God is 'the Father of lights.' The sun and all the stars are only lights
kindled by Him. It is the very crown of revelation that 'God is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all.' Light seems to the unscientific eye,
which knows nothing about undulations of a luminiferous ether, to be the
least material of material things. All joyous things come with it. It
brings warmth and fruit, fulness and life. Purity, and gladness, and
knowledge have been symbolised by it in all tongues. The Scripture uses
light, and the sun, which is its source, as an emblem for God in His
holiness, and blessedness, and omniscience. This great word here seems
to point chiefly to light as knowledge.
This saying is true, as the former clause was, in relation to all the
light which men have. 'The inspiration of the Almighty giveth him
understanding.' The faculties by which men know, and all the exercise of
those faculties, are His gift. It is in the measure in which God's light
comes to the eye that the eye beholds. 'Light' may mean not only the
faculty, but the medium of vision. It is in the measure in which God's
light comes, and because His light comes, that all light of reason in
human nature sees the truth which is its light. God is the Author of all
true thoughts in all mankind. The spirit of man is a candle kindled by
the Lord.
But as I said about life, so I say about light. The material or
intellectual aspects of the word are not the main ones here. The
reference is to the spiritual gift which belongs to the men 'who put
their trust beneath the shadow of Thy wings.' In communion with Him who
is the Light as well as the Life of men, we see a whole universe of
glories, realities, and brightnesses. Where other eyes see only
darkness, we behold 'the King in His beauty, and the land that is very
far off.' Where other men see only cloudland and mists, our vision will
pierce into the unseen, and there behold 'the things which are,' the
only real things, of which all that the eye of sense sees are only the
fleeting shadows, seen as in a dream, while these are the true, and the
sight of them is sight indeed. They who see by the light of God, and see
light therein, have a vision which is more than imagination, more than
opinion, more than belief. It is certitude. Communication with God does
not bring with it superior intellectual perspicuity, but it does bring a
perception of spiritual realities and relations, which, in respect of
clearness and certainty, may be called sight. Many of us walk in
darkness, who, if we were but in communion with God, would see the lone
hillside blazing with chariots and horses of fire. Many of us grope in
perplexity, who, if we were but hiding under the shadow of God's wings,
would see the truth and walk at liberty in the light, which is knowledge
and purity and joy.
In communication with God, we see light upon all the paths of duty. It
is wonderful how, when a man lives near God, he gets to know what he
ought to do. That great Light, which is Christ, is like the star that
hung over the Magi, blazing in the heavens, and yet stooping to the
lowly task of guiding three wayfaring men along a muddy road upon earth.
So the highest Light of God comes down to be 'a lantern for our paths
and a light for our feet.'
And in the same communion with God, we get light in all seasons of
darkness and of sorrow. 'To the upright there ariseth light in the
darkness'; and the darkest hours of earthly fortune will be like a
Greenland summer night, when the sun scarcely dips below the horizon,
and even when it is absent, all the heaven is aglow with a calm
twilight.
All these great blessings belong to-day to those who take refuge under
the shadow of His wings. But blessed as the present experience is, we
have to look for the perfecting of it when we pass from the forecourt to
the inner sanctuary, and in that higher house sit with Christ at His
table and feast at 'the marriage supper of the Lamb.' Here we drink from
the river, but there we shall be carried up to the source. The life of
God in the soul is here often feeble in its flow, 'a fountain sealed'
and all but shut up in our hearts, but there it will pour through all
our being, a fountain springing up into everlasting life. The darkness
is scattered even here by beams of the true light, but here we are only
in the morning twilight, and many clouds still fill the sky, and many a
deep gorge lies in sunless shadow, but there the light shall be a broad
universal blaze, and there shall be 'nothing hid from the heat thereof.'
Now, dear brethren! the sum of the whole matter is, that all this
fourfold blessing of satisfaction, joy, life, light, is given to you, if
you will take Christ. He will feed you with the bread of God; He will
give you His own joy to drink; He will be in you the life of your lives,
and 'the master-light of all your seeing.' And if you will not have Him,
you will starve, and your lips will be cracked with thirst; and you will
live a life which is death, and you will sink at last into outer
darkness.
Is that the fate which you are going to choose? Choose Christ, and He
will give you satisfaction, and joy, and life, and light.