Walking in the light.
That is in the path of present duty on which the light of revelation shines. The text is part of a spirited address to the Jews to avail themselves of the privileges they had. The prospects of a glorious peace-time must not keep them from fixing their thoughts on their immediate and pressing duty. It is right for us to cheer our souls by the look away to rest and heaven; but we must not lose the present opportunity in idle dreamings. The real way to win the heavenly is to live in righteousness, in truth, and in charity—to "walk in the light of the Lord." We remark, in unfolding this "light" in which we are invited to walk, that—
I. GOD GIVES LIGHT BY GIVING COMMANDMENTS. Illustrate from the great natural laws written in men's consciences and hearts. The Decalogue was in existence as unwritten law before the finger of God traced it on the tablets. Also from the ten commandments, as elaborated by Moses, and made to cover all the minutest details of a Jew's life and relations. And also from the commandments given by the Lord Jesus, and elaborated in detail by the apostles, so as to apply to all the circumstances and relations of the early Christians.
II. GOD GIVES LIGHT BY REVEALING PRINCIPLES. These underlay Mosaism, and were discovered by the more devout and thoughtful Jews. These were brought out to view by the later prophets. It is the great characteristic of Christianity that it is a religion of principles rather than of commands; and makes its appeal to the purposes and the motives rather than to the mere ordering of the conduct. The renewed man, in whom the Holy Ghost dwells, should rule life by the light of holy principles.
III. GOD GIVES LIGHT BY MANIFESTING HIMSELF. In the person of his Son, who is the "Light of the world;" "the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." God shows us his glory in the face of Jesus Christ; and to walk in obedience to Christ, in dependence upon Christ, in fellowship with Christ, and in full purpose to serve, honor, and glorify' Christ, is the way to "walk in the light of the Lord."—R.T.
Shame for the sinner.
We can more easily bear suffering than shame. Man has great powers of physical endurance. But we dread shame as we dread nothing else. There was the keenest distress in that old and cruel way of treating some criminals. They were put in the pillory. They were lifted up on a stage in the market-place. A frame was fastened round the neck and wrists, which left the head and hands exposed. Crowds gathered below, and scorned the poor man, throwing at him all manner of vile things, and then raising the laugh at his soiled and bemired face. The shame of such a punishment must have been very hard to bear. The chapter before us intimates that this intenser kind of punishment, this shame and humiliation, awaits all who forsake or neglect the living God, and serve the idols of their own pleasure. The Law of God must indeed rise up to vindicate its claims and execute its sanctions; it must lift up its hand to smite. But there is something more solemn than that; the Law shall come to the sinner himself one day. It shall look upon him with its look of inward purity and outraged love; it shall be the look of his God. That will be a flash of the eternal light; it will reveal to him the blackness of his heart, and pride will be, once for all, crushed; vain confidences will drop out of his hands, and, putting those hands on his face, he will cry m his shame, "O rock, hide me from the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty." The fear of coming shame ought to deter men from evil.
I. RIGHT AND WRONG ARE READILY CONFOUNDED IN THIS WORLD. "Woe unto those who call evil good, and good evil," disturbing thus the foundations of morals, and confusing the testimony of men's consciences. Evil and good are opposites, contradictories; they meet nowhere, they blend no how. Few men question the distinction between right and wrong, but many ask on what ground the distinction rests; and "Is it possible for us men clearly to recognize the distinction?" Are there no finer shades of circumstance which occasion difficulty and confusion? In this complicated state of society do we not need some very clear, sharp, precise test? And is there any such? There is. The right, the true, is everything with which we can associate the presence and inspection of God, without feeling either sense of unfitness or fear. In order to discover the contents and qualities of a substance, the chemist will add some testing fluid to it, and by the effect produced he learns the qualities. That we can do to test the rightness or wrongness of any act of life. Add the thought of God to it. But the fact stares us in the face that good and evil are now sadly confounded.
1. It is often so when the movements of life are made without befitting consideration. Into so many undertakings we are simply borne by the press of social customs, the example of our neighbors, or the influence of excitement; and we have actually stepped over the borderland of the right before we have quite realized our position.
2. It is often so because the false can put on such appearances as will suffice to deceive us. "Even Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
3. And it is often so because the wrong bias of our souls even makes us willing to see fancied goodness in the false. So often the wrong offers a present gratification of passion, and so stills opposition and effects its evil design.
II. SOONER OR LATER THE FALSENESS OF THE FALSE, AND THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE TRUE, MUST BE MANIFESTED; and that manifestation must prove an overwhelming shame to all who have served the false. The time of the manifestation is called "the day of God." In some sense the present is man's day. His voice is loud now; his will is strong now; his pleasures abundant; and God seems to be still. Wrong riots, and God seems to hold aloof. Sin rules, and in forbearance God restrains himself. And yet the truth is that God's day is an eternal now; it is always close at hand. It may be shown that God's day comes
Men may do in this twilight time of earth, deceiving themselves, and being deceived, in this dim, uncertain light, this mingled shade and shine. If they want to do wrong, it is only to push it a little further into the shadow, and then they cannot well see what it is. But men would blush to do their wrongs in the full blaze of day. They will hide their heads in shame when God dispels the shadows, and makes the revealing light of his day rest on their lives.—R.T.