The King's Daughters
G. F. Cushman. Psalm 45:13 The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of worked gold. 1. The bridegroom is Jesus Himself; Solomon is but His type. The Church that is without wrinkle or spot, or any such thing is the beautiful bride. She is possessed of all those graces of heart and mind as well as of person which would incline the king to rejoice in her beauty. 2. Not unsuited to this occasion are allusions to this beautiful psalm. Before us we see the virgins that should be the attendants of the bride of Christ, the king's daughters who should be her honourable women. It is their vocation to do her honour, to lend additional though reflected lustre to her court. Whatever of beauty is theirs; whatever of grace and winning ways; whatever gives them influence or power in the Church or in the world — they are all the attributes that better qualify them for the duties of their high station. There may well be, there should be, gifts of gold, the fragrance of myrrh, aloes and cassia, beautiful forms and features, shining eyes, and ivory palaces at the marriage of the king's son. They are, however, the accidents and not the essential attributes of the virgins who are worthy to wait upon the spouse of Christ; like her, they must be all glorious within. No age ever excelled that of Pericles in all the arts that give softness and refinement to life. Painting, sculpture, the genius of Phidias and Praxiteles, the pencil of Zeuxis; the temple of the virgin goddess, with its elegant proportions and its carved facade, even in ruins one of the wonders of the world; poetry, oratory — all illustrated it and adorned it. The splendour of its court has passed into a proverb. Aspasia presided over it, wonderful for her wit, and beauty, and grace, yea, for her wisdom and learning, the confidante and counsellor of statesmen and kings. Her intellect, as her person, had been cultivated to its utmost limit; in that respect she was the paragon of her sex. But what ago was more corrupt than that of Pericles? Aspasia herself, the education of her moral nature and of her heart neglected, was a wreck; as the poet says, "one of those shameless women who are the worst of men." She was a splendid monument of what the unsanctified can be and do. Her clothing was of wrought gold, but she was not worthy to be a daughter of the King, for she was not all glorious within. No regard was paid to her complex being; her nature was distorted, and in the absence of virtue and religion she was not an unmeet prototype of many of the discrowned women of our own age. When you increase the capacity of the intellect and dwarf the moral nature, you produce not symmetry and grace, but spiritual deformity. There is in all true education a law of proportion; the mind, the heart, the body, must all be cultured if we would have a truly cultured man. 3. Therefore it is, O daughters of the Church! that we rejoice with you on this anniversary; therefore do we feel in the deep of our heart the munificence which has provided for you this sequestered and beautiful retreat, where learning is to be for over the handmaid of religion. Religion has made woman what she is. It has lifted her out of the slough of slavery and placed her upon a pedestal where she commands the admiration and love of the world; it has given her a potent influence in moulding its destiny. Deprive her of it, and she would fall back into the starless night whence she was so long emerging. Her clothing may be of wrought gold, she may be all covered with barbaric pearl; but only as she is a daughter of the King can she be all glorious within. (G. F. Cushman.) Parallel Verses KJV: The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. WEB: The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold.