God's Light on Dark Clouds

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        Up to the Hills

        Psalm 121 is one of the most soul-inspiring Psalm in the whole Psalter. It is named "a song of ascents"; that is, a song of ascents, leading from the lower up to the higher. Whether this was originally intended as a musical expression, or as a description of the ascent to the sacred mount in Jerusalem - we don't know. It accurately describes the spiritual idea of the Psalm.

        The key-note is in the first verse: "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills [or mountains] from whence comes my help. My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." The grand idea is - that we must look higher - if we would live higher. We must have help from heaven - if we would reach heaven. In material things, and in spiritual things - not one of us is created to entire independence. From infancy, when we depend on a mother's milk for nourishment; and childhood, when we depend on our teachers for instruction; clear through the activities of manhood, which require the aid of customers and clients in order to prosper - we cannot ever live a year in and by ourselves. Still more true is it - that our moral life is one of personal weakness, and of dependency on God. The important question is: Where shall we find the supplies for the soul's needs - and the help for the soul's weakness?

        The fatal mistake so often made - is that the soul does not look high enough to secure substantial help and to insure a complete victory. For example, we are exposed to perpetual temptations, which draw us toward sin and thus tend to drag us downward. How are we to meet them? We may employ worldly arguments and means. But these have no motives which are not essentially selfish. They do not recognize anything higher than self-interest, or appeal to any supernatural power for aid. Here is a young man of ardent temperament, who is strongly tempted to sensual indulgence. He may say to himself: "This sin will not be worth my while. I shall injure my health; I shall stain the reputation of another; I may be discovered and disgraced."

        Assuredly the young Hebrew who was put to the strain of a tremendous temptation in the house of Potiphar, laid hold of vastly higher motives than these! He lifted his eyes to the hills - and made his appeal to God. "How can I do this great wickedness," he cries out, "and sin against God!" That appeal lashed him, as it were, to the everlasting throne, and Divine grace made him temptation proof. Here is the only safeguard under the pressure of assaults against conscience, or of powerful enticements to some sinful selfish gratification!

        The young man who is too fond of the champagne-glass needs something more than the conviction that the bottle is endangering his health and his pocket - in order to keep him abstinent. He must recognize sin, as well as sorrow - in the sting which the "viper in the glass" inflicts, and seek his help from Almighty God.

        That is no genuine and trustworthy honesty, which spurns the enticement to fraud - simply because detection may bring disgrace; because the man may persuade himself that in his circumstances, that detection is impossible. He is only safe when he looks up from these paltry motives - up high enough to see God! In these days, when the press teems with reports of crime and fraud, it ought to be known that the only principle which can hold a merchant, or a cashier, or an accountant, is a Bible-conscience, which draws its strength from the "Everlasting Hills of Right".

        There are some of us who have known what it is to drink bitter draughts of affliction, and to have the four corners of our house smitten by a terrible sorrow. At such times, how hollow and worthless were many of the stereotyped prescriptions for comfort! "Time must do its work," was one of them. As if time could bring back the dead, or cruelly eradicate the beloved image from the memory! "Travel," is another of these quack recommendations for a wounded spirit. Just as if God had ever made an Atlantic wide enough to carry us out of the reach of heart-breaking misery! Wretched comforters are they all. The suffering heart heeds not the voice of such charmers - charm they ever so wisely!

        Never, never have I been able to gain one ray of genuine consolation - until I lifted my eyes unto the hills from whence comes Almighty help. As soon as I have begun to taste of God's exceeding great and precious promises - my strength has begun to revive. As soon as His everlasting arm got hold around me - the burden grew lighter - yes, it carried me and the load likewise! Help flowed down to me from the hills - like the musical streams which flow down from the Alps.

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        This sublime passage from the Psalm 121, throws its suggestive sidelight on the question why many of my readers have never obtained a solid and satisfactory Christian hope. You will admit in your honest hours - that you are not what you ought to be, nor what you yet intend to be. You admit that you are sinners. You have no expectation of being lost to all eternity. Certain steps you have taken in past times - but they all left you as low down as when you started. Both your motives and your methods were pitched too low! All attempts at self-salvation were as futile as would be the attempt to lift yourself by grasping hold of your own shoes! Even your religious services failed to bring you any substantial change of heart and character, because you did not get your eye or thought above them. The best sermon ever preached, is only a cup after all. It may bring the water - but the cup itself cannot quench thirst. What you need is to lift your eyes above your sinful, needy self; above your church- goings and other religious observances; above everyone and everything, to the only mountain whence comes your help!

        That mountain is Calvary! The crucified and now living Son of God - is the object on which you must fix your eye! As a living man - you need a living Christ! You do not need a theological system or doctrine - but a personal Savior! You do not need someone to lay your hand upon - but one who can return the grasp of that hand. The lift must come from Him. The new life must come from Him. "His blood cleanses from all sin" is a mere abstract truth - until you come up to that atoning blood for yourself. Submit to its cleansing, as Naaman submitted to be washed in Jordan. "A living trust in Jesus has power unto salvation, only because it is the means by which the saving power of God may come into your heart."

