Of this opportunity for receiving the light we would do well
Christ charges the people of His day with having the light and ignoring it. For God, having lighted the candle of the Gospel, did not put it in a secret place or under a bushel—Christ did not preach in corners (Luke xi. 33ff.). The apostles were ordered to preach the Gospel to every creature. Both in Christ and His ministers wisdom and her maidens cry in the chief places of concourse. It is a great privilege that the light of the Gospel is put on a candlestick, so that all who come in may see it, and may see by it where they are, and whither they are going; and what is the true, and sure and only way to happiness.
Having the light, their concern should be to have the sight; or else to what purpose had they the light? Be the object never so clear, if the organ be not right we are never the better. The light of the body is the eye, which receives the light of the candle when it is brought into the room. So the light of the soul is the 'understanding and judgement'', and its powers of discerning between good and evil, truth and falsehood.
If this eye of the soul be single, if it see clearly—if it aim at truth only, and seek it for its own sake, and have not any sinister by-looks and intentions—the whole body, that is the whole soul, is full of light. It receives and entertains the Gospel, which will bring along with it into the soul both knowledge and joy. If our understanding admit the Gospel in full light, it fills the soul, and it has enough to fill it. And if the soul be thus filled with the light of the Gospel, ''having no part dark'"'— if all its powers and faculties be subjected to the government and influence of the Good, and none left unsanctified, then ''the whole soul shall be full of light"', full of holiness and comfort. It was darkness itself, but is now light in the Lord. The Gospel will come into those souls whose doors and windows are thrown open to receive it; and where it comes it will bring light with it.
8. WALK BY THE LIGHT
Of this opportunity for receiving the light we would do well to heed the warning given by our Lord to the people of His day, '' Walk, while ye have the light"' (fohn xit. 36), as travellers who make the best of their way forward, that they might not be benighted in their journey. Travelling in the night is uncomfortable and unsafe. ''Come," they say, "let us mind our pace, and get forward while we have daylight.'' We should likewise be wise for our souls as we journey towards eternity.
Light
(a) It ts our business to walk, to press forward towards heaven, and to get nearer it, by being made fitter for it. Our life is but a day; and we have a day's journey to go.
(6) The best time of walking is while we have the light. The day is the proper season for work, as the night is for rest. The proper time for getting grace is when we have the Gospel of grace preached to us, and the spirit of grace striving with us. Then is the time to be busy.
(c) We are highly concerned thus to improve our opportunities, for fear lest our day be finished before we have finished our day's work and day's journey; '"'lest darkness come upon you''; lest you lose your opportunities and can neither recover them nor despatch the business you have to do without them. The darkness comes—that is such an utter incapacity.
"While ye have the light, believe in the light."" This is an admonition to the Jews not to outstand their market, but to accept the offer when it was made to them. The same Christ says to us all who enjoy the Gospel.
So it is the business of the ministers of Christ to proclaim the light. For by the Gospel light men have the "knowledge of the glory of God"' which shineth in the "face of Jesus Christ"' (2 Cor. iv. 6). The light of this Sun of Righteousness is more glorious than that light which God "commanded to shine out of darkness''. It is a pleasant thing for the eye to behold the sun in the firmament, but it is more pleasant and profitable when the Gospel shineth in the heart.
Note that as light was the first-born of the first creation, so it is in the new creation. The illumination of the Spirit is His first work on the soul. St. James (i. 17) tells us that God is "the Father of lights". The visible light of the sun and heavenly bodies is from Him. As the sun is the same in its nature and influence, though the earth and clouds often interposing make it seem to us as varying, by its rising and setting, and by its different appearances, or entire withdrawments, when change is not in it; so God is unchangeable, and our changes and shadows are not from any instability, or shadowy alterations in Him but from ourselves. ''The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."' What the sun is in nature, God is in grace, providence and glory. Aye, and infinitely more.
g. Gop 1s LIGHT
"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 Fohn i. 5). A message from the Word of life, from the eternal Word, we should gladly receive.
This report asserts the excellency of the divine nature. He is all that beauty and perfection that can be represented to us by light. He is self-active, uncompounded spirituality, purity, wisdom, holiness, and glory. And then the absoluteness and fullness of that excellency and perfection. There is no defect or imperfection, no mixture of anything alien or contrary to absolute excellency, no instability nor capacity of any decay in Him. "In Him is no darkness at all."' Or this report may more immediately relate to what is usually called the moral perfection of the divine nature, what we are to imitate, or what is more directly to influence us in our Gospel work. And so it will comprehend the holiness of God, the absolute purity of His nature and will, His penetrative knowledge (particularly of hearts), His jealousy and justice, which burn as a most bright and vehement flame.
It is meet that to this dark world the great God should be represented as pure and perfect light. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who best of all opens to us the name and nature of the unsearchable God: "The only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, the same hath declared him." It is the prerogative of the Christian revelation to bring us the most noble, the most august and agreeable account of the blessed God; such as is most suitable to the light of reason and what is demonstrable thereby, most suitable to the magnificence of His work round about us, and to the nature and office of Him who is the supreme administrator, governor and judge of the world. What more could be included in one word than in this, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all''?
SERMON OUTLINE
LIGHT
THE CREATION OF THE LIGHT (a) The Light God's Act of Creation (6) The Light Made by the Word of His Power (c) The Light Approved by the Creator (d) The Light Separated from the Darkness THE PROMISE OF THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL (a) The Fact of the Coming of the Light (6) The Method by which the Light Should Come
Ii.
CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (a) The Light Revealed
Ill.
(i) In human conscience (ii) In ancient types (6) The Light Rejected
(i) By the Gentile world (ii) By the Jewish nation THe Duty OF WALKING IN THE LIGHT
TY.
(a) The Way of Doing This: "He that Followeth Me"' (b) The Time for Doing This: "Walk While Ye Have the Light"'