(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)
In solitude, meditation with Christ is sweet. George Burrowes, renowned commentator on the Song of Solomon, and poet, has written a meditation on this very topic, from his volume of poems titled Octorara, A Poem: And Occasional Pieces (1856).
Retirement With Jesus
There will I give thee my loves. — Song vii.12.
Come to this tranquil shade
Of forest boughs in spring’s rich freshness wove;
And on this turf with early flowers inlaid,
Bring filled with fervent love,The censer of the heart;
And offer sacrifice of praise and prayer,
To Him whose Holy Spirit doth impart
Peace calm as this pure air.Here are no rolling wheels,
No mammon’s pomp, nor envy, strife, nor jar;
Unfelt the din of life around us steals,
Like the dull waves afar.From Salem’s crowds at even,
To the lone mount was Jesus e’er withdrawn;
There, with no voice to hear, he poured to Heaven
His prayer at early dawn.There does he linger yet,
Revealed to faith’s pure eye, to meet and bless
Souls who, for his blest smiles and voice, forget
Earth’s phantom happiness.When rosy morning fills,
In heaven’s dewy borders, her golden urn,
And bright her altars on the eastern hills,
With balmy incense burn;When pensive eve doth gaze,
With wondering silence, on the starry throng,
That crowd the darkening courts of heaven, and raise
Their full adoring song;Then haste, my soul, to meet
This confidential Friend, where none intrudes;
Feel Mary’s joy, while falling at his feet
In these blest solitudes.Here, speaks He face to face,
With our o’erwhelmed and gladdened souls; our heart
He gathers to his bosom; and his grace
In melting streams imparts.The hidden manna here,
Our spirits find by more than angels given;
And brighter than on Tabor’s mount, appear
O’erpowering gleams of heaven.In this divine retreat,
Where breathes the fainting soul reviving air,
The spirit healthful grows, and feels it sweet
Its toils and woes to bear.And when my soul alone
Must pass away from earth, through death’s dark shade,
He whom my heart has here so frequent known,
Will meet me with his aid;And gathered in his arms,
A trembling lamb, my trusting soul he’ll bear
Safe through death’s terrors and the grave’s alarms,
His home in heaven to share.