        Faith is not a mere intellectual opinion. It is a heart transaction - by which you lay hold on Jesus, and Jesus saves you. His sacrifice for sin avails for you; His strength becomes yours; His example teaches you how to live your own daily life; His Spirit comes to dwell within you; His armor protects you; and His service becomes the inspiration of your whole being. When you ascend into Christ - you reach a loftier, purer atmosphere. Security is gained up there - as in a stronghold on a high cliff. Six times over in this Psalm, the inspired penman tells us how the Lord is your Keeper - and how He shall preserve your soul to all eternity. My friend, lift your eyes upward! Let your voice go up in fervent prayer to the everlasting hills! Put your feet firmly on the path which leads straight toward God. When you reach Him in this world - you have reached heaven in the next world!


        Seeing Correctly

        "The Lord said to me - You have seen correctly." These were God's words to Jeremiah when he called him to his life-work as a "seer" or prophet to the people of Israel. God puts to the sincere, self-distrustful young man - the question, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" Jeremiah replies, "I see a branch of an almond tree." This is just what the Lord meant that he should see. The almond was a tree of rapid growth and early bloom; it typified speedy action. As the young Jew had shown his capacity for right discernment, the Lord commended his wise answer, and said to him, "You have seen correctly."

        There is a right way and a wrong way of looking at almost everything. To a man who has no eye for beauty, an artistic masterpiece of a landscape, is merely so much paint on a linen canvas. To another, it is a masterpiece of golden sunlight bathing field and forest with its glory.

        To many it was predicted that Christ, the Messiah, would be as "a root out of dry ground - having no form or loveliness. When they shall see Him - there is no beauty that they should desire Him. He will be despised and rejected by men." When He came, therefore, to His own people, they received Him not. As many as beheld Him rightly -  received Him - to them gave He the privilege of becoming the children of God. He is to them the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely one. Christ never changes. The difference between the thoughtless sinner and the same person after he is converted, is - that he looks at Jesus with a new eye, and sees Him to be the very Savior that he needs!

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        Some people look at God only as a consuming fire - and are struck with despair. Others go to the opposite extreme, and see in Him nothing but pity and pardoning mercy; they easily slide off into Universalism. The man who magnifies God's mercy at the expense of His justice, and who does not believe that He will punish sin as it deserves, has not "seen correctly." He will be cured of his delusion on the Day of Judgment.

        Those wise men at Westminster saw the Divine Being, our Heavenly Father, in the right proportions of His attributes when they framed that wonderful answer to that question in the Catechism, "What is God?"

        In nothing are we all apt to make more terrible blunders, than in looking at God's providential dealings. Even some Christians have a heathenish habit of talking about "good luck" and "windfalls" and "bad fortune," and other expressions which convey the idea that this life is a mere game of chance! Blind unbelief may be expected to err, and to scan God's work as either a riddle or a muddle. But a Christian, who has had his eyes opened, ought to know better!

        Yet how often do we all regard God's dealings in a wrong light - and call them by the wrong name! We frequently speak of certain things as "afflictions" when they are really "blessings in disguise!" We congratulate people on gaining what turns out to be a terrible snare, or a worse than loss! Quite as often we condole with them over a "bad circumstance" which is about to yield to them mercies more precious than gold!

        Old Jacob probably thought that he was a fair subject for commiseration, on that evening when he sat moaning in his tent-door, "Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin! Everything is against me!" Genesis 42:36. But the caravan was just approaching which brought him Simeon and Benjamin, and glorious tidings about the long-lost Joseph! He had not "seen correctly" what sort of a God he was serving!

        Let us hesitate before we condole with a brother who is under the chastisement of our loving Father in Heaven. Be careful how you condole with a man who has lost all his money - and saved his good name; or congratulate the man who has made a million - at the expense of his piety. When a Christian is toppled over from a "dizzy and dangerous height of prosperity" - and "brought down to poverty," he is brought down to Christ, the solid rock at the same time. In the valley of humiliation he has more of the joy of God's countenance, and wears more of the herb called "heart's-ease" in his bosom, than he ever did in the days of his giddy prosperity.

        SICKNESS has often brought to a man spiritual recovery. SUFFERING has often wrought out for him an exceeding weight of glory. Personally, I have lately been led through a very shadowy pathway of trial; but it has never been so dark - that I could not see to read some precious promises which glowed like diamonds!

        The adversary tries hard to break our lamp, and to steal our diamonds in those dark passage-ways of trial. We need good eyesight in such times of trouble, so as not to stumble, or to lose sight of the Comforter, or of the bright light which shines at the end of the way.

        I have seen people tenderly condole a weeping mother whose godly child has flown away home to heaven. But they never thought of condoling another mother over a living child who was a frivolous slave of fashion, or a dissipated sensualist, or a wayward son, the "heartbreak of his mother." A hundred times over have I more pitied the parent of a living sorrow - than the parent of a departed joy. Spare your tears from the darlings who are safe in the arms of Jesus - and spend them over the living who are yet dead in sin and obstinate impenitence.

        Let us learn to see things correctly - and call them by their right names! We too often drape our real blessings with a shroud - and decorate our dangerous temptations with garlands! The sharpest trials this nation ever knew - have turned into tender mercies. President Garfield in his grave has done more for us than Garfield could have done in the presidential chair. Satan outwitted himself when he armed one of his imps to be an assassin.

