
Liberation Organisation. There are Jewish Christians in
Israel   supporting   the   anti-Arab   measures   of  their
59

government. There are Christians who support the
Communist guerrilla movements in the Third World.
Other Christians defend the Soviet persecutors of the
Church or other dictatorships. Many believers are
involved in unjust transactions, and extramarital
relationships and in the world of amusement are in places
where they should not be. It is sad that brides of Christ
should be harnessed to Pharaoh's chariots!
How to rebuke
But even as he rebukes, the Bridegroom uses words of
gentleness. He says, 'I compare you, 0 my love, to a
company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.' She who causes
him sadness is addressed, *O my love'. Let us also learn to
sweeten our reproofs with good words. Praise must go
hand in hand with rebuke.
In his Epistles St Paul sometimes rebukeß believers with
great harshness, but his rebukes were accepted because
they never arrived unaccompanied. They came with
gentle words, expressing appreciation of the good
qualities in the believers. Before rebuking them, he writes
to the Romans, 'First, I thank my God through Jesus
Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout
the whole world' (Romans 1:8); to the Philippians; 'I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you'
(Philippians 1:3); to the Thessalonians, 'We give thanks
to God always for you all, making mention of you in our
prayers' (1 Thessalonians 1:2). This is how one removes
the bitterness of rebuke.
Antonina was the abbess of the women's convent in the
town of Kizliar in the Soviet Caucasus. In the early days
of the Revolution, when the plundering of monasteries
was a common occurrence, a mob of Bolshevik bandits
60

broke into the convent. They looted and destroyed, and
shot dead several nuns who resisted them. The abbess
Antonina fled to the convent of Vladikavkas; but posters
were displayed locally offering a reward of 3,000 roubles
to anybody reporting the whereabouts of the former
abbess of Kizliar. The Communists could not trace her,
though they suspected that she was concealed in another
convent.
Time passed. Then a young girl arrived at the convent.
With many tears she begged the abbess of Vladikavkas to
take her in, saying that her father and mother had been
killed and their estate burgled. She played the part so well
that she succeeded in winning the confidence of the abbess
who, out of sympathy, not only took the girl in and was
kind to her but soon even confided to her the secret that
Antonina was in hiding there.
Soon after this the girl disappeared. She had been an
agent of the secret police, looking for Antonina. That
night the militia surrounded the convent. Nobody could
escape. They broke in to search, demanding that the
abbess should be given up. When the two cell attendants
went upstairs to tell Antonina what was happening, she
said, 'Well, what can I do? If it pleases the Lord that they
find me, let it be so. But if it is not his will, he will close
people's eyes; they, seeing me, will not see me. Come, we
will go out in front of them.'
The nuns put a sheepskin coat on her, and the three
women went down the stairs and simply walked out of the
convent gate, before the very eyes of all the Red Army
soldiers. They had not gone far when they heard the
commander shouting. 'Who just went out of the gate?
Who was let out?'
'We saw nobody,' answered the soldiers.
'What do you mean?' retorted the angry commander.
'Someone just left in a white sheepskin coat, accompanied
by two nuns.'
Before her martyr death several years later, Antonina
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met the girl who had informed on her. She did not start
with words of rebuke, but said to her, 'I valued very much
the tears you shed when asking to be received as a nun in
the convent. It is very difficult to fake tears. They must
have come from a heart in whose depths there is a spark of
genuine love for Christ. You have been misused. You
were young, you did not know what you were doing. But
God did not only see you denounce me. He heard those
prayers which you said, in which not all was falsehood.
There may have been an occasional note of sincerity. God
will pity your soul; only repent.' There was so much
friendliness, spiritual beauty and complete lack of
resentment in the words of Abbess Antonina that the
girl's heart was pierced. She became a real believer in
Christ. Let us also learn to rebuke like this.
Holy nonsense
The Bridegroom says, 'Your cheeks are comely with rows
of jewels, your neck with chains of gold' (1:10). The
words 'of jewels' and 'of gold' have been added by the
translators to make sense of the Hebrew text. They are
not in the original. The authors of the Septuagint, who
were the first to translate the Old Testament into Greek,
also tried to make sense of the text and wrote, 'How
beautiful are your cheeks as the turtledove's.' But doves
have no cheeks! The Targum - the Aramaic
translation - renders it, 'Your cheeks are comely with
bridles.' What does all this mean?
We are prejudiced. We think that everything in the
Bible must make sense. If we don't find a meaning we
invent one. But not all the Bible consists of logical,
reasonable, purposeful thoughts. Much of it is the
expression of a wide gamut of feelings, of reactions to
62

events, or of impulse. Not all the Bible makes sense, and
life and the human mind have their nonsensical features
also. Nobody who fails to give nonsense a place can
mirror the whole of reality in his religious writings.
Depths of emotion cause lovers to talk a great deal of
nonsense. How much of it there is in the conversation of
Romeo and Juliet!
The simplest explanation is that Solomon wished to
compliment his bride; saying, 'Your cheeks are comely.'
They were so comely that instead of comparing them to
something he just kissed them. But then he wanted to
convey something more. He used the word batorim, which
can mean 'turtledoves' or possibly 'bridles'. And then,
instead of explaining himself further, he bestowed further
kisses.
Then he said, 'Your neck is chains.' What would he
have added? 'Of gold'? Or did he, perhaps, imagine his
bride with iron chains on her neck, bound to the poles or
stakes on which she was to be sacrificed by her captors?
Or did he see her chained like those unfortunate women
who were driven from Africa to America in slavery, with
iron chains round their necks? In any event, he did not
continue. Her neck was too comely for him to think of it
being so abused. He preferred to kiss it.
No life is complete without its nonsensical side. Let us
sanctify it.
God's jewels
The Bridegroom promises the bride, 'We will make you
borders of gold with studs of silver' (1:11). God is a lover
of beauty. He made his heavenly city of pure gold; its
gates of pearls; its foundations of costly stones. The places
where believers gathered for worship were to be beautiful
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also, the religious services solemn. The individual
believer's soul must also have beauty, and this we can
obtain through faith. The human soul cannot ornament
herself. God is the one who ornaments and perfects her.
God die Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
work at dais; dierefore die plural is used here: ' We will
make . . .'
God's jewels are unusual. Golden objects are normally
given studs of costly stones or platinum, which increase
their value. God gives them studs of silver, which
decrease it. He gives us spiritual truth - which is gold - in
the shape of simple human words, because odierwise we
could not wear it. He made the Eternal Word, his Son, to
have the body of an obedient servant, so that he could live
among us. He puts studs of die silver of humility in die
golden chains of the truth.
It is not always the most celebrated Christians - those
who have studs of diamonds in dieir chains of gold - who
are the best Christians. One of the best-known American
evangelists published a 'Ten-point plan for happiness'.
He started widi 'Love and be loved', forgetting that Jesus
said, 'You shall be hated for My name's sake.' The
evangelist went on: 'Guard your health.' How can you do
mat when you belong to the 60% of the world diat is
undernourished? He said: 'Keep a sense of humour.'
How can those who are being tortured for their faidi keep
their sense of humour? Again: 'Appreciate nature.' This
advice is given when many Christians are in underground
jails where they never see the sun.
But diere are odier, humble Christians whose chains of
gold have modest studs, perhaps of even less value than
silver ones. Their names are not well known in the world,
but they have proved to be heroes in times of great
tribulation.
It is reported from China diat a Christian in
Manchuria protested at the Communists' indiscriminate
killings.   He  was dragged into a people's court and
64

accused of crimes against the people. Then the judge
ordered those watching to march past him, beating him
with clubs until he died. But the people refused,
declaring, 'He is a good man.'
Changing tactics, the judge promised the man freedom
if he would renounce Jesus. 'Which do you choose,' he
demanded, 'Jesus Christ - or Communism?'
'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!' the Christian shouted back.
Then they took him to the riverbank for execution, and
on the way he sang 'Jesus loves me' and the twenty-third
Psalm set to Chinese music. He was shot in the back, but
instead of falling forward on his face to grovel in the dust
as victims usually do, he fell backwards, as if falling into
the arms of Jesus. Reportedly the entire community was
stirred by his testimony.2
The name of this martyr is unknown in the Free World.
He had lived in humility, and that is how he died. God so
ordered it that the beauty of his soul should not become
the object of human praise; but he is highly
God.
'My spikenard'
The bride says, 'While the king sits at his table, my
spikenard sends forth the smell thereof (1:12). When the
King enters the soul, the bride, like Mary of old, anoints
the feet of the Bridegroom with a pure nard of grateful-
ness and adoration, and the world is filled with the
perfume of the nard.
Nard or spikenard is made from a very small and
despised plant. The fragrance from this plant comes from
its root being trodden on or otherwise bruised. So, in the
Church, the spiritual nard spreads its perfume only when
it is bruised under the burden of the Cross.
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The bride's spikenard sends forth its aroma only as
long as the King sits at his table. As soon as Jesus ceases to
be in your soul, the nard's fragrance disappears and the
believer can no longer bring the good aroma of God to the
world.
A Russian Orthodox priest named Dudko had been in
jail for eleven years because he had preached what is in
the Bible. His enemies nearly succeeded in killing him in
a faked car accident. He continued without fear.
A Russian Christian named Orlov was imprisoned for
his faith. He was fed on salted herrings and so would
become very thirsty. But his captors would allow him a
drink only eight hours later. Also he was not allowed to go
to the lavatory when he needed it. I myself have spent
fourteen years in Communist prisons, so I know what
terrible torture this.is. Treat yourself as he was treated,
for a few hours. Then you will know what your brothers
and sisters suffer.
The Russian Orthodox priest, Dudko, was re-arrested,
after a period of liberty. This time he cracked and denied
his convictions publicly on television. Orlov remained
steadfast. Yet not only Orlov, but Dudko also served
Christ! His sermons, and the books he wrote before he
broke, have remained; and they continue to spread die
perfume of Christ.
'A bundle -of myrrh'
The bride says, 'A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved
unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts' (1:13).
Every word in this verse is full of significance. The
Saviour is called, 'my well-beloved'. It has sometimes
been asked whether Christianity is compatible with one
political doctrine or another. Christianity is compatible
66

with nothing! For Juliet, nothing else counted except
Romeo. She never talked about anything else. He was die
Beloved, die only one. So, too, Jesus should be our only
Beloved.
It is remarkable that the bride says, 'A bundle of myrrh
is my beloved unto me.' No matter what Jesus might be for
others, die bride says what he is for her. The apostle
Thomas calls him 'My Lord and my God.' No matter
what he might be for others, for me he is Lord and God.
On one occasion the disciples told Jesus what men were
saying about him - diat he was John the Baptist, Elias,
Jeremias or one of the prophets. But then Simon Peter
added what Jesus was for him: 'You are the Christ, the
Son of the Iivng God' (Matdiew 16:14-16).
The bride calls Jesus 'a bundle of myrrh' - a bundle
rather than a single stalk, because she found in him a
multitude of qualities. There is no word in Hebrew for die
English 'face' in the singular. You can only say panim,
which means 'faces'. When the Bible says 'Seek die face
of God,' it does so only in our translations. How easily
believers of different Christian confessions would come to
peace with one anodier if Uiey would only realize that
each believer has seen just one of die many faces of God,
and that his brother has seen a different face! That is how
diey arrived at different convictions. The convictions do
not exclude one anodier. Jesus is a bundle of myrrh; and
it may be that die different confessions have each seen a
different stalk.
In Communist countries Christians of many confes-
sions suffer persecution. In Rumania the Orthodox
priest, Calciu, Pitaru, a Christian from the BreUiren
assembly, Traian Dorz, from the Army of the Lord, the
Pentecostal, Shamu, the Seventh-Day Adventist,
Dragomir and the Cadiolic priest Godo all suffered in
prisons and psychiatric asylums. They did not quarrel
widi one another diere. They knew that Jesus is for diem
a bundle of myrrh.
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The bundle which the bride keeps between her breasts
is of myrrh, a plant with, a bitter taste. Even if he brings
her through fears and difficulties, she makes a place for
him between her breasts. In the Orient women used to
carry litle bags of perfume there. The bride has replaced
this bag with die sufferings he allows her to experience.
They are dear to her. Theirs is the fragrance she likes
best.
Between her breasts
She considers that the best place for the bundle of myrrh is
between her breasts. Well-educated men do not usually
speak or write easily about women's breasts. Some people
have been offended because this book uses erotic imagery.
Because of its erotic vocabulary the Song of Songs has been
greatly misused. Rabbi Akiba, who died around 135 AD,
cursed those who sang this song in taverns. It must have
been a common happening, or he would not have needed
to pronounce the curse. The Syrian dieologian, Theodore
of Mopsuestia in Cilicia (350-428), considered the Song of
Solomon a worldly, obscene poem without dignity,
allegedly written by King Solomon to defend his marriage
to an Egyptian. But the Fifth Ecumenical Synod of 553
condemned Theodore and all his writings. Later the
humanist theologian, Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563),
was forced to leave Geneva because he had called
Solomon's Song a worldly work. However, the Church has
always insisted that it is a holy book, and has explained it
allegorically.
We should not be offended at the mention of women's
breasts. I can see no reason why the Creator of the breasts
of women should not inspire a biblical author to write
about diem! The breasts are the prominent part of a
68

woman's body. Jesus finds his rest between a believer's
most prominent virtues. He expects all his disciples to be
prominent in some way. He asks them, 'What do you do
more than others?' (Matthew 5:47). Millions said of the
works of Jesus, 'Never have such things been seen.'
'Never man spoke like this man' (John 7:46). It should be
possible to say the same of us. We must be prominent
through fearless self-sacrifice, offering our own lives for
the salvation even of our worst enemies. We must risk our
lives even for the wicked, we must put them at stake in
order to do any good at all.
We will see at the end of the Song the concern
expressed by the believers over the fact that they have a
little sister who has no breasts. They ask themselves,
'What shall we do for our sister?' (8:8). Pastors of
churches must be preoccupied about souls that do not
become prominent through a gift. God speaks with
satisfaction of the virgin of Israel, saying of her, 'Your
breasts are fashioned' (Ezekiel 16:7). This means, in
spiritual language, 'You have become remarkable
through exceptional deeds.' Exceptional deeds are a
pleasant resting place for God in a human soul.
The words 'all night' in verse 13 in the Authorized
Version do not exist in the Hebrew. The correct text is,
'He shall lie between my breasts' - period. Read it
again- it could not say 'all night'. Where he is, there is
no night.
'A cluster of camphire'
The bride says, 'My beloved is unto me as a cluster of
camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi' (1:14). Camphire is
a kind of perfume reminiscent of the perfume of the
grapes of En-gedi. It is interesting that the name of the
69

plant, kopher, is also the Hebrew word for 'atonement*.
The Jews used to give the name 'cluster' to men who
possessed all the virtues and all the excellences.
The Jewish teachers in ancient times divided the first
word in the expression, Eshkol kopher, 'a cluster of
camphire,' so arriving at Ish kol kopher, 'a man who covers
all', or 'atones for all' - a fitting name for the Messiah.
The most costly perfume which Jesus spreads about him is
the fragrance of atonement for all sins through his
sacrifice.
The author of the Song of Songs, contemplating the
Saviour, remembers the vineyards of the En-gedi region.
In Hebrew En-gedi means 'the source of the goats'. The
region was so called because many wild goats lived in it. It
was the region to which Solomon's father, King David,
took flight when fleeing from his rival Saul, who pursued
him to En-gedi but fell into die hands of David. It would
have been easy for the latter to have taken revenge, but he
forgave his adversary. When Solomon, David's talented
son, reached maturity, a sentiment of piety led him to
visit various historic scenes of his father's miraculous rise
from the position of a shepherd to that of a glorious king
of Israel.
A serpentine route descends with difficulty from the
Judean deserts to this land through rocks and stones,
eventually arriving at a little river which makes its way to
the Dead Sea amidst rich vegetation and beautiful
vineyards. David the fugitive would have refreshed
himself witfi these grapes. Recalling his visit there,
Solomon puts in the mouth of the bride a comparison
between die Saviour and a grape of En-gedi. He also
refreshes and gladdens the heart, and gives new life to the
oppressed and persecuted of this world.
Jesus warned his disciples, 'They will persecute you'
(John 16:20). In this respect we all share King David's
fate and we all need the comfort of the Saviour. Fifteen
Roman emperors strove to eradicate the Christian faith
70

from the world, using torture to intimidate the believers.
Tender maidens and children received atrocious
treatment.
Saint Agnes and Saint Priscilla, both thirteen years old,
were torn by metal hooks, roasted on grills and crowned
with red-hot helmets. In the persecution by Diocletian,
17,000 Christians were slain in a single month. In Egypt
alone 144,000 of them were put to death and another
700,000 sent into exile. The total death toll reached
11,000,000, which means 30,000 a day.
But the extent of the slaughter did not bring panic to
those Christians who survived, because they had the
comfort of the vineyards of En-gedi, just as persecuted
David had. Amidst the torment they retained their joy
and their calm, so that Augustine wrote, 'Every one of
them seemed to be two people-one, somebody who
suffers greatly, and also somebody who speaks words of
gladness, of wisdom and of praising the Lord.' This is
why the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the
Church; it caused the Church to grow.
In the sixteenth century hundreds of Christians in
Japan died for their faith. Some were roasted over slow
fires or cut to pieces. Others had their flesh torn with
pincers. The necks of some were sawed through, little by
little, over a period of a week, until they finally died.
Others were buried alive or were frozen to death. But all
these, too, enjoyed the grapes of the mystical vineyards of
En-gedi.
While she was being buried alive, the Japanese
Christian Tecla, held a three-year-old girl in her arms and
encouraged her to meet death with the hope of paradise.
A boy of nine opened his collar himself to offer his neck to
the guillotine. A boy of five, woken from sleep by the
executioner's henchmen, proudly dressed in his finest
clothes and was carried in the executioner's arms to the
place of death; he also offered his head to the beheading
block.
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No Christian is alone during his tribulation; no-one is
left without comfort. Just before Betty and John Stam
were captured to face martyrdom at the hands of
Communist soldiers in the Anwhei Province of Red
China, John Stam wrote to his father: 'We're now in
dangerous territory, but we're not afraid. The enclosed
poem exactly expresses our feelings.' The poem was by
E.U.G. Hamilton, written at the time of the martyrdom
in China of the missionary Vinson:
Afraid? Of what?
To feel the spirit's glad release?
To pass from strain to -perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid - of that?
Afraid? Of what?
Afraid to see the Saviour's face,
To hear His welcome, and to trace,
The glory beam from wounds of grace?
Afraid - of that?
Afraid? Of what?
A flash - a crash - a pierced heart;
Darkness - light - Oh, Heaven's art!
A wound of His a counterpart/
Afraid-of that?
'Doves* eyes'
The Bridegroom says, 'Behold, you are fair, my love, you
are fair,' you have doves' eyes' (1:15). How strange is our
relationship with our Bridegroom. Usually brides think of
themselves as beautiful. Not the bride of Jesus. She says
72

