I need not dwell on the vividness and beauty of that metaphor. These
encircling flames will consume all antagonism, and defy all approach.
But let me remind you that the conditional promise was intended for
Judæa and Jerusalem, and was fulfilled in literal fact. So long as the
city obeyed and trusted God it was impregnable, though all the nations
stood round about it, like dogs round a sheep. The fulfilment of the
promise has passed over, with all the rest that characterised Israel's
position, to the Christian Church, and to-day, in the midst of all the
agitations of opinion, and all the vauntings of men about an effete
Christianity, and dead churches, it is as true as ever it was that the
living Church of God is eternal. If it had not been that there was a God
as a wall of fire round about the Church, it would have been wiped off
the face of the earth long ago. If nothing else had killed it the faults
of its members would have done so. The continuance of the Church is a
perpetual miracle, when you take into account the weakness, and the
errors, and the follies, and the stupidities, and the narrownesses, and
the sins, of the people who in any given day represent it. That it
should stand at all, and that it should conquer, seems to me to be as
plain a demonstration of the present working of God, as is the existence
still, as a separate individuality amongst the peoples of the earth, of
His ancient people, the Jews. Who was it who said, when somebody asked
him for the best proof of the truth of Christianity, 'The Jews'? and so
we may say, if you want a demonstration that God is working in the
world, 'Look at the continuance of the Christian Church.'
In spite of all the vauntings of people that have already discounted its
fall, and are talking as if it needed no more to be reckoned with, that
calm confidence is the spirit in which we are to look around and
forward. It does not become any Christian ever to have the smallest
scintillation of a fear that the ship that bears Jesus Christ can fail
to come to land, or can sink in the midst of the waters. There was once
a timid would-be helper who put out his hand to hold up the Ark of God.
He need not have been afraid. The oxen might stumble, and the cart roll
about, but the Ark was safe and stable. A great deal may go, but the
wall of fire will be around the Church. In regard to its existence, as
in regard to the immortal being of each of its members, the great word
remains for ever true: 'Because I live ye shall live also.'
But do not let us forget that this great promise does not belong only to
the Church as a whole, but that we have each to bring it down to our
own individual lives, and to be quite sure of this, that in spite of all
that sense says, in spite of all that quivering hearts and weeping eyes
may seem to prove, there is a wall of fire round each of us, if we are
keeping near Jesus Christ, through which it is as impossible that any
real evil should pass and get at us, as it would be impossible that any
living thing should pass through the flaming battlements that the
Prophet saw round his ideal city. Only we have to interpret that promise
by faith and not by sense, and we have to make it possible that it shall
be fulfilled by keeping inside the wall, and trusting to it. As faith
dwindles, the fiery wall burns dim, and evil can get across its embers,
and can get at us. Keep within the battlements, and they will flame up
bright and impassable, with a fire that on the outer side consumes, but
to those within is a fire that cherishes and warms.
II. The next point of the promise passes into a more intimate region. It
is well to have a defence from that which is without us; but it is more
needful to have, if a comparison can be made between the two, a glory
'in the midst' of us.
The one is external defence; the other inward illumination, with all
which light symbolises--knowledge, joy, purity.
There is even more than that meant by this great promise. For notice
that emphatic little word _the--the_ glory, not _a_ glory--in the midst
of her. Now you all know what 'the glory' was. It was that symbolic
Light that spoke of the special presence of God, and went with the
Children of Israel in their wanderings, and sat between the Cherubim.
There was no 'Shechinah,' as it is technically called, in that second
Temple. But yet the Prophet says, 'The glory'--the actual presence of
God--'shall be in the midst of her,' and the meaning of that great
promise is taught us by the very last vision in the New Testament, in
which the Seer of the Apocalypse says, 'The glory of the Lord did
lighten it' (evidently quoting Zechariah), 'and the Lamb is the light
thereof.' So the city is lit as by one central glow of radiance that
flashes its beams into every corner, and therefore 'there shall be no
night there.'
Now this promise, too, bears on churches and on individuals. On the
Church as a whole it bears in this way: the only means by which a
Christian community can fulfil its function, and be the light of the
world, is by having the presence of God, in no metaphor, the actual
presence of the illuminating Spirit in its midst. If it has not that, it
may have anything and everything else--wealth, culture, learning,
eloquence, influence in the world--but all is of no use; it will be
darkness. We are light only in proportion as we are 'light in the Lord.'
As long as we, as communities, keep our hearts in touch with Him, so
long do we shine. Break the contact, and the light fades and flickers
out.
The same thing is true, dear brethren, about individuals. For each of us
the secret of joy, of purity, of knowledge, is that we be holding close
communion with God. If we have Him in the depths of our hearts, then,
and only then, shall we be 'light in the Lord.'
And now look at the last point which follows, as I have said, as the
result of the other two.