Sermons on the Song of Songs43 Sermon XLIII. How meditation on the sufferings and the passion of Jesus Christ enables the Bride, that is, the faithful soul, to pass uninjured alike through the prosperity and the adversity of this world

A BUNDLE of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me: He shall lie between my breasts. Before He was called the King,' now He is called 'well-belovedbefore he was in His royal banqueting-room, now He is abiding willingly with the Bride. Great is the virtue of humility, since the majesty of Godhead itself so easily condescends to it. A name of reverence is quickly changed into a term of friendship, and he who was afar off was in a brief time 2. I remember that in one of my former Sermons I explained these as signifying sympathy in joy with others, and sympathy with them also in sorrow, according to the precept of St. Paul: Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep (Rom. xii. 15). But because, as she lives between prosperity and adversity, she is aware that there is danger upon either side, she desires to have her Beloved upon her breast and near her heart, so that by His protection she may be continually strengthened against both the one danger and the other, and neither be unduly lifted up in time of rejoicing nor cast down in time of sorrow. You, also, if you are wise, will imitate the wisdom of the Bride; you will not allow that bundle of myrrh, which you hold so dear, and which is the fellowship you have with the sufferings of your Master, to be torn away from your heart even for 1 Fascis fasciculus. This fanciful play upon words can hardly be translated. 1 Sermon X.t n. I.

3. As regards myself, I, brethren, from the beginning of my conversion, set myself, in place of all the merits in which I knew that I was wanting, to bind up this little bundle of myrrh for my individual needs, collected from all the cares and bitter experiences of my Lord, and to keep it always close upon my breast; in the first place, of the privations of His infant years; then of the labours He underwent in preaching, His fatigues in journeying to and fro, His watchings in prayer, His fastings and temptations, His tears of compassion, the snares laid for Him in discourse; and, lastly, of His perils among false brethren, of insults, spitting, blows, abuse, scorn, piercing by nails, and other such things, which He suffered for the salvation of our race, which in the (Jospel history, as in a wood, may abundantly be gathered. And, among so many branches of that fragrant myrrh, I think that cannot be passed over, of which He tasted when upon the Cross, nor that wherewith He was embalmed in the sepulchre. In the first of these He applied to Himself the bitterness of my sins, in the second He pronounced the future incorruption of my body. As long as I live I will proclaim loudly the abundance of the graces which come from these; I will never forget those mercies, since it is by them that I have been restored to life.

4. It was these mercies of which holy David formerly entreated with tears: Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live (Ps. cxix. 77). Of them, too, another saint recalled the remembrance, with weeping: Great are the mercies of the Lord. How many kings and prophets have desired to see the things which I see, and have not seen them! They have laboured, and I have entered into their labours; I have reaped the harvest of myrrh which they have planted; it is for me that this salutary bundle has been reserved. No one shall take it from me; it shall lie between my breasts. To meditate on these things I have called wisdom; in these I have placed the perfection of righteousness for me, the fulness of knowledge, the abundance of merits, the riches of salvation. There is among them for me sometimes a draught of salutary bitterness; sometimes, again, a sweet unction of consolation. In adversities they raise me up, and in prosperity repress my exuberant delight, and among the joys on the one hand, and the sorrows of the other, of this present life, they enable me to walk in safety along the royal road which leads to life by defending me from the perils on either hand. These conciliate on my behalf the Judge of all the world, showing to me Him who is so greatly to be feared, as one who is gentle and humble, and not only making Him willing to receive and to pardon, but even more, in giving roe Him who is far above all powers, and terrible among the kings of the earth, as a model for me to imitate. It is for these reasons that have these [sufferings of Jesus frequently in my mouth, as you know, 5. My dearest brethren, do you also gather for yourselves each a bundle so precious and beloved, give it a place in the depths of your heart, fortify with it the portal of your breast, that it may abide between your breasts also. Let [Jesus be borne, not behind you and on your shoulders as a burden, but in front of you and before your eyes, lest 1 A curious and interesting incident is connected with these words of the Sermon: When the Abbey of Clairvaux had been suppressed by the Directory of France, the church and monastic buildings were sold, on the 10th February, 1792, to the ' Sieur Pierre-Claude Cauzon, architecte,' for the sum of 337,500 livres. He proceeded to set up a manufactory of glass there, and in order to carry out this purpose, required of the vendors, according to the conditions of sale, that all the relics of saints, as well as the remains of bishops, monks, and others, of which there were great numbers deposited in the church and its precincts, should be forthwith removed.

The inhabitants of Ville, in which parish Clairvaux is situated, seem to have been shocked and outraged, as well they might be, at the contemplated spoliation and sacrilege. They desired that the relics of St. Bernard and St. Malachi and other holy men, for which their veneration is extreme,' should be deposited, if they must be removed, in their parish church of Ville«sous-La Ferte. In order to meet their wishes, which (says the official charged to carry out the affair) ' it might, perhaps, be dangerous to treat with disregard and contempt (frotider), order was given by the Directory of Bar-sur-Aube that this should be done, and that the bones of all the less distinguished persons should be deposited together in the churchyard of that parish. This seems to have been accordingly done in 1793. (* Report of M. Delaine, Administrates du Directoire.')

The statement of these details was necessary to explain what follows.

In 1855 the Count de Montalembert, the illustrious author of 'The Monks of the West,' was collecting materials for that 1 Life of St. Bernard,' which, unfortunately, he did not live to finish. At his instance, M. Guignard, Town Librarian of Dijon, visited this Church of Ville-sous-La Ferte, and from his account of what he found there we extract the following interesting facts:

' In the little sacristy of that church there repose, in an old wooden chest, once used for treasure, the bones removed from the Church of Clairvaux in 1793. Before 1836 or 1837 they were in the shells used for their translation; at or after that date they were thrown pele mile into this worm-eaten coffer, and the shells were burned. It is half-filled by them.' After describing the nature and condition of the bones, and other mouldering fragments which were with them, he continues:

* Finally there was a very thin board, nearly inches long, and 3$ inches high, which wa,s covered with a leaf of parchment turning up at the edges, along which it is fastened by small nails. A wooden link, nailed at its lower part to the board, suggests that it was intended to be hung up, or at all events, to be put in an upright position. This parchment bears four lines of writing; it is entirely eaten away in the centre, but the ends of the lines are still legible. The writing is plainly of the twelfth century.' This is a facsimile of the inscription:

The presence of this written quotation is a proof (were any needful) that the relics are those of St. Bernard. But it suggests even more than this. When we bear in mind the Saint's own words: ' Habetehunc fasciculum... ante tra oculis? and observe that we have here a text nailed upon a board, with a hook by which it might be hung up, for instance upon a wall, the inference is surely not a violent one that the Saint had carried into effect his own precept, and that this text was written out, it may be by his own hand, to hang upon the wall of his cell, and thus to be literally * always before his eyes/ Then his disciples, after his lamented death, would carry out the precept so dear to their master, a step further; they would lay it upon his breast in his tomb, and thus his devout aspiration would be accomplished: ' inter ubera mea commorabitur,' It is a pleasant thought, and not at all an improbable one, that we have here some few words in the autograph of the Saint.—Ed.

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