LIGHT IS TO EMANCIPATE, NOT ONLY TO ENLIGHTEN
LIGHT IS TO EMANCIPATE, NOT ONLY TO ENLIGHTEN
When any one has been immured for any length of time in a dark cavern, and the way of escape has been in vain looked for, the first harbinger in the shape of a ray of light is greeted with a delight which is hardly surpassed by that which accompanies full emancipation.
[p. 202] In the ray there is conveyed the promise and earnest of full deliverance. But while it imparts this cheering sense, it does so, not that the immured one may rest in it, but that he may use it, and follow its track, until he reaches the happy consummation of which it predicts. So must it be with you. You must use the blessed ray of light which has visited your soul to get quite clear of the cavern of depression; and if you follow the ray to its source, even Christ in glory, you will get clear of it, and you will never more return to the cavern, but you will occupy yourself with Him from whom the ray comes. You are not clear of the cavern if you still feel that it is so near you that you can speak of it. Souls may be in the cavern, either without light, or with light. In the former case the cavern hopelessly occupies them, but it is the one continued sameness of gloom; but in the latter case, though there is the assured hope of extrication, they are not free from the darkness, because the light has not been used to effect its full purpose. Here many souls suffer. They talk (or what is nearly as bad, think) of their experiences - of the difference between their state now and when there was no light at all. It is just what a convalescent patient does. He talks or thinks of what he can do today, which he could not have done three weeks since. A man in health thinks of what he will do, or is doing, and does not contrast it with the past. His mind and energies are taken up with the sphere which commands his attention. He uses his health, but does not think of it. I trust the Lord has given you a ray of light from Himself, and you are cheered; but what I desire now is, that you may so fully follow it to its source, as to feel that you have left the cavern (like bad health) a long way behind, and that, unlike Lot’s wife, you will not look behind, but with more than an eagle pinion soar onward and upward to Christ Himself.
If you see the cavern you have not got very far from it, or you are looking back - both most dangerous to [p. 203] the soul. Go on with the Lord, and you will be bright and restful, and the cavern will never even haunt you.