A BECOMING WALK
by Silas Durand .
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" Eph. 5:8
The apostle often reminds the saints that they were once in a state of darkness, and utter enmity against God. Sometimes, as in Eph. 2:5, reference is made to this fact to show the unbounded, everlasting love of God in bestowing his grace upon us; sometimes, as in Rom.3:9, and Eph.2:3, to show that this grace was not bestowed because of any superior worthiness in the recipient by nature over the rest of the world, but according to His own purpose which he purposed in himself before the world began sometimes, as in Titus 3:3, this is alluded to as a reason why the saints, should be meek and gentle towards all men and sometimes, as in the text above quoted, reference is made to their state before the kindness and mercy of God appeared to them, to enforce an exhortation against indulging their carnal propensities. There was a time when we could freely indulge in vain conversation foolish talking, jesting, and filthy communications, and would not acknowledge anything wrong in it. At that time we were in darkness. The light which makes sin manifest to the sinner had not yet shone in our hearts. We accounted only that as evil which the civil and social laws so regarded. But when the true light blazed upon us with its searching and discriminating power, we judged a different judgment; our hearts were laid bare, and discovered to our abashed and agonized view abundance of evil of the most hideous kind, and not a trait of good. The world often looks with astonishment upon the self-abasement and suffering of one thus tried. It can not understand how one who has been regarded among men as most exemplary can look upon himself with abhorrence on account of evil in his nature. The world looks but at actions--outward expressions of evil. But the trouble of the awakened sinner is on account of inward depravity. He does not shrink, and tremble, and abase himself because he feels the eye of the world upon him: what men may think or say is of little moment now. He feels -the eye of Him upon him who searches the hearts and tries the reins of men, All the hidden evil of his nature is open to the eye of him with whom he has to do, and he knows that infinite purity and holiness can see nothing there to commend. Where is now a foot-hold for hope? What but everlasting banishment from the presence of God can be his doom? He can not see any other possible way for justice to be satisfied. All the powers of man can not teach him how God can be just, and yet save from deserved punishment. But in his own good time God by his Spirit gives the instruction which human wisdom can not give, shining in the heart of the poor sinner to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. And truly there is a glory unspeakable revealed to us when we can see how mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Now the Spirit teaches us that the light which revealed to us our own darkness was the life which was in our Savior in the beginning, for, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men," and, "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light; " and that the consciousness of sin which made its cry for mercy was an evidence of our sonship in the only begotten Son of God from everlasting, " Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." In our natural body when the life-blood begins to circulate through a limb that has been benumbed, or rendered torpid by disease, the first effect of that returning animation is pain. So when the eternal life which is in Christ as the Head, is revealed in the members of his body, quickening them and bringing them from death into manifest union with himself, the first effect of that life is painful and agonized consciousness of sin,
"Now are ye light in the Lord.." In ourselves we are darkness as before; but as being "new creatures in Christ," we are light by virtue of the life and immortality which he has brought to light through the gospel, and of which we have been made partakers, as members of his mystical body, That light shines in the "darkness of our nature, but that darkness comprehends it not." It does not teach us that our natural hearts have been changed so that their imaginations are now good instead of evil, nor that our natural wisdom is any the less foolishness with God than before; but it leads us to look beyond the veil of mortality along the shining way through which the light comes, into the regions of spiritual glory where our wisdom and righteousness dwell - and walking as children of the light, as heirs of this wisdom and righteousness, we are enabled to keep in subjection the evil propensities of our natures which we hate,-to turn from our own wisdom, which the apostle James says is earthly, sensual, devilish, to that peaceable and gentle wisdom which descends from above, and notwithstanding the foolishness and vanity that struggle within us for display, to walk soberly, righteously, and godly while in this present world.
The apostle warns his brethren, not only against the grosser acts of licentiousness, but against the apparently more trifling evil and jesting, which are not convenient; and the exhortation is appropriate now as then. It seems that one who had seen the utter vanity of all earthly things, and to whom had been revealed the heavenly world, who had tasted of the unspeakable joys of salvation would hardly need such an exhortation. But we are taught that while we remain in this mortal state we have need constantly to guard against ourselves, and to contend with the whole armor of God upon us against the corruption of our nature. If we can sit down with placid minds and partake with a relish of the lightness and frivolity of the world, indulging in the foolish talk and jesting which pleases the natural mind, then indeed we may well doubt whether we are children of the light, and have that pure and undefiled religion of which the apostle James speaks. For he that bridleth not his tongue has deceived himself. His religion is vain. So, too, if we can speak harshly and bitterly of a brother who has displeased us as worldly men speak of their enemies, and have not that charity or love which covereth a multitude of sins, we are evidently not walking as children of light, and have good cause to doubt our being such. For, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his," How meek and lowly while on earth was he who is our true light! How forgiving to his enemies! How loving and gentle to his often erring disciples! How perfectly opposed in every expression to the whole spirit of the world! And it is that same Spirit in us- in itself essentially opposed to sin, to every form of worldliness-whose dictates we are to follow. Our law is the, law of the Spirit of life in Christ, which hath made us free from the law of sin and death, And that Spirit in which our Savior overcame the powers of darkness, and in which he was justified, I Tim.3:16, is our victory, "This is the victory that evercometh the world, even your faith." While we are exercised by this Spirit, the powers of darkness can not harm us, the errors of the world can not ensnare us, nor its filthiness stain us. By it we are kept unspotted from the world. But we can not hope at the same time to please the world. "He that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution." "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." May we who hope in Christ be kept, while in this world, from the evil, be enabled to walk as children of the light, and finally be received up into glory,
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