SPIRITUAL DARKNESS by A. F. Schauffler, D. D.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 3, 1887

SPIRITUAL DARKNESS.

By A. F. Schauffler, D. D.

LIGHT and darkness are opposites. Where one prevails, the other must give way. This is true in the material world. But there are more kinds of light than one. There is intellectual light and intellectual darkness. So, also, there is spiritual light and spiritual darkness. To explain anything is to pour light upon it, and the result is that the listener says, “I see.” Not that he sees anything new with his bodily eye, but that, intellectual light having been furnished, his mental vision is clear. If the explanation is not grasped by him, he is still in mental darkness; and with puzzled face he says, “I cannot see it.” He whose deeds are wicked and contrary to the right is in spiritual darkness. He may know what is right, but, so long as he prefers to do what is wrong, he refuses to walk in the way of light. On the other hand, he who sees the right, and does it, is a child of the day, and loves the light of truth.

By nature, men are in spiritual darkness. To prove this is not difficult. We need only go to those lands where the revelation of God has not come, to see how dark are men's minds, and how black their deeds. All forms of idolatry, whether they are the rude idolatries of Africa, or the more refined idolatries of Asia, or the dreadful idolatries of ancient Mexico, prove this. In John's day, Rome, Greece, Egypt, were all in black darkness, having no clear idea of God, of sin, or of duty. But even in so-called Christian lands men are still in spiritual darkness, when left to themselves. In any town or city in this Christian land, there are more Sabbath-breakers than Sabbath-keepers, more liars than truth-tellers, more godless than godly people. And when we turn to those who are truly godly, they will with one consent bear witness to the fact that there was a time when they, too, were in darkness. By nature, the “whole world lieth in wickedness”—which is the same thing as spiritual darkness.

Now, all admit that to live in physical darkness is a great evil. One of the horrors of the Arctic regions is the long, long night. All admit, also, that intellectual darkness is a great evil. For this all our schools are established, and parents are forced to send their children to school, so that they may not abide in darkness. Any parent who locked his child up always in a dark room, and prevented him from learning anything, would be called a monster. And any person who preferred the dark, and sought for ignorance, would be thought insane. Yet, strange to say, parents often make no effort to give their children spiritual light, and children themselves are content to dwell in darkness from year to year. Since this is a great evil, however, we must go on to ask how we may escape from this dark and evil bondage.—A. F. Schauffler, D. D.