^ Only he can be a true follower whose life and love are in
^ W. J. Dawson, The Empire of Love, 112.
ST. JOHN VIII. 12 363
union with the life and love in Christ. He will not be " light in the Lord " until his will is intermarried with the will of his Lord. Every man who is thus joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him, and walks in His marvellous Light. He is inly and immovabljrv persuaded that nothing can separate his love from the love of God,y which is in Christ Jesus his Lord ; and the comforting, assuring light of this love floods his understanding. The love of God in his will, and the light of God in his mind, make him a new man. The descent of God's life and light to dwell in his soul makes him sure and certain of his final ascent to God.
3. But we have not merely the promise that we shall be led by the light and brought into the light. A yet deeper and grander gift is offered here: "He shall have the light of life." That means, not, as it is often carelessly taken to mean, a light which illuminates the life, but, like the similar phrases of this Gospel — " breadof lite," " water ~ol life," — light which is life. " In him was life, and the life was the light of men." These two are one in their source, which is Jesus, the Word of God. Of Him we have to say, " With thee is the fountain of life : in thy light shall we see light." They are one in their deepest nature ; the life is the light, and the light the life. And this one gift is bestowed upon every soul that follows Christ. Not only will our outward lives be illumined or guided from without, but our inward being will be filled with the brightness. "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord."
This is the great distinction between the light which Christ is and the light by which the Israelites were led from day to day. They had an external means of ascertaining promptly which way they should go. Their whole life was circumscribed, and its place and mode determined for them. The g]iidanxia..affiared. to us by Christ-is jof^ an inward^ kind. A God without might seem perfect as a guide, but a GodTwIthin is the real perfection. God does not now lead us by a sign which we could follow, though we had no real sympathy with Divine ways and no wisdom of our own ; He leads us by communicating to us His own perceptions of right and wrong, by inwardly enlightening us, and by making us ourselves of such a disposition that we naturally choose what is good.
^ If I had fulness of life I would have perfectness of vision ;
364 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
I would know what God is, what man is, what heaven is. Is it
not written, " This is life eternal that they should know thee " ? And yet, marvellous to tell, this unspeakable glory may be mine — be mine now, here, in the midst of the present world : " He that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." It is not by dying it shall come to me; it is by following — following the steps of the Master through life's strait gate and life's narrow way. It is by taking up the cross, by lifting the burden, by bearing the sacrifice, by doing the will, that the doctrine shall be known to me.^
The still commandress of the silent night
Borrows her beams from her bright brother's eye;
His fair aspect fills her sharp horns with light; If he withdraw, her flames are quench'd and die;
E'en as the beams of thy enlight'ning Sp'rit, Infus'd and shot into my dark desire, Inflame my thoughts, and fill my soul with fire.
That I am ravish'd with a new delight;
But if thou shroud thy face, my glory fades,
And I remain a nothing, all composed of shades.
Eternal God! 0 Thou that only art
The sacred fountain of eternal light, And blessed loadstone of my better part,
0 Thou, my heart's desire, my soul's delight, Reflect upon my soul, and touch my heart.
And then my heart shall prize no good above Thee ;
And then my soul shall know Thee ; knowing, love Thee ; And then my trembling thoughts shall never start
From Thy commands, or swerve the least degree, Or once presume to move, but as they move in Thee.^
4. Christ is our guiding light even unto death. The night cometh. I shall have to lie down and die. Is there any light ? " I am the light." He claims that to those who are in Him the night shineth even as the day. What does my Lord do in the hour of death to break up the reign of darkness ? He gives us the cheer of sovereignty. "All things are yours . . . death!" Then I do not belong to death ? No, death belongs to me. Death is not my master, he is my servant. He is made to minister to me in the hour of translation, and I shall not be enslaved by his approach.