The symbols of God's presence.
I. GOD IS SEEN BY THOSE WHO UNFEIGNEDLY LOVE HIM AS PURE LIGHT. "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12; John 9:5). "In him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). "In him is no darkness at all" (1 John 2:5). With clear unclouded radiance he shines on those who tread his heavenly courts, which need no other light besides him. "The city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof" (Revelation 21:23). With a radiance not much less bright, he looks upon his saints on earth, cheering them, illumining their paths, making them glad with the light of his countenance. He may veil himself in condescension to their infirmity; but the veil is translucent; it covers without concealing; it tempers the brightness, but only as a thin haze tempers the splendours of the lord of day.
II. GOD SHOWS HIMSELF TO THE GENERALITY OF MEN AS MINGLED LIGHT AND CLOUD. To Abraham he appeared as "a smoking furnace and a burning lamp" (Genesis 15:17); to the Israelites at Sinai as combined smoke and fire (Exodus 19:18); to Solomon, dazzled by his glory, he was still one who "dwelt in the thick darkness" (1 Kings 8:12). When Isaiah beheld him sitting in his temple "the house was filled with smoke" (Isaiah 6:1-4); when Ezekiel "saw visions of God," he "looked and behold, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself." Wherever the glory of the Lord is seen, wherever he looks upon men with. mercy and compassion, there his proper symbolism is light, though it may be a light partially obscured and mingled with darkness. For darkness symbolises his anger; and in the case of his wayward children, he cannot but be at once compassionate and angry; displeased, yet anxious to forgive. Or the darkness may be the dense cloud of human ignorance which the Divine light can only partially pierce through. Any way, the bulk of men see God as a light amid smoke. "Clouds and darkness are round about him" (Psalms 97:2)—"he makes darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him with dark waters, and thick clouds to cover him" (Psalms 18:11). Fire flashes out of the clouds occasionally; gleams of light stream forth; "at the brightness of his presence, his clouds remove" (Psalms 12:1-8), and he is seen to be man's "true light."
III. GOD IS TO SOME MERE DARKNESS, A DENSE OPAQUE CLOUD. This he is:—
1. To agnostics—to them who know him not, and refuse to believe that he can be known;
2. To them who have never heard of him, but have a dim unconscious feeling that some infinite unknown being exists;
3. To them that have been taught to view him as a remorseless, revengeful being, without pity or mercy;
4. To them that, having known him aright, have cast his words behind their back, thrown off his authority, and placed themselves in determined antagonism to his will and commandments. All is dark in the future to such persons; and in the thought of God is "the blackness of darkness for ever." Because they have not chosen to retain God in their knowledge, God has given them over to a reprobate mind (Romans 1:28). They "put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." He, in whom is no darkness at all, is to them mere darkness. The God of this world has "blinded their eyes" that they cannot see; and, like a blind man, looking at the sun, the darkness which is in their own vision they ascribe to the object which' their dim sight, fails to distinguish.,, God is "the,, true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9). But if the light that is within thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23.)
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART