Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 12 October, 2025
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
The Greatest Song Ever (1)
The Song of Songs [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Song 1
Text: Song 1:1a
I. The Meaning
II. The Title
III. The Reason
Psalms: 147:1-8; 144:9-15; 89:13-18; 45:10-15 (AOS)
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Greatest Song Ever (2)
The Song of Solomon [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Song 1
Text: Song 1:1b
I. The Inspired Penman
II. The Fitting Penman
Psalms: 19:7-13; 145:1-7 (AOS); 72:1-8; 127:1-5
For CDs of the sermons and DVDs of the worship services, contact Stephen Murray
If you desire a pastoral visit, please contact Rev. Stewart or the elders
CPRC Website: www.cprc.co.uk • Live Webcast: www.cprc.co.uk/live-streaming
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quote to Consider
Philip H. Eveson: “Among the early Christian writers and preachers to draw attention to this spiritual meaning are Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom and Augustine. In the Middle Ages Bernard of Clairvaux not only preached many sermons from this book but composed a poem based on it … Luther lectured on the Song showing how Solomon speaks for all this people who are the bride of the Lord. The Puritans found great spiritual benefit from it and James Durham wrote a helpful exposition that was commended by John Owen. In the foreword to George Burrowes’ commentary on the Song of Songs, Dr Lloyd-Jones commends among other things the way in which the author helps Christians to appreciate the Song’s spiritual treasures. Spurgeon loved to preach Christ from this book and Hudson Taylor’s little study Union and Communion has become something of a classic” (“Foreword” in Roger Ellsworth, He Is Altogether Lovely, p. 9).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
We welcome Andrew Prins to our worship services today.
Ivan Reid remains in Antrim Hospital. They hope to treat him for gall stones in the week ahead. Please continue to remember Ivan & Lily in your prayers, especially as Ivan celebrates his 85th birthday today.
Monday night catechism classes:
5:00 PM: Felicity & Sophie (Juniors NT)
5:45 PM: Grace, Jonas, Liam & Sammy (Beginners NT)
6:30 PM: Eleanora, Hannah, Jorja, Penelope & Xander (Seniors NT)
7:15 PM: Jason, Maisie & Sebastian (Heidelberg Catechism – Book 2)
8:00 PM: Abbie, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Essentials)
Tuesday Bible study will meet this week at 11 AM to treat the fulfilment of prophecies in Jesus Christ in Paul’s sermon in Acts 13, etc.
The Belgic Confession class will continue this Wednesday at 7:30 PM. We will consider further the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled “Not by Might, but by My Spirit” (Zech. 4:6).
Offerings: £2,361.72. Donations: £200 (New Jersey).
Translation Additions: 2 Hungarian.
PRC News: Hudsonville PRC called Rev. Maatman. Grandville PRC called Rev. Barnhill. Hope PRC (Redlands) called Rev. Engelsma. Byron Center PRC called Rev. McGeown to be minister-on-loan to the Philippines. Grace PRC has formed a new trio of Revs. Barnhill, Langerak and Spronk. Lynden PRC has formed a trio of Revs. Barnhill, Brummel and D. Kleyn.
Quotations on the Song of Solomon
Athanasius (c. 297-373): “[The Song of Solomon] is as John Baptist among the Prophets. Other Scriptures speak of Christ as coming, and afar off; this speaks of him, and to him, as already come, and near hand” (quoted in James Durham, Clavis Cantici or an Exposition of the Song of Solomon [London: Forgotten Books, 2018], p. 29).
Augustine (354-430): “The Song of songs is a spiritual delight of holy minds, in the nuptial union of that king and queen of the heavenly kingdom, which is Christ and the Church. But this pleasure is wrapped up in folds of allegory that it may be more ardently desired and may be unfolded with greater delight.”
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153): “But there is that other song which, by its unique dignity and sweetness, excels all those I have mentioned and any others there might be; hence by every right do I acclaim it as the Song of Songs. It stands at a point where all the others culminate. Only the touch of the Spirit can inspire a song like this, and only personal experience can unfold its meaning. Let those who are versed in the mystery revel in it; let all others burn with de sire rather to attain to this experience than merely to learn about it. For it is not a melody that re sounds abroad but the very music of the heart, not a trilling on the lips but an inward pulsing of delight, a harmony not of voices but of wills. It is a tune you will not hear in the streets, these notes do not sound where crowds assemble; only the singer hears it and the one to whom he sings-the lover and the beloved. It is pre-eminently a marriage song telling of chaste souls in loving embrace, of their wills in sweet concord, of the mutual exchange of the heart’s affections” (Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 1, VI.11).
Martin Luther (1483–1546): “Solomon … uses magnificent words—words that are worthy of so great a king—in describing his concerns. He makes God the bridegroom and his people the bride, and in this mode he sings of how much God loves that people, how many and how rich are the gifts He lavishes and heaps upon it, and finally how He embraces and cherishes the same people with a goodness and mercy with which no bridegroom has ever embraced or cherished his bride” (Lectures on the Song of Solomon).
Theodore Beza (1519-1605): “Those instructed and advanced in the divine life, the writer of this song does, as it were, carry away with him beyond the regions of earth to the contemplation of heavenly things—as though being now citizens of heaven, they might knock for admission at its gates.”
John Cotton (1585-1652): “The first reason why this song is more excellent than others, is because this song speaketh not only of the chiefest matter, to wit, Christ and his church, but also more largely than any of David’s psalms, and with more store of more sweet and precious, exquisite and amiable resemblances, taken from the richest jewels, the sweetest spices, gardens, orchards, vineyards, wine-cellars, and the chiefest beauties of all the works of God and man” (A Brief Exposition of the Whole Book of Canticles or Song of Solomon [Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1868], p. 3).
John Owen (1616-1683): “Then may a man judge himself to have somewhat profited in the experience of a mystery of a blessed intercourse and communion with Christ, when the expressions of love in that holy Dialogue, the Song, do give light and life unto his mind, and efficaciously communicate unto him an experience of their power. But because these things are little understood by many, the book itself is much neglected, if not despised.”
James Durham (1622-1658): “The divine mystery intended, and set forth here, is the mutual love, and spiritual union and communion that is betwixt Christ and his Church, and their mutual carriage towards one another, in several conditions and dispensations” (Clavis Cantici or an Exposition of the Song of Solomon [London: Forgotten Books, 2018], p. 9).
Matthew Poole (1624-1679): “[The Song of Solomon] is to be understood mystically or allegorically, concerning that spiritual love and marriage which is between God, or Christ, and his church, or every believing soul … God compares himself to a bridegroom, and his church to a bride, Isaiah 62:5, and calls and owns himself the Husband of his people, Isaiah 54:5; Hosea 2:16, 19-20. In which places, by comparing these. with many other texts of Scripture, by God, or the Lord, is meant Christ, the second person in the Godhead, who then was to come down, and since did come from heaven to earth, for the consummation of that eternal project of marriage between God and his people; which also is fully confirmed by the writings of the New Testament which were designed for the explication of the Old, in which Christ is expressly declared to be the Bridegroom or Husband of his church, as Matthew 9:15; 22:2; John 3:29; II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:23; Revelation 19:7; 21:2; 22:17.”