        Let us all pray fervently for spiritual discernment. Lord, open our eyes! Then we shall see this world to be a mere training-school for a better world; we shall see a Father's smile behind the darkest cloud; we shall see in duty done - our highest delight; and at the end of the conflict - we shall see the King in His beauty, and know Him even as we are known!

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        The Lord Our Strength

        The first lesson of childhood - is human weakness. The earliest cry of the infant displays it. At the other end of life we often see a pitiable senility, such as I encountered lately in the case of a man who was once a luminary of the American pulpit - but now cannot remember the names of his own children!

        But the weakest side of humanity is its moral side. Colossal intellect is often found lodged in the same person with a conscience of swine! For the sake of morality, I rejoice that an author has lately been stripping away the glamour which has hung around that stupendous embodiment of selfishness, Napoleon. They show us that the intellectual giant was continually swayed by his base lusts. The chief lesson of such a career as Napoleon's is to demonstrate what a contemptible creature man is - the moment he cuts loose from God.

        One of the chief purposes of our Divine religion - is to teach man where to find this indispensable element of strength. The Divine Word, coming from the very Maker of man, who knows us completely, declares that "he who trusts in his own heart is a fool!" We have no spiritual strength in ourselves. Just as our bodies derive all their strength from the food we eat, and every oak draws its strength from the surrounding earth and air - so our souls obtain all spiritual power from a source outside of us. The Psalmist David, whose native weaknesses were deplorably conspicuous, was only strong when in alliance with God. His declaration is, "The Lord alone is my strength!" This is the only strength which the Bible recognizes.

        Who are the Bible heroes? Men of genius, wits, orators, philosophers? No! They are the Enochs who walked with God; the Josephs who conquered sensual temptation because God was with him; the Elijahs who stood like a granite pillar against the tides of idolatry; and the Daniels who never quailed at the lion's roar. Daniel gives us the secret of his strength in his three-times-a-day interviews with God. The Lord fed his inner soul as the subterranean springs feed a well and keeps it full during summer droughts.

        God's strength is "made perfect in our weakness." This means that the Divine power is most conspicuous, when our weakness is the most thoroughly felt. We have got first to be emptied of all self-conceit and self-confidence. A bucket cannot hold air and water at the same time. As the water comes in - the air must go out. The reason of some hard trials - is to get the accursed spirit of SELF out of our hearts! When we have been emptied of self-trust, we are in the condition to be filled with might in the inner man, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

        When Isaiah felt that he was but a child, and an unclean one at that - he received the touch of celestial fire! Peter had immense confidence in 'Peter' - when he boasted of his own strength; but after his pride had got its fall, Peter is endued with power from on high, and then the apostle who was once frightened by a servant-girl, could courageously face the whole Sanhedrin.

        A Christian must not only realize his own utter feebleness - but he must give up what worldlings rely on, and admit that "vain is the help of man." That poor woman who had tried all the doctors in her neighborhood, and had only grown worse in body, and poorer in purse - is a touching illustration of our invalid souls. She, having despaired of human help - came crouching to the feet of the Son of God. One touch of His garments sent a new tide of health through her veins. Just so - contact with Christ brings currents of the Divine power into our souls - so that we can do all things through Christ who strengths us.

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        At the very outset of the spiritual life, this Divine strength becomes recognized. Many have testified that they have gained victory over "the bottle" by the influx of a new principle and a new power into their hearts. The essence of conversion with them, was that the seven devils of lust for the bottle were cast out - and Christ came in. This was a supernatural work, the very thing which modern skepticism hoots at; but a Bible which did not bring a supernatural element into weak and wicked humanity - would not be worth the paper on which it is printed! If the Christ of Christianity cannot and does not endow a frail sinner with supernatural power to resist terrible temptations, then is Christianity a confessed imposture and delusion! But it does stand this very crucial test.

        Multitudes have given the triumphant testimony that, under the pressure of great temptation, the Lord stood with them and strengthened them. Their testimony has always been, "When I am weak - then am I strong!" That is, when I get emptied of self-trust - then Jesus comes in and strengthens me. Charles Finney has left us some wonderful experiences of the prodigious tides of power which poured into his soul and into his work - when he humbled himself before God, and put his own soul, like an empty vessel, under the Divine power, until he became filled "unto all the fullness of God."

        This is the real office of faith. It is simply the linking of our utter weakness - to the omnipotence of Christ! We furnish the weakness - and He furnishes the strength - and that makes the partnership. The baby furnishes a hungry little mouth - and the mother furnishes the nourishing milk. The mother is happy that she can give the full supply - and the rosy darling is happy as it draws in the sweet contentment. What a beautiful picture of my poor, weak, hungry soul - resting on the bosom of the Infinite Love! There is no danger that the supply will ever give out, for my Lord, my Feeder, my Supporter - is constantly saying unto me, "My grace is sufficient for you." In this way we are strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. A better translation of the verse would be, "enforced with all force." We have retained the word "reinforce "in the English language, and it is a pity that we have dropped the older word "inforce," for it describes exactly - the impartation of the Divine strength to a believer's soul.