about herself, 'I am black, I did not keep the vineyards of
my beauty.' In our union, it is the Bridegroom who
convinces us that we are beautiful. He tells us, 'Behold,
you are fair, my love; behold, you are fair.'
If he considers my soul to be beautiful, why should I
worry about him ever rejecting me? We are beloved by
him for our beauty. Holiness is always beautiful. Because
of it we are beloved, even when we are greatly tempted,
even if for a time we fall. Even if all men forsake us, we
will be loved by him to the very end. He says, 'Behold,
you are fair.' The bride is inclined to brood upon her
blackness. He wishes us to know ourselves as he sees
us - as beautiful. Humility is good only if it is a balanced
humility. To overcome any doubt in us, he repeats
himself: 'You are fair . . . you are fair.'
The attributes in us which especially attract Jesus are
our doves' eyes. He said, '//"... your eye is clear, your
whole body shall be full of light' (Matthew 6:22).
Whoever has clean eyes will be beloved by Jesus. The eyes
should not even look towards evil; they should not be
attracted by sin. They should betray no lust; they should
not see the straw in someone else's eyes. They should be
open to the glory of God and to the heavenly beauties.
The bride has doves' eyes. Doves are chaste and faithful
to their mates.
Oleg Miliutin, a Russian Orthodox, was six times com-
mitted to psychiatric institutions for openly declaring his
Christian faith. He was gagged and beaten and put in a
straight-jacket. He did not yield.
Khrapov, of the underground Soviet Baptist Church,
resumed his evangelistic work after twenty years'
confinement. A second eight-year term of imprisonment
followed and then another. He died in jail, as an unbroken
child of God, having spent a total of thirty-four years
suffering for Christ. For a time he had led the underground
Baptist Church while in hiding. Then he wrote a book
which has the amazing tide, The Happiness of a Sacrificed Life.
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He had doves' eyes. He had no bitter words for
torturers or traitors. He looked on life with good eyes.
There are so many beautiful things to think about, and his
book speaks about them. Christ loves such souls greatly.
Not only the eyes but also the whole nature of the
faithful soul is that of a dove. A dove will not sit on the
green branch, will not drink fresh water, will not seek
shade and will avoid the company of other birds until it
finds its companion. So also is the bride of Christ, so long
as she is separated from her Bridegroom.
On the green bed or in the house
The bride says, 'Behold, you are fair, my beloved, yea,
pleasant: also our bed is green.' The Bridegroom replies,
'The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir'
(1:16-17). The bride, inebriated with happiness because
of the loving words which have been spoken to her, says,
'You are fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant.' He is fair and
pleasant. Many males are handsome but not pleasant;
many are pleasant but not handsome. Jesus has both
qualities.
Then she invites him, saying, 'Our bed is green.' In
the midst of nature, among the blooming of lilies and the
chirping of birds, upon the green grass which is a witness
to the care of God towards his creatures, there the faith-
ful soul wishes to give Jesus her love. She calls the bed,
'our bed', and he will call the house, 'our house'.
Between the bride and Jesus there is a community of
goods - everything which is hers is his; everything which
is his is hers.
The people of Israel knew Solomon's Song, but when
Jesus once commanded them to sit on the grass, they did
not remember the Scripture. They ate on the grass; their
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hunger was satisfied; but they did not give him their love.
At picnics today on the green grass there's plenty to eat
and drink and we too fail to give him our love.
The Bridegroom puts forward an alternative to the
green bed. The house of cedar wood is durable and does
not rot. The rafters there are of fir, a fine wood used in
palaces. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus invites those
who belong to him to enter into the closet (Matthew 6:6).
There, in quiet, we shall enjoy the love of God.
Christians can enjoy communion with him not only in
nice homes, but also in prison cells. A Soviet prisoner
wrote:
When I entered jail, in mockery I was given gigantic
shoes and clothes twice my size. The sleeves reached
my knees. I looked like a clown or scarecrow. When I
entered the barracks, the criminals, incited by the camp
commander, greeted me with laughter and ridicule.
A prisoner bowed, in fake piety. 'I greet you, holy
Father; you are the ambassador of Christ Himself. Do
you represent the interests of heaven?'
The mocking words gave me courage. Forgetting
how I looked, I told them I indeed represented heaven,
for which the atheists imprisoned me. While preaching
to those despising sinners, the sermon affected me too.
I wanted to embrace them for having reminded me of
my high calling.
Many fear suffering. In the past I, too, feared. But
the presence of the Lord in jail has given me so many
happy experiences that I would not have changed them
for years of easy living in freedom.
This man has known the discreet embraces of Jesus not in
a house of cedar wood, but in a Communist prison cell.
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~ Chapter 2 ~
Before going on to the second chapter, there are a few
general considerations to be made concerning Solomon's
Song. Origen, who died around 253 AD, really began the
Christian allegorical interpretation of this book. Later a
Mariological interpretation was devised by Ambrose
(339-397), in which the bride of the Song was considered
to be prophetic of Mary. From then on, commentaries
either chose between these two possibilities or combined
them.
As I have already said, the Church took very harsh
action against those who considered the Song of Songs to
be an ordinary worldly book. The Song contains not only
religious teaching but also a very simple human message.
Any young man who cannot love a girl wholeheartedly,
and any girl who cannot love a man passionately, is not
yet ready to be a marriage partner. And with such an
attitude they will not be able to properly love their friends,
their parents or their children.
The Song teaches a healthy attitude towards sex.
Whoever is ashamed to think about sex ought also to be
ashamed of the woman who gave him or her birth or of
the child whom he fadiers or the babe to whom she gives
birth. Most of all, such people ought to be ashamed of
their own sexuality. There is nothing wrong in sexual life,
just as there is nothing wrong in any bodily function.
Jesus had a body with all the organs and instincts we
have, only he was never dominated by sin. God has
ordained sexual life; he wills that there should be love
between the sexes. The Zohar says: 'Sexual pleasure with
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your wife is a religious pleasure, and one which gives joy
to God, too. Performed with gladness, the religious duty
of conjugal intercourse, in the presence of God's glory [the
Shekinah], gladdens your wife for the sake of the honour of
the heavenly partner.'
We should not be offended that there is so much carnal
love in the Song of Solomon. The body as well as the soul
is created after the image of God. Our creed says that the
body will be resurrected as well as the soul. Orthodox
mystics speak about 'the holy flesh', because the flesh will
have a part in resurrection. Jesus loved not only the souls
of men, but their flesh too. Why should he not speak of the
bodily charms of his bride? Justin the Martyr wrote, 'If
the flesh were to be useless, why did Christ heal it? Why
did He resurrect the dead? When He resurrected Lazarus
and the young man in Nain and the young girl, He
resurrected them soul and body.'
Solomon wrote 1,005 songs (1 Kings 5:12). Only one
has remained; it is probably the most beautiful. Film
actors often perform before the cameras for six or seven
hours a day to produce only two or three minutes of film.
Very little of what we produce in life is of high value and
will endure, but it is worthwhile to write a thousand songs
in order that one might be a masterpiece. We witness to
many about Christ; we do many works for his kingdom.
Very few of these activities have any lasting result. But
those few are worth all the effort.
A carpenter witnessed to me about Christ. He died
knowing that he had brought only my wife and me to faith.
But we brought others to Christ; those, again, brought
others; those again, others. The result is that there are
now Hebrew Christian churches in Haifa, Tel-Aviv and
Jerusalem which have as their true founder that carpenter.
He witnessed to many without result, but he brought one
to Christ who brought others, and those others brought,
others. Some of them became interested in helping the
persecuted Christians in Communist countries. That is
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how a Christian mission to the Communist world began.
A little-known preacher, Mordecai Ham, brought to
Christ a young boy whose name was Billy Graham. Billy
Graham in his turn brought thousands upon thousands to
Christ. Mordecai Ham may have witnessed to many
people. He may not have had big results. But one of those
won by him was exceptional. He was Ham's Song of
Songs. I would encourage you to write many songs. One
of them will be your Song of Songs.
Finally, we should note that in the Song, the
Bridegroom is sometimes called a king, and the bride a
queen. Sometimes he is a shepherd; sometimes they are
workers in the vineyard. Sometimes they are in a palace;
sometimes in the field. This teaches that people of all social
classes are called to participate in spiritual life at the
highest level.
'I am the rose of Sharon'(2:l)
Jewish commentators agree that the subject of these words
is God's chosen people. Christian commentators are
divided; some attribute them to the Saviour, others to the
Church. What good does the debate achieve?
Only one reality exists: Godhead, which for the sake of
expediency we divide into a 'He' and an 'I*. Pronouns
have no place in real religious life. They are only for
everyday usage. Jeremiah writes, 'This is his name
whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness'
(Jeremiah 23:6). But he also writes, 'And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called, The Lord Our
Righteousness' (Jeremiah 33:16). Who is 'Jehovah our
Righteousness?' Is it God? Is it his Church? Foolish
questions. When we sit with the Father and the Son on His
throne as it is promised to us (Revelation 3:21), who will
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be able to make a distinction then?
Nothing in the Hebrew corresponds to the 'am' in the
words 'I am*. The verb 'to be' is little used in Hebrew. To
understand what that means, one has to try to read the
Song of Songs omitting words such as 'have', 'has', 'am',
'is', and 'are'.
Nothing 'is'; everything changes. Heraclitus said,
'Nobody can bathe twice in the same river.' Neither can
anybody say of Jesus what he is. 'He has no form' (Isaiah
53:2). The rose of Sharon evokes him - but so do a lamb, a
shepherd, the lion of Judah, a piece of bread in
Communion. He is king, judge, high priest, victim,
bridegroom, vine, brother.
The removal of the word 'is' from one's religious
vocabulary saves one from the sin of judging. Nobody is
only a bad man or a criminal, just as nobody is only a
dentist. The dentist is also a father or mother; a Briton or
Indian; a twentieth-century person; a Christian or
Buddhist; a Socialist or Conservative; a virtuous or bad
man, and so on. The word 'is' fixes a person to a single
attribute. Life is not like that. No crook is only a crook. He
can also be a man full of remorse, an incipient saint. No
apostle is only an apostle; he can also be a lover of money, a
trait which will transform him into a Judas. Hebrew, the
language of Solomon's Song teaches us to think without
the verb'tobe'.
The flowers
'I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys' (2.1)
Jesus compares himself to flowers. He also compares his
bride to a lily (verse 2). He says that he is like a rose. The
rose is distinguished from all other flowers by the fact that
it blooms in different climates and different soils. So Jesus
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is present in many countries, in many climates, in liberty
and in persecution, in poverty and in abundance, in
sickness and in health.
Roses exist in a great many colours - white, pink,
purple, violet, black. The souls who reflect Jesus are also
very different, and belong to different religious
denominations. Only blue roses, having the colour of
heaven, do not exist. So we do not have to be excessively
sad about the fact that we are not yet fully heavenly! There
has never yet been a blue rose. Let us strive onward,
without despairing because of our weakness.
To the Greeks, the rose was a plant of love, consecrated
to the goddess Venus. Comparing himself to just such a
rose, Jesus is telling us that he is a lover.
The Hebrew word translated 'lily' is havatzelet. This is a
particular flower called by botanists colchicum autumnale or
filius ante patron ('the son before the father') because it has
the distinctive characteristic of blossoming before its leaves
appear. The havatzelet is a symbol of men whose character
is the opposite of those Jesus meant when he cursed the fig-
tree which had rich foliage but no fruit. Those men are
hypocrites, having much self-advertisement and an
appearance of religion, but without its love and joy. Jesus
is filius ante patrem. With him, and with those who belong to
him, the fruits come first and the leaves afterwards.
Havatzelet is a flower which you find in Israel at every
step; a flower without much outward beauty; a fitting
symbol for the one who came into this world having
divested himself of his divinity, living as a humble servant.
The saints of God are also humble like Jesus, without
added ornamentation. They are also like havatzelet.
The Christian Mission to the Communist World
operates in Red China. Its co-workers there accept only
used clothing and minimal salaries. They explain:
'Otherwise, we might become attached to things.' One of
them spent many years in jail working ten hours a day
barefoot in an iron mine, because she had written music
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for the Gospel of Luke. I heard a tape of her first song after
she was released from jail. It was like hearing an angel's
song. Now she gathers 300 ladies together every Sunday.
The leader of the Underground Church in that region
sometimes covers 800 miles by bicycle to visit all the
groups. But these Christians do not wish their names to be
made known, and they refuse every small amenity of life.
They accept only the simplest things.
Shir-Hashirim-Rabba, an old Jewish commentary on the
Song of Songs, explains Jesus' comparisonof himself with
a lily of the valleys thus: 'As the lily withers when it is
burned by the sun, but flourishes when it is wetted by the
dew, the same Israel withers, as long as it lives in the
shadow of Esau; but in the future world when the shadow
of Esau will have disappeared, it will be full of sap.' Hosea
writes, 'I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the
lily' (Hosea 14:5).
Pliny says of the lily, 'It has a weak body which is not
adequate to bear the weight of the head. ' In the same way,
the Church is slender and weak. Christ is too big for her.
He has to bend like the head of the lily because of this.
Jesus tells us he is 'the lily of the valleys'. I myself have
had a beautiful encounter with him in the deep valleys of
suffering. When I was in solitary confinement in a
Communist prison, without a Bible, I prayed that the
Lord might speak to me directly. Then I heard his voice
asking me, 'What is your name?' I had always known that
my name was Richard. But I could not say this to Jesus,
because I knew about another man who had borne this
name.
Saint Richard was a Christian who lived in times of
persecution. He was sentenced to death for his faith. When
he was on the gallows, the hangman had some difficulty
fixing the noose of the rope. Richard bowed. 'I am a
farmer, and skilled in these matters,' he said gently.
'Please allow me to help you'. The hangman responded
courteously   and   allowed   Richard   to   attend   to   it.
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After fixing the noose he thanked the executioner for his
kindness, assured him that he bore him no grudge, and so
died.
I did not have the courage to tell Jesus I bore the name of
such a saint, because I was so unlike him.
We all bear beautiful names, names as Mary, Paul or
John, of which we are not worthy because we are not
immaculate, zealous or loving like those who bore those
names before us. So I bowed before Jesus and said, 'I have
no name. I long to bear yours.' To renounce the self and
allow Christ to be your personality is the secret of a
victorious life.
Jesus does not put such questions to you, nor does he stir
you up to see their seriousness, except in deep valleys; and
it is only in deep valleys that he unites himself with you to
take your place, so that you in your turn might become a
lily, even as he is.
Thorns and daughters
The Bridegroom says, 'As the lily among thorns, so is my
love among the daughters' (2:2). God and his people pay
each other the most beautiful compliments. Israel tells his
Creator: 'Who is like unto you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,
doing wonders?' (Exodus 15:11). Here God tells Israel
that in his eyes she is a beautiful flower. He does not
compare her to the rose which has thorns, but only to the
lily which has none. Most souls are like thorns, without
value or use. They prick, like the thorns in Jesus' crown.
In the end, they will be burned. But not all souls persist in
evil; amid the thorns there are roses.
The Bridegroom has among the girls one who is his own
beloved; and, just as when he was crucified on Golgotha
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near a garden, the flowers remained faithful to him,
sending their perfume to the cross to refresh him, so now
the lily-shaped soul of his bride is his comfort and his
source of strength.
Beautiful as lilies
Jesus teaches us to look closely at spiritual believers, and
learn from them. He said in the Sermon on the Mount,
'Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these'
(Matthew 6:28-29). Those who have the happiness of find
ing teachers whom God sends, grow beautifully; the
teachers' own secret consists of 'feeding the kids beside the
shepherds' tents' (1:8). The Scripture says that Jesus has
given some to be our bishops; others, pastors; others, evangel-
ists; others, teachers who will help us to grow in all respects.
They give us to be 'in Jesus'. In Him, the whole building of the
Church grows to become a holy temple of God.
Christians who suffer in Communist prisons for the
Holy Faith are examples of how we ought to live and are
good teachers for us. A Christian named V. Petkus, was
tried in a Communist court in Soviet Lithuania. No friend
was allowed to attend. Petkus refused to take any part in
the trial. Guards had to drag him forcibly into the
courtroom. He would not accept an attorney and would
not speak a single word in his own defence (neither would
I, when I stood trial). The charge which was manufactured
against him was a base one. Like Joseph in the Old
Testament who was, though innocent, sent to jail under
the accusation of attempted rape, so Petkus was charged
with homosexuality because he gathered young men
together in his home to teach them the faith.
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We have not become like the lilies yet; therefore we
protest loudly whenever the slightest harsh word is said
against us. On the other hand, Petkus was happy because
Jesus loved him, Jesus knew him, Jesus appreciated him.
He did not say one single word to prove that what was said
about him by evil men was untrue.
It is a habit of the Communists to invent numerous
charges against believers. Sister Arbutenko was charged
with ritual murder; Solzhenitsyn, with incest; the
Bulgarian Pentecostal pastors Ladin and Haralan Popov,
with counter-revolutionary spying activities and the arrest
of Communists under the old regime. The Hungarian
Cardinal Mindszenty had allegedly speculated in foreign
currency -1, too, was accused of similar crimes. A group
of Baptists in Russia received jail sentences because it was
claimed that they had plotted to spread disease among the
population by baptising people in the same river, giving
Communion with the same cup and giving each other the
holy kiss.
Although fools may have believed such accusations
spread by evil men, the lily-shaped saints did not defend
themselves. Their purity spoke for itself. Those who knew
Brother Petkus said as much before the court: 'We know
him to be a good Christian and an honest man. We have
nothing else to declare. We believe like him, and have
done the same things. If they are considered wrong, we too
should be prisoners like him.' They answered no
questions. Outside, many young people sang for hours in
the street. Petkus was sentenced to ten years of prison, plus
five years of deprivation.
Under his shadow
The bride says, 'As the apple tree among the trees of the
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wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to
my taste' (2:3). We desire to sit down under his shadow.
When it is very hot, one finds great comfort in sitting in
the shadow of a tree. The angel told the virgin, 'the power
of the Highest shall overshadow thee' (Luke 1:35). She,
too must have sat in this shadow with great delight. At the
time of the apostles, it was a great privilege for men that
the shadow of Peter should pass over them because they
were healed by it. Similarly it is happiness for us to sit in
the shadow of Jesus, especially in the shadow of Golgotha,
where he obtained for us the forgiveness of our sins by
dying for us.
It is said of St Jerome that he always studied and wrote
in the shadow of a large cross. Once he was asked why he
did so. He replied, 'This tree of life gives me a shadow
which shades me from all evil; it gives me fruit to
strengthen me in everything which is good. I desire to
spend my whole life in its shadow, and Ilong that its fruit
should always nourish my soul.'
The important thing is that one should not push oneself
to the fore. The Virgin, when overshadowed by the Holy
Spirit, remained in the shadows. Most martyrs for Christ
remain in the shadows. They are anonymous. Their
names will never be known on earth.
Frankfurter Allgemeine, the West German newspaper,
announced on 17 October 1978 that in Ethiopia,
Communists sew up the eyes of Christian prisoners or
gouge them out. It might well be expected that in such
extremities of terror, every Christian activity would cease.
In the Free World, the slightest setback is sometimes
enough to discourage us from church activity. How much
more then, in situations of fear, where the flesh recoils
before the prospect of appalling pain or death under
torture, might one expect the Christians to give up.
However, in Ethiopia just the reverse happened.
Christians whose names are unknown to anybody in the
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Free World - who remain in the shadows so that Jesus
might shine-are busy with Bible distribution as never
before. They spread the Scriptures, knowing that they
might be dipped in burning oil as a result of doing so.
Let us, also, sit down in the shadow of the apple tree.
There we will see that its fruit which represents the Word
of God, is sweet to our taste. As Psalm 119:103 says, 'How
sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than
honey to my mouth!'
The banqueting house
The bride says, 'He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love' (2:4). The Church is a
banqueting house. God brings us into this happy place,
into which we would not otherwise have come. The soul
which was satisfied to sit quietly in his shadow is now
brought to greater joys. In his banqueting house we will
know what it means to become inebriated with his love. He
has prepared for us not merely meals but banquets, with
meat, milk and wines available without payment.
The great mystics and saints can be our guides towards
this banqueting house. Their examples teach us that,
when the Holy Spirit enters into a heart and there for the
first time ignites the fire of love, that fire gives birth to an
insatiable thirst. Then the believer says, 'As the hart pants
after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God'
(Psalm 42:1). As the hart's thirst is even greater when
pursued, so is the believer's thirst for God under
temptation. The thirsty hart plunges his whole body into
the water and drinks his fill; we must eat and drink our fill
in God's banqueting house.
St John of the Cross wrote, 'May we forget about
ourselves. When we are intoxicated by his presence, we
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will feel that we can do miracles, that we can pass through
fire and water, and that we can remain unafraid when
thousands of swords are drawn against us. By his grace, we
won't fear anymore - neither life nor death, joy nor
sorrow. We will be drunk with faith.
This is called 'jubilation'. Sometimes you smile,
sometimes you weep, and sometimes you sing. Those
rational people who have no idea what the Holy Spirit does
with those who belong to him ask, 'How can you be so
mad?' Our reply is, 'God has permitted us to drink in his
banqueting house!' But they cannot understand such a
thing. The soul who has been in God's banqueting house
knows unspeakable joy. He rejoices even for the pain he
must endure. Whatever is done to him, however well or ill
he fares, he is always peaceful and joyous. Rivers of living
water flow from his heart. ' Saint John of the Cross sang:
I drank from my well-beloved
and when I walked out,
I knew nothing more
of this whole field;
and I had lost the flock
which I had followed before.
My soul has put itself,
with all its resources,
into His service.
Now I have no flock anymore;
I have no duties anymore
Because my whole duty consists in loving.
The banner of love
As conquerors hoist their flag over conquered cities, Jesus
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hoists his flag over the souls he has conquered. It is a
unique flag, a flag of love. ' His banner over us is love. ' It is
a persistent, unvarying love. He longs to see this love
expressed in the way we behave towards one another.
The famous Egyptian hermit, St Macarius, once asked
God what degree of holiness he had attained after several
years of fasting, prayer, solitude and sacrifice. He fell
asleep, and an angel appeared to him and told him that he
was still far from having reached the degree of holiness
which had been attained by a certain pair of women, and
that he should learn from them a better way.
Macarius went into town and found the women. They
were not nuns; just ordinary housewives. 'What is the
secret of your holiness?' he asked them. They wondered at
the question. They were very busy caring for their
husbands and their several children. They had little time
to pray. Because of the amount of work they had to do,
they often missed church. They were illiterate and so could
not read Holy Scripture. They were simple-minded and
could not meditate much. They were as they described
themselves: 'poor wives amidst constant worldly cares'.
Macarius continued to make enquiries about them and
discovered that they were married to two brothers. They
lived together under the same roof, not once quarrelling,
or permitting harsh words to pass between them. From
this St Macarius learned that living together in love,
passing through all frictions without ever saying a harsh
word or throwing a harsh look, can be more grace worthy
in the eyes of God than a great deal of fasting and prayer.
The banner over us is love.
In the Jilava prison in Rumania, several prisoners were
put naked into a cell without beds, without blankets and
without a barrel to serve as a lavatory. They were never
allowed to leave their cell to fulfil their bodily needs.
Imagine passing the night, completely naked, in such a
stinking cell.
One   of   the   prisoners   was   sick   with   pulmonary
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tuberculosis. Late one night, he could not bear to stand on
his feet any longer. He fell, and would have frozen to death
on the cold concrete, had not the Christian Mircea
Vulcanescu, used all his powers of persuasion to convince
the sick man that he, Vulcanescu, was perfectly healthy.
Therefore he would stretch himself out on the concrete and
the sick man would then be able to seat himself on his body
and have the protection of his bodily warmth.
Vulcanescu's insistence was so great that the sick man
could not resist indefinitely, and he accepted. Vulcanescu
remained stretched out naked on the concrete while the
sick man slept for a few hours. He too fell asleep. When
they awoke, Vulcanescu was almost frozen. The other
prisoners had spent the entire night moving around
without sitting on the concrete. Vulcanescu contracted
pulmonary tuberculosis himself. Soon after this he died,
but he demonstrated that the Saviour's banner over us is
love.
In Florence, in Italy, the Red Brigade leader Furbelone
planned a bank robbery-what the Brigade terms an
'expropriation'. Two revolutionaries disguised as
policemen stood at the entrance to the building, while two
others entered to force the teller to give up the money. A
car with a false licence number waited in front of the bank
to ensure the escape. Furbelone himself, disguised as a
beggar, sat on the steps of the Santa Maria Church
opposite the bank, from which post he was to give the
signals controlling the operation.
Just as he was about to signal the start of the robbery, a
little girl at her mother's side, on her way to school,
ascended the steps for a short prayer. Seeing the beggar,
she took her lunch out of her bag, broke off a part for
herself, and gave him the remainder.
Irritated by this interruption in his plans, Furbelone
intended to push the girl aside. But all at once he was
struck by the thought: This is a human being who looks
upon me with love, who considers me honest and wordiy
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of esteem. Instead of giving the signal to start the robbery,
the notorious terrorist took the sandwich from the smiling
girl and entered the church with her. His criminal life was
over.
A man does not lack possessions if he gives to the poor.
This little girl obtained the double blessing of bringing a
soul to Christ and of stopping a serious crime.
'Comfort me'
The bride says, 'Stay me with flagons, comfort me with
apples: for I am sick of love' (2:5). The bride must be
strengthened to bear the embraces of the Bridegroom. The
archangel Gabriel said to the Holy Virgin, 'The power of
the Highest shall overshadow you' (Luke 1:35), in order
that she might bear the descent of the Holy Spirit upon
her. It is written of John the Baptist that he would walk
before the Saviour in the Spirit and in the power of Elijah.
So we can see that we must be empowered to bear spiritual
love. Showers of blessing are not easily borne.
Ezekiel says, 'The Spirit entered into me and set me
upon my feet' (3:24). Saint Ephrem knew such jubilation
that he cried, 'God, take your hand away from me for a
little, because my heart is too weak to bear such a joy. '
Saint Peter, when he saw Jesus work a miracle, fell at his
feet saying, 'Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O
Lord' (Luke 5:8). A sinful man has not the power to
witness the beautiful magnificence of the Lord. We who
know his embraces need power. Those who pass through
great suffering for his sake need power too.
In Maputo in Mozambique many Christians were
jailed. Some were natives, others were from Zimbabwe,
South Africa, Portugal and America. The torturer
Karonga used to torment the prisoners in the following
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way. He ordered his soldiers to tie the hands of the
prisoner tightly behind his back with string. His arms
were wrenched up to the height of his chest, and then tied
in such a way that if he moved at all the string would cut
cruelly into his flesh. For a few minutes the prisoner sat in
agony, and then the soldiers poured water into his gaping
wounds and rubbed salt into them. The prisoner would
roll about on the ground in absolute torment. The other
prisoners were forced to sit nearby and watch. No-one
was allowed to go to the victim's aid.
Prisoners were almost eaten alive by mosquitoes, lice
and bedbugs. They had to work as slaves in labour
camps with only three or four hours for proper sleep.
Girls were raped. Sometimes prisoners were unable to
wash for a month. When they insisted on being allowed
to wash they were taken to a river that was full of
crocodiles. There the Communists forced some of the
men into the water.
In the prisons of Mozambique, we have brothers and
sisters who are spreadeagled on the ground and beaten,
or hung from trees by their feet. Many die from
exhaustion, tetanus and snake bites. Without strength
from God, they could not bear these tortures for his
sake. Without strength from on high, they could not
bear his embraces either.
The bride is sick of love. Her love is passionate. In the
Orient, the sickness of love is much more widespread than
in Europe or America. It is written of David's son,
Amnon, diat 'he fell sick for his sister Tamar' (2 Samuel
13:2). Men can die from this sickness. The bride asks to be
stayed with flagons, a kind of pie made of the grapes which
have had the juice pressed out of them. These flagons were
usually brought as offerings to Ishtar, the Babylonian
goddess of love. The bride also asks to be strengthened
with apples. But she will soon discover that the sickness of
love cannot be cured with pressed grapes or apples. It can
only be cured by the presence of the Most Beloved. Our
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thirst for Jesus is not quenched but merely soothed by his
gifts which are a foretaste of the happiness we will possess
in his presence in heaven.
Don't envy the bride
We become jealous when we hear of somebody having
such love as the bride's, which is so passionate that it even
makes her ill. But not everyone has to have such a richness
of feeling, with which also comes great responsibilities.
Men are of different types. With some, the power of
reasoning predominates; with others, the imaginative
faculty. One will have little judgement but rich
imaginative powers; another, the gift of penetrating
intellect but cold emotions. It is wrong to envy what
another possesses. We must consecrate to God the gifts
that we possess. The Lord accepts various attitudes.
Pastor Son was imprisoned in Korea during the
Japanese occupation. A guard wanted to help him, and
told the prosecutor, who was questioning the pastor, 'He
performs the rites at the Shinto shrines faithfully.' (The
Japanese had imposed on the Korean people the obligation
to bow before the image of the emperor at these shrines;
they considered him to be the god of all the earth.)
If Pastor Son had only kept silent, he would have been
freed. But he contradicted the guard. 'That is not so', he
said. 'I have never taken part in shrine worship.'
The prosecutor was perplexed. 'It has been nearly three
years since you've seen your family. Don't you want to see
them? Will you not give up your obstinate ideas?'
Pastor Son replied, 'I can't give up my faith.'
'Haven't three years of suffering made any difference to
you at all?'
'A Christian faith grows stronger through suffering,'
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replied the pastor. 'So it has done me good to be in prison.
I do not mind what happens. If I return home, Christ will
be with me; and if I stay in prison, he will still be with me.'
Pastor Son's was one possible attitude in the circum-
stances - the attitude of a perfect lover of Jesus. On the
other hand, other Christians used their reasoning powers
and by giving clever answers tried to escape suffering if
possible.
During World War II, Protestant Christians were
greatly persecuted in Rumania, which was under Nazi
domination. A preacher was brought before the police
inspector. 'Do you preach love?' he asked.
The Christian replied, 'I do.'
'Do you also preach that one should love one's enemies?'
'Indeed I do. That is the teaching of Jesus.'
And now came the big question. 'Then do you also love
the soldiers of the Soviet army?'
The preacher knew that if he answered 'Yes', when the
Soviet army was fighting against Rumania, it would mean
certain imprisonment. So he answered: 'How can you ask
me whether I love the Soviet army? Our country is at war
with them.'
The police inspector was very pleased. He said, 'You
are a real patriot.'
During the War the services of Baptists, Adventists,
Pentecostals and other denominations were forbidden in
Rumania. A Christian was asked by a police inspector,
'Do you still gather for worship?' He replied, 'Christian
gatherings are forbidden now. '
The inspector shook him by the hand, saying 'I am
happy that you are a law-abiding citizen.'
Such Christians had not stood up clearly for the truth;
neither had they told a lie. They simply used a trick, and they
succeeded. Some used stratagems determined by reason,
whereas the attitudes of some were dictated only by passion-
ate love. In no circumstances would the latter compromise.
Passionate love is not the only possibile attitude towards
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Christ. He receives also those who are attached to him
instead by their reasoning powers.
His embrace
The bride says, 'His left hand is under my head, and his
right hand does embrace me' (2:6).
In Solomon's Song, the loving bride is also wise. She
knows that, according to biblical symbolism, the left side is
the side of God's rigour, while the right side is the side of
compassion. Therefore she lies down to the left of her
Beloved, among the sinners. Putting her head upon his left
arm, she immobilizes this side; she incapacitates his
severity, and he has only his right hand free — the caressing
hand of love.
There is great variety in the experiences of believers.
The Carmelite nun, Anne of St Bartholemew
(1549-1626), companion of Teresa of Avila, wrote in her
biography:
Christ the Lord appeared to me in the shape in which
He walked on this earth. He was exceedingly
handsome, though He seemed very sad. Approaching
me, He put His right hand on my left shoulder with an
unspeakable weight, which I could never explain to
anybody. Thus He caused His pain and suffering to
enter into my heart, and He said to me, 'Behold the
souls I lose.' He challenged me to work for the
salvation of souls, and showed me all France so
impressively and so clearly that it was as though I were
present in every place; and I saw how many millions of
souls are lost. This happened in a single moment, and
if it had lasted any longer I feel my life would have
ended.
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Christ put his hand on her to make her share his pain. It
was different with the bride in the Song. He used his right
hand only to embrace her.
Being thus reassured, the bride can fall asleep with his
left hand under her head. Her soul is in sweet communion
with Jesus; angels watch around them.
An army of roes
Her last words before falling asleep are, 'I charge you, O
you daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds
of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, till he
please' (2:7). The oath is made by the roes and the hinds of
the field because they are symbolic of the Beloved, and
because they are timid creatures which must not be
troubled when their time of love comes.
The Hebrew word for 'roes' is sabaot. One of God's
names is Jehovah Sabaot, which means 'The Lord of Hosts'.
So Sabaot means both 'roes' and 'hosts', which is very
strange. It shows that God's army is an army apart. Roes
are shy, timid creatures which attack nobody. They have
conquered the hearts of many nature lovers, poets and
painters by their beauty. God's army is like an army of
roes.
But what of the many military exploits of the Jewish
army under Moses, Joshua and David? Consider the
Salvation Army of today. It speaks in military language.
Its magazine is called The War Cry. The Army is composed
of corps instead of churches. Instead of preachers it has
officers. In its beginning, its vocabulary was entirely
military. It boasted that it had 'assaulted' places of sin,
that it had 'taken prisoners', and so on. The Salvation
Army fights in order to bring people to peace with God.
The army of Israel is also meant to be an army of peace,
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but this is a phenomenon so unique that there are no words
to describe its battles. It has to speak of its works of peace in
the language of men of war, in much the same way that
modern microphysics continually uses the language of clas-
sical physics, even though the scientists know that that
language does not describe the facts of microphysics. The
physicists have not yet had time to develop a new vocabulary.
So when we read in die Bible of'die sword of the Lord', of
armed and bloodthirsty angels, of a carnage prepared by
God himself, we must understand that the exploits of God's
roes - unarmed, shy, loving creatures, who would rather die
Üian attack anybody - are spoken of in military terms only
because humans have no other appropriate language.
The sleep of faith
Taken literally, we have here a demand to die friends of the
bride that diey must not disturb the nuptial joy of die young
pair during the seven days of the wedding feast. It is an
unkind act to wake somebody from sleep for no good import-
ant reason. It is even worse to trouble a believing soul
sleeping die quiet sleep of faith, in the protecting arms of
Jesus. That soul is in communion with the Lord, and whoever
prods him will get his punishment, whoever he might be.
What a wonderful sleep this is! Scripture teaches us that
for die soul who sleeps trustfully, believing in the One who
considers the sinner to be just, his faith; his quiet sleep is
accounted as righteousness. God delights in this quiet
loving sleep of faith. There is no activity which he prefers
to it. Nobody is allowed to disturb the ecstasy of love. The
soul must not be stirred up or awakened.
To stir up and to awake are two different things. The
one who awakes only calls the sleeper, who then has to
conquer sleep himself. The one who stirs him up makes a
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better job of it; he forces him to come out of sleep. Both are
forbidden when somebody sleeps in the arms of Jesus.
Many things trouble the quiet sleep of Christian faith. In
Communist countries it is troubled by the stooges of the
Communists among the clergy. Bingh, the Catholic bishop
of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minhville) and a Communist
stooge, published the following statement in the
Communist newspaper Humanité: 'Previously, Catholics
have had strong prejudices against revolutionaries. The
propaganda of the former regime presented the
Communists as the destroyers of all religions. Now we have
seen the reality. Our church is the victim of no persecution. '
But he surely knew about the mass graves filled with the
bodies of thousands of people killed by the Viet Cong in
Hue and Quang Tri. He knew that his parishioners were
forced to denounce one another, or else face imprisonment.
He knew about the parents who had killed their children to
keep them from falling into the hands of godless
Communists.
Bishop Bingh knew what had happened to his own
Catholics. The convents in Thu Due were closed. Clergy-
men were arrested; all the monks in Mossard and the
Trappists in Phuoc-Son and Phuoc-ly were jailed. They all
fell asleep quietly in their prison cells, trusting in Jesus,
and keeping their faith in him. It was wrong of the bishop
to trouble their quiet sleep.
The Jesuit priest, H. Stephenson, after visiting China,
described the Communist Chinese as 'exemplary anony-
mous Christians whose examples should be emulated by
Western Christians. They value people above things.' It
did not disturb this Jesuit that the murderers whom he
calls 'anonymous Christians' have jailed or killed
absolutely all the Jesuits of Red China, and many other
innocent Catholics and Evangelicals besides. The bishop
Kung Pin and the Protestant pastor Wan-Min-Dao have
been in jail for twenty-five years?
Similar betrayals happen amongst Protestants. Pastor
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V. Rumatshik, of the Soviet Baptist Underground
Church, wrote:
Unfortunately, we also have some believers who work
together with the Communist authorities. This gives
them the possibility of travelling abroad in order to lead
foreign Christians astray in the matter of religious
liberty. These preachers render the atheists a great
service by hiding from the public the real situation.
They make the world believe that we have much
freedom without chains and oppressions. These men
behave so, because they love this world; and they
receive their reward on earth.
The prisoners spend their years in the quiet embrace of
Jesus, sleeping faithfully on his bosom. They ought not to
be troubled by such lies uttered by men of the clergy.
Do not awake love
The demand addressed to the daughters of Jerusalem also
has another meaning. We must not awaken artificially the
love that is in us. We must wait until it is given to us by
God. God's heart must encounter our hearts. Even the
false faith of another person should not be corrected by
force before the time is right. That would do them more
harm than leaving them temporarily in their erroneous
beliefs. Allow time to do its work.
A Moslem in a Russian jail asked a Christian pastor, 'If
Christianity is so great, will we have this faith after we
die? Where will Muhammad, our prophet, be then?'
The pastor replied, 'Muhammad, like everyone else,
will receive there according to his deeds. I do not believe
God will reject him. God loves everyone'.
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'Our religious leaders say that only Moslems will be
saved, and that Christians and Jews will go to the devil.'
'Are you married?' asked the pastor.
'Yes, and I have children.'
The pastor continued: 'If you had three children, and
two were blind, would you think of all of them as yours?'
'Of course,' answered the Moslem. 'And I would love
the blind ones more than the other. '
'Similarly,' concluded the pastor, 'God loves men of all
faiths. Compared to his love, ours is like a piece of ice
compared to the sun. God sends nobody to hell because he
belongs to another religion.' Soon the Moslem was bap-
tised, and received appropriate instruction in the
Christian faith.
Stirring up love, using brutal means to bring somebody
to the true faith and exercising coercion, produce great
catastrophes. There are enough evils in this world. We do
not need another - artificial, unnatural, faked love.
It is terrible to awaken needs that don't exist. Why
don't we wait until the needs come? Why do we stir up
feelings by artificial techniques? How often this great
crime is committed by religious leaders. All manner of
means are employed to attract the masses!
So it comes about that men fill the churches, not
because they love the Saviour, but because they are under
some kind of physical or psychological compulsion. When
persecution comes, it becomes obvious that these souls did
not have a real love for God. Our love towards Christ
must be authentic, bridal love.
Bridal love
The secret police had come to search the house of Antonii,
the Orthodox bishop of Arkhangelsk. Finding die vessel
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used for Holy Communion, they threw it on the floor and
trampled on it. The bishop threw himself across it, trying
to protect it with his body. He lost consciousness. When
he awoke he was in jail.
They asked his opinion about the future of the Russian
Church, and wanted to know if he desired die overthrow
of the Soviets. He answered that the Church would be
glorified through die suffering of its martyrs, as it was in
die first centuries, and that he prayed daily that die Soviet
government would not shed blood and would be forgiven
for its sins.
First he was threatened with death, dien was promised
freedom if he would become an informer for die police.
The bishop was not frightened, and could not be bought.
He was put in a small cell together with five others. They
endured bitter cold, and received only two glasses of
water a day and nothing else. They could not wash or
change dieir clothes, and lived in their own stench. They
lost dieir teedi. The bishop became so weak that he could
not clean the invading bugs and lice out of his beard.
When he felt death near he chanted his own funeral
service. He died with prayers on his lips. He was an
audientic bride of Christ.
Leaping upon the mountains   -
The bride says, 'The voice of my beloved! behold, he
comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon die
hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart; behold, he
stands behind our wall, he looks forth at die windows,
showing himself through die lattice' (2:8-9). He comes
leaping upon the mountains. Difficulties mean nothing to
him. He does not know discouragement. He bears for us
the curse, the burden, of death on the cross; he fights the
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powers of darkness. He leaps over our bad deeds as well;
he leaps over them as if they had never existed.
Some people doubt that our salvation can be very near,
because not all the biblical prophecies about the last times
have yet been fulfilled. But when Jesus returns, he will not
worry about our calculations. He leaps upon the
mountains.
'He stands behind our wall'
Only a wall separates us from him. This knowledge was a
great comfort to prisoners in a Communist camp who were
compelled to stand facing a wall for weeks.
Midrash Rabba, a rabbinical commentary on the Song,
says that what is meant here is the Wailing Wall in
Jerusalem, a wall from which the glory of God never
departs. But we recall Job's words: 'I know that my
Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth' (Job 19:25). Our flesh, our body, is the
wall which separates the bride from the Bridegroom. He is
behind this wall. After death we will be face to face with
him.
For the time being he looks through the windows;
sometimes one, sometimes another. He examines one side
of our character, then another side, to know what stage of
spiritual maturity we have reached. We, too, must be
attentive to what is going on in our souls. Knowing this, St
Blandine, a slave girl from Lyon, went to her death before
the wild animals 'radiant with joy as if she had been
invited to a wedding feast'. Saint Ignatius, bishop of
Antioch, wrote, 'Let me be die fodder of the beasts, by
which I might find God. Let me imitate the example of my
God.' Also Origen, another celebrated teacher of the
Church, said in a sermon, 'I do not doubt that in this
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assembly there are men known to God alone, who are
already martyrs for him by the testimony of their
conscience; because they are ready even now, if asked, to
shed their blood for the name of Jesus Christ.'
The winter is past
Here the most beautiful part of Solomon's Song begins.
What follows are words appropriate for those convicted of
sin; and they are a great source of comfort for the saints
when they have passed through a period of depression.
They are also fitting words for the time of a believer's
death: 'My beloved answered and said unto me, "Rise
up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the
winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers
appear on the earth; the time of the singing birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree
puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender
grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and
come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret places of the stairs, let me see your
countenance, let me hear your voice; for sweet is your
voice, and your countenance is comely" ' (2:10-14).
The bride hears the voice of her much-beloved. She does
not see him, but she recognizes his voice, and is
overcome by an unspoken joy.
The bride says, 'My beloved answered and said unto
me' (this is the precise translation of the Hebrew). We
often find this expression used elsewhere about the Lord;
he is said to have answered when nobody has asked him
anything. He responds to the unspoken anxieties of the
heart. We should practise not only vocal but also mental
prayer. Let our unspoken thoughts and affections rise up
to him!
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The word anah used here means 'to answer' and 'to
sing', or, rather, 'to chant', as they do in synagogues,
Orthodox churches and mosques. Solomon's Song, like
the whole Hebrew Bible, contains not only text but also
musical notation, indicating how it should be chanted.
The Zohar says, 'the tonal accents were also delivered to
Moses on Sinai. ' This applies to the Law of Moses and also
to the other books of the Old Testament. Anybody who
does not know the tonal accents does not know the entire
revelation of God. The same words sung in different keys
stir up different feelings. This book has in truth been given
to us as a song. In fact, Solomon has been described as the
first composer of opera.
'In the clefts of the rock'
Believers are strong and unyielding towards sin. That is
why it is written, 'Judah is like a lion's cub.' But in their
relationship with God, they are like innocent and
inoffensive doves, loving quiet and serenity. Like doves,
they are faithful to their mate, the Bridegroom.
This dove is in its right place - in the clefts of the rock
which is Christ. If she is with him, # cleft of a rock is as
good as the King's chamber, a prison cell as good as a
comfortable house. Jesus encourages her to have
communion with Him: 'Let me hear your voice; for sweet
is your voice, and your countenance is comely.' How
sweet is the voice of the believer in Jesus! A Jewish
commentator asks why the wives of the patriarchs
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were barren. It was because
God loved their prayers, their words and their voices. God
allowed them to be barren so that they would need to pray
for healing from barrenness. Why do believers undergo
troubles? Because to God, their voices are sweet. He
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desires that they should lift their voices in prayer and in
song to him.
Some believers have been known to produce
tremendous effects with their voices. A Christian, released
not long before from a Lithuanian prison, wrote:
My outward appearance is not attractive. In the slave
labour camp, I worked underground. There was an
accident which left me a hunchback. Once a boy
stopped me on the street and asked, 'Uncle, what do you
have on your back?' I was sure that mockery would
follow, but I still replied, 'A hump.'
'No!' said the child. 'God is love, He gives
deformities to nobody. You do not have a hump, but a
box below your shoulders. Inside, angel's wings are
hidden. One day the box will open; and with those
wings you will fly to heaven.'
I began to cry with joy; I am crying now, even as I
write.
Such was the achievement of one Christian child's voice.
Because his voice was rightly modulated, he could make a
hunchback happy. Therefore the Bridegroom says, 'Let
me hear your voice, for sweet is your voice.'
Cederholm, a Finnish prisoner in the USSR who
eventually got free because he was a foreigner, says that
in Leningrad he was put in a cell reserved for men under
sentence of death. There he found, among many other
inscriptions written by those who had been awaiting
execution, the following words: 'In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
Archimandrite Anthony, of Alexandro-Nevsky monas-
tery, is to be shot tonight for refusing to burden his
conscience with a grievous sin. Forgive them, Lord, for
they know not what they do. Good people, tell my
brethren I leave this world with peace in my soul.' The
inscriptions on the walls alternated with inscribed crosses,
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under which were names and dates. In the corner of the
cell was an image of St Seraphim of Sarov, drawn in
indelible pencil. The image was poignantly drawn by an
untrained hand, but all the details were carefully done,
and it was signed thus: 'Ecaterina, the servant of God,
drew this image, thinking of her little children who are
praying to the just God for their Mama. ' How beautiful
are the voices of those who speak like this!
*Sweet is your voice'
Saint Augustine wrote, 'Whoever praises God in song
praises Him twice - in the words, and in die music. ' Much
depends on the spirit in which we sing. In the Soviet
Union, there were Christians who have not owned a
hymnal for decades. In Red China the same is true. With
what exuberant joy they sing when hymnals are smuggled
to China for them! We should sing with the same joy.
In Communist prisons, naked Christians were thrown
crosswise over narrow tables. Their legs dangled from one
side; from the others, the head and arms. The legs were
tied to the arms with straps. One either side, Communists
stood with whips and beat the prisoners until they bled.
Before being beaten, diey were told to sing. They could
have refused, and paid for dieir refusal with a more savage
beating. But why should they not sing, when hymns like 0
Sacred Head now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down
were demanded from them?
One of those who underwent this ordeal was a Hebrew
Christian. He knew the story of Rabbi Akiba, who sang
while being combed with red-hot iron combs and died a
martyr's death under the ordeal. Akiba's disciples asked
him, 'How can you sing when you are suffering so
greatly?'
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He replied, 'AU my life I have desired to love God with
all my heart and all my soul, but I was always distracted by
worldly things. Now for the first time I can praise God
with all my heart. '
It was a rare privilege for that Hebrew Christian to sing
such a song just before being flogged until he bled.
Let the reader imagine himself in such a situation. Let
him visualize the scene, and try to sing those words
himself:
0 Sacred Head now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown.
0 Sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine
Yet though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.
Sometimes Christians were ordered to sing 'A mighty
fortress is our God', in the certain knowledge that after a few
minutes they would be tortured. Nevertheless they sang
that God is a trusty shield and weapon, that 'He helps us
free from every need that has us now o'ertaken.' The
Communists mocked them. 'Do you really believe that
God will help you free from this need?' they said.
Catholics sang the song, Hail, Mary, full of grace.
I personally went through the extremes of temptation
and doubt when I passed through similar situations. I was
forced to sing Psalm 121, '. . . My help comes from the
Lord. He will not suffer your foot to be moved . . . He that
keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is
your keeper'. We asked ourselves then 'What is the value
of such words when they don't correspond in any way to
the reality in which we are living?' And in that situation I
had a revelation, which forever pacified my mind,
however terrible the circumstances.
I thought, 'To whom are such promises made?' There
was only one possible answer: 'To me, and to the "me" of
every believer.' But who is this 'me'? A 'me' only has
existence as an abstraction, just as pure gold or uranium
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are abstractions. In nature we only find ores. These have
to be melted down in a furnace in order to extract one little
bit of uranium or gold from huge quantities. The case is
similar with the 'me' in every believer. In a soul there are
so many elements which do not belong to the 'me'. They
are the influences of heredity, of a poor education and of
all kinds of demonic evil. Only very little of us forms the
'me', what St Teresa of Avila called 'the inner castle'.
My real personality - my uniqueness - is an image of
God; it is my sanctified being, united widi Christ; it is
what St Peter calls 'the hidden man of the heart' (1 Peter
3:4). The promises that nothing will hurt us, that we will
be protected from all harm, do not apply to the whole ore.
In order that the real me should live in perfect cleanliness
and holiness, the ore has to pass through cleansing fire. I
know that the inner castle will not be harmed, diat the God
of Israel watches over it. The only part of me that matters
can be at peace. No enemy will ever reach it.
Let us sing in this spirit; and then we too will hear the
Bridegroom say, 'Let us hear your voice; for sweet is your
voice, and your countenance is comely.' The word used in
the Hebrew is actually a plural word-'countenances'.
The relaxed, serene face of a Christian at ease; the joyful
face of one having a good time; the distorted face of one in
pain; the marred face of one who is enduring torture; the
radiant face of one in ecstasy - diey are all comely in his
sight.
'The little foxes'
The Bridegroom tells the bride, 'Take us the foxes, the
little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender
grapes' (2:15). He does not say, 'take me', but 'take us'.
Both Bridegroom and bride desire to enjoy the fruit of the
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vine. It is their common interest to eradicate the foxes
which spoil it. All who wish to help in this task, and are
capable of it, are included in this calling.
What is meant by these foxes? Firstly, they are our
corruptions. Those things in us which hinder the
flourishing of godly life must be set aside. Foxes are
animals which often turn their heads and look back. They
are usually portrayed in that attitude. It is a characteristic
in us also, and one which must be reformed. Whosoever
has put his hand to the plough of the Kingdom and looks
back, is not worthy of Jesus. The fox is also a byword for
cunning. A believer should not be devious.
Our battle is not only against major sins but also against
minor ones. It is possible for the sun in all its greatness to
be reflected in a mirror, even though the sun is so much
larger than the earth; yet the tiniest object that interposes
itself between the mirror and the sun obscures it. So our
litde hearts can mirror the great God; but the slightest
thing can hide our hearts from him. Thomas More wrote:
Alas, how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love.
Hearts that the world in vain has tried
In sorrow, but more closely tied
Which stood the storm when waves were rough
Yet in a sunny hour fell off
Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity.
We should never underestimate die harm a small sin can
do. Think what damage a tiny microbe or an invisible
virus can do; they can bring about your death. So it is with
sin. Little flies and ants destroy animal carcasses with
astonishing speed. A swarm of ants can devour a horse's
corpse as quickly as can a lion. Our vineyards are not yet
in fruit; because even if they have reached great
excellence, our earthly virtues are only blossoms. The fruit
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will not be seen until the life to come. For the time being,
the vineyard is in bloom. And we must beware of
foxes - even little foxes.
Let us remember that just as the soul can be devastated
not only by gross sins but also by a multitude of neglected
minor sins, so the life of holiness in its turn is not only
composed of great heroic deeds, but also of a multitude of
small actions and brief words. It is not only the miracles
and the martyr deaths which have significance, but also
the small deeds. It is not only the lightning which counts,
but also the sunbeam; not only the powerful torrents and
roaring waterfalls, but also the quiet pools of Siloam.
It matters that we should avoid small evils, refrain from
little sins and minor inconsistencies and weaknesses. We
should avoid foolishness and not fall into some small
indiscretion or imprudence. It matters that we should
resist making concessions to our self, to our earthly nature.
We need to beware those fleeting moments of laziness and
indecision and those small acts of cowardice. An important
element of the holy life is the rejection of these things.
When the United States first launched its space shuttle,
it was announced that the failure of a tiny piece of plastic,
worth mere cents, had resulted in a million-dollar delay in
America's space programme. A brief quarrel with a
marriage partner over a trifling matter can destroy a
Christian marriage, wreck the children's personalities and
bring the gospel into disrepute in the neighbourhood.
Two women went to a monastery to worship. One had
her conscience burdened with a great sin. The other did
not regard herself as a sinner, because she had been guilty
only of small things. The abbot listened to their
confessions, and then sent them both to a field. He ordered
the great sinner to bring the largest stone she could find.
The one with only small sins was told to bring only little
stones. This they did. After they had brought the stones to
the abbot he said, 'Now put them back, each in the exact
place you found it. '
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The woman who had brought the small stones hesitated.
The abbot asked her why. She answered, 'It is difficult,
because there are so many, and I can't remember where
they all came from.'
Then the abbot told her, 'Remember, your companion
has committed just one, big, evil deed. But she remembers
it, regrets it, and washes it with her tears. She knows the
place from which the stone was taken. But you, with your
small and unimportant sins, just like the little foxes in
Solomon's Song, which spoil the vines, can't remember
how or when or to whom you did wrong. And because
your sins are small and numerous you may not even be
able to repair them. They remain a burden on your soul,
just as these little stones remain in your apron.'
Hearing these words, the woman bowed her head and
acknowledged that she was no purer than her sister. She
understood that she, who had committed only small sins,
also needed to repent of them and be forgiven in order to
purify her soul. Let us take heed of small sins.
Once two men built a wall. When one of them was
placing a brick, he noticed that it was thicker in one place
than another. 'Throw it away,' said his friend, 'and get
another.. Otherwise the results will be unsatisfactory. '
'Leave me alone,' the first man retorted. 'How can such
a little thing, which nobody is going to notice, do any
harm? You take things too seriously.' He continued
putting one brick upon another until evening, when they
finished their work and went home.
What did they see when they came to work the next day?
Because of that one uneven brick, the wall had not been
vertical. Because of the way it had been built, it had leaned
further and further over. As a consequence it had
collapsed during the night, and the work had to be done all
over again. So it is with every small sin or little untruth in
our hearts. A very small lie will grow and grow in us, until
it brings us shame and reproach. Don't regard little sins as
unimportant.
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Our universe is made up of things so tiny that they
cannot be seen even through the most powerful of
microscopes. The diameter of the dome of St Peter's
basilica in Rome is about the same measurement as the
height of a fourteen-storey house. Imagine a dust particle
in it. As the size of the dust particle is to that of the basilica,
so (approximately) is the size of an electron compared to
that of an atom. And if everything were to be increased in
size so that a baseball became the size of the planet earth,
then the atoms of the baseball would become the size of
grapes. When the electrons and protons function
normally, they sustain our lives. When they are tampered
with, a town like Nagasaki disappears. It is of the greatest
importance that the smallest of things should function
correcdy. Beware of litde foxes!
Children's sins
Often we are not serious in drawing the attention of
children to their sins, because they are so small. But small
sins can poison a child's life. On the other hand, children
who have repented of their small sins and have been
purified by the blood of Christ are capable of great things
for him.
In a small village school in Communist Hungary there
were children who had fought their small sins and now had
great faith. A new teacher arrived - a militant atheist
whose objective was to root out religion from the hearts of
the children.
One day she summoned little Angela - a very pious
girl - and asked her, 'What do you do if your parents call
you?'
'I come immediately.'
'What happens if your parents call somebody else?'
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'They come, too. '
'Well,' said the teacher, 'they all come, and you come,
because you really exist. But suppose your parents called
your grandparents, who have been dead a long time.
Would they come?'
'Surely not!'
'And if they were to call Red Riding Hood or Snow
White — would they come?'
'Surely not, because they are just imaginary.'
'You see, children,' said the teacher triumphantly,
'only living beings, which actually exist, can respond to a
call. If somebody doesn't come when called, he is not
alive. Is that clear?'
'Yes,' replied the whole class.
The teacher sent Angela out of the classroom and told
her to stand by the door. Then she said to the other
children, 'Call her!' The children shouted, 'Angela!
Angela!' Angela immediately entered the room.
'Now, everything is clear,' declared the teacher. 'You
have all been brought up to believe in Jesus. You believe
that he exists, that he is alive, and that he hears you when
you speak to him. Is that so?'
'Yes.'
'Now, we will try an experiment. Angela entered the
classroom when we called her. So, everybody, on the
count of three shout as loudly as you can, "Come, Lord
Jesus; come, Lord Jesus!" One, two, three-begin to
call!'
Nobody dared to shout. The teacher laughed. 'There
you have the proof. You don't even dare to call him,
because you know he would not come. He could not come,
because he is just as imaginary as Red Riding Hood or
Snow White.'
Then something unexpected happened. Angela turned
to the children and said, 'We will call Jesus! All
together - Come, Lord Jesus! '
With hands folded and a deep yearning in their hearts,
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with total confidence, the children began to chant, 'Come,
Lord Jesus! Come, Lord Jesus!' Angela prompted them
again and again: 'Come, Lord Jesus!' They shouted so
loudly that it seemed as if the walls would crumble.
What happened next, according to the children's later ac-
ount, was that they saw the door opening; then a great light
shone through; and dien standing bathed in that light was a
beautiful child, smiling at them. At the same time they heard
dieir teacher's desparing cry. 'He has come! He has come!'
She rushed from the room, slamming die door behind her.
She had to be put into an asylum; she had gone mad.
The children were rigorously cross-examined by pastors.
Their accounts of what had happened did not contradict one
another. This is an authentic, story.
Little children can do great things for die Lord, if diey
forsake their little sins!
'I am not'
The bride says, 'My beloved is mine, and I am his' (2:16).
Baalshem-Tov, the founder of the Hassidic sect within
Judaism, fainted whenever he read these words. For a
believer, they are too much to contemplate.
But there is something even better than this peak of
beauty. Male love is often selfish and ambitious to possess for
itself, but our love for Jesus is of the female type - free of
selfishness, persisting only in die ambition to give itself
completely.
The believing soul is continually growing. Its first word is
an exclamation of triumph. The soul possesses the beloved,
and exclaims, 'My beloved is mine, and I am his. ' When she
has grown, she does not put herself first anymore, but
modesdy says, 'I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine'
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(6:3). The order of the words is changed. When she has
grown even more, she is satisfied in giving herself without
asking for anything in return: 'I am my beloved's, and his
desire is toward me' (7:10).
The Hebrew word for 'his' is lo, but the same word also
means 'not' in spoken Hebrew (there is a difference in the
way the word is written, but the oral form came first and is
more significant here). The verse, when only spoken,
could quite accurately be translated, 'My beloved is mine,
and I am not.' He is everything in the believer's life. No
place remains for a 'me.'
Those rare souls who have really attained to the truth,
that the Beloved is theirs and they 'are not' anymore, have
unique experiences.
By those who 'are not' I mean those who have come to
the height of heights, those who in prison have known not
only heavenly raptures but raptures to the heaven of heavens
(1 Kings 8:27); those who-eluding all enquiry,
withdrawn from all knowing - have come to that place
from which one looks down to heaven. It is that part of the
temple above of which God says, 'Behold, there is a place
by me' (Exodus 33:21).
Almost all these believers died in prison or shortly after
their release, like Bishop Hirtsa and Mgr Ghicay. I have
had the privilege of sharing a prison cell with such a man.
He did not say much. From the little he did say, I gathered
that he saw what St John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila
tried to describe.
He discovered that you can know things better by
looking to the God in whom they have their being, life and
movement than by looking at those things themselves. All
things are dark. Even physical light is dark. Only he
throws a light on them. Therefore the Psalmist said, 'In
your light we see light' (Psalm 36:9). Others come to know
God by looking at the things he has created. The mystics
know the reality of creation by looking at the Creator.
Such prisoners did not see him face to Tace. God is
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veiled, and anybody who sees God without a veil has not
seen die whole reality of Godhead. The veils are part of it.
If you see a man without his skin you do not see him
properly, because the skin is part of who he is. It veils his
inner parts, which should be veiled.
Ten doctorates and a lifetime lasting thousands of years
would not teach a man what those believers saw in a single
moment of such rapture.
What I have written above is an educated guess as to
what they would have said, if what diey knew could have
been expressed in words. When they came back from this
rapture, they returned as people who had seen men, events
and things as God sees them. They did not say a great
deal, and what they did say they said to very few. But their
faces and their eyes spoke for diem.
I was reminded of these, my former fellow-inmates,
when I read of the manner of the conversion of Rosario
Rivera, the Peruvian terrorist. She chanced to attend an
evangelistic meeting led by the well-known Latin
American preacher Luis Palau. Afterwards, she wrote:
He [Luis Palau] put Rosario Rivera, who had come as an
eminent member of the Peruvian Communist Party,
before her own eyes in all her crude inner reality. Not
even Che Guevara [her chief, and model of terrorism]
could see what I was like inside, though I had been at his
side for four months. But this man described my life, and
brought to light the things that were deep inside me. I bit
my tongue; I did not know what to do. He told me the
things I had done, how I had robbed, killed, perverted
young people, abused my home, trafficked in drugs, and
much more besides. I saw myself stripped naked.
Luis Palau had seen her with God's eyes. But he saw her
also as very beloved by God and brought her to salvation.
Such is the privilege of those who 'are not'.
Mary, the mother of the Lord, is an example of how far
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a human being can rise if one effaces onself before God.
Jacob of Saroug, a Syrian bishop in the fifth century who
composed Christian hymns, wrote in a hymn to her:
She is highly blessed because the limits of her body have
contained the Unlimited, who fills the heavens without
their being able to circumscribe Him. She is most
blessed, because she gave breast to the One who rules
over the waves of the sea. She is most blessed, because
she carried the powerful giant who carries the world.
She has embraced Him and covered Him with kisses.
She is most blessed, because her lips touched the One
whose burning love causes angels of fire to withdraw.
She is most blessed because she has nourished with her
milk the One who gives life to all the world.
'My beloved is mine and I am not.' What has happened to
me, when I am no more and only he remains? The aim of
my life has then been fulfilled. Basil of Caesarea wrote,
'Every spiritual being is, by his nature, a temple of God
created to receive in himself the glory of God.' When my
Beloved is mine, and I 'am not', what is visible of me
continues. But each of us has two natures: the visible and
the invisible. If I have submitted to divine will, the
invisible part of me has united with God.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa said that man is simultaneously
a micro-cosmos and a micro-God. In the life of the bride,
the micro-cosmos decreases in importance, and God, in
the literal sense of the word, is magnified. Pascal wrote,
'Man is infinitely more than man.' In his own life he was
able to make a reality of Jesus' words, 'You are gods'
Qohn 10:34). When God makes his dwelling in us, we
have more than mere biological, sociological and
psychological possibilities within us. The sun and the
moon are called 'light' in the Bible. In the same way we are
called 'the light of the world.' Our possibilities are
immense. Saint Gregory wrote, 'When you turn to watch
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him, you become what he is. ' We have the aptitude for it;
let us not waste it. It is for this that we were created in
God's image. Let us follow the bride's passionate decision
to be his. God can do everything, except compel somebody
to love him. That decision must come from us.
But take care! There are beautiful compliments
addressed to the people of Israel in the Bible, who were
God's beloved. But, after a time, the people-turned to sin,
and God's opinion of them changed. We cannot simply
rely on beautiful loving words addressed to us by God in
the past. We must take care to abide in his love.
Feeding among lilies
The bride says, 'He feeds among the lilies' (2:6). He has
said that his brides are his lilies.. We, his flock, feed with
him among the lilies, who already are the saints of the past
and present; The example of their lives nourishes us.
A Rumanian Christian, Lydia Arsenescou, had been
sentenced to death for her faith. She was a young girl of
eighteen or nineteen, and she was very beautiful. Her last
evening had come. The execution always took place
promptly at midnight, and for this reason the Christians
called the firing squad 'the midnight bride'.
Wardens had brought some gruel in pottery vessels into
the cell. It was the evening meal. All the prisoners were
hungry but none cared to eat. All the other women pitied
the young and beautiful girl who had to die that night.
But suddenly her face began to shine. She lifted the
pottery dish and said, 'I have a boyfriend. I love him
greatly, and he loves me. He hoped that one day this my
body would be in his embrace. But it will not be so; tonight
I will be shot. And after a few years, what was my body will
have become clay, just like the clay from which this pot was
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made. And, after a few more years, some other potter will
make a vessel out of what was once my body. Who knows
what is in this vessel? Perhaps what was once the beaming
eye of a lover! My body will decay, but I will not die.
'Jesus said, "Whosoever lives and believes in me will
never die." And I believe these words of Jesus more than
the rifles which will be pointed at me tonight. I believe
them more than the bullets that will pierce my chest
tonight. I believe them more than the open grave which is
already waiting for me.
'I am not my body. I am an eternal spirit. Tonight I
shall not die. Jesus is a gentleman; he will keep his word.
Tonight, by his grace, I will enter through gates of pearl
into the golden city. I will see and hear angels playing on
their harps. I will be with the saints and the finest men of
all the centuries, and above all, I will rest on Jesus' bosom,
and there I will wait for my boyfriend to come too. '
They came for her a few minutes before midnight. As she
passed through the vaulted corridors of the underground
prison, her voice could still be heard, reflected from wall to
wall. She recited the Creed - the same Creed we all recite in
church-but in her mouth, it had an entirely new
significance. When she said, 'I believe in one God, maker of
heaven and earth,' she really meant it. She knew; there
really is a heaven. The proof was that she forsook earth for
it. When she said, 'I believe in the one Lord, Jesus Christ,'
the words rang true. Jesus really was her Lord. She was
ready to give up her youth for him. And then they heard her
last words: 'I believe in the resurrection of the body, and in
life everlasting. ' After this a few shots were heard. The poor
Communists believed that they had killed her. They did not
know that they had sent her to the embraces of the most
beautiful Bridegroom of all.
On such examples, Jesus feeds us. He feeds his flock
among the lilies. He has other saints as well, whose
mentality is completely different to that of Christians of
this century. The Church considers as saints believers such
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as Simon the Sty lite, who remained on top of a column in
the Egyptian desert for thirty years. When he was too weak
to remain there, he had a post erected and chained himself
to that. Many others followed his example, and stood in
the burning heat of the day and the cold of the night. By
doing so, they were trying to annihilate the part of them
that lusted after sin.
Saint Etheldreda also believed that the flesh is evil and
dirty. She refused to cleanse it, and walked about
unwashed. So did the man whom Church history records
as St Anthony the Great, who is remembered for his stand
with St Athanasius in the great fight against the Arian
heresy.
We would not enjoy being in the company of such
people. But when a reed is bent, the only way to straighten
it is to bend it in the opposite direction. In a world in which
so many die from hunger and others spend their money on
useless creams and costly perfumes, it is good that here
and there individuals exist who demonstrate, by extreme
attitudes, the vanity of our way of life. They too are lilies,
among whom Jesus feeds his flock.
Christians were prevented from washing for weeks,
months and sometimes years in Communist prisons, and
they became full of lice, loathsome to themselves and
others. It was a very great help to them, and a
reinforcement of their faith, to remember that there were
once saints who adopted this burden voluntarily.
Jesus feeds his sheep among lilies. No other shepherd
can do that.
The sending away of the Beloved
The bride says, 'Until the day break, and the shadows flee
away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart
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upon the mountins of Bether' (2:17). I know of a Christian
who was in solitary confinement for years, in much hunger
and pain. Sometimes he was aware of Jesus asking him, 'Is
it too difficult for you? Shall I ease your lot?' Again and
again he replied, 'Please, Jesus, see to others. I can bear it;
I'm all right.'
This is the mentality of the bride. She tells Jesus to
follow his calling as a king. She can carry the cross allotted
to her in the hope that, when the evening comes, he will
return to her. She is reluctant to make continual demands
upon him.
When the apostle Peter realized who Jesus was, he said
to him, 'Depart from me; for I am a sinful man' (Luke
5:8). Peter was very grateful that Jesus had increased his
catch to an exceptionally great multitude of fish. But he
also knew that a being like Jesus could do greater things
than merely provide a fisherman with a miraculous haul.
Like the bride in the Song, he wanted him to go away and
do his more marvellous work. Peter was prepared to be
content with a normal-sized catch.
The bride sends the Bridegroom away to the mountains
of Bether (2:17). The word bether means 'separation'. She
believes it is possible to exist without him, to be separate
from him. This thought brings us to the third chapter of
the Song of Songs, a book so important that Origen, one of
the distinguished teachers of the Church in the third
century, wrote twelve volumes about it. Saint Bernard of
Clairvaux delivered eighty-six sermons on the first two
chapters alone. The great German writer, Goethe, called
it 'the most divine of all love songs. ' Herder said of it, 'The
song is written as though from paradise. ' It is a book which
repays thorough study.
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= Chapter 3 ~
Seeking the Bridegroom
The bride says: 'By night on my bed I sought him whom
my soul loves: I sought him, but I found him not. I will rise
now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad
ways I will seek him whom my soul loves: I sought him,
but I found him not' (3:1 -2). Theologians will tell you, 'It
is difficult to find God; wherewith will you find him?'
Dionysius the Areopagite wrote:
If it should happen that somebody should see God and
understand what he sees, then he has not seen God
Himself ... for He surpasses any intelligence and any
essence. He exists only to the degree to which He is totally
unknown . . .
Thus we say that the Universal Cause situated beyond
the whole universe is neither matter nor body.
It has no face. It has no shape, no form, no quality, no
mass. It is in no place, it cannot be apprehended by our
senses . . . Ascending higher, we say now that this Cause
has no soul and no intelligence ... It cannot be
expressed, nor conceived.
It has no number, no order, no grandeur, no
smallness, no equality, no similitude, no dissimilitude. It
does not rest unmoved; neither does it move. It is neither
power nor light. It does not live and is not life.
It is not essence, nor perpetuity, nor time. It has no
knowledge, no truth, no wisdom. It is not one, nor
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unity,   nor  divinity,   nor  good;   neither  spirit  nor
affiliation nor paternity, in the sense we use this word.
But the bride mistrusts philosophy - even religious phi-
losophy. She seeks him diligently, night after night (the
Hebrew word in verse 1 means 'nights'). She has been
promised that, provided she does not seek the living among
the dead, she will not seek in vain: 'Whoever seeks, shall
find' (Luke 11:10). She deceived herself when she imagined
she could live separated from him; now she seeks him.
You cannot find him from a bed of ease, lying quietly in
comfort. You have to strive. The bride realizes that her
sighing, and demanding and others' intervention do not
bring her the Beloved. The soul must become active; it
must practise spiritual exercises.
Exposing herself to all the risks which any girl runs who
walks alone at night-time, the bride walks on darkened
streets, seeking her Beloved. She travels all kinds of roads.
There is no place where she does not seek him. She looks in
the face of every passer-by, to see if she can can glean
information from anybody about the one she loves.
But the Beloved is not a man of public places. Righteous
men usually shun such places, because there one can
expect to find mostly evil. Jesus too lived, for the most
part, a private life. When He was twelve years old, his
parents lost him. They looked for him in the wrong place;
in the caravan, where he never is. So he asked them, when
they found him, 'How is it that you sought me?' He told
them where he always is, where he can readily be found by
anybody: at 'My Father's business' (Luke 2:49). That is
the only place where he may legitimately be sought. -
Jesus said these words not only to Mary, but also to his
adoptive father, Joseph. What we must understand from
this is that the child had already made up his mind. His
supreme ambition was not to be an assistant in Joseph's
workshop. He had another Father, a heavenly Father; and
he was going to be in his service.
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The watchmen of the city
The bride says, 'The watchmen that go about the city
found me: to whom I said, "Saw you him whom my soul
loves?" It was but a little that I passed from them, but I
found him whom my soul loves: I held him, and would not
let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's
house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me'
(3:3-4). The watchmen of the city are the bishops, priests,
pastors, preachers, rabbis and mullahs of different
religions. Some brides fall in love with them and with their
ornate services and beautiful sermons, and because of
these they forget to go on seeking the Bridegroom himself,
whom you can find only when you go on from them. You
find Jesus only when you have left every creature behind.
In practice it is difficult to distinguish the ambitions of
such as Horeb, Datan and Abiram (who in the Old
Testament rebelled against Moses, the God-appointed
authority over the people) from those of the brides who,
because of their unlimited love for Jesus, leave the
watchmen behind without despising them. But it is not for
us to judge others. We trust that everyone does the best of
which he is capable.
In the end, the bride finds the Beloved outside the city,
at night. And what energy she shows then! She takes hold
of him, and says to him-as Jacob once said to an
angel - 'I will not leave you until you bless me.' She took
hold of him and would not let him go. Simply to find Jesus,
is not enough. You must also know how to keep him.
The bride brings him into the house of her mother, the
Church. Saint Cyprian said, 'Whosoever has God as his
Father, has the Church as his mother. ' The worth of a
church service consists only in the fact that the
worshippers, the brides, have come to the service bringing
Jesus with them.
There  are  some  very  bad  church  leaders.   Many
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Protestant and Catholic church leaders have remained
silent about the closure of tens of thousands of churches in
Russia, China North Korea and Albania. Even worse
than that, some Catholic and Protestant church leaders
praise the persecute«, describing them as nice people.
Other church leaders, while probably being worthy
individuals, are not truly ready to die for what they
believe.
In the Rumanian prison of Piteshti, prisoners were
forced to actively deny their faith by gross blasphemy of
the Eucharist. They were made to scream sacred melodies,
in which filthy words replaced those of the hymns. They
were made to gesture degradingly with their genitals.
They were made to eat excrement. This obscene parody of
the Eucharist was intended to transform the worship into a
demonic drama of evil and hatred.
The result was minds in chaos. The brainwashers
thereby achieved mastery of the prisoners, who identified
with their new masters and so felt loyalty to them. Then
the prisoners were expected to prove that loyalty by
inflicting torment on another group of inmates. Should
one of these 're-educated' prisoners be observed to be
lenient in his beating of others or careless in depriving
them of sleep, such mercy was interpreted as a breach of
his new loyalty. He would then be put through the agony
again himself.
Sometimes Christians who, after unspeakable tortures,
had turned Communist in prison were asked to conceal
their new loyalty. They invented a so-called fake Christian
organisation and enlisted teenage prisoners. Those
teenagers believed that they had found 'watchmen' who
could tell them about the Bridegroom. Imagine the shock
in the hearts of those young people when the very teachers
who had brought them to Christ at a pre-arranged signal
produced cudgels and beat them viciously. They were
assaulted until they denied Christ, whose adoration their
persecuters had previously taught.1
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In Guyana, 'Reverend' Jim Jones, leader of the
People's Temple, ordered the suicide of all his followers
and the slaughter of their children. In all 920 people died.
Jones was a 'watchman' who had mixed Marxism with
Christianity, a mixture in which the latter always perishes,
leaving only murders and Marxism.
Horrors such as this and the atrocities at Piteshti were
happening at a time when Communism was well spoken of
by some church leaders in the East and the West.
Obviously, a bride has to leave such 'watchmen' behind, if
she is to find Christ himself.
But there are also some very trustworthy church leaders.
The late Rumanian Bishop Hossu, who spent twenty-two
years in prison, said, 'You cannot know how painful the
suffering of a bishop is, over the sad destiny of his church
and his nation. It can only be compared to the torment of
Jesus in Gethsemane and on the cross, when He foresaw
all the persecutions that would be unleashed through the
centuries, by the enemies of the church.' Another
trustworthy leader was the Russian Adventist Shtshelkov,
who died in prison aged eighty-four, after twenty-four
years in jail, standing firm for what he believed. Sadly,
such leaders are few and far between.
But the bride does not need to stop at pastors. We are
not limited to hearing the Word only from them. The
bride in Solomon's Song finds Jesus when she leaves the
watchmen behind. She finds sweetness even in barbed
wire thorns. In Siberian snows, among ferocious prison
guards, brides of Christ detect the fragrance of the Rose of
Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys in the smells, sights and
sounds of the concentration camps.
In Golgothaean Christianity, personal meetings with
Jesus are frequently described. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
wrote:
I never knew the precise moment of the coming of the
Word. I felt His presence. I remember He was with me.
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I sometimes had a presentiment that He would come,
but I sensed neither His coming nor His going. I do not
know where He went after leaving me, nor by what
means He came and went.
You will ask me how I know that He was present, if
His coming was incomprehensible. I will reply that He
is alive and full of energy. Immediately upon entering
me, He awoke my sleeping soul. He aroused and
softened and taught my heart, which had been as hard
as stone. He began uprooting and pulling down,
planting and building, watering the dry places and
lightening the dark ones.
There have been some visions of angels and of Christ in
the prisons, but these are not the norm. More often one
can tell that the bride has seized hold of Christ by the
profound change in the attitude of the Christian prisoners.
The beautiful daughter of the Lutheran pastor, Traube,
worked in the office of a Soviet Collective. The local
Communist Party secretary offered her the choice of
becoming his lover or seeing her father arrested and his
church closed. After a long resistance she yielded. She
became pregnant, hanged herself, and left a letter in her
pocket explaining why she had done so.
A comrade found the letter and brought it to the guilty
Communist, who destroyed it and forged another in her
handwriting. It claimed that her father had raped her and
that she could not bear the shame. As a result the father
was sentenced and the church was closed.
Sex offenders in jail are attacked by other prisoners.
Though falsely accused, Pastor Traube suffered a great
deal at the hands of his fellow-inmates. He tried to pray, in
vain. He could not say the words, 'Forgive them Father,
for they know not what they do.' He could not forgive the
wicked wrong done to him by the Communists. He
became ill.
One day, a new prisoner was put in the cell. It was the
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man responsible for his daughter's death, the closure of his
church and all the torment he had undergone. The
Communist had been jailed for embezzlement.
When Traube realized the misery that this criminal was
experiencing - overburdened by guilt, jailed by his own
comrades, lacking any knowledge of the Saviour-he
drowned his own sufferings in the much deeper ones of
the Communist. On his deathbed, the pastor finally said
the Lord's Prayer right through. He forgave. He died
with a look of radiance on his face. He had the soul of a
bride who has sought the Beloved, and at the end had
seized hold of him. He had had a personal meeting with
Jesus.
Christ, known in personal experiences in exceptional
circumstances such as these, can be brought to the
mother's house, the Church. The Church will be greatly
blessed by our encounters with Christ.
The bride ascends from the desert
The bride says, 'Who is this that comes out of the
wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and
frankincense, with all the powders of the merchant?
Behold his [palanquin], which is Solomon's' (3:6-7). The
bride has passed out of the city into the desert, and she has
learned a great deal there. The desert is not in fact as arid
as people believe. Thousands of different plants thrive
there. What characterizes them all is great adaptability.
Without it, in a region with little rain and a summer
temperature above 120 degrees, they would be lost. The
bride could not survive either, were she not adaptable to
different social structures and political regimes.
The saguaro is a cactus of the Arizona desert. Its roots,
seeking out every drop of moisture, can spread as far as a
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hundred feet. During rainfall it takes in reserves of water
like a camel, in preparation for dry periods which can last
for years. It literally grows fat with water. Its girth can
increase by half, or even more. One saguaro was found to
contain more than thirty tons of liquid, 'an engineering
feat which probably has no parallel in any artificial
structure in existence.' Similarly, in the spiritual desert
the bride learns to be deeply rooted in the Kingdom and to
provide herself abundantly widi the water of life.
When she was seven, my daughter Amely was not much
' of an eater. She only wanted to eat desserts. Once I chided
her about this. She said to me, 'I eat as it says in the Bible!
It says there that God wants us to live on desserts only.'
She showed me the verse: 'God led his people forty years
through the desert.' She was not wholly wrong. Life in the
desert is a delicacy, a dessert reserved for God's beloved.
What a marvellous sight it must have been when the
people of Israel came from the desert to the country of
Canaan, or when they returned to their own country from
the Babylonian captivity. It is the same when a soul
returns to God from the desert of this world and cleaves to
Jesus. Thereby it enters into a state of grace, and the bride
is brought to the Bridegroom.
Should we be frugal in anointing Jesus with myrrh? It
was Judas Iscariot who criticized the woman who anointed
Jesus before his arrest.
The valiant men
The bride says, 'Threescore valiant men are about
[Solomon's bed], of the valiant of Israel. They all hold
swords, being expert in war: every man has his sword
upon his thigh because of fear in the night' (3:7-8). The
Church has never lacked valiant men. On 15 August 1714,
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die Rumanian king Constantin Brincoveanu died a
martyr death. For the twenty-five years of his reign he had
been a valiant defender of the Christian world against
Islam. On Good Friday 1714 he and his whole household
were arrested by the Turkish sultan's men and taken to
Constantinople, where diey were put in the notorious
Yedikuleh prison. On his sixtieth birthday, Brincoveanu
was sentenced to death together with his four sons.
Before the executioner raised his axe, the sultan said, 'I
will pardon you, if you tell me where the wealth of your
country is, and if you will deny the Christian faith and
convert to Islam.'
Brincoveanu replied, 'I will never abandon the Chris-
tian faith. I was born in it, have lived in it and will die in it.
I have filled my country with churches, monasteries and
hospitals. I will not worship in your mosques, neither I nor
my children.' Then he turned to his sons. 'My beloved,
be strong in faith. We have lost all things. Let us not lose
our souls as well. '
The sultan ordered that the sons should die first. Young
Constantin prayed and quietly put his head on the block.
As he was beheaded, his father sighed. 'God, your will be
done.' The next two sons followed. Then Matthew, who
was only sixteen, wavered at the sight of the blood and hid
himself near his modier. 'Follow your brothers,' urged
Brincovaneau. 'Do not deny Christ.' The youngster put
his head on the block and said to die executioner, 'Strike'.
The king followed them. Kneeling, he prayed with
many tears. 'God, accept our sacrifice. For the blood of
our martyrdom, I desire that the Rumanian principates
should remain Christian. Amen.'
In the seventeenth century, in what is now
Massachusetts, a law was passed declaring that all
Quakers entering the British colony should be whipped,
imprisoned and put to forced labour. Every exiled Quaker
who returned was to be hanged. The 'crime' of the
Quakers was their belief in an inner illumination, a direct
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communion with God without the intermediary of clergy
or ritual.
Mary Dyer, though she had been whipped and
threatened with death, came again and again to the colony
from Rhode Island to visit her brethren in jail. Finally
Mary and two others were sentenced to hang. She
attended the execution of the other two, then her hands
were tied and a black sack was put over her head. But at
the last moment she was reprieved and deported.
She returned again. She was risking public flagellation,
and having her tongue pierced with a red hot iron. At her
trial she declared, 'If you do not revoke your unjust laws,
the Lord will send other witnesses of the truth after my
death. Compared with liberty and truth, my life does not
matter.' For this she died, valiant Christian. There is a
statue honouring her in Boston.
Nowadays, Christians who would behave towards
imprisoned believers in Communist prisons as she did
towards the suffering brethren of that time are rare. God
has valiant men and women, but they are few.
William Booth, a Hebrew Christian, founded the
Salvation Army. His followers called him 'General',
which made him a laughing stock. His motto was, 'Go for
souls and go for the worst. ' Today he would have said, 'Go
for Communist torturers and murderers.'
He went about with men he called 'godly daredevils', a
mob of uneducated but converted men chosen from
saloons, brothels and gambling houses. The owners of
such places counterattacked. Salvation Army preachers
were drenched with the contents of chamberpots. Booth
did not care. He ordered his Army to charge into saloons
and drag drunkards out for conversion.
Today the Army is active in 92 countries. It preaches in
111 languages and operates 900 schools in non-Christian
lands. In many countries it has influenced social
legislation. Booth was another valiant man around
Solomon's bed. Even today we have such valiant men.
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Some of the special tortures devised by Communists for
Christians are described by the Rumanian Communist
writer Paul Goma. One prisoner was 'baptized' daily by
having his head stuck in the barrel which served as a
communal lavatory, while other prisoners were made to
sing the baptismal service.
During festivals, and especially Lent, blasphemous
masses were organised. One prisoner was dressed in an
excrement-smeared robe. Round his neck, in place of the
cross, was hung a phallus made of a mixture of bread, soap
and DDT. All the prisoners were forced to kiss it and
pronounce the sacred Orthodox formula, 'Christ is
resurrected. '
What do these indignities have to do with Socialism and
the interests of the proletariat? They are nothing more
than satanic orgies. Some valiant Christians refused to
participate, and as a consequence they died under torture.
When Christians have to bear crosses they make roses
blossom in them. The life and death of the Lutheran pastor
Joseph Jurash of Czechoslovakia will illustrate what I
mean. He had been invited to become a collaborator, but
had refused. So the Communists sentenced him to thirteen
years of imprisonment. They inserted sharp objects under
his fingernails and toenails and pierced his body with
needles. Soon after his release from prison he died. A
fellow prisoner wrote of him, 'His personality glowed in a
special way.'5
In the Soviet Union, over a hundred people gathered in
a single room at the house of Brother Kozorezov when he
returned from prison. He preached to them from Matthew
5:10: 'Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'.
Flowers were presented to him. A nun named Sister Alia
spoke of her recent arrest, and the surprise of the Secret
Police officer when she told him she had to pray first before
answering his questions. She knelt in his presence and did
the same when the interrogation was over. A major
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watching was impressed and helped her to rise from her
knees. (All our discussions would be more peaceful if we
practised the same habit in our daily lives. In Korea I have
seen brethren praying first when they entered one
another's houses, and only then conversing.)
A tape of this meeting in the USSR was sent to us. On it,
police can be heard shouting, 'Finish! Disperse! To hell
with you!'
Kozorezov can be heard answering, 'We preach the
love of Christ. '
A police officer: 'What do I care? It's forbidden here.
Disperse while we're still speaking politely to you.'
Kozorezov replies. 'We are servants of love. Whence
comes the evil?'
The police officer retorts, 'I know nothing of that. I
want no sermons. You are not allowed to gather here.'
As the tape finishes, the choir begins to sing.
Such as these are today's valiant men around the
Bridegroom's bed. In the Hebrew it says of them, 'They
are held by the sword. ' It will not let them go. They are the
slaves of the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Solomon's palanquin
The bride says, 'King Solomon made himself a chariot
[ « palanquin] of the wood of Lebanon. He made the
pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the
covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with
love, for the daughters of Jerusalem* (3:9-10). There are
still many things that are wrong in the bride's heart, but
she is in Solomon's palanquin the pillars of which are of
silver. In the Bible the Word of God is described as silver
cleansed in the furnace. So the palanquin is based on
God's Word. The covering is of purple, which means that
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the bride is covered by the blood of Jesus, shed for her.
The interior of the palanquin is paved with love shown
by the daughters of Zion. Love is belittled in our world, as
mere sentimentalism or time-wasting. In reality it works
very efficiently. Mary Magdalene, when sitting at Jesus'
feet, seemed to be doing nothing. In fact, she was doing
the most important thing of all - she was loving. While she
appeared to be quietly sitting, her love was weaving
beautiful ornaments for Solomon's bed, in which she
herself would later rest. It is not our service that Jesus
seeks, but our love. Only a faith that engenders love has
value in his eyes.
There is a love that forgives all things. In his book, It
Was Not the Black Cat, the former Rumanian Zionist
prisoner T. Lavi describes how prisoners were mockingly
called 'parrots', and were forced to spend hours shouting
brief sentences deriding their creed. They could either
repeat, 'Jesus is not the Son of God' or utter obscenities
about	the
Virgin. Jewish prisoners likewise were forced to say ugly
things about their religion. Before having to declaim their
blasphemous sentences, they had to run for whole nights
around their cells, being whipped if they ran too slowly.
The Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty was one who
endured such treatment. The alternative to uttering
blasphemy was to face being beaten to a pulp.
Many were weak. Nobody should be taken in by the
notion that all who are in prison for their faith are men of
heroism, full of virtues and endurance. It is not so. Many
Christians who suffered there were frail. Many gave in
and said words that no Christian ought to pronounce. And
then followed the self-justifications: 'After all, I am only a
man!' . . . 'What does it matter if I say these things? God
does not worry about it' ... 'Surely God would rather I
live, than die for refusing to say a few words - anyway, the
words are nonsense.'
Some went to the other extreme. In their consciences
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they heard not voices of self-justification, but accusations
which drove them to despair. In Red China, many who
had denied Christ, or betrayed secrets of the Underground
Church under torture, hanged themselves or threw
themselves out of windows.
The true bride of Christ does not need to go to either
extreme. The Word of God gives her comfort and teaches
her about forgiveness. Even when her fall has been a heavy
one, she knows she can rest in the palanquin of Solomon.
We who are free, and have sinned greatly, can do so as
well.
The mother's merit
The bride says, 'Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and
behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his
mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the
day of the gladness of his heart' (3:11). In this passage
Solomon, the wise and rich king-the builder of die
Temple of God - is a type of the Saviour Jesus, for whom
the name of Solomon is also fitting. In Hebrew it means
'peace*. The mother of Solomon is a type of Jesus' mother.
There is still a custom in the Oriental Orthodox Church
that the bridegroom's mother puts a crown on his head.
Christ has possessed glorious crowns from all
eternity - the crown of the eternal Sonship of God, the
crown of love, of goodness, and of wisdom - but he owes
one crown to his mother. She gave him something that he
had never had before: a human nature. She made him
man as well as God. It was her gift to him, at the wedding
of the godly and the human that was his conception. God
had always known the life of all men, but from the outside,
so to speak; from the perspective of Godhead. Now he
knew it from the inside.
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Under the Communist regimes, many former judges
and prosecutors in the old capitalist system were jailed.
Having now experienced prison for themselves they
regretted the harsh sentences they had passed earlier. A
few years of prison may not sound very much in the mouth
of the judge, they realized, but those same few years of jail
meant great suffering to the sentenced prisoner. 'Every
minuté spent in prison is a bitter pill like no other,' one
judge said. 'Had I known this, I would have been less
harsh in my judgements.'
Because of die obedience of Mary, by whom he became
man, God was able to experience human life and know it
from the inside. He was tempted in all things, just like us.
He experienced the inner struggles we experience, and
because of this, we have in him a merciful and faithful
High Priest (Hebrews 2:17). That is why all nations call
Mary 'blessed'.
Onute Vitkauskaite, a Lithuanian Christian prisoner,
wrote this letter to her mother on Mother's Day:
There is so much to think about and remember. But
let's leave all that in die care of our beloved mother
Mary. She taught our mothers love, sacrifice and
kindness. May the humiliation and scorn that we suffer
be as a prayer of thanksgiving for that! But I would also
like it to be a form of atonement for those so-called
mothers, who, without the least twinge of conscience,
murder not only the bodies but also the souls of infants.
Having scorned the Mother of Love, they have lost the
source from which they could draw love, kindness and
strength on the road of maternal sacrifice. In the labour
camp I have come to discover how terrible is man's life
without God, widiout eternal love.
Another Lithuanian prisoner, Julius Sasnaukas, wrote to
his family on the same Mother's Day:
My best wishes to Mother and Grandmother. It is
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difficult to fînd the right words for this occasion. Here
by my bunk I have a tiny Leonardo Madonna on a
postage stamp and it seems that life, love and eternal
spring seep into this dismal abode.
It can help us all to think frequently of the beautiful
example of the virgin Mary.
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~ Chapter 4 ~
The bride with no veil
The Bridegroom says:
Behold, you are fair, my love; you are fair; you have
doves' eyes within your locks: your hair is as a flock of
goats, that appear from Mount Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even
shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every
one bears twins, and none is barren among them.
Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your speech
is comely; your temples are like a piece of pomegranate
within your locks.
Your neck is like the tower of David built for an
armoury, whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all shields
of mighty men.
Your two breasts are like two young roes that are
twins, which feed among the lilies.
(4:1-5)
In those days (and even today in some Moslem countries),
girls in the Orient walked with their faces veiled. The
bridegroom sees the bride unveiled for the first time only
after the wedding ceremony. Then he sees the beauties
which were hidden from him until that moment. When
our Bridegroom comes, we will be like him, and he will
discover in us unspeakable splendours; and we will give
them to him, to give him pleasure.
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The greatest beauties, in the case of this bride, are her
'doves' eyes'. Like those of God, they are so clean that
they cannot even see evil, and cannot look upon
unrighteousness. The two rows of her teeth represent her
faith and meditation, by which the soul feeds upon Jesus.
They are white as shorn sheep when they come up from the
washing. Her faith is white and pure, not faked.
Her teeth are strong; strength is a characteristic of this
bride. The teeth are covered by lips - usually they are not
seen. So, the bride has a hidden faith in her clean
conscience, not a self*advertising faith which shouts in the
marketplaces. And, just as the teeth chew the food for the
whole body, not for themselves, the souls of brides spend
themselves in the service of others, keeping back nothing
for themselves. Each sheep bears twins. Christians, like
twins, share identical attitudes, because they are of one
heart and of one soul.
Her lips are like a thread of scarlet. That shows that she
is healthy. Her temples are like half a pomegranate, a fruit
with red seeds which are easily seen when it is cut. This
reminds us of a pure girl, blushing in humility at the
remembrance of her sin and unworthiness. This modesty
makes the bride attractive in the Bridegroom's eyes.
The neck is what joins the body to the head. The Church
is the body; Jesus its head. What unites them is faith. The
faith of the bride is strong, therefore, the Bridegroom tells
her, 'Your neck is like the tower of David built for an
armoury. ' In antiquity, towers were adorned with shields
or bucklers. So the tower of David - representing the faith
of the bride - has a thousand shields hanging on it, all
shields of mighty men. They are reminders of the battles of
the saints of old, who have defeated the devil, the world
and sinful nature.
The way the name 'David' is written here is unusual.
When it first appears in the Bible, 'David' is written DVD.
When David commits great sins, as when he took the wife
of one of his soldiers, it is written like that. But David had
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beautiful moments in his life as well. At such times a Y, the
first letter of God's name, is added, and it is written
DVYD. That is how his name is written at the end of his
life's story. He had his wanderings, but he finished the
course well. And now, in the Hebrew text of the Song,
David's name is not only written DVYD, to emphasise the
godly side of his character, but above it is inscribed a
circle, showing that because his son has written a song such
as this, David has reached the highest point of union with
God.
The breasts of the bride look like a meadow full of lilies
on which two young roes graze. Souls who have wept for
Jerusalem will drink the milk of its comforts.
The mountain of myrrh
The bride, having heard so many words of comfort from
the Bridegroom, makes him this promise:
'Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get
me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of
frankincense' (4:6). There she will stay until the miseries
of this life pass away,.
The mountain of myrrh recalls Mount Moriah, on
which the Temple was built, and in which so much incense
mixed with spices was burnt daily to the glory of God that
(so says the Talmud) the daughters of Jerusalem did not
need to perfume themselves. There the bride will retire for
prayer.
We can be sure that our Lord, as he sees the brides who
suffer for him today in Communist and Islamic prisons,
has the same words of admiration and wonder for them as
he has for the bride of Solomon's Song.
The Lithuanian Christian prisoner, Mrs Ona Prans-
kunaite, describes in a letter how she was transported from
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prison to labour camp in a railway wagon divided into tiny
cells. From a nearby cell, the Christian Lapienis
comforted her with words from Scripture, and from
Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ: He said, 'Onute,
let us try to fulfil our assignment from God, so as to serve
his glory in the honour of our nation.' Ona wrote:
I will march with strength, eyes toward heaven,
wherever the torments of life lead me. Everyone has a
treasure worthy of being protected. Trusting in the
grace of the Lord and in your prayers, I am sure to find
the strength to bear all difficulties. I fear only one
thing - that I might do evil.
Do not worry about me. I find comfort and joy in
prayer, in sacrifice, and in trying to help my comrades in
suffering. Here we work fourteen to fifteen hours a day.
Brethren and sisters in Christ, do not fear the
tempests of our times. God permits sufTering but also
gives us strength to bear it. The believers who sold their
consciences for a plate of lentils, and became our
persecutors, need penitence. So do we.
Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary wrote from his insect-
ridden cell, 'We are small; but we can grow. The saints always
reached heights when they descended into the most profound
depths of human sufTering. Lord, grant me only a morsel of
the strength of saints.' During the civil war following their
revolution, Russian Communists tortured the Orthodox
priest George Snesarev of Voronesh. Nails were driven under
his fingernails and toenails. He was wounded sixty-three
times. Seven nuns of the Protection Convent were boiled in a
cauldron of tar. Their crime? They had been praying for anti-
Communists. The monk, Nektary Ivanov, was made to drink
'communion wine' made with molten pewter. '
In all such atrocities many Christians remained faithful
to their Bridegroom. Their deeds and their beauty are
outstanding, like the breasts of the bride.
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All fair
The Bridegroom says, 'You are all fair, my love; there is
no spot in you. Look from the top of Amana, from the top
of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the
mountains of the leopards' (4:7-8). The decision of the
bride to give herself to prayer makes her even more
attractive in the Bridegroom's eyes. He calls her 'all fair
. . . without a spot. ' (This is, incidentally, a good example
of how husbands should regard their wives. The apostle
Paul says, 'Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church, and gave himself for it' (Ephesians
5:25). He, loving his Church, saw her to be all fair and
without a spot. We must have doves' eyes like him.)
He calls her 'bride' for the first time. How did she come
to bear the proud title of the bride of God's Son? It is
because she gave herself for him in persecution, just as he
gave himself for her.
A Rumanian Christian named Babutz had much to tell
when he arrived in America. He told how prisoners were
systematically beaten on the kidneys, after sandbags. Kad
been placed on their bodies to prevent marks.
Together with thousands of others he had been sent to a
slave labour camp. His job was to clean the weeds from the
River Danube, by hand. Many prisoners, standing waist-
deep in the icy water in winter, died. Coming and going, the
prisoners had to look at the swollen corpses of their friends
exhibited at the entrance to the camp. They were told, 'That
will be your fate as well, if you do not meet your quota.'
In winter, their thick clothing was taken from them.
They were told, 'The cold will make you work harder.'
Prisoners went hungry when the rats ate what little they
received. One hid a slice of bread in his shirt, saving it for
the next day. In the night mice chewed through his shirt
and ate the bread.
Another, forced to work in the fields, stole 20 onions to
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share with his friends. He was caught. He was made to
choose between eating them all at once or getting twenty-
five lashes on the soles of his feet. To avoid the
excruciating pain of the flogging he began to eat the
onions. Soon he collapsed, his eyes swollen from their
sockets, like a frog's eyes.
Yet another caught a serpent and tried to roast it on the
guards' fire. When caught he was made to eat the serpent
raw. Once an almost blind prisoner came to Babutz
joyously, wanting to share with him some crumbs of maize
cake he had found. Babutz told him, 'It is not maize cake.
It is mouse droppings.' The other exclaimed, 'Get away
with your dirty jokes!' and ate the droppings. For months
they were given no salt with their food. Then suddenly it
was saturated with salt. Many fell sick.
Babutz's daughter was told that she could only be
accepted for college if she denounced her father for
'compelling her to be a believer', a charge which would
mean he would be sentenced again.
But if you want to see happy people, you should look at
men like Babutz, and the others who have suffered in
Rumanian jails. They have taken a course in happiness;
they drown their sorrows in the deep ocean of Jesus' tears
for the sins of the world and the sufferings of his flock.
Their own pain counts litde beside his.
Let us try to do die same. We may be degraded. We
may be frustrated. But we surely never ate mouse
droppings. Let us take up our crosses joyfully. Then we
too will hear the words of the Bridegroom, 'Come with me
from Lebanon, my spouse; come from die lions' dens.'
Come from Lebanon
Lebanon is a range of mountains separating Syria, a
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heathen country, from the Holy Land. We have left
heathendom; but we have not yet arrived in the
Promised Land. We are still in the Lebanese mountains,
'the mountains of leopards,' full of savage beasts. But
from the mountains of Lebanon one can see Israel, the
heavenly fatherland, where we will be with the Most
Beloved. Even the mountains over which we must pass
are full of beauty.
'Look from the top of Amana' says the Bridegroom. It
is from here that the rivers Amana and Parpar
flow - rivers of which Naaman the Syrian spoke when he
said, 'Their waters are better than all the waters of Israel.'
On top of Mount Amana, we are not yet in the Promised
Land, but here we experience joys, some of which we
shall not even know in heaven. It is a joy to win souls for
the heavenly kingdom. That joy we can only know on
earth - and how intense a joy it is!
Only here can we know the joy of faith. In heaven there
will be no faith, only sight. There are other joys awaiting
us, but we will be deprived of the joy of faith. We who for
the present know only these joys, value them. And we also
are tempted to say that the rivers which flow from Amana
are better than all the waters of Israel.
'Look . . . from the top of Shenir'. The Targum of
Jerusalem, an ancient Aramaic translation of the Bible, says
that on this mountain so much fruit grows that it cannot all
be harvested, and much of it rots. Here the bride learns to
bring her fullness of harvest to the Bridegroom.
It is interesting to observe that the 'lions' dens', the dens
of those lions which desire to consume believers, are
situated on the heights of Amana. Amana shares the same
root as the Hebrew word for 'faith', Emunah. Nowhere is
one exposed to the devil's attacks so much as on these
peaks. Where you bring most fruit, you attract his worst
fury.
Those who have not themselves passed through the
lions' dens, who have always lived in comfortable places
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and never on the mountains of leopards, who do not
ascend the peaks of faith and prayer, are often apathetic
towards the sufferings of their brothers and sisters in
Christ.
In the Soviet Union the Orthodox priest Yakunin
sheltered Christians of every denomination for fifteen
years. When he was arrested, I received a smuggled letter
from another Orthodox in Russia, describing these past
activities of Yakunin the priest. He said they were
convinced that the authorities would never touch him;
Yakunin was well known, and so they would be afraid of
the uproar his imprisonment would arouse in the West.
However, the letter continued:
No vociferous complaints, no mass demonstrations
followed his arrest. No voice which could have
awakened the western public was raised in time.
It seems that even the Soviet authorites were
surprised that the arrest of a well known priest and
defender of religious freedom should arouse such a
minimal reaction in die West. Because they now knew
there would be no protest, very soon afterwards the
Communists arrested the renowned Hebrew Christian
historian, Regelson; and then came the Soviet attack
upon Afghanistan.
Afterwards another witness for Christ, the priest
Dudko, ascended the Golgotha prepared for him a long
time ago. [Dudko and Regelson later recanted under
duress.] The Adventist leader, Shtshelkov, who suffered
greatly for his Christian faith, died at the age of eighty-
four in Yakutia prison camp.
So it will continue if we remain silent and forget the
sufferers. We must appeal to men of good will
throughout die entire world. I have no words to express
my despair and my feelings of powerlessness.
One is reminded of this passage in Isaiah:
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'None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth . . . [The
Lord] saw that there was no man, and wondered that there
was no intercessor' (59:4, 16).
But those who have been in the lions' den provide
examples of spiritual beauty. A prisoner in Cuba wrote to
his wife, 'The Holy Spirit brings your love and prayers to
me daily. Even if I don't receive your letters, angels keep
us a united, happy and contented family which rests in the
arms of the King, Jesus.' This should be a lesson to those
who have their marriage partners close to them and yet
have not learned happiness.
In Communist countries there is not only a dreadful
oppression, but also a Christian resistance to it. When you
read of it, your spirit rejoices. There are heroes in our
time. When one lives in tragic circumstances miracles
become everyday events. 'He who has not suffered has not
seen God. We will not see Him from satellites, but in the
lives of those who are not afraid of suffering. ' So wrote
Dudko before his arrest and downfall. Others who suffered
even more under the Communists did not crack.
The Soviet professor, Tatiana Shtshipkova, wrote,
I refused even to talk to the officials of the secret police.
To talk to them is the first step towards collaboration. I
was driven from my job as teacher of Roman history at
the university, because I spoke of my faith. I showed the
Bible to students who had never seen one before. My son
and his girlfriend were expelled from the Institute also.
My daughter Liuba, a non-believer, was expelled
from the Communist youth organization because she
had not denounced me as a Christian. After this, Liuba
became a believer.
A group of policemen behaved in an unseemly way
towards us. I slapped one of them. I expect a one-year
sentence for this.
Ogorodnikov is sentenced for one year. He has
turned from Marxism to a deep Christian faith.
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Ermolaev, nineteen years old, is imprisoned because
in the subway he expressed his opinion about the
Communist Party.
We have no aggressive intentions. We cause no
upheavals, we print no leaflets, we do not preach
insurrection. We wish to live as Christ taught, which
means, we want to live and pray together, help each
other, witness to our faith and speak of Christ to those
who want to listen. Are we dangerous? Surely so; the
proof lies with the persecutors.
The well-deserved slap which Shtshipkova gave the
policeman for his obscene gesture reminds us of
Archbishop Luke of Tashkent. He shook the ladders on
which the Communist workmen were climbing in order to
tear down the crosses from the cupola of his cathedral.
Then, because he was also a doctor, he took care of their
bruises.
Many Christians have given their lives for Christ. Six
Soviet Baptists who were sent to Afghanistan as soldiers
were executed there, because they refused to shoot Afghan
freedom fighters. They righly judged that the Soviet Army
had no business to be in a peaceful neighbouring country.
It is right to defend a free fatherland, but it is wrong to
fight in the name of a God-hating, murderous regime.
They came from Lebanon, from the lions' dens, from the
mountains of leopards, and are now in the embrace of
Jesus.
They knew the biblical way of happiness: 'You have
loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God,
even your God, has anointed you with gladness above your
fellows' (Hebrews 1:9). They loved the righteous command-
ment, 'Do not kill. ' They hated the iniquity of Soviet rule
and died for their convictions. Now they know the unsur-
passed happiness of heaven. In addition, they experienced
hours of jubilation before their execution, just as Jesus went
singing toward Gethsemane (Matthew 26:30).
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The value of our looking
The Bridegroom says:
You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, you
have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one
chain of your neck.
How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse! how
much better is your love than wine! and the smell of
your ointments than all spices!
Your lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb:
honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of
your garments is as the smell of Lebanon.
Jesus calls the believing soul 'sister' and 'spouse' -
concepts which are normally mutually exclusive, because
it is an abomination to have your sister as your spouse.
But the unique relationship between Jesus and a believing
soul is typified in the Old Testament by the fact that
Abraham took as his wife a girl who was also his half-
sister.
The relationship between Jesus and the Christian can
take many forms. Sometimes it is that of an older brother
advising a younger sister; at other times it is the passionate
love of à bridegroom towards a bride. One analogy on its
own would be inadequate to express the variety of the
relationship.
Even in the Old Testament, God speaking to Israel
sometimes calls himself a father, sometimes a comforting
mother and at other times a bridegroom, a husband or a
friend. One and the same God - and so many analogies!
Jesus tells the bride, 'You have ravished my heart.'
There is really no satisfactory translation of the Hebrew
expression in the European languages. The nearest we
could come would be to say something like, 'My love for
you drove me out of my mind.' The Hebrew word for
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'love' used here is a plural form - 'loves'. The bride loves
him with intellectual love, with rational love and with
passionate love.
The Son of God acknowledges that through love, he has
become our prisoner. How does this happen? Then, as
sometimes now, oriental girls veiled their faces. To be
flirtatious they would lower their veil just a fraction,
showing one eye, if they were near somebody in whom
they had an interest. So the believing soul ravishes the
heart of the Saviour with one of her eyes, with one of her
glances.
It is written in die Old Testament that the Jews, bitten
by serpents in the wilderness, had only to look at the
brazen serpent erected by Moses in order to be healed.
One look at Jesus is sufficient to bring a soul to salvation
and to make him an heir of the eternal life.
How can a mere look have such huge results? It is
because we ravish his heart. We take from his mind
everything but ourselves. Through a single look, we
inflame him with love. So great is die poweer of a loving
look! God can thereby become ours.
Happy is the soul that loves. It takes God prisoner, and
God listens to it in all things. You cannot obtain from God
by mighty deeds what you can obtain from him by a single
loving look.
A farmer was seen to spend many hours in- church
before die altar, but he never seemed to pray. When he
was asked what he was doing, he said, 'I just kneel and
look at God;' So it is that one single quality of the
bride - one single loving look - secures God's whole heart.
Let us likewise love men for a single quality we perceive in
them, and close our eyes to all the rest which might be
inadequate.
In the Old Testament the caresses of the truly faithful
soul were more pleasant to God than all die incense which
was offered to him in die Temple of Jerusalem.
The Bridegroom also tells the bride, 'honey and milk
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are under your tongue.' The Jews endured forty years of
hardship, to finally see the Promised Land flowing with
milk and honey. After conquering Canaan, they fought
hard to keep it. But all those years they already had the
joyous realms of 'honey and milk' - right under their
tongues. We all have the Promised Land the moment we
stop looking for it in the far distance. It is there, in the
power of our tongue. Our own bitter words bring us to
hell. But confessing with the mouth that Jesus Christ is our
Lord, brings us salvation.
A garden enclosed
The Bridegroom says:
A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut
up, a fountain sealed.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with
pleasant fruits; camphire with spikenard,
Spikenard and saffron; calumus and cinammon, with
all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the
chief spices;
A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and
streams from Lebanon.
(4:12-15)
Jeremiah predicted a time when the souls of Israel would
be well-watered gardens. For the bride this is already
accomplished; she is a well-defended and enclosed garden.
Using these images, Jesus praises her chastity. Nobody
can enter a closed. garden or draw water from a sealed
fountain except the owner. When he does not come to visit
her, the garden of the bride is locked. She knows that, just
as a perfume bottle does not lose its fragrance if it is kept
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closed, neither does the soul which tends only to God lose
the warmth of love and the power of virtue.
It is said of the resurrection Lord that he came to his
disciples when the doors of their rooms were kept shut for
fear of the Jews (John 20:19). If they kept their doors shut
against those who could only kill them in this world, how
much more should we be like locked doors for fear of the
demons who can destroy our eternal life! To keep the
doors locked - to be an enclosed garden - to be separated
from the world - that is the proper state of your heart, if
you wish Jesus to show himself to you.
We have to be wary and lock our doors against
influences which are harmful to our souls. Spiritual
enemies can quench the Spirit in us. They take God from
us and spoil our intimacy with him, the divine solace and
eternal life. Why should you be an open fountain, at
everybody's disposal, so that men can spit in it or throw
their garbage in? Is there anything that pleases you more
than the presence of the Holy Spirit?
Our inner castle, where God's kingdom thrives, must
be kept locked against the images of the outside world. We
must ensure that the world remains outside, that it finds no
foothold in us, so that we shall not be destroyed. Our
imagination and our fantasies must be as beautiful as a
locked garden. Certain things may be allowed to enter and
others must be forbidden. God and the devil come with
their gifts to the gate of this garden. God's gifts must be
accepted, the devil's rejected.
God said to Cain, 'If you do not well, sin lies at the door.
And unto you shall be his desire' (Genesis 4:7). In
Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, 'Behold, I stand at the door,
and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. '
The faithful soul desires that only the Lord shall enter.
But the devil, knowing this, disguises himself as an angel
of light. How can we distinguish between them? What
must we do? We must keep our doors locked. We need to
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be an enclosed garden. The fact that our doors are locked
is no hindrance to Jesus. He knows how to pass through
locked doors.
Nobody has to be more righteous, more loving, than the
bride in the Song of Solomon. She is alert when she lies on
her bed: she hears the voice of the Beloved: 'Open to me,
my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled* (5:2). But she
also knows that the devil can imitate the voice of Jesus.
The many compliments make her especially suspicious.
Then she - who is sick of love for him, who has sought
him for many nights, walking the lonely streets and
marketplaces seeking the Beloved - now, when she hears
the voice at the door, refuses to open it: 'I have put off my
coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how
shall I defile them?' (5:3).
Jesus is pleased with her wise refusal, and exclaims in
admiration, 'A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a
spring shut up, a fountain sealed* (4:12). The Jesus she
refused is the true Jesus, because he does not become
angry. He knows us. He sees us. He searches our hearts,
and knows we are with him. He knows for what good
motives we refuse him.
He also knows why we cannot be gardens forever closed.
He knows our commitment brings us into contact with
many sins, many cultures, many false religions and
denials of God to which we would not be exposed if we
remained permanently enclosed gardens. We cannot share
our faith with others without also hearing their stories of
wickedness in their lives and their arguments for other
beliefs. It is unavoidable that some of this should seem
alluring. There have been cases of missionaries falling into
sin with those they were to bring to holiness.
The best thing is to avoid extremes. We must avoid
being so enclosed that others will die because, like black
holes, we emit no light. And we must avoid being so
outgoing that we forget that without times of withdrawing
into a quiet garden we cannot have a love-life with Jesus.
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He praises the enclosed garden. The flowers and fruits
mentioned are mostly exotic in Israel, and as such are
types of the rare pleasures that the bride offers to the
Bridegroom. She is a garden full of them. Originally the
word for garden was par des, a Persian word from which we
derive 'paradise'. For him to come near the bride was the
same happiness that we shall receive when we enter
paradise, because the Church produces the most exquisite
fruits for him. Where aloes grow, all the air is perfumed.
The Church fills the air with the choice perfume of Jesus.
The bride is called 'a fountain of gardens, a well of
living waters, and streams from Lebanon.' The rivers
flowing out of Lebanon are very fast-flowing and crystal
clear. So is the source of wisdom, which continually flows
from the mouth of the bride. So are the rivers of living
water, coming from her heart, which has become a temple
of the Holy Spirit.
Only keep your heart as an enclosed garden, and Jesus
will enter it with his burning love.
The privilege of enclosed gardens
Every 8th October the Russian Orthodox Church
celebrates the birth of the seventeenth century saint,
Tryphon of Viatsk. His enemies stripped him of his clothes,
bound him and threw him in the snow. When they later
went to retrieve the frozen corpse, they found instead a
living body which was unusually warm. The snow around
him had melted. In Rumanian prisons it was said that the
same thing happened when they threw the Christian, Budu,
naked into the snow. I myself have known many who were
put into refrigerated cells at freezing temperatures and
survived. Jesus entered through the locked doors of the
cells, and the Christians filled them with songs of praise.
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Freezing circumstances in your own life will not freeze
you, if you are close to the burning fire of Godhead.
I once attended an evensong celebrated by Seraphim, the
archbishop of the underground True Orthodox Church in
the Soviet Union. He has led his church for thirty years, yet
the Communists never discovered his whereabouts.
At that evensong, after he had chanted the first words -
'In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost' — the whole congregation was already in tears. I had
heard and said those words thousands of times. But as
Seraphim said them I realized as never before the dramatic
truth that all we have of God is his name to call upon. During
the fourteen years of my imprisonment, 'Father' was only a
name to my son. He was deprived of the reality of a father-
son relationship. We are in the same position with the
heavenly Father, but we have the comfort of knowing mat he
is a loving Fatiier. His Son died for us; his Holy Spirit guides
us. The whole message was revealed to me in the way Sera-
phim chanted the words. Several people in the congregation
asserted that they could see a luminous being conducting die
service with him, although he was alone. I believe that
anyone who commits his soul to the act of imparting the
gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:8) has angels at his side at the altar.
This is the privilege of men who live in enclosed
gardens; who allow none to enter their intimacy; who shun
all influence. The right influence, the Bridegroom himself,
can leap over hindrances.
Awake, winds
The bride says:
'Awake, O north wind; and come, south; blow upon my
garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my
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beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. '
The Bridegroom replies: 'I am come into my garden, my
sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my
spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have
drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends, drink, yea,
drink abundantly, O beloved' (4:16-5:1).
Though she is so appreciated by him the bride whispers
into his ear that she still needs to make preparations befor
presenting herself to him. The girls who had to enter the
presence of the earthly king Ahasuerus first had to beautify
themselves for twelve months: six months with oil of
myrrh and six with sweet odours (Esther 1:12). How much
more so should girls who must present themselves before
the heavenly king beautify themselves. Therefore the
bride calls the winds.
The north wind represents the punishments of God. The
south wind, opening the pores of the leaves to allow them to
exhale their sweet fragrance, represents the comforts of
God. Both are signs of his love, and both are needed so that
the garden of die bride may spread her perfume.
The Church has a rich share of punishments and
comforts. Above all, it has the privilege of being blown
upon by the wind of the Holy Spirit, which descended
upon the disciples at Pentecost. That was a fulfilment of
the bride's prayer.
The north wind blows with unprecedented fierceness
upon the Christians in Communist countries, whose rulers
have a long record of crime. In Addis Abeba, the capital of
Communist Ethiopia, the prisons are filled with Christians
and Moslems. The torturers use Cuban-made manacles
which can be rapidly tightened until the bones break. A
prisoner in the Andijane jail in Uzbekistan, USSR,
reported: 'The inmates are beaten to death or put in
straightjackets. The chief torturer is Umayukulov. Those
who suffer for their convictions are put in cells together
with bandits, who sodomize them.'
In Czechoslovakia 3,000 nuns were prisoners in their
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convents, which had been made into slave labour camps.
The number of priests and monks who have had to endure
the same fate is not known. Since books with a religious
content cannot be printed legally in Czechoslovakia, secret
printing presses have been set up at enormous risk. Such
presses are also run in Russia, China and other
Communist countries. When they are discovered the
printers go to prison.
Tito, the late president of Yugoslavia, was the murderer
of one in seven of the country's priests, and of countless
residents of convents. Also on his conscience is the death of
Cardinal Stepinac, who personally protected 7,000
children and defended Jews and Serbians during World
War II.
At the end of that war the Soviet army occupying East
Germany killed the priests Sonsalla, Demczak and
Goerlich. Innumerable girls were raped. Some of them
were nuns. Brutes of the same quality still control the
Communist countries.
All these crimes have been surpassed by the holocaust in
Cambodia. Around two million people were killed by the
Communists. Men with university degrees were
eradicated. The wearing of spectacles was made a crime
punishable by death, because it indicated the ability to
read. Of 500 physicians, only 57 are still alive. The
children of undesirables were chained together and buried
alive. Scarcely any children below the age of five
remained. In the beginning, no local men had the strength
to unload the relief parcels from abroad.
Yakunin, the Russian Orthodox priest, was imprisoned
for protesting against church leaders who compromised with
Communism, that is, brides of Christ who are in bed with
his enemies. He wrote: 'Authority in the church belongs to
Christ alone who obtained it by shedding His precious
blood. The church is His holy spouse, His living body.
Whoever permits power-seekers to interfere with the eternal
life of the church, abandons Christ's bride to corruption.'
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Men like this would be able to agree with these words of
Hudson Taylor, founder of die China Inland Mission:
I was envied by some, despised by many, hated perhaps
by others, often blamed for things I had nothing to do
with; an innovator of what have become established
rules of missionary practice, working in many respects
widiout precedence and with few experienced helpers;
often sick in body as well as perplexed in mind, and
embarrassed by circumstance.
Had not the Lord been especially gracious to me, had
not my mind been sustained by the conviction diat die
work is His and He is with me, I must have fainted and
broken down. But the battle is the Lord's - and He will
conquer.
In Gardenas, in Byelorussia, USSR, Communists have
destroyed a fourteendi-century Gothic church. The same
thing happened with the splendid temple of Vidzial. In
Varanavas, women tried to prevent demolition of the
church by dirowing diemselves in front of the bulldozers.
Such devotion to the very end is the highest pleasure that
you can give to Jesus. The bride of Christ under
persecution gives him that pleasure in the worst possible
circumstances. She has only one purpose. To make Jesus
joyous.
Holy fantasy
She calls upon die Bridegroom to enter into her soul: 'Let
my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant
fruits. ' When she called upon the Lord, he replied, 'Here I
am.' His response was immediate. He came in to her and
she spent a splendid bridal night with him. He found his
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delight in her, and remembers her caresses now with joy;
'I have come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, I have
gathered my myrrh and my spice; I have eaten my
honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with
my milk.' These are all different descriptions of the
pleasure she has given him. Jesus, having known his bride,
soars on peaks of joy, because those delights were so richly
varied and full of beauty.
Normally, people do not eat the comb with the honey;
neither do they drink a mixture of wine and milk. But the
delights which Christ finds in the Church are unique
delights. She does 'more than others' (Matthew 5:47).
And the bridegroom calls his friends: 'Eat, O friends;
drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved.' These men are
not like the bride. They do not know the joys of intimate
fellowship with Jesus, but only participate, through his
benevolence, in others' privileges.
When you are invited to a meal, those who invite you do
not always wish you well. There may be small-talk at their
meals, and backbiting afterwards. But the invitation
which Jesus extends is sincere and comes whole-heartedly.
Jesus calls us all to his banquet, to the joy of seeing sinners
converted, and he calls us to attend the wedding feast of
the Bridegroom and the bride. Blessed are those invited to
this banquet! God commands the guests to eat and drink
abundantly. Only one greater happiness exists, and that is
to be part of the Body of the bride herself.
Atheists reject the wedding feast as fantasy. A courier
who smuggled Bibles into a Communist country was told,
'We don't accept books like these; they are fairy tales.'
The courier replied, 'Don't you have fairy tale books
in your country?' To this, the customs officer had no
reply.
The courier then said to him, 'There is nothing wrong
in works of fantasy, if the fantasy is sanctified and is only
employed in the embellishment of true facts. '
The union between Christ and the believer is such a true
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fact. We can embellish it. Fantasy is a beautiful gift of
God. In the first Greek translation of Zechariah, it is
written 'The Lord made fantasy' (Zechariah 10:1). It is a
product of imaginative creation.
Christian hymns are the product of saintly fantasy. For
example, consider ' There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn
from Emmanuel's veins. ' The blood of Jesus coagulated in his
hands and feet when he was crucified. Otherwise he would
have bled to death within minutes. Only trickles of blood
oozed from his wounds. But fantasy enriches reality. The
sinner sees before him a deep fountain of cleansing blood
into which he can plunge. There is more spiritual reality in
the fantasy than in the strict historic event.
Without fantasies, there would be no achievement in
life. Technology, medicine and art would all wither away.
Science fiction anticipated science fact. Flights of fantasy
preceded flights into space. Each step forward begins as a
step of fantasy which later becomes a reality.
The pleasures of the union between bride and
Bridegroom, and the final wedding feast, are surely the
product of fantasy; but when the reality takes place, they
will be seen as a fantastic description of a real event.
Christians believe in this invitation to the wedding feast of
the Lamb. They believe in the inebriating joys of drinking
abundantly at his feast. Therefore they gladly bear their
crosses.
In the village of Martuk in the Aktiubinskaia region of
the Soviet republic of Kazakh, the school director - a man
called Goroh - threatened a fourteen-year-old Christian
girl, Arganessa Tissen. He said that if she continued to
win souls to Christ, he would audiorize children to put a
rope round her neck and hang her on the spot. He
compelled Christian children to crawl on all fours, in a
travesty of kneeling at prayer. He called them 'Fascists'.
The Baptist Anatoli Y. Khailo was imprisoned on a false
charge of raping and beating a girl, even though somebody
else has already confessed to this crime. The girl's mother
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has also admitted that the prosecutor instructed her to give
false evidence against Khailo. Just like Joseph in the Old
Testament, who was imprisoned on a charge of attempted
rape even though he was holy and refused to sin, Khailo
must suffer.
This ugly side of life can distress us. But we know about
the wedding feast to which we are all invited. We do not
look merely on the rain, but on their iridescent rainbow.
The Baptist Church in Belgorod, after enumerating
many facts about the persecution, writes: 'We thank God
that He found us worthy of such an honour. We pray that
He will give us all the strength not to be shaken, because
the hour of the Lord's coming is near. May the Lord bless
us, and teach us to understand the shrewd methods of His
enemies. '
The Christians of Belgrorod are looking forward to the
coming wedding feast. Though the banquet is a product of
holy fantasy, it is a picture of future reality.
In Solomon's Song even erotic fantasy is sanctified. By
that means he describes the coming drunkenness of love
which the bride will experience in the embrace of the
heavenly Bridegroom. This holy fantasy has helped many
Christians to win through in Communist prisons.
Many people are attracted to so much that is ugly, to
things worse than reality. We who are Christians are
attracted to the beautiful, to the righteous, to the real,
expressed in the most gorgeous images.
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~ Chapter 5 ~
A sad chapter in the life of the bride
The bride says:
I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved
that knocks, saying, 'Open to me, my sister, my love, my
dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and
my locks with drops of the night. '
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have
washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and
my bowels were moved for him.
I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands
dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling
myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.
I open to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn
himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spoke: I
sought him but I could not find him; I called him, but he
gave me no answer.
(5:2-6)
She sleeps; but he who is in her heart never sleeps nor
slumbers. Just when the bride has fallen asleep, the word
was fulfilled: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' She
hears the Beloved's voice.
Those who are awake must seek Jesus; but he comes
himself to the one who is asleep. There is not the slightest
rebuke in his words, no anger at finding he asleep. He says
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only, 'Open to me, my sister, my dove, my undefiled. ' The
Talmud says, 'Open to God a door as big as the point of a
needle, and He will enter witfi a cart full of blessings. ' How
can one not let in someone who begs you, 'Open to me,
sleeper with beautiful eyelids' ? How can one refuse entry to
somebody who says not one angry word, though such words
would be justified, but only says that he, the ruler of heaven
and earth, has nowhere to lay his head? Where will he rest,
if his bride does not call him? His hair is filled with dew
because he has spent the night in the fields, without a roof
over his head.
However, the bride prevaricates. She will not open to
him at once: 'I have put off my coat.... I have washed my
feet,' she says. But if she has put her coat off, she can either
receive Jesus naked, or she can make haste to clothe herself
again. If she has put off the garment of sin, she should never
put it on again; but as for other garments, she can put them
on in no time. And what sort of reply is this, that she has
washed her feet and fears to defile diem again? She knows
that Jesus washed his disciples' feet. He will do it for her
also. She is merely prevaricating.
And then he puts his hand by the hole of the door. When
we offer excuses, the grace of God tries to force the
entrance. But even he cannot open the door of the heart.
That door can only be opened from the inside.
It was only then that pity moved her. If you can't manage
any other sentiment for Jesus, at least have pity for one who
has been hurt so much.
When she rose to open to the Beloved, her hands dripped
with myrrh, which was on the handles of the lock. Oriental
keyholes are usually very large, and he must have poured
perfume on the handles from outside, out of a bottle he had
brought for her. When she put her fingers on the handle,
this perfume dripped from them.
She opens to the Beloved; but he has gone. He has
wididrawn himself. She did not open at the first knock, and
now he cannot be found. How many reasons for sadness we
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give ourselves, when we neglect opportunities that God
offers!
She remembers now how sweet his voice was. Her soul
had failed when he spoke. The Vulgate, the first Latin
translation of the Bible, says here, 'My soul melted when he
spoke.' That is how one can tell that it is the Lord who is
speaking. Disciples of Jesus who talked with him after the
Resurrection said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn
within us, while he talked with us along the way, and while
he opened to us the Scriptures?' (Luke 24:32). It is always a
thrilling event when the Lord speaks to his souls.
But human beings are strange. The bride fainted when
she heard him; but she did not open the door. Afterwards
she seeks him and does not find him. She calls for him, but
he does not answer; It would all have been unnecessary, had
she opened the door at once. There are times in the life of a
man or woman when answers from Jesus cannot be
obtained anymore. Why did they delay in answering the
door? Was it because they had put off their clothes? The
clothes of righteousness should never be put off.
A young man was married to a girl by a priest of the
outlawed Uniate Catholic Church of the Ukraine. The
Communists arrested her, and told her husband that his
new wife would be raped by scores of soldiers if he did not
denounce the priest. At that moment he should have
opened his heart to Jesus, the Saviour who was ready to .
suffer for God's glory. Opening his heart at that moment
of tragic dilemma, the young Christian would have known
the simple truth that a Christian is never a denunciator,
no matter what the circumstances. But he did not. He
gave in. He denounced the priest who was in hiding.
When his wife heard of this she tried to commit suicide.
His mother died of a broken heart, and the priest went to
prison. The husband later confessed his guilt, and died
after valiantly protecting an innocent thirteen-year-old girl
from the Communists.
Others who have allowed Jesus to enter their hearts have
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acquired his courage. In Vietnam, everyone must have a
permit to leave his quarters. Permits are not available to
pastors. But they do leave their quarters, to answer calls from
sick parishioners or simply to preach the gospel elsewhere.
When caught, some were punished by being made to kneel in
front of their doors for a whole week. So they knelt, and
kneeling, they made plans about how they would propagate
the gospel when they were allowed to rise to their feet. If they
were caught again they risked new punishments, perhaps
prison or even death. The pastors Nguyen van Thang and
Nguyen van Nam died in Vietnamese jails.
All church property has been confiscated: schools,
seminaries, universities and orphanages. However, God's
children continue their work.
The Communists demanded that nuns working in
hospitals should perform abortions. They refused, and so
had to leave dieir work.
Since May 1975, 247 Catholic priests have been killed,
and hundreds more have been sent to re-education camps,
from which not all returned. The Evangelical clergy met the
same fate.
In Uganda under the dictator Idi Amin, Christians, as
well as political opponents of the regime and common crim-
inals, were imprisoned in the concentration camps Mabira
and Namamve. These prisoners were not fed at all. They
lived by the law of the jungle; the strong ate the weak.
Obviously, the Christians were among those eaten. It is an
old African custom that such victims are not killed before
being eaten; one piece after another is stripped from the
living body. This information is taken from die records of
an International Commission of Jurists at the United
Nations.
Christians bore this with faithfulness. In their suffering,
many must have cried to him and had the same experience
as die bride In Solomon's Song: 'I called to him but he gave
no answer.' Great faith is tested by long periods of waiting.
But in the end, there is no such thing as an unanswered
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prayer. The answer will surely come. It might not be the
answer that we desired, but it will surely be the best answer
for us.
Bad pastors
The bride complains: 'The watchmen that went about the
city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the
keepers of the walls took away my veil from me' (5:7). The
watchmen of the city represent the pastors of the Church.
Instead of helping the bride to find her Beloved, they beat
her and wound her and take away her veil. Jesus foresaw
that some of his pastors would begin to persecute his
servants. They would care only about eating and drinking
and enjoying themselves. In olden times many great
persecutions against believers were unleashed by priests
who, under the pretext of defending the Church, mistreated
the children of God who were meek and spiritual.
The priest Eli rebuked holy Anna for drunkenness, but
he had not one word of reproach for his wicked sons. Many
pastors have grieved the hearts of the righteous. Even good
pastors commit this sin. So the bride walks about, saddened
by her own conscience and now by her pastors.
Prisoners in Communist prisons do not only suffer from
the persecutor; they suffer also from betrayal by the leader-
ship of their denominations. At the exact time that Pente-
costalists in Rumania were being beaten by the police, the
official leaders of the Pentecostal Union of Rumania, who
are received as brethren at conferences in the Free World,
congratulated the Rumanian government in the columns of
the Communist press for the 'full liberty' it bestows. They
sent a letter to all the churches, obliging them to refrain from
preaching about God's judgement, because the Com-
munists do not like to hear this subject spoken about.
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In Red China during the Cultural Revolution,
opponents of the regime (and all Christians were
automatically defined as such) had to kneel for ten minutes
of self-examination in front of a portrait of Mao, and slap
themselves on the face ten times each morning before
entering their workplace, and again in the evening before
they left. They were singled out to dean the lavatories. With
heads shaved, they were tied up and dragged away for
physical punishment.
At that time some Christian leaders in the West were
praising the Maoist regime as a fulfilment of God's
kingdom. Later, the Chinese Communists themselves
discovered the crimes committed under Mao. However,
some pastors had covered them up.
Sick of love
The bride says, 'I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if
you find my beloved, that you tell him, that I am sick of love'
(5:8). Beaten by the watchmen on the walls, the bride is
unable to continue her search. She demands of others that
they should pray for her. She uses third parties as interces-
sors on her behalf. The lover uses all means possible to make
contact with the Beloved.
'If you find my beloved' - she does not name him. A
powerful love always supposes that everybody else loves
the Beloved as well. She gives them a command: 'Tell him
that I am sick of love.' You can tell when someone is sick
from love, when that person cannot be dissuaded further
from doing and suffering all things for the Beloved. It is
written, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might'
(Deuteronomy 6:5). Have you known what it is like to be
love-sick?
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You may well know what sea-sickness is. There is also
such a thing as love-sickness. Do you know it? Do you know
what it is to love to madness, to love to a paroxysm of love?
This is love which, instead of drawing on its own large
resources, demands even more love. It is better to have this
dissatisfied love for Jesus, than a satisfied love for the world.
This is the message that her messengers are to bring to him:
that though she has been neglected, she still loves.
She does not ask him to come. She only tells him her pain.
Here we are taught that prayers should only mention one's
needs without making explicit demands; then he, knowing
our needs, will do what he thinks best. There are many such
prayers in the Bible. For example, Martha's prayer:
'Behold, he whom you love is sick' (John 11:3). This prayer
ony speaks of the need. The mother of our Lord at the
wedding in Cana says only this much: 'They have no wine'
(John 2:3).
Prayers which only express the need have a unique
beauty. He is the Master. You tell him only the situation.
He knows better than we do what needs to be done in such
circumstances. He feels more pity when he sees the beloved
soul suffering with resignation, selflessly. Only speak your
sorrow, without demanding what you think is necessary.
The bride sends messages to tell him only, 'I am sick of
love.'
We have many examples of this sort of love in the
persecuted Church in the Communist world today. Valya
was a twelve-year-old Russian girl. One day the director of
her school decided that she should become a member of the
Communist children's movement known as the Pioneers.
She refused. Her refusal was invalid, because the director
had legal rights over her such as only parents have in the
Free World.
Enrolment day arrived. The chosen candidates stood
before a table on which lay three-pointed Pioneer scarves.
One by one the girls stepped forward to don the scarf and
take the oath.
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'Valya Vastchenko,' called the director. 'Valya, step
forward. Take the oath.'
Valya's mouth stayed tightly shut.
'Say die oath, Valya!. . . Very well. I will read it in your
name.' The director pointed to two other girls. 'Place the
scarf around her neck as I read. *
He began. 'I, Valya, pioneer of die USSR, promise
before my comrade-patriots who decide die question of my
admission to die organization, that I will stand firmly for die
cause of Lenin and die victory of Communism. I promise
»	■
His next words were drowned as Valya burst out in
prayer to God and began to sing a hymn: ' We will stand firm
for the Faith, for Christ, following His example. '
That child knew from die experience of many others that
she had destroyed her future career for the rest of her life.
She knew she might be put into an atheistic boarding
school. She knew that her parents might be put into prison
and might even die there, but she did not rationalize. She
loved Jesus to a paroxysm, so she could not do odier than
what she did.
Thomas Aquinas was discussing die Song of Solomon
when he died. On his death, die song diat he wrote entitled,
I adore You, expressing his love and desire for Jesus, became
especially relevant:
Jesus, whom for the present, veiled I see,
What I so long for, Oh! vouchsafe to me;
That I may see Your beauteous face unfolding
And may be blessed, Your glory in beholding.
The bride is sick of love, which means that she suffers. We
have to defend our faith against the heresy of a Christianity
widiout suffering, widiout a cross. Let me quote from
typical sermons as preached frequendy on American
television.
'If a man can stand totally in the presence of Almighty
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God, he will never be sick.' Thousands are sick of
tuberculosis contracted through hunger in Communist
prisons. Others were maimed by torture. Others went mad.
'The grace of God brings about his blessings in the
spiritual and the material realm.' Prisoners in the
Communist camps shiver in the cold, their families are fired
from their jobs and have no money to buy bread for their
children. Their goods are confiscated. Where is the material
blessing?
'As his children, it is not our place to be in die maelstrom
of die storm that swirls around us. We do not have to be
buffetted around by all the torments that afflict the world.
Even when trouble comes, die sunlight of God is shining
and there is peace upon us.' This celebrated preacher
doesn't seem to have heard about die dark night of the soul
through which well-known saints have passed. I dispute die
claim that Christians are at peace in all circumstances.
The bride in Solomon's Song knows deep peace, but she
also knows grave torments and sickness.
What does our beloved have more than others?
The bride is asked: 'What is your beloved more than
another beloved, O fairest among women? what is your
beloved more than anodier beloved, that you so charge us?'
She replies:
My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten
thousand.
His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy,
and black as a raven.
His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters,
washed with milk, and fitly set.
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; his
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lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly
is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine
gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as die
cedars.
His palate is sweetness and all desires: yes, he is
altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and diis is my
friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
(5:9-16)
The world does not know the beauty of the Bridegroom, but
I can see the beauty of the bride, of the Church. She really
is the fairest among women.' The world wonders about her
love for Jesus,and asks her, What does your Beloved have
more than others?' Rabbi Solomon Iarcbi, a celebrated
commentator, writes: thus the nations ask the Israelites:
What is your God more than all gods, that you are burned
up with hunger for him like this?*
She answers with a model sermon. It is a sermon
preached by a soul that loves to a paroxysm. It is not a bor-
ing exposition of bible verses, it is a description of what the
beloved is. Isaiah preached in the same way:
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces
from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our
sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities: die chastisement of our peace
was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned
every one to his own way; and die Lord has laid on him
die iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened
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not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgement: and
who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of
the land of the living; for the transgression of my people
he was stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in his death; because he had done no violence,
neither was there any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to
grief; when he shall make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant
justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
(Isaiah 53:3-11)
So also did the apostle John preach:
And so in the midst of the seven candlesticks [I saw] one
like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to
the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as
snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a
furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his
mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his
countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.
(Revelation 1:13-16)
With Isaiah we find Jesus' state of humility described; with
John the Evangelist, a description of His glory. The bride
describes his beauty. She has had his body lying near her,
she has caressed it, she knows it.
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Yet the description of the Bridegroom is very far from
reality. The body is too shiny. The beauty of the young man
seems more that of a gilded statue than that of a human
being. It is probable that she is comparing him to a work of
Egyptian art. Ancient Egyptian sculpture was colourfully
painted, and the flesh of males was painted red. Therefore
she calls him 'ruddy*. (In 7:2 we find concerning the bride
the words, 'Your belly is like an heap of wheat set about
widi lilies'; this image is explained by the fact that female
sculptures were always painted yellow, the colour of wheat.)
The Egyptians also made bronze figures inlaid with gold,
silver and copper. Surely we are reminded of this when the
legs are described as columns of alabaster and the feet as
gold. It was a common device in Egyptian statues. To the
bride, diese features represent stability and grandeur.
Here die young man's legs are described in their entirety;
in 7:1, only the feet of die girl are mentioned. In old
Egyptian art, the legs of males were unclothed, whereas die
legs of females were never revealed except in die cases of
children, dancers or dolls.
What is said here about the Messiah has a deeper
spiritual significance. He is white because he is God and,
though a man, without sin. He is red from the many
whippings and sufferings he has endured. He is white, to
show sinners that their sins too, can become white. But the
red also warns them of the coming vengeance of God
against sinners.
'His eyes are as the eyes of doves.' In jail I had the
opportunity to observe the lives of doves. They nested in the
prison walls. I never saw fierceness nor fury in their eyes.
They were always loving. This verse reminds me of them.
Of the Bridegroom's hands, the bride says (according to
the Authorized Version), 'they are as golden rings set with
the beryl' - a precious stone. The Hebrew says, 'set in
Tarshish'. This is a strange word, for in the Bible it can
mean either a personal name, a kind of ship or a country.
Nobody knows for sure where the place called Tarshish was.
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Here the use of this word teaches us to see God's loving
hand in what is achieved by human hands, in material
objects and in great events involving whole nations.
Modest brides do not describe their beloved's belly to
their girlfriends. The bride sets aside the normal
conventions of decency and does so. She wants to suggest to
every soul that Jesus can be known in the most intimate
embraces. What needs to be concealed? His naked body was
displayed in public on die Cross.
She ends her description by saying, 'He is altogether
lovely' or, 'He is all desires. ' Every desire of a bride can find
fulfilment in him. 'This is my beloved, and this is my
friend.' She is sure he is her beloved, though for a time he
left her.
We see how beautiful Jesus is in the eyes of his bride, by
the description of him in Christian poetry, and by the works
of the great sculptors and painters. We also see his beauty in
the heavenly music composed in his honour by renowned
composers.
The persecuted Christians know his beauty. The pupil
Atkociunaite told her teacher in Soviet Lithuania, 'I don't
care what you do to me. On the eve of Easter I will remain
the whole night in adoration in the church.' If he were not
beautiful, nobody would spend a whole night looking at him
in adoration!
In a book published secretly by the Orthodox
Underground Church, the author writes:
A man travelled on the shores of the Azov sea. He saw
fishermen at work. The thought came to him, 'If the sea
contained no fish, nobody would be fishing. Nobody goes
to a well that has no water. If there were no grace in the
church, nobody would go there.
A fool can go into a cellar and proclaim that there is no
sun in the universe. Truly, for those in cellars there is
none. So, there is no God, for those who are in the
darkness of God-denial and evil.'
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Living under fierce persecution, this author writes, 'God
is richness, fullness of life, love. All beauty, all power, all
good, is only in God. ' He writes thus, a member of a church
whose people are jailed, tortured and killed.
The Orthodox priest Nicholas Ivassiuk was assassinated
in Tchardjow, Turkmenia, on 5 December 1978. Six men
in police uniforms entered his house. Next morning
Ivassiuk was found dead. His eyes had been gouged out
(just as happened with the Baptist Victor Sedletskii), and his
body had been burned by cigarettes and red-hot irons.
There were also numerous lacerations. He had been
finished off with two bullets through the head. Such things
belong to the ritual of Satanist sects. The crime was
perpetrated on the eve of the Feast of St Nicholas, whose
name the priest bore, as a calculated mockery of the saint.
Ivassiuk left five daughters.
And yet from such a place of cruelty and sorrow, the
Orthodox Underground Church publishes writings full of
joy, jubilation and adoration of the beauty of Jesus! They
know what that beauty is. They have seen him.
Michaela, a Rumanian Orthodox nun, like all Orthodox
and Catholic Christians, believed that the Communion
bread and wine really are the body and blood of our Lord.
Every time she looked at the Sacrament, she saw his
intoxicating beauty. When the police took over the
Vladimireshti convent, she protected the altar with her own
body. For this she was thrown into prison and mistreated
beyond description. But from her solitary cell she tapped
out the gospel in Morse code through the wall to her fellow-
prisoners until she died. She had seen his beauty, and would
not give up sharing her love for him.
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~ Chapter 6 Ä
* Whither is your beloved gone?'
The bride is asked, 'Whither is your beloved gone, O
fairest among women? Whither is your beloved turned
aside? That we may seek him with you.' She replies, 'My
beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of
spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies'
(6:1-2). Now that the girls have heard from her what
makes her Beloved greater than any other, they also seek
him. It is enough that one soul should seek Jesus in utter
sincerity; then others will join in the search for him. Thus
the girls now ask, 'Whither is your beloved gone?'
The bride knows that she is going to have to give good
directions to those who ask. She is inspired; she gives a
remarkable reply: 'My beloved is gone down.' For
anyone who does not know Jesus, these are incom-
prehensible words. The celebrated Rabbi ben Ezra wrote
this commentary on the text: 'This - of the One who
ascended on high? He is said to gather lilies, because He
dwells with the angels who are the righteous ones. ' In the
same way, most believers who have lost Jesus do not find
him, because they think that now that they have fallen, he
is far above them. But he did not ascend. He went down.
He descended far below the level to which they have
fallen, so as to be able to meet them in their misery. The
bride who fell into sin by refusing to receive him in her
home when he knocked on the door, now knows that 'He
has gone down.'
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In the beginning, God created man after his own image.
When we lost that image, God came down and took upon
himself the image of of man. He became incarnate, in a
body like that of sinners. That is the way he always deals
with us. If we cannot ascend to him, he descends to us. As
ours sins increase, so does his grace. Because we cannot be
saints, he puts himself on the same level as the sinners.
That is the only way in which continual fellowship with
him is made possible.
Encounters with Communists do not only create heroes
of the faith. Many believers fall away. In Rhodesia,
Communist terrorists kidnapped Simon Chengeta, a black
Member of Parliament and a Christian. They forced his
son, Steven, to beat him to death. The son, who bears the
name of Christianity's first martyr, could have refused.
Probably the result would have been that they would have
hacked him to death alongside his father, using somebody
else to do the deed. But Steven did not want to die. So he
fell away from the faith and became a parricide.
It is a privilege to become a hero by choosing to suffer
instead of making the Son of God bleed. Those who make
the right choice have the joy of loving and forgiving even
their torturers. But not all make the right choice.
In Addis Ababa, the Communists arrested a couple with
their older children. The children under six were left
behind in their home. Nobody dared to bring them even a
crust of bread. That might have been considered a crime
punishable by death. Christ teaches us to help, even when
the circumstances put our lives at risk. I have known
German Christians who helped Jews, and Jewish
Christians who later helped Germans, when they were
persecuted by the Soviets, even though the punishment for
such acts of love was death. In the case of that Ethiopian
family, Christians opted to fall away from the law of love
and from Christ. The children died of hunger. That falling
away was absolute for those who believed that the pure
Jesus is far above the fallen or backsliding sinner. But
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those who believed that Jesus had come down, found the
way back to him.
Once I shared a cell with two Uniate bishops. Under
torture they had 'confessed' to being spies, black
marketeers, and collaborators with the pre-revolutionary
police. They 'confessed' that they had denounced
Communists and had caused their arrest. Their tears
never ceased. (It is said of the apostle Peter, that to the end
of his days he wept whenever a cock crowed.)
The bishops constantly reproached themselves for their
lack of heroism. They did not know how heroic their
'confessions' were. It was not the heroism of those who
never give in, but heroism it was; a heroism of the fallen
who know that though they are brought low, Christ went
lower still, down to utter despair. So they found the
courage to acknowledge their sinfulness - something rare
among church leaders.
In Rumania, the Communists killed a Baptist pastor. At
first a promising teacher, he later became an informer for
the Secret Police. One of the pieces of information he
passed on to the police concerned a secret meeting I had
with a French Christian in Rumania. Everyone was
suspicious of him. The brethren shunned him. He had no
peace in his heart: he know that what he was doing was
wrong.
He was astonished to find himself invited to the
Lausanne Conference on Evangelism. After all, he was
widely known to be a Communist agent. Once arrived in
Switzerland, he criticized the true Christians in Rumania
as lawbreakers; but all the time he could not understand
why the pastors from the Free World, who had no
obligations to the Secret Police, did not contradict him.
Why were neither he nor the other Judases blamed?
In an attempt to ease his conscience, he confessed to a
Western Christian publisher that he was working for the
Communist Secret Police. The publisher smelt a good
story and offered him an advance on a book. He was
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disappointed; he had hoped that this fellow-Christian
would set him back on the right path.
He had to return to Rumania in the end. He was
determined to repent. Soon he broke off all relations with
die Police. They retaliated by staging a car 'accident' in
which he was killed.
But he had understood that Jesus has gone down, far
below the depuis to which he himself had sunk. He died at
peace with the Lord, thanks to the prayers, love and
forgiveness of the Underground Church,
A faithful Bridegroom
The bride says, 'My beloved is gone down into his garden,
to die beds of spices, to feed in die gardens, and to gather
lilies. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feeds
among the lilies' (6:2-3). He who loves gardens and
flowers has gone down into his garden to die bed of spices,
which typify the various denominations. He picks lilies
(spiritual believers) from them all. These keep dieir trust
in him. They say, 'I am my beloved's, and my beloved is
mine. ' The bride retained this trust even though for a time
he forsook her. God has sworn that he will be faithful. He
will not lie to the disciples of David's Son. Our
Bridegroom is always faithful.
Ion Cazacu was one of my best friends. During the Nazi
occupation of Rumania he risked his life by 'stealing'
Jewish children from the ghettoes. The Jewish Christians
in Iashi were in danger of death. Already, 11,000 Jews had
been killed. The rest were not allowed to leave the city.
Then a friendly official was persuaded at my request to
issue warrants of arrest against all Hebrew Christians. As
a result they were able to travel in comfortable train
compartments as 'prisoners', guarded by Cazacu, who was
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armed. Once they arrived safely in Bucharest, the order
of arrest was torn up and the prisoners were brought to
my house.
Cazacu and his wife were also the only people who
succeeded in entering heavily guarded prisons with
carloads of food for the hungry Christians in detention
there. That is the sort of life lived by men who know that
Christ is always faithful.
In Rhodesia, Communist guerrillas killed forty
Catholic, Pentecostal and Salvationist missionaries, along
with their families. The victims - a three-week-old baby
among them-were beaten to death with hammers,
bayonets and axes. Mrs Pickering, die mother of one of
the dead, said: 'We have prayed that God may forgive
our enemies. There is no bitterness in our hearts.'
Tremendous things are happening in Poland. Those
fed by Jesus among lilies organized, for the first time in
world history, a strike of 600,000 workers brandishing
such weapons as prayers, Christian hymns, and Holy
Communion. They occupied the factories, but there were
no violent words or deeds. The leaders were motivated
by a Christian spirit. Their chief demands were full
religious liberty, the Church's right to time on television
and radio and the right to publish. The striking workers
made it possible for the anti-Communist Cardinal
Wyszinsky to preach on television after thirty years of
prohibition.
A new phase of world history was opened by the
Christian Lech Walesa, the Polish strike leader. A man
powerful because of God's deep peace, he risked his life
and his liberty. He did not remain an obscure private
soldier in the Christian struggle. He realised that officers
and generals were needed. He developed the necessary
spiritual qualities, and God promoted him to a high rank.
Jesus is the only shepherd who feeds his flock in
gardens, among lilies. That is something no other
shepherd would do! But we expect the unusual from him.
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Beautiful as Tirzah
The Bridegroom says:
You are beautiful,  my love,  as Tirzah, comely as
Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.
Turn away your eyes from me, for they have
overcome me: your hair is as a flock of goats that appear
from Gilead.
Your teeth are as a flock of sheep that go up from
washing, whereof every one bears twins, and there is not
one barren among them.
As a piece of pomegranate are your temples within
your locks.
(6:4-7)
The Bridegroom compares his bride with the capitals of
the two Jewish kingdoms: Tirzah - which means in
Hebrew, 'the pleasant' - was the capital of Israel until
Omri built Samaria; and Jerusalem was the capital of
Judah.
Faidiful souls are sometimes sad, and ask themselves,
'Do I deserve to become an inhabitant of the heavenly
Jerusalem?' What a senseless question! In the eyes of the
Bridegroom we are as pleasant and beautiful as Jerusalem
itself. Therefore, naturally, that is where we should be.
The beauty of the bride makes her 'terrible as an army',
with the banners under which it advances to victory. We
overcome the world by faith; and widi our beauty, we
overcome God as once he was overcome by Jacob, who
wrestled with him.
The image of the army shows that by his 'bride* not one
individual is meant but the whole Church. The Church is
'terrible for God' through the irresistible power of the
attraction it has for him. We advance victoriously towards
God. God wishes one thing; we, in prayer, express another
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wish, and so we can be conquerors. The Bridegroom
pleads with the Church, 'Turn away your eyes from me,
for they have overcome me.' God declares himself
defeated. We defeat him, with our doves' eyes.
In Exodus we read that God had decided to destroy
Israel after it had sinned by making the golden calf. But
Moses defeated that plan of God. He made him change his
mind (Exodus 32). Every spiritual believer can do the
same.
When the bride is with him, and he looks into her great
pure, penetrating eyes, he lowers his own. The charm of
her eyes is unbearable to him. The Bridegroom says,
'Your eyes have overcome me.' Rabbi ben Ezra translates
this as, 'They are stronger than me.' The Septuagint
renders it, 'They have caused me to flee. ' Such can be our
victory in prayer, through one loving look. Christians are
called "more than conquerors". They are the conquerors
of him who has overcome all.
When the apostles watched Jesus ascend into heaven,
two angels came and stood by, and asked them, 'You men
of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven?' (Acts
1:10-11). If they had continued looking, perhaps Jesus
would have been unable to separate himself from the
earth. He could not have ascended. Their eyes would have
impressed him so much that they would have persuaded
him to fulfil their longing that he should remain with them.
We have God's command: 'Look unto me and be you
saved, all the ends of the earth' (Isaiah 45:22). And in
Solomon's Song we also have the command to the
contrary: 'Turn away your eyes from me. ' The latter verse
serves as a warning to prying eyes, seeking out of curiosity
to search mysteries which God has reserved only for
himself.
The Bridegroom's words, 'Your teeth are as a flock of
sheep ... as a piece of pomegranate are your temples' are
an almost verbatim repetition of the compliment which he
pays the bride in chapter 4. Before she refused him access,
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he praised her. Now he pays her the same compliment, to
show her that he has the same love for her after as before
her fall. Even if his people are full of weakness, Jesus loves
them. In the eyes of the king, the bride is as beautiful after
her fall as she was on the day she was first presented to
him. His love knows no alteration.
It is not necessary that the eyes of Christians be phys-
ically beautiful, for the bridegroom to be impressed. A
Christian who has undergone torture is not a pretty
sight.
A former Rumanian prisoner, R. Radina, describes his
experiences in jail:
Religious poems were being recited when, all at once, a
man with his head red with blood entered the cell.
Maddened with pain, he could not speak, but only
howled like an animal. The prison director had beaten
his face with a stone.
An imprisoned Christian child, Mihica, was beaten
with a stick on his head and on his lame leg. His crime
was that he had shared his bread with other sufferers.
He had considered a slice of bread too sumptuous a meal
to eat all by himself.
In Cambodia, women were tortured with poisonous
spiders. In Sarsar Sdam, children were torn to pieces and
old women nailed to the doors before their houses were set
on fire. Prisoners were hanged on trees after their bellies
were ripped open.
Pure souls whose eyes are swollen, ringed with dark
circles, bleeding, lift up a loving look to the Bridegroom.
He has suffered for us as the Son of God, for whom
goodness and love were the norms. These souls, though
sinners, have loved him. Having to conquer their own
nature in order to be able to love at all, when they look at
him in adoration they are unconquerable. The prayers of
martyrs are not rejected.
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Radina also tells the story of the Rumanian Uniate
priest, Onofrei Pompei. He was abused and hanged in the
loft of his house. When the assassins departed the rope
broke, and the priest came back to consciousness. God can
save a person, even when it seems that all hope is gone.
After that experience, Onofrei spent years in Communist
prisons. Radina says of him, 'His expression radiated a
strange light. He seemed a true saint.' This is the look
which conquers even God.
His harem
The Bridegroom says, 'There are threescore queens, and
fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. My
dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her
mother, she is the choice one of she that bare her. The
daughters saw her and blessed her; yes, the queens and the
concubines, and they praised her' (6:8-9). Towards the
end of his life Solomon had some 700 princesses as wives
and 300 concubines. When he wrote the Song of Songs,
they were fewer.
In the spiritual sense these words show us that all souls
of believers are God's, that all the Christian churches are
his. But we are not all equally loved. Only one is his dove,
his undefiled, 'the only one of her mother'. There is one
holy and apostolic Church, and it is made up of all the
children of God. This Church is one, just as Noah's Ark in
the period of the flood was one.
That does not mean, however, that those who are not
members of it physically are excluded from the kingdom of
God, or cannot be Jesus' sheep. There are some sheep
which have to be brought into the true fold (John 10:16).
The heart of Jesus embraces everybody in its love. But it is
specially drawn to this choice dove, just as David, who had
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many wives, desired only Michal. Jesus longs for souls
who belong to the only true Church with all their hearts.
In Communist lands, Jesus has his queens in ever)'
denomination. After eight years in prison I had grown
accustomed to the routine. But one day a group of recently-
arrested Orthodox priests were jailed. It was for them the
very first day of the ordeal. It was winter; we sat on the bare
concrete. From time to time, drunken guards would bawl
'All priests out!' The priests were taken from the cells and
were severely beaten. I had known one of them for many
years, and I asked him: 'Brother, are you grieved?' He
answered, 'I know only of one grief, that of not being a
saint.' In such circumstances, the words vividly showed the
beauty ofthat soul, and made a lasting impression upon me.
Seventh-Day Adventists courageously stand up for their
faith in Russia. Anatolii Miller, Karpenko Boris,
Kovaltchuk and Galetskii are names of some of the
Adventists who belong to Jesus and were jailed for their
beliefs. The child, Michael Kozak, was kidnapped by the
Communists from his parents, because they taught him
the Adventist faith. When the child, who was interned in
an atheistic boarding school, insisted on going back to his
parents, he was put in a psychiatric asylum to be 'healed'
of this desire. In spite of such things, the Adventists
remain faithful to their Saviour.
In Cernanti in the Soviet Union, the Sedletztzy family
received the sealed coffin of their son, who had refused to
give up his faith while serving in the army. The officers
demanded an immediate burial, but the family opened the
coffin. They found the youth's face distorted from
beatings, the eyes gouged out, the tongue torn out, the
fingers cut off. He was a Baptist, faithful unto death.
In Rumania it seemed that St Basil the Great was alive
again, because his words were on the lips of saints under
interrogation. When a pastor was threatened with
deportation, his reply was: 'Where can you exile me? I will
be in my Father's world wherever you send me.'
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To the threat of property confiscation, the reply was:
'That's all right by me, but you will need a very long
ladder. I have gathered my treasures in heaven.'
'We will kill you!'
'We Christians do not fear death. It means passing over
to a better life.'
'You are fools. We will not kill you, but keep you all in a
prison cell behind locked doors and iron bars. We will not
allow anybody to visit you.'
'We have a friend who can pass through locked doors
and iron bars. We cannot be separated from the love of
Christ.'
Christians are those who have promised faithfulness to
God unto death. God keeps his promise. He never breaks
it. Neidier should we.
A Catholic seminarian, Ion Budu, died near me in a
Communist prison. His greatest wish had been to be a
missionary in India or Japan. His last words to we who
were with him were diese: 'If any of you ever go to Asia,
tell the people there that I love them. May I die serving
them through my longing for them, so that my death will
be a sacrifice on their behalf.' I am the only survivor of
that prison ward of dying men. When I went to Asia I saw
how deeply moved the people were, as I told them how
diey had been loved for Christ's sake by a prisoner who
had died a martyr death.
Jesus has many queens in every denomination, but also
he has concubines. Concubines are girls or women who
have illegitimate relationships with men. The only
consistent attitude towards the Communist authorities is the
Underground Church. The official churches, which have
compromised with Communism, are anti-churches. Some
of dieir pastors or bishops are real believers, but they are
believers who waver between two masters, - Christ and
Communism. They serve Communism, but stealthily slip
away from it to say words of love to Christ. When he was on
earth, too, Jesus had his secret believers. There are now
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secret believers in Christ among the members of the
Communist Party, and even among the officers of the
Communist Secret Police. However, they do not want to
lose their livings and their positions. What they are doing
is wrong, but Jesus accepts them as his concubines.
The glory of the Church
Who is she that looks forth as the morning, fair as the
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with
banners?
I went down to the garden of nuts to see the fruits of
the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and
the pomegranates budded.
Before ever I was aware, my soul made me like the
chariots of Ammi-nadib.
Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we
may look upon you. What will you see in the Shulamite?
As it were the company of two armies.
(6:10-13)
The description of the Church in verse 6 is very like that in
Revelation 12:1: 'A woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet.' It is written in the Zohar.
Israel's light will come little by little, until they will
become strong. God will illumine them forever. AU then
will ask, 'Who is she that looks forth like the dawn,' this
being a reference to the first tiny streak of the dawn;
then 'Fair as the moon', the light of the moon being
stronger than that of the dawn, and then 'clear as the
sun', that is a still stronger light; and finally 'terrible as
an army with banners', expressive of the light in its full
strength.
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For, just as when the dawn emerges from darkness its
light at first is faint, but gradually brightens until full
daylight is reached, so when God bestirs Himself to
shine upon the Community of Israel, He will first shed
on them a streak of light like that of the daybreak which
is still black, then increase it to make it 'fair as the
moon', then 'clear as the sun', until it will be
'tremendous as an army with banners'.
She shines so intensely because she has followed Jesus'
example. He has gone down (6:2). The bride too has gone
down. Jesus said to Zaccheus, 'Make haste and come
down.' Whoever belongs to Jesus must humble himself.
The bride says, 'I went down into the garden of nuts.'
There she has learned something important! A believing
soul is like a nut. It might be dirty and muddy outwardly,
but the dirt never reaches the kernel. It is the same with the
Christian when he is polluted by living in this world.
Because she has humbled herself and gone down, the
Bridegroom takes her up, in the chariot of Ammi-nadib.
Some commentators believe Aminadib to have been the
name of one of Solomon's celebrated chariot drivers. The
speed of his driving would be symbolic of the swift res-
ponse of the Saviour to the call of love. But the old Jewish
interpreters divided the world thus: Ammi-nadib. This
means, 'the chariots of my willing, or princely, people.'
Return, O Shulamite
Seeing her thus glorified, die other girls call out to her.
They shout what the average man, for centuries, has
shouted to those who sit near to Jesus in his chariot of
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of trials: 'Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return!'
The world is very demanding; it wants to draw us back to
its own level.
At a jail in a Communist country, young officers would
take girls out of the cells and invite them to go to
restaurants with them. The girls, who had no fresh air in
cells crammed with a hundred other unwashed people,
were offered ice-cream and the cosy surroundings of a
cinema, where they were shown erotic films. Most
believers refused. One girl accepted. The Communists
had been nice to her; she had to be nice too. The voice had
been too insidious: 'Return, O Shulamite. Love me. You
probably do not know the blessedness of the love of a man.
I'll reveal it to you. My kisses will warm you. ' She did not
answer 'I belong to God', as she should have done.
Everything else followed.
When she was freed, she accepted an invitation to speak
to her fellow-inmates, attacking the faith. As she spoke
against Jehovah, tears rolled down her face. She had
returned to the world, while the others, the true brides,
had remained steadfast.
Oleg Berdyuk, a Ukrainian writer in jail, has described
how he came to accept the faith. He was a child when an
artificial famine engineered by the Communists killed six
million Ukrainians. He went to visit a relative, but she had
starved to death. In an open Bible on her table, he read
Magdalene's words, 'They have taken away my Lord, and I
know not where they have laid him.' Turning round, she
saw Jesus, who asked her, 'Woman, why do you weep?' The
one she had considered dead was alive! (John 20:13-15).
That impressed him, but the Church disgusted him.
Once he heard a priest chanting in the sanctuary, 'God,
grant a long life to Stalin, God's chosen one, devout
Christian and leader.' That was how religious stooges
referred to the murderer of millions of innocents. This left
him open to the call of the world: 'Return, O Shulamite.'
He became an atheist.
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But then he dreamed two dreams. In one, he saw Christ
with an incredible weight on his shoulders, blood streaming
down his body, his eyes sorrowful yet hopeful. In another
dream, Christ, wearing a crown of thorns, showed him
raging torrents, high mountains and cliffs, and said, 'Follow
the path.' He asked, 'Why?' Christ replied only 'Go.'
Then one day he seemed to feel the presence of Christ
while he was awake. It was not a thought about Christ. It
was Christ himself. Oles knelt and said the only words that
hallow God: CI accept all that fate brings.' These words are
similar to those of the virgin Mary: 'Be it unto me according
to your word.'
And now, for the first time, we discover the name of the
bride. It is 'Shulamite'; the Shulamite is the same person as
the Shunamite. The bride's name is a reference to Abishag
the Shunamite, one of David's concubines.
In Hebrew the word shulamite means 'peacemaker'. It is a
name like Solomon which means 'peace'. The bride is a
female Solomon. Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9), and
the Church is the princess of peace, the Shulamite. Those
who look at her can only think she' is beautiful,
accompanying angels in their dance.
The persecuted Church in truth 'looks forth as the
morning' and is 'fair as the moon, clear as the sun'. The
Orthodox monk Michael Ershov was in jail for forty-five
years. While in prison he has healed many possessed, lame
and blind people. What reason could have have for
complaining or grumbling against Christianity? Instead of
doing so, he used even his life in prison for doing good.
Kiwanukas, a trustee of the Jesus to the Communist
World mission in Uganda, died in 1977. Together with
fourteen other Christians, he was murdered by a
hammer-blow to the head. His head was then cut off and
taken to president Amin's house. His body was thrown
into a lake.
Bishop Luwumba was asked by Amin whether he had
any weapons. The Bishop showed him the Bible. Amin
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shot him first in the mouth, then in the chest. This
murderer of Christians drank his blood and ate a piece of
the victim's flesh. His advisers assisted him.
Despite such sufferings, the bride of Christ continues to
spread the knowledge of his beauty in dark Uganda. She
in truth looks forth as the morning and is fair as the
moon, clear as the sun.
What a beautiful soul is the Russian believer Ghenadii
Shimanov! Because he was an active believer who sought
to win souls for Christ, he was put into a psychiatric
asylum. There, Dr Shafran argued with him: 'Why won't
you abandon your way of life, and hold on to your life,
your freedom, and the happiness of your family? You
could also keep the core of your faith intact. All you have
to do is to give up propagating it. It only brings you
sorrow. The odds are against you. You have the whole
State opposed to you. In this sort of situation, every fight
becomes an act of suicide. And what does your religion
say about suicide? It forbids it. So, you see ...
'One of my neighbours is a priest. We live in the same
house. He is high in the Moscow patriarchy, an educated,
intelligent man. One day he said to me, "Religion and
life are two completely separate things which shouldn't be
allowed to mix." A highly intelligent man! He can help
you to reach decisions of which you are not capable on
your own. Or do you prefer the martyr's crown?'
Shimanov replied briefly to the psychiatrist. 'The devil
is smart.'
Shafran demanded, 'Am I the devil?'
'Oh, no. What ideas you have! I wasn't speaking about
you. I am speaking about the devil. The real one.'
Shimanov refused to abandon his Christian activities.
He remained in the asylum. He had to endure gagging
and straightjackets. But he looked forth as the morning.
He was fair as the moon, clear as the sun.
The end of verse 13 would be better translated, 'two
companies of mahanaim, ' a category of angels which
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specializes in sacred dancing. When God the king entered
into his sanctuary, 'Singers went before, the players on
instruments followed after; among them were the damsels
playing with timbrels' (Psalm 68:24-25). So it happens
when the Shulamite meets her Bridegroom. In Genesis
32:1-2 it is written, 'Jacob went on his way, and the
angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he
said, "This is God's host' ' : and he called the name of that
place Mahanaim. '
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~ Chapter 7 «
The holy dance
The Bridegroom says:
'How beautiful are your feet with shoes, O prince's
daughter! the joints of your thighs are like jewels, the
work of the hands of a cunning workman.
Your navel is like a round goblet, which wants not liquor:
your belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.
Your two breasts are like two young roes that are
twins.
Your neck is as a tower of ivory; your eyes like the
fishpools in Heshbon, by die gate of Beth-rabbim: your
nose is as die tower of Lebanon which looks toward
Damascus.
Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the hair of
your head like purple; die king is held in the galleries. '
(7:1-5)
The bride is here described as a dancer. People have
always danced to the glory of their God. After they passed
through the Red Sea, the Israelite women 'went out after
[Miriam the prophetess] with timbrels and widi dances'
(Exodus 15:20). When David returned from his victory over
Goliath, 'women came out of all die cities of Israel, singing
and dancing, to meet King Saul' (1 Samuel 18:6). David
danced mightily before God; Ecdesiastes says that there is a
time to dance (Ecdesiastes 3:4). Jephthah's daughter came
191

