Olney Hymns · Chapter
The Spider and Bee explained
This poem uses the contrasting behaviors of a spider and a bee on the same flower to illustrate the different responses of the wicked and believers to the Word of God.
What happens
This poem uses the contrasting behaviors of a spider and a bee on the same flower to illustrate the different responses of the wicked and believers to the Word of God. The bee gathers honey, symbolizing the sweet rewards and nourishment believers receive from Scripture, while the spider spins a cobweb and produces poison, representing how the wicked twist the same truths into vain refuges and license for sin. The poem concludes with a prayer for grace to renew hearts, lest the Word itself become a means of condemnation.
Themes in this chapter
Human Sinfulness and Depravity
The wicked are depicted as having 'vile venom' in their hearts, which poisons even the sweet truths of God's Word.
Grace and Unmerited Favor
The poem concludes with a plea for grace to renew hearts, acknowledging that without it, even the Word of life can lead to condemnation.
The Vanity of Worldly Things
The spider's cobweb represents vain refuges of lies, contrasting with the true honey of spiritual nourishment.
Characters to notice
- The Lord
Addressed in the final stanza as the one whose word of life and love can become a means of death unless grace renews hearts.
- The Narrator
The speaker observes the spider and bee, draws the spiritual analogy, and prays for grace.
- The Saints
Believers who, like bees, feed on the flowers of God's Word and bring home honey to the hive.
- The Wicked
Those who, like spiders, come to the same truths but convert them to poison due to their venomous hearts.
Key passages
“On the same flow’r we often see The loathsome spider and the bee; But what they get by working there Is diff’rent as their natures are.”
The same flower attracts both a repulsive spider and a productive bee, yet their outcomes differ because their inner natures are completely different.
The opening stanza sets up the central metaphor of contrasting responses to the same source.
“Thus in that sacred field, the Word, With flow’rs of God’s own planting stored. Like bees his children feed and thrive, And bring home honey to the hive.”
Similarly, the Bible is a sacred field planted by God, where believers, like bees, find nourishment and gather spiritual blessings to share with the church.
This stanza applies the bee metaphor to believers who benefit from Scripture.
“There, spider-like, the wicked come, And seem to taste the sweet perfume; But the vile venom of their hearts To poison all their food converts.”
The wicked, like spiders, approach the same truths and appear to enjoy them, but their corrupt hearts turn everything they touch into poison.
This stanza contrasts the wicked's experience with that of believers, emphasizing the corrupting influence of sin.
“Lord, shall thy word of life and love The means of death to numbers prove? Unless thy grace our hearts renew We sink to hell with heaven in view.”
O Lord, can your life-giving and loving Word actually become a cause of death for many? Without your grace to transform our hearts, we will perish even while seeing the possibility of heaven.
The final stanza is a prayerful reflection on the sobering reality that the same gospel can be a savor of life or death.