Song of Solomon 8:1

O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

Song of Solomon 8:1

Oh that thou (wert) as my brother. He had been a brother already. Why, then, this prayer here? It refers to the time after His resurrection, when the previous outward intimacy with Him was no longer allowed; but it was implied that it should be renewed at the second coming (): for this the Church here prays. Meanwhile she enjoys inward spiritual communion with Him.

I would kiss thee. The last who ever 'kissed" Jesus Christ on earth was the traitor Judas. The bride's return with the King to her mother's house answers to , after the mission to Samaria (Moody Stuart) (Song of Solomon 7:11). The rest spoken of () answers to .

That sucked ... mother - a brother born of the same mother: the closest tie. The bride, the Church, desires no longer with alternations, now in a chamber, now in a garden, now in a field, to enjoy hasty glimpses of Christ, but continuously, and without interruption, as it shall be in the coming manifestation of Christ and of His saints in glory.

He is the older Brother of the Church by His incarnation (; Hebrews 2:11). In a special sense the penitent Israelite Church is meant, when she shall long for the Saviour who has been found by "the daughters of Jerusalem," the Gentiles who had learned Christianity first from her.