        Alas, how easily we run dry, and how constantly we need replenishment! Yesterday's breakfast will not feed me tomorrow. The Christian who tries to live on the experiences of last year - is as insane as if he attempted to labor on the strength of the food eaten a month ago! Lord, evermore give us this bread! Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength - the depletion shall constantly be filled up, and the new task shall be met with a fresh supply.

        One great purpose in all afflictions - is to bring us down to the everlasting arms. We had become presumptuous, and had made flesh our arm. We were trying to go alone - and then came a fall. Trouble, and even bereavement, may be a great blessing - if it sends us home to Jesus! A boy often forgets that he has a home - until a cut or a bruise sends him crying to his mother's side, for the bandage or the medicine. God often strikes away our props - to bring us down upon His mighty arms! What strength and peace it gives us - to feel the everlasting arms underneath us! As far as we may sink - we cannot go farther down than those outstretched arms! There we stop, there we rest!

        The everlasting arms not only sustain us - but carry us along, as on eagles' wings. Faith is just the clinging of my weak soul - to the Omnipotent Jesus! Its constant cry is: "I am weak - but You are mighty! Hold me with Your powerful hand!" To that omnipotent hand - let me cling with all the five fingers of my faith! It will never let me drop - until it lands me in glory!

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        A Constant Salvation

        A clipper ship crossing the Banks of Newfoundland in heavy weather strikes an iceberg. She begins to sink rapidly - and her captain and crew barely have time to leap into the life-boat!

        The question, "What must we do to be saved?" is pictured by their prompt leap into the life-boat, which is an act of faith. They trust their lives to it for salvation. From immediate death they are saved. But, afterwards, the ship has sunk, and the crew are still out in the deep and dangerous sea.

        There is a second process necessary. In order to keep out of the belly of the sea, and to reach the distant shore - they must stick to the boat, and pull vigorously at the oars. They must "work out their salvation" now by hard rowing. But this is a continued process of salvation, day after day - until they reach the shores of Nova Scotia. Never for a moment, however, are they independent of the life-boat. That must keep them afloat - or they go to the bottom of the sea.

        At last, after hard rowing, they reach the welcome shore. This is their third, final, and complete salvation, for they are entirely beyond any perils of the treacherous sea. Now they are at rest, for they have reached the desired haven.

        This homely parable will illustrate, with sufficient clearness - the three ways in which the word SALVATION is employed in God's Word, and in human experience.

        The first leap into the lifeboat illustrates that decisive act of the soul, in leaving all other worthless reliances - and throwing itself on Christ Jesus in simple, believing trust. This is conversion. By it the soul is delivered from the guilt and condemnation of sin. The Holy Spirit is active in this step, cleansing and renewing the heart. By this act of surrender to Christ - the sinner escapes from death into life. He may joyfully cry out, "By the grace of God I am saved!" Yet this converted man is no more independent of Christ as a Savior - than those sailors were of that life-boat! For until he reaches the haven of Heaven - he must be clinging to Jesus every day!

        It is this daily and hourly salvation that we wish to emphasize at present. Too many people limit the word "salvation" to the initial step of converting faith, and falsely conclude that nothing more is to be done. A certain school of rather mystical Christians so magnify this act of receiving the "gift of eternal life in Christ" that they quite forget the fact that a vast deal of head-winds, hard rowing, conflict with the devil and remaining lusts - must be encountered, before we reach our final haven.

        There is a very important sense in which every true servant of Christ is obliged to "work out his salvation" every day of his life - even if he lives a century! It was not to impenitent sinners or anxious inquirers that Paul addressed the famous injunction, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." He was addressing the blood-bought Church at Philippi. And if he were alive today he might well ring these solemn words into the ears of every Christian in the land. For if our original deliverance from the condemnation of sin, and from the desert of hell, depended on our surrender to Christ - so our constant salvation from the assaults of sin - depends upon our constant clinging to the Savior and our constant obedience to His commandments. Faith without 'works' is dead.

        Brethren, we may be in the life-boat - but the life-boat is not heaven! There is many a hard tug at the oar, many a night of tempest, many a danger from false lights - before we reach the shining shore! To the last moment on earth - our salvation depends on complete submission to Jesus. Without Him - nothing; with Him - all things.

        Yonder is an acre of weeds which its owner wishes to save from barrenness - to fruitfulness. So he subjugates it with plough and harrow and all the processes of cultivation. If the soil would cry out against the ploughshare and the harrow and the hoe - the farmer's answer would be, "Only by submission to this discipline can I raise the golden crop which shall be to your credit - and to my glory." In like manner, by absolute submission to Christ's will, by constant obedience to His pure commandments, by the readiness to be used by Him entirely for His own purposes - can you be saved to life's highest end. The instant that I realize that I am entirely Christ's - I must also realize that my TIME must be saved from a wasted life - and all must be consecrated to Him.