to meet him with timbrels and dances (Judges 11:34).
Jeremiah prophesied that girls would rejoice with dancing
when Jacob was ransomed. And when the prodigal son
returned to his father, there was music and dancing.
The Shulamite also dances. She dances gracefully, like a
true princess. Again her beauty is described to us, but with
different imagery to that used before, because no earthly
analogy alone is adequate to portray all the splendour of a
faithful soul.
The description of the bride at this stage of her spiritual
growth - after she has fallen into the sin of refusing to receive
him - reveals her as more beautiful than she was immed-
iately after the wedding. The sinner who repents is more
beautiful in God's eyes than the righteous person; therefore
the angels find greater joy in looking upon such a person.
One realizes, reading these verses, that the Bridegroom
cannot find enough words to show his love to the bride who
returns to him. He borrows images of oriental sensuality,
and gives such free rein to his imagination that the translator
is tempted to water down the vividness of the original.
Solomon uses language which nobody in the West would
dare to use, except to describe a woman abandoning herself
totally, without reservation. It is the language which
Solomon used to speak of the dancers in his harem. The
Bridegroom praises even the most intimate charms of his
bride. He praises her beauties, and she praises his. He
honours us; we honour him.
His first word of praise is, 'How beautiful are your feet
with shoes. ' She has shod her feet with the preparation of the
gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). Hers are the shoes of mes-
sengers bringing good news, telling of peace and salvation.
'The joints of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the
hands of a cunning workman. ' Saint Paul says that the Body
of Christ - the Church - gets its nourishment by the joints
(Colossians 2:19). This is an image of those pastors who lead
their flocks well and teach them. Such pastors are jewels in
the eyes of God.
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The bride dances naked before the king, or wrapped in
flimsy veils. Fascinated by her dance and her body, he
exclaims, 'Your navel is like a round goblet, which wants not
liquor; your belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. '
The belly is the organ from which food is distributed to the
whole body. So it is also the secret castle, that which gives the
bride a choice wine mixed with spices, which animates all
her spiritual life. (The word translated as 'liquor' means in
Hebrew 'mixture', indicating the variety of blessings she
receives.)
Her two breasts are like 'two young roes that are twins'.
This means that both Old and New Testaments are a delight
to her.
Her neck is like 'a tower of ivory'. The neck, uniting the
head and the body, is a symbol of faith. This means that her
faith cannot be strangled.
Her nose is like the tower of Lebanon, one of the towers
built by David in the north of Palestine to serve as an
observation post against the Syrians.
It is important that believers have a keen sense of smell.
They must discern the spirits. As from the tower of Lebanon
one could see enemy armies from afar, so the bride scents
heresy which is far off.
Our intellect prefers to see the similarities between
doctrines rather than the differences between them.
Consequently it gives vague information. We need a nose
like the bride's, capable of discerning the spirits. Pastors in
the Underground Church need such a nose to discover
Communist infiltrators.
The tower looks towards Damascus, the capital of Syria,
always Israel's enemy. To her enemies she is 'terrible as an
army with banners'.
Her head is 'like Carmel', a hill full of rich vegetation. She
has a beautiful abundance of red hair. The Nazirites were a
kind of monk living at that time. No razor ever passed over
their heads. It was believed that the secret of their power lay
in their hair. The bride's power of attraction also resides in
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the richness of her hair, those locks that bind the King of
Kings.
There are not enough words to describe the beauty of the
bride of Christ under persecution today. In Guinea in
Africa, under the dictator Sekou Toure, Cardinal
Tchidimbo and other Christians were kept for up to eight
days without food or water in the tropical heat, in cells full of
rats, lice and insects. The cables which bound them cut into
their flesh. They were flogged and called 'Christian dirt'.
Three hundred prisoners were iocked into a single
unventilated room, where they suffocated.
Others were given electric shocks while their hands were
tied to iron bars placed so high that only the tips of their toes
reached the floor. For days the full weight of their bodies was
taken by their tied hands.
Some were forced to kneel on sharp stones. Their skin was
flayed and pepper was poured on their open wounds. Hot
pepper was introduced into the rectum; this is a torture
which produces unspeakable pain. All the time they were
told, 'If you denounce others, we will give you water.'
Some died; they did not become Judases. The Cardinal
survived, and, after his release, he wrote in Rome a splendid
book demonstrating how suffering has purified him and
made him love the Bridegroom more.
In South Africa, the Communist-backed terrorists,
supported by the leftist World Council of Churches, hacked
pregnant women to death. They slit the throats of babies.
They peeled the skin from an old man's face, and left him to
die in the blazing sun, impaled on a barbed-wire fence. They
cut off lips. They gouged out eyes. But the bride of Christ in
South Africa remains unafraid.
One of the strangest verses in the whole book follows the
praise of the bride: 'The king is held in the galleries.' The
Hebrew word translated as 'held' is asar which also means
'imprisoned with chains and fetters'. The word rahat which
the Authorized Version here renders as 'gallery' is in
Genesis 30 translated as 'gutters'.
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All Jewish commentators agree that the king spoken of
here is the Messiah. The Kabbalah says that he does not come
yet, because God keeps him bound in heaven in golden
chains. Others believe that he is bound there with locks of
women's hair, which are like eddies of water in water
troughs. Hence this image. He ardendy wishes to come, but
God restrains him in this way.
We cannot accept these fancies. The Messiah has come.
Jesus is his name. The explanation of the verse is much
simpler than those above. The king has found himself a
bride in the world's gutter. Publicans, crooks, loose women,
murderers, those of us with more 'respectable' sins - all of
üs are lost. When we are converted he admires the beauties
of our souls, described in detail in the preceding verses. His
love for his bride binds him to her as if with fetters.
Jesus admires his bride
The Bridegroom says:
'How fair and how pleasant are you, O love, for delights!
This your stature is like to a palm tree, and your breasts
to clusters of grapes.
I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the
boughs thereof: now also your breasts shall be as clusters
of the vine, and the smell of your nose like apples.
And the roof of your mouth like the best wine for my
beloved, that goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those
that are asleep to speak.'
(7:6-9)
There will never be anything more delightful than love
which bears all things, believes all things and hopes and
endures all; love which is extended even to enemies and
beyond the grave; love which gives its life for the beloved.
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Love is the wisest thing. That is why the Syriac translation
calls this book, The Wisdom of the Wise.
Jesus speaks to the bride in the language of admiration.
We must not be surprised at this. Faithfulness was a part of
Jesus' nature. For him it was natural to be faithful. He came
from heaven. But faithfulness is practised also by many
downtrodden, wronged men of this earth, who do not
understand the reason for their suffering. They still
maintain their faithful, pure love for God, and that is
something for which God himself has admiration.
I knew a railway worker who was a Christian. His only
daughter, whom he loved very much, died when she was
fourteen. She was drowned head-downwards in a ditch full
of sewage. The man did not torment himself with doubts,
but continued in his love for God, and was prepared to suffer
imprisonment for his sake. God made our souls pleasant and
beautiful, and he admires Us as an artist admires his work.
The stature of the bride is like that of a palm
tree - straight, powerful, high and gracious. The palm tree
was an emblem of Israel. A medal was struck for the Roman
Emperor Titus, who destroyed the Jewish state. It bore the
figure of a grieving woman seated beneath a palm tree. The
inscription read, Judaea capta - 'Judaea is taken'. She might
be a captive, but Israel was still a palm tree, standing erect,
refusing to bow to heathen idolatry.
The Bridegroom says to himself, 'I will go up to the palm
tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof. ' He is expressing
his desire to be strongly united with the believing soul. Let us
take heed of the words 'I will go up'. There are believers
towards whom Jesus 'goes up'. He said that there are some
who will do greater works than his (John 14:12). Towards
those disciples, he ascends. He will grasp the boughs of these
palm trees. When he does so, it will be seen whether they are
strong and resistant or not. A palm tree which he embraces
becomes sanctified.
Not only in Solomon's temple, but also in Ezekiel's ideal
temple, there were figures of palm trees as well as cherubim.
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The use of the palm tree as a symbol for a bride is
emphasized by the Hebrew text in these passages, since the
word used for 'palm tree' is not the usual tamar, but its
female form, timmorah.
The bride's breasts 'shall be as clusters of the vine'. Just
as grapes refresh a man, so Jesus is refreshed by our
fruitfulness, by our work for him. One of the character-
istics of oriental love is that it takes pleasure in anticipating
its joys beforehand. So Jesus exults beforehand, in the joy
which he will receive from faithful souls.
In the entire Soviet Republic of Moldavia, there were
only two Catholic churches. One of them, in Sloboda-
Rashkovo, was bulldozed to the ground by the police.
They are mindless. They destroyed the physical building,
yet the church is now more beautiful than it was before.
The Catholics, weeping, lifted from the mud the church's
Communion wafers, which they believed to be the real body
of Christ. They ate them with reverence. Walls had been
torn down, but the Christians' reverence for God had
increased. Jesus 'goes up' toward such believers.
In the Soviet Union the police frequently raid meetings
of the Baptist Underground Church, confiscating Bibles,
hymnbooks, and the private purses of some of the
believers. They kick Christians in the belly and in the
chests. The Communists are mad. Usually the believers,
while they are being beaten, pray and sing. Such music has
a spiritual beauty of its own. To these believers, Jesus says,
'How fair and pleasant are you, O love, for delights!'
These are the Christians likened by him to palm trees, to
whom he goes up.
The Communists do not know the words of Gregory of
Palama: 'The Christian's life is outside, beyond, and
higher than its physical self.' 'Truth', wrote Luther,
'becomes more triumphant when attacked, more glorious
when oppressed. '
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'Gome, my beloved*
The bride says: 'Come, my beloved, let us go forth into
the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us go up early to the
vineyards; let us see if the vines flourish, whether the tender
grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there I will
give you my loves' (7:11-12).
We are the object of two desires. God says to Cain, 'Sin lies
at the door. And its desire is for you' (Genesis 4:7). In Psalm
45 it is written, 'Harken, O daughter, and consider, and
incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your
father's house; so shall the king greatly desire your beauty'
(Psalm 45:10-11). Two powers compete for our love.
And now she who has chosen Jesus will demonstrate how
greatly she desires him. She says, 'Come, my beloved, let us
go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.' Faithful
souls hate towns full of sin and noise. It is difficult to serve the
Lord if things continually distract you. Isaac went out into the
field to meditate quietly (Genesis 24:63). Jesus advises us,
'When you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have
shut your door, pray to your Father' (Matthew 6:6). The
bride does not seek amusement in noisy places. She desires
solitude. She doesn't want Jesus to judge the Church with the
same judgement that will be meted out to the spoilt residents
of the town. Jesus will see the reality of her faith in a quiet,
rural environment. In company with him, she will go early to
the vineyard to see if the vines are flourishing and whether the
tender grapes have appeared. They will examine souls, to see
whether diey have grown in grace and truthfulness.
Wang-Min-Dao, a hero of the faith in China, broke
under torture and acknowledged before a large crowd, 'I
am an anti-revolutionary criminal. I am grateful to the
government for pardoning me and saving me from the
depths of my sins.' But he repented later. He went to the
police station with his wife and said, 'I am a Judas. I have
betrayed my Lord. Imprison me. ' He sat in jail for over
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twenty years. Now he is free in Red China.
If the Bridegroom and the bride go up to the vineyards of
Red China, they will find that the vine has flourished, and
the tender grape has appeared.
In Omsk, in Russia, die Baptist Church was celebrating
Easter. Its members had garnered at the home of Sister
Helen Siusa. Thirty policemen, mostly drunk, rushed in
and jumped upon the believers. They ruthlessly beat up
everybody, including old people, women and children.
When the police tried to arrest the preachers, men who
had already been in prison, the children cried, 'We will not
give up our fathers!' Their tears were heartrending, but the
police did not think so. They kicked them with their boots
and shouted: 'You are enemies of the people! You should
have no work and no food! There is no law to protect you!'
The Christians, however, were unafraid. That same after-
noon they held their worship service again in the same house.
A Russian Pentecostal believer, Vashtshenko, had been
twice in prison. His four sons carried on his work. One of
them, Hariton, became a Pentecostal bishop. His children
were asked to deny Christ and to blaspheme in school. They
refused to comply. They were taken away from their parents
and put into an atheistic boarding school. Their mother was
forbidden to visit them. This is what they wrote to their
parents: 'We weep at night. The boys beat us. But do not
worry, Papa and Mama, for God is our protection. We weep
because we are not allowed to come home. '
Their daughter, Valia, refused to eat without saying
grace. She was mocked but with other Christian children,
she continued to thank God for her food. She wrote: 'The
director shouts at us and this is good; the bigger our sorrow,
the nearer we are to God. By God's will I shall remain a bel-
iever. I do not want to learn anydiing in this atheistic school. '
An Orthodox priest, Talantov, and his son were killed by
the Communists. His other son, Boris, continued to witness
openly for Christ. For tfiis he also was put into prison, where
he died.
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The Baptist preacher Peter Vins died in prison for his
faith. His wife too was in prison for three years. Their son
George, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of the
USSR, also went to jail.
The bride can quietly call the heavenly Bridegroom to get
up early to go with her to the vineyard. They will see the vine
flourish and the tender grapes appear. Christianity in
Communist countries bears rich fruit for God.
A pleasant perfume
The bride says, 'The mandrakes give a smell, and at our
gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I
have laid up for you, O beloved' (7:13).
The precise identification of the mandrake is unknown. It
could be the cantaloupe. This has a pleasant perfume, which
typifies the perfume spread in this world by believers;
especially by young believers who have been born into a
family of the faithful and have not known the life of sin.
In antiquity the fruit and roots of the mandrake were
thought to have aphrodisiac qualities. Leah gave mandrake
to Rachel. The fragrance we spread in the world stimulates
the faculty of love in others.
Unlike the evil workers in the vineyard who have withheld
their harvest from the master, the bride has laid up fruits at
the gate. He is not greedy; he is not in a hurry to collect
them; he allows them to mature.
We know how to keep the fruits which were not picked by
the master, just as women know how to preserve fruit. The
bride has kept new and old fruit for her master. 'Every scribe
who is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a
man that is a householder, who brings forth out of his
treasure things new and old* (Matthew 13:52)
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~ Chapter 8 ~
'If you were my brother*
The bride says:
*O that you were as my brother, that sucked the breasts of
my mother! When I should find you without, I would kiss
you; yes, I should not be despised.
I would lead you, and bring you into my mother's
house, who would instruct me: I would cause you to drink
of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
His left hand should be under my head, and his right
hand should embrace me.
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir
not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning
upon her beloved?
I raised you up under the apple tree: there your mother
brought you fordi: there she brought you forth that bore
you.
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your
arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the
grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most
vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the
floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his
house for love, it would be utterly condemned.'
(8:1-7)
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The most intimate of relationships with Jesus cannot be
expressed in public. Before the world, we may only have the
relationship between brother and sister, in which kisses are
considered respectable.
The Shulamite is modest. She knows how far she is from
what a wife should be. She still has to learn. So, she says that
if she should find him, she would lead him into her modier's
house, the Church.
What daring words she uses! We are accustomed to think
he leads us as king, shepherd and teacher. But we can also
lead him - by prevailing love and prevailing prayer. In fact
a contest is taking place. He wishes to lead us to the
mansions he has prepared for us in his Father's house: we
insist on first taking him to the house of our mother (we shall
speak further of this). There, the bride will learn to give him
spiced wine, the juice of her pomegranate. The mother, the.
Church, has long experience of the kind of adoration which
pleases him. We all have to learn from her.
The bride's friends ask, 'Who is this that comes up from
the wilderness leaning upon her beloved?' First it was the
Jewish people. Now, it is the Church and every individual
believing soul. Every 'coming out' from the wilderness is a
'coming up'.
The wilderness is exhausting. You cannot come out of it
in your own strength, but only by leaning upon the Beloved.
The literal translation is, 'her arm under his arm-pit' - an
expression of great familiarity.
She says, 'I raised you up under the apple tree.' We
believers raise up the Saviour through our prayer. The
disciples woke him up repeatedly during a storm: 'Awake!
why do you sleep? Awake!' This is also the frequent prayer
of the Psalmist.
She prays that she might keep his love: 'Set me as a jewel
upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm.' Men in the
Orient sometimes wear, on their breast or on their arm,
jewels with the portrait or the name of their bride engraved
on them. She wants the Beloved to have such a jewel. She
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would like to be a seal on his heart, so that nothing else
might enter. The soul wants to know for certain that it will
remain in God's love.
The bride's prayer has been fulfilled. John's Gospel tells
us that Jesus said on the Cross the word which is rendered
in Greek as tetelestai — 'It is finished. ' In the New Testament
all Jesus' words are translated, for he spoke in Aramaic.
The word he must have actually used is kalah. It has two
meanings. One is 'It has been accomplished' or 'finished'.
The other is, 'bride'. It is possible that his very last word
before death was a loving sigh for his bride.
Of some souls God has said, 'I have engraved you upon
my hand.' God says to a believer who has reached diis
spiritual state, as he said to Zerubbabel, 'I will take you O
Zerubbabel and will make you as a signet; for I have chosen
you' (Haggai 2:23). But before this is fulfilled, terrible
things must happen.
What God says to Zerubbabel is: 'I will overthrow the
throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the
kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots,
and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders
shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In
that day . . . will I take you ... as a seal (the same word as
is translated 'seal' in Haggai 2:22-23).
Sometimes we pray foolishly. We are like doctors who
would like to destroy tuberculosis but object to the
destruction of the microbes that cause it. We want the
kingdom of God, the only state in which we will know in
perfection what it is like to be near the Beloved; but as often
as something happens that signals the destruction of
Satan's kingdom, we make intercession: 'Don't let
anything be destroyed!' The churches storm heaven with
their prayers.
That is what I alluded to when I compared the desire of
the Bridegroom, who wants to lead us into his Father's
mansions, to that of the bride, who wants to lead him to her
mother's house. We will come to be a seal on his heart only
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when our prayers quieten down, to 'Hallowed be thy
name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done' - though I
know that this will involve the perishing of all those who,
despite having had a better light offered to them, oppose it.
Even when you have arrived at this place, vigilance is
necessary. The assurance that one is in the favour of God
can only be maintained by patience, goodness and
righteousness.
Love is like death
Now the bride brings arguments to show why she has such
pretensions, and why she makes such demands.
Death and love have many common features. Just as
nothing can resist death or avoid it, and in the end
everything must come under the law of death, so it is with
love. He whom death assails, must die; he whom love
assails, must love. The phenomenon of death makes man
understand that there are limits to human power.
However, I cannot resist telling a joke in this context. A
pastor was once delivering a thundering sermon about sin
and hell. 'One thing is certain!' he said. 'Every man,
woman and child in this parish will die one day. There is no
escape! '
A boy in the front seat began to laugh.
'Every person in the parish will one day die!' the pastor
reiterated.
The boy continued to laugh.
'What are you laughing at?' demanded the pastor
angrily.
'I'm not from this parish!' said the boy.
Death happens of necessity. There is no point in
dissipating energy in struggling against it. It can be
postponed for a time, but not escaped. So with love. You
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cannot decide with whom you will fall in love. There are
two people destined for each other: when they meet, the
barriers fall. Because of love, Edward VIII of Britain gave
up the throne of an empire, for a divorced woman; King
Charles II of Rumania did the same. The elect bride can do
no other than love Jesus ardently. He can do no other than
love her.
It seems at first glance strange that the bride could not
have found more appropriate images of love than death
and the grave. The Zohar asks the question whether God's
words when he finishes the creation - 'And behold, it was
very good' (Genesis 1:31) - included in their meaning the
Angel of Death. The Zohar concludes:
Concerning this mystery, R. Simeon gave us the
following explanation: 'And behold it was good' refers to
the Angel of Life; 'very' to the Angel of Death, for he is
of greater importance. And why? When the Holy One,
blessed be He, created the world, all was prepared for the
coming of man, who is the king of this world. Man was
fashioned to walk in the straight way, as it is written:
'God has made man upright, but they have sought out
many inventions' (Ecclesiastes 7:29). He made man
upright, but he gave himself over to corruption and was
therefore driven out of the Garden of Eden. This garden
was planted by the Holy One, blessed be He, on the
earth, and made an exact likeness of its prototype, the
Paradise above, and all supernal forms were fashioned
and shaped in it, and the cherubs were there - not those
carved in gold or any material that could be fashioned by
human hands, but of supernal light, fashioned and
broidered through the agency of the perfect Name of the
Holy One. All the images and forms of all things in this
world were there fashioned,.all having the similitude of
the things in this world. And this place is the abode of
holy spirits, both of those that have come into this world,
and also of those that have not yet come into this world.
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Those that are about to come are invested with garments
and with faces and bodies like those in this world, and
they gaze upon the glory of their Lord until the time
comes for them to appear in the world. When they leave
the Garden for that purpose, these spirits put off their
celestial bodies and garments and take on the bodies and
garments of this world; they henceforth make then-
abode in this world in the garments and bodies fashioned
from the seed of procreation. So when the time comes for
the spirit to leave this world again, it cannot do so until
the Angel of Death has taken off the garment of this
body. When that has been done, he again puts on that
other garment in the Garden of Eden of which he had
had to divest himself when he entered this world. And
the whole joy of the spirit is in that celestial body. In it he
rests and moves, and contemplates continually the
supernatural mysteries which, when he was in the
earthly body, he could neither grasp nor understand.
When the soul clothes herself with the garments of that
world, what delights, what joys, she experiences! And
who caused the body to be inhabited by the spirit? Why,
he who took off the garment of flesh, the Angel of Death!
The bride sees nothing wrong in death, which brings her
into his embrace. For her, it is natural to compare love to
death.
In the fourth century AD, in Sebaste in Armenia, forty
young Christians were sentenced to death by freezing. In
winter they were forced to go naked into a river. They were
told that if they denied their faith, they would be allowed to
come out and warm themselves at a fire that was ready on
the shore. The mother of one of them helped her son to
enter the vehicle in which they were to be taken to the river.
She did not weep, but said, 'Go, walk with your brethren.
Don't linger. Do not arrive in the Lord's presence after
them.'
One of them did recant. But then a soldier watching on
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the shore saw an angel descend from heaven, widi forty
crowns in his hand. He placed a crown on every head,
but was left with one over; the youth for whom it was
intended had fled the Angel of Death, the harbinger of
the final triumph.
The soldier immediately stripped off his clothes and
plunged into the cold water, shouting, 'I am coming,
Angel!' He died with the rest. That is how brides feel and
act.
Just as death is impressed by nothing, and cannot be
bribed or persuaded not to act, so is love. Love for God,
just like death, takes away from man the desire for
transitory things. Just as death never releases its prey,
neither does love.
Surely, this is what the love of God towards us is like.
For his beloved bride, he puts aside his glory, his
righteousness, his law, his divinity, his eternity. For her
he becomes a slave. He dies on a cross - for her. His love
is a love to the end.
His jealousy is cruel as the grave. It is love's legit-
imate reaction against any insults brought to it by the
beloved. He is jealous when we fall into idolatry. We, for
our part, have to be jealous and intolerant of the things
that belong to our lower nature. Our prayer is, 'Lord,
be jealous of me; and do not give me into the hand of
anything else.'
A book without the word 'God'
The bride says, 'The coals [of jealousy] are coals of fire,
which has a most vehement flame.' The Authorized
Version here translates exacdy what is in the Masoretic
Hebrew text. However, some Jewish copyists wondered
how it was that this biblical book contains no mention of
207

