66. “ Mary,” Middlesex. Your case is, alas! not an uncommon one. It is a most serious thing to trifle with the truth of God, or to refuse the path which His word plainly sets before us. Blessed be His name, He bears with us in our ignorance, our unbelief, and varied infirmities. But to sin against light is a fearfully solemn thing. “Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.” Jer. 13
Mark the words! “Before he cause darkness.” Does God cause darkness? Yes, verily, and blindness, if people refuse His light. There is no darkness so profound, no blindness so awfully complete, as that which God sends judicially upon those who trifle with His word. Look at 2 Thess. 2, “ For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Here we have the future destiny of Christendom. God shall send strong delusion. He will turn their very professed light into gross darkness and the shadow of death. All this is most solemn. It should make us tremble at the very thought of refusing to act up to the light which God graciously affords us.
Look at the blessed contrast to all this, as given in Luke 11: “ No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.” What does God give light for? That it may be quashed, quenched, hindered? Assuredly not; but that it may be seen. But how can it be seen if we do not act upon it? If we, for worldly gain, personal advantage, to please ourselves, or to please our friends, refuse to obey the word of God, and thus hide the light under a bushel—what then? It may issue in “ gross darkness”—”the shadow of death”—”strong delusion.” How awful!
But, our Lord continues, “ The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single”—that is, when you have but one object before you—” thy whole body also is full of light;”—beautiful state!—” but when thine eye is evil, the body also is full of darkness. Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”
How striking the contrast! Instead of stumbling on the dark mountains, the obedient soul not only has light for his own path, but he is actually a light-bearer for others. The moral progress in the above passage is uncommonly fine. There is first the single eye—the one simple, firm, earnest purpose of the heart to go right on in the path of obedience, cost what it may. Then the body is full of light. And what more can there be? There is something more, for assuredly there is no redundancy in scripture—” If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark”—no reserve, no chamber of the heart kept locked up, on account of friends, self-interest, worldly ease, or aught else—”the whole shall be full of light”—you become transparent, and your light shines so that others see it. Not that you think so, for a single eye never looks at self. If I make it my object to be a light-bearer, I shall get full of darkness, and be a stumbling-block. When Moses came down from the mount, the skin of his face shone. Did he see it or know it? Not he. Others saw it; and thus it should be with us. “ We all, with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Lord the Spirit.” 2 Cor. 3
Finally, then, dear friend, let us entreat you to yield yourself without reserve to the word of your Lord.
Suffer not your “ friends” to stand in your way. Will your friends answer for you before the judgment-seat of Christ? Can they now fill your heart with that sweet peace which can only be found in the path of obedience? They do not deserve the name of friends, if they stand in your way in following Christ. They are just like the swallows that flutter about us in the summer-time, but on the first approach of autumn blasts they wing their way to sunnier climes. Obey, we beseech thee, the word of your Lord. Let no flimsy excuse, no worldly consideration, no thought of personal aggrandizement, weigh with you for a single moment. What will all these things be worth in the light of the judgment-seat of Christ? What will you think of them in eternity?
But you will tell us you are saved; you are a “ christian girl;” you have eternal life; you can never perish. Thank God for all this. But surely you do not mean to say that this is any reason why you should not obey what you know to be the word of God. Is it not rather the very ground of obedience, and the love of Christ, the constraining motive? What are all the friends in the world compared with Christ? Would they shed their blood to do you good? Nay, but they are making you miserably unhappy to please them. You would rather pain the heart of Jesus, by neglecting His commandments, than pain your friends by obeying them.
May the Lord help you, dear friend, to lay aside every weight, and your besetting sin, and run with patience and true purpose of heart the race that is set before you.
67. “F.,” Victoria. We believe that Matt. 5:34-37, and Jas. 5:12 refer to our ordinary, daily life, our private intercourse and habits, and not to our swearing when called upon by a judge or magistrate. We merely give you our judgment which must go for what it is worth.