        All accumulation - is by wise saving. Sin means waste, and ends in ruin and remorse. The honest, devoted Christian, is literally "working out his salvation" when he is daily striving to redeem his time, and employ his utmost capacity, and use his every opportunity - to make his life a beautiful offering and possession for his Lord. If we were not worth saving, our Lord would never have tasted the bitter agonies of Golgotha to redeem us! If every saved follower is by and by to be presented by Christ "faultless, with exceeding joy" - then is a Christian life, a jewel worthy of His diadem. O my soul, let Him work in me to will and to do, according to His good pleasure, if I can be made to yield this revenue of honor to my beloved Lord!

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        There is another sense in which Christ furnishes us a constant salvation. His presence saves me in the hour of strong temptation. He keeps me from falling in a thousand cases - where I do not directly recognize His hand. When I wake up in the morning, after a night ride in a Pullman car, I do not know how many human hands have been busy in order that I might ride safely through the pitch darkness. Just so - when I get to heaven, perhaps I may find out how often Jesus interposed to save me from threatened ruin and from unsuspected dangers. He was saving me in a hundred ways that I did not dream of! My invisible deliverances were all due to His watchful care.

        Daily grace means a daily salvation. Paul lived thus in constant dependence, realizing that if Christ withdrew His arm - that he would sink in an instant! Not for one moment, can I dispense with the life-boat - until my foot stands where "there is no more sea." If these things are true, then we ought ever to be praying: "O Lord, what must I do now to be saved - to be saved from waste of time; to be saved from dishonoring You; to be saved from secret sin; and to be saved up to the fullest, richest, holiest service of Yourself?"

        Only He can help us to accomplish all this - for His grace can bring us a full salvation. When we reach heaven, we shall no longer need to be saved. The voyage will be over - and the dangers ended. The multitudes who have been saved - will then walk in the light of the New Jerusalem, and cast their crowns at the feet of Him who purchased for them - so ineffably glorious and transcendent a salvation!


        Healthy and Happy

        The clock of time will soon strike for the birth of another year - when every man will wish his neighbor a "Happy New Year!" To many, it will no doubt be a day of sadness, for it will remind them of the loved ones whom the past year has buried out of their sight. But every genuine disciple of Jesus, every heir of heaven, ought to possess deep and abiding resources of joy - which lie as far beneath the tempests of trial as the depths of the Atlantic are beneath the storms that have lately torn its surface into foaming billows. Every healthy Christian ought to be a happy Christian - under every stress of circumstances.

        A living Christian who is worthy of the name - must possess more or less of that holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. There is a misconception and a prejudice in the minds of some good people in regard to this word - on account of the abuse of it by certain visionaries of the "perfectionist" school. But holiness signifies health of heart and life. To be holy - is really to be whole or healed. Sin is soul-sickness; regeneration by the Divine Spirit, is recovery from that sickness. There is no condemnation of guilt - to those who are in Christ Jesus; He is the physician who delivers them from deadly disease of sin. If good health means misery - then is a sincere Christian a miserable mope; but if health means a happy condition, then should Christ's redeemed ones be the most cheerful, sunny-hearted people in the community!

        There are several characteristics of a true child of God. One of them is that he is forgiven. To be pardoned has made many a prison door - like a gate of paradise. The sweet sense of forgiven sin - has been an ecstasy to thousands who had "groaned, being burdened under a sense of sin," but had found relief at the cross of Christ!

        Another evidence of spiritual health is a good conscience - a conscience enlightened by the Bible, a conscience kept sweet and wholesome by prayer, a conscience which comforts it possessor, instead of tormenting him by a certain fearful looking-for of judgment. What a diseased liver is in the body - is a bad conscience in the spiritual man; it breeds continual mischief and misery. The Christian never suffers from spiritual dyspepsia - who keeps a conscience void of offence towards God and man.

        A healthy soul has a strong appetite for Divine truth. He enjoys the daily manna of the Word, and has no lustings for the "flesh-pots" of the world. It is not the sugared candy that he is after - but the strong meat of the gospel as well as the honeycomb. His soul "delights itself in the fatness" of God's Word. To some people Mr. Moody's style of talking about the banquet which the Bible affords him, seems like extravagance. The reason is, that their spiritual taste is utterly corrupted by feeding on such sugared candy as novels and newspapers. A combination of Bible-diet and Bible-duties would soon make them as vigorous as Mr. Moody! If he did not show in his own conduct and condition, the "nourishment" which he lives on - he would not make so many converts.

[nChrist]

God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        Holiness is constant agreement with God. It is the agreement of love - even deeper and sweeter than the most unbroken wedlock. From this harmony of soul with the Divine Will - flows a great, deep, broad river of peace, which passes all understanding and all fathoming! This stream grows deeper and wider, until it empties into the ocean of eternal love! The holy believer - who accepts God's promises more readily than the best government bonds - who shapes his life in conformity with Christ - who keeps his soul's windows open towards the sun-rising - who makes each painful cross, a ladder for a climb into a higher fellowship with Jesus - who realizes that just before him lies the exceeding and eternal weight of glory - cannot be made a sour or peevish or melancholy man - by any outward circumstances!

