The Provinces of Love
“/ am the rose of the plain and the lily of the valleys.”
Solomon’s Song ii, i,
THE Song of Solomon depicts man’s ideal of the highest love. It says that perfect love must be fit for two spheres — the plain and the valley; it must be a rose to the one and a lily to the other. For, it is between these spheres that human life oscillates. Our place of abode is either in the valley or on the plain; we never abide on the mountain. Between the valley and the plain we divide our days. Some are days of the valley — days of depression, days of downcastness, days when the spirit is low. At these times we have no solace like love; the touch of a kindred sympathy blunts the edge of our pain. But I think our most frequent moments are on the plain — the sphere of the commonplace. In the valley we have a sense of something to bear. But on the plain we have a sense that there is nothing either to do or to bear. We are dull, not through life’s burden, but through life’s monotony — through the yearning for something new; we want a rose in our path. And we find it in love. We find the new thing in that old, old story, ancient yet ever young — that story which destroys the distinction between yesterday and to-day and to-morrow.
Even such, O Christ, is the power of my love for Thee! It fits me both for the valley and for the plain. It is my lily for the valley; it is my rose for the plain. When I am down in the vale, oppressed with my toiling and my spinning, it becomes my lily; it teaches me to be spontaneous, to forget myself in Thee. And when I stand on the common plain seeing only life’s monotony, it becomes my rose; it makes my prosaic world a garden. I thank Thee for these flowers of Thy love. I thank Thee that it has strengthened me both for the valley and for the plain. I thank Thee that it has been at once my lily and my rose. Ever let there remain to me these two flowers of Thy love — the flower of self-forgetfulness and the flower of outward radiance! When I am down in the valley, when I am weighted with the burden of care, make Thy love my lily! Help me in the sunshine of Thy presence to grow as the lily grows — unconscious of the earth that hems it round! When I am walking on the level plain, when my soul is drooping for want of something new, make Thy love my rose! Help me, through the sunshine of Thy presence, to see the radiance of common things — the glow beyond colour, the grace beyond form, the light that never shone on sea or shore! So shall my valley be harmless; so shall my plain be glorious. Each side shall have its flower — love’s flower. And the flower of Thy love shall keep me both in plain and vale — keep me in the absence of the heights, keep me in the presence of the great deep.