Union and Communion; or, Thoughts on the Song of Solomon — Background and Themes

The Bride's Self-Satisfaction and the Knocking Suitor

In the excerpt from Section IV, Taylor focuses on the bride's condition of 'self-satisfaction and love of ease' that closes the door to the Bridegroom. He contrasts this with the earlier call to 'Arise, and come away,' noting that now the Bridegroom's word is 'Open to Me, My sister, My love.' The Bridegroom's plea—'My head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night'—is interpreted as the result of His shepherd-heart seeking wandering sheep. Taylor writes, 'The heart that never can forget, the love that never can fail, must seek the wandering sheep until the lost one has been found.' The bride's response—'I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?'—is read as a refusal to leave comfort for self-denying service. Taylor warns against delighting in conferences and rest while neglecting 'to fight the good fight of faith.'

The Danger of Occupied with One's Own Graces

Taylor observes that when the bride finally rises to open the door, she is 'more concerned to anoint herself with the liquid myrrh than to speedily welcome her waiting Lord.' The myrrh on her hands and fingers becomes a symbol of preoccupation with her own spiritual graces rather than with the Bridegroom's desire. The result is that 'the grieved One had withdrawn Himself before she was ready to receive Him.' This sequence—the Bridegroom's knocking, the bride's delay, and His withdrawal—is presented as a pattern for the believer's experience of communion broken by self-focus. Taylor does not claim that the bride's position is wrong; rather, her condition is the problem. The passage illustrates how even legitimate spiritual practices can become barriers to immediate responsiveness to Christ.

The Shepherd Heart and the Wandering Sheep

Taylor repeatedly ties the Bridegroom's actions to His shepherd heart. The dew on His head is explained by His labor: 'There are those whom the Father has given to Him who are wandering on the dark mountains of sin.' The Bridegroom's knocking is linked to Revelation 3:20, where Christ stands at the door and knocks. Taylor emphasizes that the Bridegroom's entreaty is 'touching' and 'sad' because He is outside a closed door—a door that belongs to a heart that is His own. The bride's failure to open is not rebellion but lethargy: she is 'asleep' though her heart wakes. Taylor's reading consistently draws the reader's attention to the cost of the Bridegroom's love—the night, the dew, the solitary seeking—as a motivation for the believer's response.

Taylor's commentary is best read as a devotional companion to the Song of Solomon, not a scholarly analysis. Readers familiar with the biblical text will notice that Taylor selects and interprets verses to fit his allegorical framework, often passing over alternative readings. The book's value lies in its pastoral application: it invites the reader to examine their own responsiveness to Christ, using the bride's failures and restorations as mirrors. The foreword's claim that Taylor 'exemplified' what he expounded suggests that the author's life—as founder of the China Inland Mission—is meant to lend credibility to the interpretation.

That September drizzle kept me indoors, and I found myself underlining Taylor’s quiet insistence that the bride’s ache was not shameful but sacred. Later, thumbing the bookshelf, the same gentle logic surfaced in another old volume: St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians: A Practical Exposition — Context and Discussion. Both seemed to whisper that union is less grasped than received—a slow, unhurried homecoming.