LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS:
By S. N. Haskell
Men often suffer great depression of mind in consequence of disappointment in their daily avocations or worldly pursuits, in which the honor and glory of God is not involved. It is not this kind of darkness to which we refer; but that which unforeseen circumstances bring to us, because of our connection with the cause of our divine Lord. God's work is not carried forward by might or by power, but by his Holy Spirit. Its prosperity is not, because worldly wisdom, influence, and wealth, are connected with it, nor because outward circumstances are favorable to its advancement; but often his trusting children are brought through the most adverse circumstances to greater victories than were ever attained by mortal man. The darkest nights are not unfrequently followed by the brightest days. Even the dark clouds themselves have a silver lining; and the very circumstances which give rise to so many evil forebodings, are fraught with gems of light, and eventually they result in the choicest of Heaven's blessings. When the mysterious problem is worked out, God's purpose becomes apparent in the advancement of his cause, and the rich experience gained by those whose lives are interwoven with it. When Joseph's brethren sold him to the Ishmaelites, and his heart was wrung with anguish, which found expression in earnest yet unavailing tears and pleadings, he did not realize that God was sending him into Egypt for a wise and beneficent purpose. The false accusation of Pharaoh's wife placed him in prison; but it was not revealed to him that this was the way that God had chosen to make him ruler over all Egypt. He could only see one affliction upon another. And little did either Jacob or Joseph realize that these varied circumstances which gave them so much sorrow, were all designed of God; not only for their salvation from seven years of famine, but to present, by the godly lives of his people and their miraculous deliverance from the furnace of affliction, the knowledge of the true God to a nation of idolators. “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?” It is by the straightness of the way that men learn to lean on God. It is when the darkness without excludes from our mortal vision every visible help, that we learn to trust an over-ruling providence. It is the fiery ordeal which brings forth the pure gold. The death of Stephen, when it occurred, appeared to his friends to be an awful calamity to the early church; yet it is a luminous event in the early history of the Christian religion. Search wherever we will, we can nowhere find a more perfect example of a pure and unselfish Christian, than is revealed in the brief record of his life and martyrdom. The glorious manifestation during the last moments of his life, is all the more impressive when contrasted with the death of the first who died of the twelve,—the traitor; and that of Ananias and Sapphira, with whose death great fear fell upon all the church. The glorious kingdom of God's dear Son was founded under gloomy, and the most foreboding circumstances. He himself had died an ignominious death upon the cross; his most ardent disciple had denied him with cursing and swearing. But the martyrdom of Stephen shed a halo of heavenly light upon the Christian pathway. The revelation of a character so pure, in a manner to be discerned by all, while the moral atmosphere was filled with darkness and gloom, was an evidence which none could deny, an encouragement which none could doubt. By it the divine power of the religion of Jesus Christ was vindicated, and made apparent. It was a sure precursor of final victory. To us, who have seen the triumphs of the cross mid a thousand such battles, and who are able to take a comprehensive view of these events, it is not difficult to discern God's over-ruling providence in them; but to the friends and associates of the murdered apostle, this was impossible. Behold them as they view the corpse of their champion and brother, at the feet of the murderers. “And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentations over him.” How much the death of Stephen had to do with the conversion of Paul we are unable to say, but subsequent allusions to it in his after life show that the impression made by it was lasting. And notwithstanding that the persecution raged for a season, the day did dawn when the churches had rest, and when the fact that through this persecution the glorious light of the gospel had been dispersed in many places was everywhere recognized.