Taking these words into the full illumination of Christianity, they express, very beautifully, the awakening of a man to his true work in the world. It is because the "glory of the Lord has risen upon him," that the Christian is able to reflect the light which has entered his soul.
Notice:
I. The dawning of the light: "Thy light has come." Man is not in a world of darkness, but blind in a world of light. All he needs is the opening of the spiritual eye, that the light may be seen. Our little life is enveloped by the spiritual world. Behind the appearance of earth, beyond the waste and decay of these frail bodies, it stands for ever in unclouded splendour. When the soul is born again, it seems as if the curtains of night were suddenly withdrawn, and the whole spiritual universe flashed in a moment into day; because until the dark veil of the carnal was dissolved the soul had been blinded to the invisible. There are three requisites for the dawning of the light three stages in the history of the soul's enlightenment: (1) spiritual penitence; (2) spiritual love; (3) spiritual prayer.
II. The awakening call. "Arise, shine." That summons is the inevitable result of the dawning of the light. When God is felt to be near a man thus in penitence, love, and prayer that man is imperatively bound to reflect the glory which has risen in his heart; to bear witness of the light which has pierced and transformed his soul. This is based on a great principle, viz., the deepest emotion in a man's nature must reveal itself in his life. There is no such thing as a life-long hypocrisy: sooner or later the master-passion within a man will glow to a red-heat, and he will stand transparent before the eye of the world. When God enters the soul, it shines unconsciously, and men feel its secret charm. The glory of the Lord manifests itself in life. (1) In the majesty of holiness. Christian separateness is not external nonconformity. It is being in the world and yet above it, having saintly separateness of soul amidst all the duties 6f life, making men feel that your inner life is apart from the business of the world, that your heart is in eternity. (2) In the beauty of unselfishness. The life of God is the life of the cross in the heart. (3) In the earnestness of your efforts for men.
E. L. Hull, Sermons,1st series, p. 70.
The glory of the Christian Church.
I. That this and other similar prophecies had their measure of fulfilment when Christ came we all know; when His Church, built upon the apostles and prophets, wonderfully branched out from Jerusalem as a centre into the heathen world round about, and gathering into it men of all ranks, languages, and characters, moulded them upon one pattern, the pattern of their Saviour, in truth and righteousness. Thus the prophecies concerning the Church were fulfilled at that time in two respects its sanctity and its catholicity. It is often asked, Have these prophecies had then and since then perfect accomplishment? Or are we to expect a more complete Christianising of the world than has hitherto been vouchsafed it? Consider the state and prospects of the Christian Church in this respect.
II. Whereas God is one and His will one, and His purpose one and His work one whereas all He is and does is absolutely perfect and complete, independent of time and place and sovereign over creation yet in His actual dealings with this world, that is, in all in which we see His providence, He seems to work by a process, by means and ends, by steps, by victories hardly gained and failures repaired and sacrifices ventured. Thus it is only when we view His dispensations at a distance, as the angels do, that we see their harmony and their unity; whereas Scripture, anticipating the end from the beginning, places at their very head and first point of origination all that belongs to them respectively in their fulness.
III. The Christian Church had in the day of its nativity all that fulness of holiness and peace named upon it, and sealed up to it, which beseemed it viewed as God's design viewed in its essence, as it is realised at all times and under all circumstances viewed as God's work without man's co-operation viewed as God's work in its tendency and in its ultimate blessedness; so that the titles given it on earth are a picture of what it will be absolutely in heaven. The same interpretation will apply to the Scripture account of the elect people of God, which is but the Church of Christ under another name. In their election are sealed up, to be enrolled and enjoyed in due season, the successive privileges of the heirs of light. In God's purpose according to His grace, in the tendency and ultimate effects of His dispensation to be called and chosen is to be saved. For God's providence moves by great and comprehensive laws; and His word is the mirror of His designs, not of man's partial success in thwarting His gracious will.
IV. It is our duty to walk by faith; therefore we will take the promises in faith; we will believe they are fulfilled, and enjoy the fruit of them before we see it. We will unlearn the expectation of any public display of God's glory in the edification of His Church, seeing she is all glorious within, in that inward shrine, made up of faithful hearts, and inhabited by the Spirit of grace.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. ii., p. 79.
I. Notice the tidings announced in the text: "Thy light is come." That language is very significant when we remember that Jesus said of Himself at the beginning of His public ministry, "I am the Light of the world."
II. While Jesus Christ, the true Light, "shines in the darkness," and the darkness does not receive it, it is His body, the Church, and not the unbelieving world, which is lighted up at His glorious appearing. Accordingly, the prophet, in the text, says of Zionand of her only, "Thy light is come."
III. The glad announcement made to Zion was designed to exert a practical effect on the daily conduct of her children. "Arise, shine." Christians are reminded that, if faithful to their holy calling, they will "shine as lights in the world."
J. N. Norton, Old Paths,p. 73.
References: Isaiah 60:1. D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3521; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xvi., p. 13; Short Sermons for Family Reading,p. 49; A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts,2nd series, vol. i., p. 156; F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man,p. 382; E. L. Hull, Sermons,1st series, p. 61; C. J. Vaughan, Good Words,1869, p. 101; J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany,p. 69; S. Baring-Gould, Preacher's Pocket,p. 43.Isaiah 60:1-3. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xiv., p. 10; G. Huntington, Sermons for the Holy Seasons of the Church,p. 27; A. Maclaren, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 232; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 32.