God. Therefore, in some manuscripts they divided the last
word of this verse, shalhebetiah ('vehement flame'), into
shalhebet-Jah - 'flame of the Lord' (Jah being the older form
of Jehovah). The same is found in several English
translations.
This is acceptable but superfluous. God resonates in
every verse in this book. God is love. Where bride and
Bridegroom show burning, loyal feelings towards each
other, when you have said 'love' you have said 'God'. In
this Song, mutual love and the giving of self to each other,
and to the One to whom they less directly belong, is
religion itself. There is no need to dress it up with religious
phraseology. Solomon's Song does not include the word
'God'. But it is an eloquent proof of his existence.
The philosopher, Immanuel Kant, said that the moral
law demands that men be rewarded in proportion to their
virtues. Since in everyday life evil men often fare better
than those who are good, it follows that there must be
another existence, and there must be a God who gives
rewards in eternity. Brides like the one in Solomon's Song
surely do not get their rewards on earth.
Vincent Van Gogh was a preacher in a squalid mining
village in Belgium. He became more humble than the
humble, and renounced everything: house, clothes and
food. He overwhelmed his hearers with his evangelical
fervour. During a typhoid epidemic he gave away as
bandages even the few rags that he wore. Then he
discovered his talent for painting. Now, over ninety years
later, his paintings sell for millions. But Van Gogh himself
never made any money from his art. He continued to live
in the darkest misery, creating master-works.
Chinese Christians have always endured suffering with
fortitude. During the Boxer Rebellion, when killers
entered the house of sister Ming, she asked them to allow
her the favour of changing her dress. She then put on her
bridal gown and most beautiful ornaments. For her, death
was a wedding feast. And so she died.
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Prisoners brought to the Wronski jail in Poland were
asked, 'Who among you is a believing Christian?' All
stepped forward.
'We have kneeling chairs for you,' they were told.
The prisoners were then made to kneel on ordinary
stools. 'Pray aloud!' they were ordered. 'And take your
shoes off!' During their prayers, blows fell on their bare
feet. The Christians all had difficulty walking next day.
In Wronski, the cells are cold. Many windows are
broken. Christmas dinner consisted of plain bread and
overcooked potatoes, yet the prisoners had to work at
felling trees v Whoever stayed in the toilet more than five
minutes received truncheon blows.
'Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the
floods drown it.' God, loving the little Israel, did not
forsake it for the cause of some mighty empire. On the
contrary, he gave other nations as a ransom for Israel.
The love of God for the faithful soul will last forever. This
is the summary of this whole book, and its moral. The
love magnified in this book is true love, which does not
lose heart when faced with great danger. It is a love which
inspires courage and sacrifice, preferring voluntary
poverty to servile richness; a love which hates with vigour
everything which is false and mean; a love which matures
into calmness and faithfulness.
Priceless love
'If a man would give the substance of his house for love, it
would utterly be condemned. ' Such love is not for sale.
Like wisdom, it cannot be bartered for gold. It cannot be
bought with silver.
It is written in the Bible, 'Buy truth.' (Proverbs 23.23)
Jesus said, 'I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the
,     209

fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you
may be clothed' (Revelation 3:18). Interpreting words like
these, upon which he had not meditated very profoundly,
Simon the sorcerer offered money to the apostles, and said
to them, 'Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I
lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost' (Acts 8; 19).
His fault was that he did not understand spiritual things.
God's gifts cannot be bought with money. Isaiah says,
'Buy wine and milk without money and without price'
(Isaiah 55:1).
The commandment is strict: it is forbidden to pay for
God's gifts with money.
To simply give everything is the responsibility of all
Christians. Simon sinned by the fact that he still had
money, and he offered it to the disciples in exchange for
something. The first Christians gave everything at the
time of their conversion.
The gifts of God can be bought, but it is through the
renunciation of sin and vanity. Moreover, riches are incom-
patible with love; the believer must consistently refuse the
hope of riches. As Jesus refuses our money and seeks us, so
the bride must seek not his gifts, but Jesus himself.
A missionary, captured by the Chinese Communists
some years ago, was about to be beheaded. Suddenly she
began to laugh. Her captors asked, 'What is so funny
about being beheaded?'
'I was just thinking,' she replied, 'how ridiculous my
head would look rolling down the hill!' They let her go.
With this sister, love was as strong as death.
After the Russian Revolution a civil war raged for many
years between the conservative population and their foes,
the Communists. At that time an Orthodox priest, walk-
ing down the street, saw five soldiers of the conservative
White Army tie a Communist soldier to a tree and prepare
to execute him. On seeing the priest, the officer who led
the firing squad greeted him with the usual Russian
greeting, 'Bless us, father.'
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'I can't bless a killing,' answered the priest.
Moved, the officers freed their prisoner.
A few weeks later a woman called that priest to
administer the last rites to her dying son. As he entered
the house, the priest heard the son yell to his mother,
'Why did you call a priest? All those villains must be
killed! I am a Communist. I can't stand priests.'
But then, recognizing the priest, he exclaimed, 'You
are the one who saved me from being shot. You said, "I
can't bless a killing." Do you see the big knife on the
table? My assignment was to kill you with it. If you had
known that, would you still have stopped my execution?'
'Even in that case,' replied the priest, 'I would not
have blessed the killing, because God has forgiving love
for us all. God has sent me a second time to save you.'
A minute later, the man was dead, but all the hatred
had disappeared from his face. The love of that priest
was also stronger than death.
In the Soviet Union, there still are brothers and sisters
in psychiatric asylums. A letter smuggled out told of
Sitchovka, a prisoner in an asylum, who was shown a
straitjacket by a Secret Police officer posing as a doctor.
He said, 'Don't worry - we won't use it on you. We've
got something better;,the chemical straitjacket.'
The prisoner was led into a room where cats, under
the influence of an alkaloid drug, were unable to move
even when threatened, pinched or when a flame was
brought near their whiskers. When an officer tried to
push a cat forward, it displayed every sign of stupor.
Another cat stood motionless, with its hind legs on a
chair and its front legs on the floor. In the room were
cats, mice, apes and birds, all drugged by some poison,
standing petrified like statues.
The officer laughingly said to the believer, 'One of
your brethren mentioned the prophecy that when Jesus
returns, wolves will dwell with lambs. We don't need
Jesus. We do it ourselves! We have our own saviour,
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and we will break you with it. You can't withstand
this.'
Our Christian brother added in his letter, 'The
magicians at Pharaoh's court also imitated the miracles
that Moses did. But Moses remained God's man.'
The love of such Christians, who know these horrors
await them if they remain faithful and who continue to
serve the Church, is not only as strong as death but
stronger still. It is stronger than the fear of being deprived
of your mind for ever.
A little lister
The bride says:
'We have a little sister, and she has no breasts; what
shall we do for our sister in the day when she will be
spoken for?
If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of
silver: and if she be a door, we will enclose her with
boards of cedar.
I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then was
I in his eyes as one that found favour. '
(8:8-10)
Here we have a supplement to the Song of Songs. Once
she is sure of the unlimited love of God, the bride has her
mind at rest and can turn to the problem of her sister.
Jesus and the bride, united in full reciprocal love, discuss
what is to be done with the younger sister who has no
breasts yet, which means that she has no prominent
qualities in her body; she has done no exceptional deeds
in the service of God.
Jesus assures the bride that the Holy Trinity will do
212

