Song of Solomon 2:1-2

Song of Solomon 2:1-2. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

It is the nature of love to make the thing beloved like itself. If Christ be a lily. he makes his people lilies too. Certainly he is the lily of the valley, and ere long his Church is able to say, "As the lily among the thorns, so am I," while for the present Jesus says it. She is among the thorns, thorns that hurt and vex her. The people of God are still in the tents of Kedar, still among the wicked, having their ears vexed with their filthy conversation. But the lily is all the more beautiful on account of the thorns that make the background, and so your piety may be all the more resplendent because of the evil men among whom you sojourn.