As I was sitting in my room one evening, with the light shining brightly, and the shutters closed, I fancied I heard a cry in the distance.
I was in a large country home, quite surrounded by fields and woods. I listened, and again I heard a voice, but I could not tell what it was; then again nearer, and soon I could make out the cry, and it made my blood run cold as I distinctly heard,
“I am lost, I am lost.”
Was I dreaming, or was this a practical joke being played on me? But again came the shrill cry,
“I am lost, I am lost.”
I hurried down stairs, and with a lantern went out into the dark field, guided by the voice, and soon found that it was a woman who was indeed lost. She lived in a town three miles off; night had come upon her as she passed on her road home through the woods; she had missed her way, had wandered fruitlessly about in search of it, and in despair thought she must lie down all night in the field, when she saw a light in the distance, for there was just one room that evening in that country house, where the shutters had not been closed, and thus the light was shining brightly into the dark night.
What a boon was that light to the poor frightened woman! She at once made her way towards it, crying out as she went,
“I am lost, I am lost.”
How truly glad she was to see me, and how thankful I was to be able to point her to the road, yes, and to walk with her and put her right through the wood, with a lantern to last her the whole way home!
Now, dear fellow-believers, it is for you that I write this, trusting that God may apply it to your consciences: are there not many poor souls with whom you come in contact, who are spiritually in the same condition as this poor woman, seeking to find the road home in the darkness? And how often the Christian’s shutters are closed, so that none of the joyous light that we have for ourselves shines out to these poor ones in the dark!
Now to be a half-hearted Christian, means among whom ye do not shine as lights in the world.
It is not a question of our salvation, for this of course depends upon Christ’s work for us, and all who truly believe on Him, will most surely get home to heaven; but the difference lies in this, that those who have shone for Him down here, will have an “abundant entrance,” whereas those who have been content to keep their Christianity more or less to themselves, will be “saved so as by fire.”
Dear Christian reader, let me ask you a plain question, are you shining for Jesus? Are the shutters kept open or shut? You say, perhaps, “I find it so difficult to show my colors.”
So does every Christian, but tell the Lord Jesus this; own to Him your utter helplessness, and find how He will help you, if He only sees that you have any real desire to shine for Him in this dark scene; for He gives more grace, and in this matter as in all others, you have but to “taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.”
Even the apostles in olden times both felt and owned that they had no strength of their own to enable them to shine for Jesus; for they prayed “that with all boldness they might speak the Word,” and God answered their prayer.
What great blessings we do miss in getting for ourselves, and giving to others, when we keep the shutters closed so that no light for Jesus shines out to poor wanderers in the dark! Far too prone are we to forget what our condition was but a short time ago, thus described in Ephesians 5:88For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (Ephesians 5:8),
“Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.”