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I sleep, but my heart waketh. — Song of Solomon 5:2
Commenting on this text of Scripture, George Burrowes takes occasion to expound upon the nature of the spiritual ups and downs of the Christian life more largely in descriptive terms to which experienced believers can well relate.
This passage, to the end of ver. 8, illustrates the exercises of the soul in a time of spiritual sloth and decay. After thus unfolding to us his love, he lets us, as in this passage, see our depravity and indifference. Our religious life consists of a series of revivals and of withdrawals by Jesus, for calling into exercise and putting to the test our graces. When under the influence of first love, we determine never to forget the Saviour, and think the thing almost impossible. After some experience of the deceitfulness of the heart, when at some subsequent period we have had our souls restored and made to lie down in green pastures, beside the still waters, we resolve again to be faithful in close adherence to our Lord, under the impression, that with our present knowledge of the workings of sin, and the glorious displays made to us of the loveliness of Christ, and of his love towards us personally, we shall now at length persevere; but we soon find to our sorrow, that, left to ourselves, we are as unsteady and unfaithful as ever. It is surprising how quickly coldness will succeed great religious fervour. To the experienced believer it will not appear strange, that this divine allegory should bring this representation of indifference to the beloved into such immediate connection with the remarkable expressions of Jesus' love contained in the foregoing chapter. Where is the Christian who has not found the truth of this in his own experience? The three chosen disciples were overcome with lethargy even on the mount of transfiguration; and immediately after the first affecting sacrament, they not only fell asleep in Gethsemane, but all forsook Jesus and fled; while Peter added thereto a denial of his Lord, with profane swearing. While the bridegroom tarried, even the wise virgins with oil in their lamps, slumbered and slept. After endearing manifestations of Jesus' love, how soon do we find ourselves falling into spiritual slumber — often, like the disciples on the mount, under the full light of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And after periods of revival, in the same way will churches speedily show signs of sinking down into former coldness.
Burrowes speaks similarly concerning Song of Solomon 2:8-9: “The Christian life is a series of visits and withdrawals of our Lord, of revivals of grace in the heart and exposure to trials.”
He himself walked through valleys and climbed mountaintops. In a nod to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, that brilliant allegory of the Christian life, Burrowes writes elsewhere: “The Delectable Mountains and the River of the Water of Life, cannot be reached by the pilgrim without passing through the Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death” (Advanced Growth in Grace, 1868). James Curry writes in a biographical sketch of Burrowes found in his History of the San Francisco Theological Seminary, p. 62:
He was a Christian of deep and humble piety, and had at various times all through his mature life remarkable religious experiences. He attributed them to the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit. After one of these experiences he wrote:
"Had I stood with Moses on the top of Pisgah my soul could hardly have had such delightful emotions as those now felt." Again he wrote: "When I arise in the morning and come into my study, here I find Jesus already waiting for me, and I meet Him with delight of heart.” "I can scarcely conceive of anything more desirable in Heaven than merely to have these feelings made perfect, and the union with Jesus completed by my being brought to be with Him where He is to behold His glory."
Each of us has our own unique path to follow when we take up our cross to follow our Savior. Solomon himself elsewhere teaches that “The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy” (Prov. 14:10). If the same Shepherd leads one through a valley of the shadow of death, while another is led through a different sort of trial or grants a season of encouragement, be assured that our Lord is the only truly faithful guide. Each day, by the grace of God, we must do the hard work of sanctification, and though some days will be sweeter than others, we must walk by faith and not by sight (Heb. 11:13) with our eyes fixed on Jesus (Heb. 12:1). The soul that longs for Jesus in a dry and thirsty land (Ps. 63:1) will experience both nights of tears and mornings of gladness (Ps. 30:5), but in the words of many saints who have gone before, Heaven will make amends for all.
