Satan too may harass you : but he is a vanquished enemy : yea, he too "is judged0:" and though, "as a roaring lion, he seeketh to devour you," you are provided with armour, whereby you may withstand himp: and you have the promise of God, that " he shall be shortly bruised under your feeti" ]
0 John xvi. 11. p Eph. vi. 11 — 13. (i Rom. xvi. 20.
John xii. 35, 36. Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk
while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you : for he
that tvalketh in darkness knoweth not ivhither he goeth.
While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the
children of light.
THE perverseness of men in resisting the means of conviction, is apt to beget an asperity in the minds of their instructors,, and to make them cease from their labours of love. But we are required " in meekness to instruct them that oppose themselves." And our blessed Lord affords us in this respect an admirable example. He had plainly told the Jews, that he must be crucified : and their very answer shews, that they understood his meaning. But, instead of re- ceiving the information aright, they cavilled at it, and concluded from thence, that he could not be the Messiah3. Our Lord did not judge it proper at that time to afford them any farther means of conviction, when they had so abused those that were already afforded them : but he most affectionately warned them to improve their present advantages, before they should be finally withdrawn from them.
The words being equally applicable to us, we shall consider, I. The duty enjoined —
Christ is here spoken of as " the light" —
[We might consider the term " light" in general, as referring to the Gospel : but here it undoubtedly relates to Christ himself b. He is justly characterized by this name, not
a ver. 32 — 34. b John i. 9. and viii. 12. and xii. 46.