        The holy-minded Samuel Rutherford of Scotland, wrote most of his immortal "Letters" within the cell of a martyr's prison. They read like leaves from the tree of life, floated down on sunbeams! "Come, O my well-beloved!" he exclaims; "come fast that we may meet at the banquet!" "I would not exchange one smile of Christ's lovely face - for kingdoms." "There is no room for crosses in heaven." "Sorrow and the saints are not married together. Or, if it were so, heaven would divorce them." The holiness of such a man is not the enthusiasm of a visionary or the mere outburst of transient emotion; it is the normal condition of the man, the wholeness of a soul who has been transformed by grace - into the likeness and the life of Jesus Christ.

        Keeping Christ's commandments - keeps the eye clear and the temper sweet, and the will submissive, and the affections pure - in these things, lies the rich reward. The highest type of piety is cheerful piety. The more we study the lives and examples of the healthiest Christians - the more we find them to be the men and women who walk in the sunshine of God's face. They are the living illustrations of the truth - that close contact with God is the most supreme source of happiness. There is such a thing as "joy in the Holy Spirit." There is food for the soul to feed on - which this lying, deceitful, and deceived world, knows nothing of. The measure of our holiness is the true measure of our happiness; it will be the measure of our final enjoyment of heaven.



        The Angels of the Sepulcher

        In the most beautiful cemetery in Washington, stands a marble statue carved by the skill of Palmer's chisel. It represents "The Angel of the Sepulcher." On every side the dead are sleeping; but beside them sits this silent sentinel, as if to guard the slumbering dust until the resurrection trumpet sounds the wake-up signal on the judgment morn. That angel which Palmer's chisel fashioned, is of solid stone; but the "angels in white" whom Mary of Magdala saw in the deserted tomb of Jesus - were pure immaterial spirits. They assumed a visible form; but angels are never described as material beings of flesh and blood like ourselves. Excelling in strength, they go forth as God's messengers to do His will, to watch over children, to bear home the departed spirits of God's people, and to encamp round about His covenant ones who fear Him.

        From those angelic appearances at the tomb of our Redeemer on His resurrection morn - we may gather some cheering lessons. When the anxious Marys were on their way to that tomb with their spices, the thought flashed into their minds, "Who will roll away that rock at the sepulcher for us? "But the difficulty is solved in a way that they had never dreamed of. An angel from heaven had already been there, and had opened the rock gate - to let the King of Glory out.

        In like manner, God often sends an Angel of Help to roll away our hindrances. Some of them are real obstacles, some of them are created by our fears. The awakened sinner often encounters difficulties in a stubborn will, or in long-formed habits, or in obdurate appetites. As soon as he submits to Christ, he finds these difficulties give way. Divine power achieves for him - what his own unaided weakness could not accomplish.

        Many a child of God has been brought under a sore bereavement, and the first thought has been, "Oh, how can I bear this burden of grief! How can I surmount all these new hardships and difficulties!" A widow left with a family of orphans, and with scanty provision to feed and clothe them - is tempted to give up in despair. But when she reaches one difficulty after another, look - the stone is rolled away. A friend provides for this lad; a home is offered to another; a third begins to help himself and mother too; and she soon finds that she can do a hundred things - which she thought impossible.

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God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        Beside the mourning widow, walked an angel in white, which strengthened her. God always has an angel of HELP for those who are willing to do their duty. How often have we been afraid to undertake some difficult work for Him - but as soon as we laid hold of it - the rock of hindrance was removed. The tempter told us that if we attempted to save some hardened soul - that we would encounter an immovable rock. We had faith enough to try, and prayer brought the power which turned the heart of stone - to flesh.

        The adversary is continuously busy in frightening us from labors of love for our Master. Yet if our single aim is to reach Jesus and to honor Jesus - no hindrance is immovable. The world thought Paul a madman, and Luther a fanatic, and Wilberforce and Duff but pious visionaries. When the Omnipotent Help came down, opposing rocks were swept away, and the Devil's guards were put to flight! The very lions which frightened "Mistrust "and "Timorous" - are discovered to be "chained" when a persevering Christian comes up to them.

        But Help is not the only angel which God sends to His believing ones. There is another bright spirit, whom we never meet more surely than at the sepulcher where our treasures sleep. The name of this angel in white, is HOPE. She sits today by the little mounds which cover the bodies we loved. When I go out to the grassy hill in Greenwood, where my darling boy has lain for a dozen summers, I meet that angel at the tomb. The words she chanted when the casket was sealed up and hidden beneath the earth - are sounding still: "All those who sleep in Jesus - will God bring with Him." As Mary Magdalene saw the angel through her tears - so the believer sees through tears of sorrow - the white-robed angel of Hope. A clear-eyed angel is she, and one who excels in strength.

        She has other ministering spirits with her, to minister to the heirs of salvation. PATIENCE attends her, and PRAYER with a casket of promises, and PEACE with her serene countenance, and LOVE, which is stronger than death.

        The tomb in Joseph's garden was filled with "light" where the two bright spirits sat, "the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain." Even so do the angels of Divine help and hope turn the midnight of sorrow into noon of rejoicing. To the eye of unbelief - the grave is a ghostly spot. Faith peoples the cemetary with angels, and fills the air with prophetic songs of praise. What a scene will all the cemeteries present - when the angelic legions shall roll away every stone, and gather Christ's own chosen ones to meet Him on His throne!



