LIGHTS ASHORE

LIGHTS ASHORE

We are but passing from a very imperfect state into a perfect and entirely beautiful one. We are but going a long voyage, often rough, but we are to land on the shore of endless rest and unfading blessedness, of which we get glimpses as one does of lights on shore, and the better the telescope, the more earnest the eye, the more distinctly and vividly are the distant lights brought near. It is not the rough waters or the dark sky which occupy the mind, but the lights on shore, which attract you, bid you welcome and encourage you. Stephen saw those ^[p. 136] lights, and Jesus in the midst of them! preparing and strengthening his heart for the last narrow strait before entering harbour. It is so natural and real, and it is a great help to us to see what the Spirit of God has done in one like ourselves. But the eye must be turned to the shore. “He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven” (Acts 7: 55). The Spirit is the telescope, but the telescope is for the eye (the eyes of our heart), and as the eye is in it, the distant shore with its boundless light and the Person of our Saviour are brought nigh to us.

The Lord give you to be ever in the Spirit using the telescope. We should be able to ask one another day by day — how do you see, and what do you see? Are the lights on shore becoming more visible? I cannot but rejoice in your blessing. Honour to my Lord in you and your own happiness comprise the desires of my heart for you, and I look to Him to give me the desires of my heart for you, for His name’s sake.