"NO PART DARK"
“NO PART DARK”
It is very interesting to mark the invisible support we receive as we walk on with God, from another who is also walking with God. The judgment of a spiritual friend,
[p. 37] even though unexpressed, has weight. I do not think we are sensible enough of the value and effect of moral influence, as I may term a body beaming and brilliant with moral light. Where there is a ‘dark part’ there is hindrance to the light shining out, and that dark part evidently is the thing most difficult in our nature to be suppressed, most impenetrable to the light. The light is acquired by beholding the Lord’s glory, not by beholding the Lord simply, nor the glory simply, but by beholding the Lord’s glory, because then I am gazing on the perfection of my acceptance, and then I grow. Growing is an exquisite time; the heart entranced with the perfection of divine beauty in which Christ is, and it is then the light permeates me; it is stopped by whatever is the greatest obstruction in me, and until I have been transformed there is a check to the bright shining. If there were no fear in any form, nor care in any form, supposing the heart thus relieved was enjoying Christ as its one treasure, the light would be burning. Fearlessness of man without the fear of God is simply recklessness; carelessness without faith in God is simply folly. Often the most naturally timid or the most anxious help us most, when their greatest stronghold has been captured, and is now under the sway of the light. The arsenal of the enemy has been turned into a tower of strength, just as Hebron, once the place of intimidation, became through faith the citadel, the centre of strength and support. Blessed be God (how amazing His grace!) He turns the dry land into water springs. He supplants the greatest defect by the greatest virtue. The thief is to become a giver. Peter the denier of his Lord is to strengthen his brethren, is to be the foremost in owning Him. How much more interesting a Christian’s life is than we generally imagine; “Ye shine as lights in the world”, and the light is all acquired from Him who is the one treasure of the heart. The more I enjoy Him, the more is my joy, for He is my joy, and the more I am in moral likeness to Him whom I enjoy.
May the Lord be increasingly more and more the joy of your heart, and as He is, the light is penetrating and taking possession of every part of your heart.