        The Night-lodging, and the Day-dawn

        When traveling in Palestine last year, we occasionally came upon a wayside inn. Before one of those crude inns - the traveler halts at sunset, feeds his animals, stretches himself on the floor, and in the cool dawn of the next morning saddles his horse or mule and pushes on his journey. This familiar custom was in the Psalmist's mind when he wrote, "Weeping may endure for a night - but joy comes in the morning!" This verse literally translated, would read, "In the night sorrow lodges - and at the day-dawn comes shouting." Sorrow is represented as only a lodger for a night - to be followed by joy at the sun-rising.

        This is a truthful picture of most frequent experiences of believers. It is full of comfort to God's people, and it points on to the glorious dawn of heaven's eternal day, when the night-watch of life is over. Sorrow is often the precursor of joy; sometimes it is so needful, that unless we endure the one - we cannot have the other. Some of us have known what it is to have severe sickness lodge in our bodily tent, when every nerve became a tormentor; and every muscle a highway for pain to course over. We lay on our beds, conquered and helpless. But the longest night has its dawn. At length returning health began to steal in upon us, like the earliest gleams of morning light through the window shutters. Never did food taste so delicious - as the first meal of which we partook at our own table. Never did the sunbeams fall so sweet and golden - as on that first Sunday when we ventured out to church - and no discourse ever tasted so like heavenly manna - as the one our pastor poured into our hungry ears that day. We sang the thirtieth Psalm with melody in the heart, and no verse more gratefully than this one, "Sorrow may endure for a night - but joy comes in the morning!"

        Many a night of hard toil has been followed by the longed-for dawn of success. When we were weary with the rowing - the blessed Master came to us on the waves and cried out, "Be of good cheer - it is I!" As soon as He entered the boat - the skies lighted up, and in a moment the boat was in the harbor.

        The history of every discovery, of every enterprise of benevolence, of every Christian reform - is the history of toil and patience through long discouragements. I love to read the narrative of Palissy - of his painful struggles with adversity, of his gropings after the scientific truth he was seeking, and of his final victory. Sorrow and poverty and toil lodged with that brave spirit for many a weary month - but at length came singing and shouting. All Galileos and Keplers and Newtons have had this experience. All the Luthers and Wesleys who have pioneered great reformations, and all the missionaries of Christ who have ever invaded the darkness of paganism, have had to endure night-work and watching - before the hand of God opened to them - the gates of the "dayspring from on high."

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God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        This is the lesson to be learned by us pastors, by the teachers in mission-schools, by colporteurs, and by every toiler for Christ and souls. "We have toiled all night - and caught nothing!" exclaimed the tired and hungry disciples. Then in the early gray of the daybreak, they espied their Master on the beach; the net is cast on the right side of the ship, and it swarms with fish enough to break its meshes.

        Nearly every revival season I have ever passed through in my church - has been on this same fashion. Difficulties and discouragements have sent us to our knees - and then we have been surprised by the advent of the Master in great power and blessing! God tests His people - before He blesses them. The night is mother of the day; trust through the dark - brings triumph in the dawn!

        Precisely similar are the deepest and richest experiences of many a regenerated soul. The sorrows of penitence were the precursors of the joys of pardon. I have known a convicted sinner to endure the pangs of contrition when a great tempest lay upon him - and no sun or stars appeared; his soul was in the horror of a great darkness. To such distressed hearts, God often sends a flood of relief and joy - as sudden as the light which poured on Saul of Tarsus. To others, conversion has been a slower, gentler process. Like the gradual coming of the dawn - as we have witnessed it from a mountain summit - darkness has slowly given place to steel-gray, and the steel-gray to silver, the silver has reddened into brilliant gold - and all has developed so quietly and steadily that we could not fix the precise birth-moment of the day.

        Just so, thousands of true Christians cannot fix the precise date of their conversion. But the dawn of hope and new life really begins - when the mercy of Jesus Christ is rightly apprehended, and the soul begins to see and to follow Him.

        Those who suffer the sharpest sorrow for their own sinfulness and guilt, and are brought into the deepest self-loathing, are commonly those who are the most thoroughly converted. The height of their joy is proportioned to the depth of their distress. Christ is all the more precious to them - for having painfully felt the need of Him. The dawn of their new hope has been unmistakably from heaven, and their after pathway has shone brighter and brighter to the perfect day.

        One other truth - the most ineffably glorious of all - is illustrated by this simile of the night-lodging at the inn. The earthly life of God's children is only a mere encampment for a night. To many - are appointed sleeplessness and tears. Sometimes through poverty, sometimes through long sickness, sometimes under darkly mysterious bereavements, they have "waited patiently on the Lord more than those who watch for the morning." They knew that the dawn of heaven lay behind the clouds - and they held out in confident expectation of it. Paul himself had such sharp experiences, that he once confessed that he had "a desire to break camp - and to be with Christ, which is far better!"

        A most lovely Christian, whose life had been consumed by a slow cancer, went home to glory a few days ago. While the poor frail tent of the body was decaying daily - she was feasting on rapturous glimpses of heaven! Through the long weary night - pain and suffering lodged in that fluttering tent; but at length

            "The dawn of heaven broke -
             The summer morn she sighed for,
             The fair, sweet morn awoke!"

