Spurgeon: May PM
* 05/01/PM
"I am the rose of Sharon."
--Song of Solomon 2:1
Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus
Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold
degree. Amongst flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but
Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul
than the rose can in the gardens of earth. He takes the first
place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun, and all
others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark in
comparison with Him, for the King in His beauty transcends
all . "I am the rose of Sharon ." This was the best and rarest
of roses. Jesus is not "the rose" alone, He is "the rose of
Sharon," just as He calls His righteousness "gold," and then
adds, "the gold of Ophir"--the best of the best. He is
positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest. There is
variety in His charms . The rose is delightful to the eye, and
its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of
the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the
sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification
in Jesus. Even the recollection of His love is sweet . Take the
rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by the
leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf
fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume.
Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit
to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite
satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her
highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with
Christ, nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate Him.
Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the rose of Sharon.
What emblem can fully set forth His beauty? Human speech and
earth-born things fail to tell of Him. Earth's choicest charms
commingled, feebly picture His abounding preciousness. Blessed
rose, bloom in my heart for ever!