Song of Solomon 2:1

Whatever beauty there may be in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world tenfold. Among flowers, the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens of earth.

He takes first place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark in comparison with Him, for the King in His beauty transcends all. “I am the rose of Sharon.” This was the best and rarest of roses.

Jesus is not “the rose” alone; He is “the rose of Sharon,” just as He calls His righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of Ophir”—the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest. There is variety in His charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification in Jesus.

Even the recollection of His love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, pull it leaf from leaf, and lay aside the leaves in the jar of memory, and you will find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full.

The greatest devotee of perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose; and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she will still be content with Christ; indeed, she will be better able to appreciate Him. Heaven itself possesses nothing that excels the rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully portray His beauty? Human speech and earth-born things fail to tell of Him. Earth’s choicest charms, commingled, feebly picture His abounding preciousness. Blessed Rose, bloom in my heart forever!