I. There is the darkness of perplexity. If ever it be worth while to think over what have been our most unhappy moments, we shall find that they have been those when our mind was divided. The language of our hearts at such a time would be, "Lord, give me light; make Thy way plain before my face." But then another Scripture saith and brings surely the same answer of peace "The darkness is no darkness to Thee. The darkness and light to Thee are both alike."
II. There is the darkness of shame after relapse into sin. There is scarcely anything so paralysing to the energies of a young soul seeking after God as the sense of shame for sins renewed. But if we could believe the words in their spiritual meaning, "The darkness and light to Thee are both alike," surely we should gather fresh might from our defeat, and learn in the darkness of self-distrust the secret of final victory.
III. The darkness of gloomy, distressing thoughts. Across all the varied phrases which describe the different interpretations that men have put upon their own unrest lies the deep, abiding fact that the heart willhave its hours of darkness. In the midst of joy we are in gloom. These are the hours or moments when we are tempted to be unbelievers. The "still, small voice" of conscience is inaudible; and the Lord is not in the gloom. Here again let us listen to the voice of the Psalmist, "The darkness is no darkness with Thee. The darkness and light to Thee are both alike." Once let us grasp the truth that God, who made the light, made the darkness also, and that He wishes us to feel alone that we may at last be alone with Him, from that moment the darkness lifts.
IV. The darkness of sorrow. The darkness and the light are both alike to God. Those dear friends who have gone down into darkness and silence are in light with God. Our darkness is no darkness to Him. Our night is His and their eternal day.
V. The darkness of religious doubt. Those who are tried by even the extreme shadow of this darkness, and groan under its chilly touch, need most of all cling to the central conviction that here too, where full faith is not, God is."Even here shall His hand lead them, and His right hand shall hold them," if only they will not "cast away their confidence," nor place it anywhere but in Him.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,2nd series, p. 245.
References: Psalms 139:13-24. E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 360.
Consider sonic of the thoughts which press upon a mind conscious of its own wonderful nature. It perceives in part an evident likeness, and in part an equally marked unlikeness, to its Maker. (1) We know by instinct and by revelation that God has made us in part like to Himself; that is, immortal. (2) We learn that our nature stands in a marked contrast to the Divine; that the immortal nature which is within us is of a mutable kind, susceptible of the most searching changes.
I. Our immortal being is always changing, for good or evil, always becoming better or worse. All our life long, and in every stage of it, this process, which we vaguely call the formation of character, is going on. Our immortal nature is taking its stamp and colour; we are receiving and imprinting ineffaceable lines and features. As the will chooses, so the man is.
II. This continual change is also a continual approach to, or departure from, God. Heaven and hell are but the ultimate points of the diverging lines on which all are ever moving. The steady and changeless rise and fall of the everlasting lights is not more unerring. It is a moral movement, measured upon the boundaries of life and death.
III. Such as we become in this life by the moral change wrought in our immortal nature, such we shall be for ever. Our eternal state will be no more than the carrying out of what we are now. And if these things be so, with how much awe and fear have we need to deal with ourselves. (1) We must needs learn to keep a keen watch over our hearts. Every change that passes upon us has an eternal consequence; there is something ever flowing from it into eternity. (2) We have need not only to watch, but to keep up a strong habit of self-control. By its own continual acting, our fearful and wonderful inward nature is perpetually determining its own character. It has a power of self-determination, which to those who give over watching and self-control becomes soon unconscious, and at last involuntary.
H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. i., p. 47.