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God's Light on Dark Clouds
by Theodore Cuyler, 1882

        Our Two Homes

        That beautiful passage in the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, may be translated as follows: "Being always confident, and knowing that while we are in our home in the body we are away from our home in the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by appearance. We are still confident, and well content rather to go from our home in the body - and to come to our home in the Lord."

        The contrast is a sharp and distinct one, between our two homes. In the first verse of this chapter Paul speaks of our present home as a mere "tent"; the other home is "a mansion of God, eternal in the heavens." In other words, my "soul" which is really "myself" has two homes - one of them is in this frail and flimsy tent which I call a body, and the other is in that enduring and glorious habitation called heaven.

        A tent is the most transient of all lodging-places. It is pitched today; tomorrow its pins are pulled up and the canvas is carried away to some other spot, leaving only the ashes of a camp-fire. What a vivid picture is this of the frail body in which my immortal soul encamps for a few swift-flying years! Half of all the human tents do not last more than thirty years; and if by much mending and patching they are made to last for forty years - yet they easily yield to the blast of death and fly away! Paul's tent had seen some rough usage; it was so migratory and so drenched with storms, and so mauled by persecutions and scarred with the lash - that the old hero who lived in it longed "to depart and to be with Christ - which was far better!" He was constantly getting homesick for his Father's house. A happy day it was for him - when the executioner's axe clove his poor old leaky tent in twain - and allowed his heaven-bound spirit to fly away and be at rest!

        A thousand speculative and poetical things, have been written in regard to the Christian's future home. The Bible says just enough to rouse our curiosity and to stimulate speculation - but not enough to spoil the sublime mystery which overhangs it like a cloud of glory. A few things seem to my own mind at least, to be well established.

        Heaven is a place. It is not a mere state or condition of blissful holiness. A distinctly bounded place of abode it must be, or else John's view of it from Patmos was an idle illusion. God's Word speaks of it as a "city," and as filled with "many mansions." The light of it proceeds from a central throne; for the Lamb in the midst of the throne, is the light thereof. Its crystalline pavements are like unto fine gold. The music of its praises fell upon the old apostle's ear with such a sublime roar of melodies, that he likened them to the Mediterranean's surf dashing upon the rocks of Patmos. He calls them "the roar of mighty ocean waves." Surrounding this vast scene of splendor he saw something which he describes as walls of precious gems, and "the twelve gates were made of pearls - each gate from a single pearl!"

        There is something beautifully suggestive in this many-sidedness of heaven, with gates of entrance from every point of the compass. It emphasizes the universality of God's house, into which all the redeemed shall enter, from all parts of the globe, and with their varying theological and denominational opinions. All shall come in through Christ Jesus - and yet through many gateways. Thank God, no bigot shall be able to bar one soul out - who has been washed in the blood of the Lamb!

        The variety of "fruits" on the tree of life points to the idea of satisfying every possible taste and aspiration of God's vast household of many kindreds and tongues and nations. Why surrender the view of a literal home of the redeemed, such as John has described to us? Why burn it all away into the thin vapor of metaphor? If John did not see what he described, then he saw nothing at all; and if he saw nothing real, then the closing visions of the Apocalypse are a splendid fantasy! For one, I prefer to hold to the actual words which Revelation gives me, and if, when I get there, I find something utterly different, then it will be time enough to make the discovery.

        That our heavenly home will satisfy our fullest social longings, we cannot doubt. No one need complain of lack of "good company" there. Old Dr. Emmons is not the only Christian who has fed his hopes of "a good talk with the Apostle Paul." Dr. Guthrie is not the only parent who has felt assured that "his little Johnnie would meet him inside the gate." Many a pastor expects to find the converted portion of his flock as a "crown of rejoicing to him in that day." There cannot possibly be a question of doubt of the recognition of friends. No barriers of caste can separate those who are children of the one Father and dwelling in the same household.

        When Cineas, the ambassador of Pyrrhus, came back from his visit to Rome in the days of her glory, he reported to his prince that he had seen a "commonwealth of kings!" So will it be in heaven, where every heir of redeeming grace will be as a king and priest unto God, and a divine adoption shall make everyone a member of the royal family. What a comforting thought it is - that we shall never be compelled to pull up our tent-poles any longer in quest of a pleasanter home! Heaven will have no "moving-day." No longer shall we dread to be pulled away from associations which we love, and sent off into strange and uncongenial places.

        There is a delightful permanence in that word, "Forever with the Lord." The steps to that home are few and short. Happy is that child of Jesus who is always listening for the footfall this side of the golden gate, and for the voice of invitation to hurry home. A godly life is just a tarrying in the tent for Christ - until we go into the mansion with Christ!

        "I hope your Master has gone to heaven!" said someone to a slave when his master had died. "I'm afraid he has not gone there," replied Ben, "for I never heard him speak of heaven. Whenever he goes on a trip - he always prepares for many weeks. I never saw him getting ready for going to heaven!" The simple slave's words are a test and an admonition for each one of us. For let us be assured that not one of us will ever see that glorious Home - unless we are made ready for it by Christ Jesus!