everything for her. If she be a wall - which means, if she is
a person who cannot fall under temptation, if she is strong
as iron, if she can resist - then God will do her great
honour. But if she is a door, which can easily be opened - if
she falls easily in sin, if her virtue is not solid - she will be
enclosed with walls of cedar, a strong and durable wood.
The weak believer is guarded in a special way, though even
believers who are able to resist sin are not left unwatched,
because strong castles can also fall.
The bride is assured of what God will do for her small
sister, remembering the miracles he did for her who is like a
wall and who has breasts like twin roes, typifying
unconquerable virtues. She has found favour with him.
The Shulamite, the princess of peace, has found shalom
(peace) with Solomon, the Prince of Peace.
Some Christians are strong. All seductions rebound off
them. On such strong walls, Jesus can build castles of
silver. I am reminded of Hannington, the Anglican bishop
of Uganda, who was eaten by cannibals. He went to his
death reciting the Lord's words, 'Love your enemies, bless
them that curse you.' On that wall, God built a splendid
castle. Hannington's sons became missionaries and
baptized their father's murderers. Those converted
cannibals told the story.
Some twenty Russian girls were novices in a secret
convent. When it was discovered, they were all sent to
Siberia. The last advice of the abbess to the girls was to stay
together if possible, and to say as soon as they met
anybody - be it friend or enemy, policeman or fellow-
prisoner - that they belonged to Christ.
They were sent to forced labour, and had to fell trees.
One night, a group of other prisoners who were common
criminals came to the girls' barracks. The girls were
frightened, but the men told them, 'You have spoken
about your faith. So, explain to us about God. We have not
seen a priest for thirty years. We need a word from God. '
Frpm that night the barracks became a mission centre.
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Even the guards sympathized. Many people were con-
verted, and the novices baptized them. The former
criminals helped the girls fulfil their work quotas so that
they could have time for prayer.
These are the brides of Christ, with great and strong
breasts.
Solomon's vineyard
The bride says:
'Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out die
vineyard unto keepers; every one for die fruit thereof
was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: you, O
Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep
die fruit thereof two hundred.
You who dwell in the gardens, the companions
hearken to your voice: cause me to hear it.
Make haste, my beloved, and be like to a roe or to a
young hart upon the mountains of spices. '
(8:11-14)
In Hebrew hamon means 'a great, noisy crowd'.
Solomon had a vineyard in Baalhamon. Jesus has his
vineyard, his Church, in die midst of a noisy multitude.
The bride discusses with him what fruit their vineyards
must produce. She says to him, 'My vineyard, which is
mine, is before me.' Before, she did not look after her
vineyard. Now she has decided to care for it, so that God
will be able to build a palace of silver upon her testimony.
She promises Solomon one thousand pieces of silver from
the profits of her vineyard, and allows two hundred for
the workers who tend it.
214

