veryone else, to fear
God and keep his commandments; God, somehow, will care for the
mysteries and perplexities of life. Even the Song of Songs, or Song of
Solomon, often an object of ridicule, when rightly interpreted, is seen
to bring suggestive lessons to the present age. The book owes its
place in the canon of Sacred Scripture to the allegorical
interpretation given to it from the earliest times. The Jews
interpreted it as picturing the close relation existing between Jehovah
and Israel; the Christians, as picturing the intimate fellowship
between Christ and his bride, the Church. At present it is quite
generally held that this interpretation {252} does not do justice to
the primary purpose of the book; but as to its original purpose two
different views are held. According to both interpretations, the
subject of the book is love--human love; the differences of opinion are
with reference to the manner in which the subject is treated. Some
think that the book is simply a collection of love or wedding songs,
all independent of one another. Others feel that there are too many
evidences of real unity in it to permit this interpretation; they see
in the book a didactic drama or melodrama, the aim of the author being
the glorification of true human love.

The drama centers around three principal characters--Solomon, the
Shunammite maiden, and her shepherd lover. The book relates how the
maiden, surprised by the king and his train, was brought to the palace
in Jerusalem, where the king hoped to win her affections and to induce
her to exchange her rustic home for the enjoyment and honor the court
life affords. She has, however, already pledged her heart to a young
shepherd; and the admiration and blandishments which the king lavishes
upon her are powerless to make her forget him. In the end she is
permitted to return to her mountain home, where at the close of the
poem the lovers appear hand in hand and express, in warm, glowing
words, the superiority of genuine spontaneous {253} affection. The
real aim of the book, therefore, seems to be to glorify true love, and
more specifically, true betrothed love, which remains steadfast even in
the most dangerous and most seductive situations.

In this age, when the responsibility of the individual Christian and of
the Christian Church toward the practical, social, religious, and moral
problems and evils is recognized more than at any other previous time,
the prophetic li