The Zohar rightly says, 'Wherever the name of Solomon
is mentioned in Solomon's Song it is holy, except in the
words "A thousand unto you, O Solomon." ' The author
has descended from celestial heights down to financial
dealing. He could not help revealing that the Word of God
has passed through human hands.
Rembrandt painted a splendid picture of the good
Samaritan. In front of the inn where the wounded man was
brought, he painted a dog relieving itself. This is the most
prosaic thing in life. In the middle of his most tragic tirade,
Shakespeare's King Lear speaks to the Fool in bawdy
language. No work of art or religion is exempted from at
least a token acknowledgement of the meanness of human
nature.
But there is also an important lesson in this verse. The
bulk of a church's finances must go towards the propag-
ation of the gospel. Ministers must be provided for, but not
luxuriously. It is a scandal that some ministers in the USA
have large salaries, when those in the Third World often
live at poverty level. And as for those under Communist
persecution, who thinks of them?
Now it is time for the Bridegroom to depart. He goes
into the mountains: the bride remains in the gardens
below. His last words are, 'You who dwell in the gardens,
the companions [the angels, the glorified saints] hearken to
your voice: cause me to hear it.' He asks her to pray. Thus
this beautiful book comes to an end.
Towards the close of his life, Solomon was disappointed
in the Shulamite to whom he had dedicated his Song. In the
beginning her love was passionate, but it finished with who
knows"what tragedy. When he was old, the king wrote, 'I
did not find a woman.' Will our soul also disappoint the
Prince of Peace? When the Son of Man comes, will he find
faith on earth?
The bride's love is great, but great love needs to be
tended to remain great. If you put a single gram of radium
in a vault and leave it untouched, after a certain period it
215

will only be half a gram of radium and after a further period
it will only be one quarter of a gram. Radium disintegrates.
Love disintegrates, too. It must be kept warm, and must be
made to grow through frequent meditation and contem-
plation of the Beloved. The love described in the Song of
Solomon, where the bride gives the Bridegroom a thousand
pieces of silver, is not a hopeless ideal. It really exists.
Igor Ogurtsov, an Orthodox believer, was sentenced to
twenty years in prison for his Christian activities.
Converted by his grandmother, he was one of the
organizers of the Social Christian Union for the Liberation
of the Russian People. For a time he had been detained in a
psychiatric asylum, for being too religious.
A fellow-prisoner describes him as a man of pathos. All
who drew near him felt that Ogurtsov was far ahead of his
contemporaries. He declared that his aim was the
Christianization of politics, economics and culture. After
ten years of prison and torture, he was still strong enough to
write:
There is only one choice before mankind: a free return to
God and acceptance of His love, whereupon all the
powers and beauty of man will flourish; or departure
from God, whereupon we will have a Satanocracy and a
twisted conscience, as a result of losing the true aim and
purpose of life. Capitalism and its sick child,
Communism, can be conquered only by the Christian-
ization of the whole social order.
At forty he had lost all his teeth in jail. He suffered from
avitaminosis and hypertonicity. He could hardly stand on
his feet, but he still had to do slave labour. Neither the
world nor the churches mention him, but he offered a great
feast to Christ. He paid to him his full due: a thousand
pieces of silver.
Petras Plumpa, a Catholic, is serving a five-year
sentence. He writes from prison:
216

Wherever we live, the most important problem is the
salvation of souls. If the King of souls has sown us in the
field of sorrows, let us bloom in sorrow; if in solitude,
then in solitude let us bloom. The Creator sows the most
beautiful flowers in inaccessible places among mountain
tracts, and, though no man sees them, they have their
own value. The anguish of a soul, though unseen, can be
plucked and offered like a flower to the Saviour. This is
the most beautiful decoration in the altar of Jesus.
Lacking such decoration, even the finest churches have
sad faces.
For the sake of souls like this, our Beloved, who is now
like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices, will
return. The bride who dwells in the garden of faith amidst
sorrows waits for him.
217

~ Last Considerations ~
Arriving at the end of this book, we wonder. Everything
written in it, even the most intimate sexual details, is about
the love of a faithful soul for a Bridegroom she has never
seen. She speaks of kisses, of caresses, of embraces,
although she has never touched him, nor even perceived
him with her senses.
It is so. But in a similar way, our universe is mostly
hydrogen, and no-one has ever seen a hydrogen atom.
Millions of them would fit on a pinhead. The hydrogen
atom is ? speculation in our minds. Yet the whole of our
physics and chemistry is based on unseen atoms. We can
even construct atomic bombs, using atoms which we
cannot see. Space and time are only mental constructs.
But that does not stop us from living comfortably in space
and in time.
A heavenly Bridegroom does not have to be touchable to
be loved or to be such that one finds one's complete delight
in him. It is good that he cannot be understood. Instead of
trying to understand him we need to draw nearer and
nearer to him, in order to know him.
When an electron jumps from the outer shell of an atom
to the inner shell, light is emitted. Similarly, whoever does
not remain outside the Godhead, but runs to his embraces,
becomes an emitter of light. The words of Jesus, 'You are
the light of the world', become a reality.
There are some things which are completely absent
from the Song. For example, the word 'truth'. Why is
this?
When scrutinised, many accepted beliefs are seen to be
218

inadequate. At best they prove to be partially true - true
for the left side of the brain. Our brains are divided in
two. Only the left operates logically, and declares what
is true and what is not. The right side is as important as
the other, but is usually left out in the search for truth.
It is irrational, lyrical, prompted by impulse, feeling and
emotions. A 'truth' examined only by the left side of the
brain cannot be entirely true. It ignores half of reality.
What is normally termed 'truth' brings things to a
halt. Therefore Solomon never uses the word. For him,
the only thing that comprehends the whole of reality,
that unites the two halves of the brain's experience, is
love like that between the heavenly Bridegroom and his
bride. Only belief in love to the uttermost can pass
every test.
Another curious omission from the Song is any
mention of good deeds done by the bride. The reason is
that - as Kant said - nothing can be called good without
some qualification. We all have access to the state of
being a chosen bride. Some of us, because of natural
disadvantages or the possession of a niggardly nature,
lack the power to do good deeds. But even such people
can shine like jewels, if they only have ardent love and
good will. Fruitfulness would not add to their value, nor
fruitlessness diminish it. 'To him that works not, but
believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness' (Romans 4:5). The Zohar
says, 'Blessed is he that nourishes good thoughts towards
his Lord; for, even if he cannot put them into practice,
the Holy One takes the will for the deed. ' It is not good
deeds which qualify you to be a bride of Christ.
This Song shows how right St Augustine was when he
said, 'Love - and do what you like,' or St Paul, when he
taught, 'Love is the fulfilment of all the law.' When we
experience holy, supreme love, the moral law which
defers to deeds stands mute in adoration.
One final thing is lacking in Somonon's Song-a
219

biography of the bride. What is her story? How did she
live before becoming a believer? Was she a decent girl or
a loose one? What sins had she committed, and how
many? Humans have biographies. But she is more than
human. She partakes of the divine nature.
Darwin looked in vain for the connecting link between
ape and man. But we know the link between the entire
creation and the Creator. It is the bride. She is the
highest point that creation can reach. She met the One
who came down to the lowest level to which Godhead
can ever descend, and they united. She is a queen; and
she is the servant. She is as tiny as a worm; and she is a
god. She is outside the sphere of beings who have
biographies.
Most of us are not yet truly human. We are still in an
embryonic stage, living in mankind's pre-history. Jesus'
teaching, 'You are gods,' sounds oddly in our ears. So
we find the nature of the bride hard to grasp. We would
enquire about her past; for Jesus, she is simply the bride.
Jesus never gave us his own biography. The evan-
gelists are silent about his life between the ages of twelve
and thirty. She does not ask him his life's story. He
rewarded her discretion by not asking questions about
hers. Today they are Bridegroom and bride. Like the
high priest Melchisedec of old, they appear 'having
neither beginning of days, nor end of life' (Hebrews
7:3).
Adam must have been created as a man of a certain
age. Like him, the bride does not have a past. She and
the Bridegroom know only an eternal 'today' of love.
Handel composed his Messiah while enraptured, in
ecstasy. For twenty-three days, he hardly ate. When he
completed the second part with the Hallelujah Chorus,
his servant found him sitting at his desk with tears
running down his cheeks. He said, 'I saw paradise truly,
and the great God himself.' Solomon must have com-
posed the Song in such a state of mind.
220

Therefore the prayers of the bride are innocent as
spring mornings, clear as mountain streams. She does
not utter prayers for forgiveness, for they are what
sinners need. She has passed beyond this. Christ has
finished his work with her. All she can do is sing
hymns. Eardi and heaven ring with her hallelujahs.
But she does not isolate herself on the peaks. She
prefers not to be called a 'saint'. Dorothy Day said,
'That's how people try to dismiss you. If you're a saint
you must be impractical and Utopian and nobody has to
pay any attention to you.' Brides are in close fellow-
ship with Jesus. But they also seek such fellowship with
us.
I must finish with an apology. I could not make
words convey what happens between the Bridegroom
and the bride, for the same reason that you cannot
weigh granite columns in pharmaceutical scales.
Solomon could not do it, so I most certainly cannot.
We all retain primitive concepts from our early
religious training. When we climb unknown spiritual
mountains, to describe the unknown, we use the
language of the known. There is nothing else we can do.
It is the same in science. In any chunk of ordinary
matter you have 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
atoms, made up of who knows how many billions of
billions of elementary particles. It is unimaginable
and inexpressible. Science therefore uses primitive
pictures. It uses models of atoms, though it knows
well enough that no atom conforms to the model.
Reality puts shivers up one's spine. It cannot even be
described.
But for believers, there is a way to know the quality
of the relationship between the Bridegroom and the
bride. Become a bride yourself; and then you will
personally experience that relationship.
But when you become a bride, do not become blind
in one eye, seeing only the celestial, without concern
221

for the earthly. Both belong to God. Be a great saint, but
be a human saint! Remember that Solomon's Song is
only one of many books in the Bible.
222

Ä References Ä
Chapter 1
 1	Reported in Deutschland Magazine, July 1978.
 2	Jay and Emma Hefley, By Their Blood, Mott Media
Publishing House.
Chapter 3
 1	A. Ratziu, Stolen Church.
 2	H. Hartfeld, Faith in Spite of the KGB. Hartfeld is a
former prisoner in Soviet jails.
 3	The Arizonian, November 1982.
 4	Paul Goma, Gherla, (Gallimard, France).
 5	Lutheran Witness, October 1972.
Chapter 4
2    Orthodox Life, No 78.
Chapter 6
1    R. Radina, Testaments from the Death House.
223

In October of 1967 Pastor Richard Wurmbrand,
along with his wife Sabina, founded a non-profit
missionary organization to bring assistance to
persecuted Christians around the world.
Today The Voice of the Martyrs, Inc., directed by
Pastor Wurmbrand, continues to carry out this work.
For more information about the mission activities or
a complete listing of books and tapes by Richard
Wurmbrand, please write to THE VOICE OF THE
MARTYRS at the addresses below.
USA:    P.O. Box 443
Bartlesville, OK 74005-0443
CANADA:    P.O.Box 117
Port Credit
Mississauga, Ontario, L5G 4L5
AUSTRALIA:    P.O. Box 598
Penrith NSW 2751
NEW ZEALAND:    P.O. Box 69-158
Glendene, Auckland 8
ENGLAND:    P.O. Box 19
Bromley, Kent, BRI 1DJ

weetes
no song of my own to sing. I sing the song of
nd of this bride as Solomon sang it; and to
make the song resound more beautifully than ever, I
illustrate it with lives of saints and martyrs. '
So writes Richard Wurmbrand — a man who has suffered much
for Christ. The Sweetest Song is his unique and distinctive study of
the Song of Solomon, as illustrated by the lives of Christian saints
and martyrs. A topic which he is particularly well-equipped to
tackle and which makes The Sweetest Song a wise, distillation of a
life spent in the torment of actual captivity, where the authority of
Pastor Wurmbrand wrote The Sweetest Song after meditating on
the sayings of Rabbi Akiba in the Babylonian Talmud" where he
calls The Song of Songs' the holiest of all the Scriptures.
Translating this idea. Wurmbrand argues that the lives of the
persecuted church are the holiest of all. Hence the poignancy and
depth of this new commentary.
After a lifetime of service in Eastern Europe, Richard Wurmbrand
now works from California to support Christians under
persecution. He is author of the bestselling Tortured for Christ.
ISBN O-551-O1652-3