DANGER OF RESISTING TRUTH.
By W.
TRUTH is of God; error is of the devil. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5), therefore the truth of God is the light of the world. Christ, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), said also, "I am the light of the world." John 8:12. That truth is light and error is darkness, is shown also by the words of Jesus to Nicodemus:— "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John 3:19-21. The idea is that those who do the truth will be willing to have the light of truth shine upon them; but they who do evil do not love to come in contact with the truth, because that would reveal the error of their course. There are many more in this condition than is commonly supposed. Some people who condemn others as boldly resisting truth, and rejecting light, are doing the same thing themselves. How many are there who congratulate themselves that "we have the truth," who have not often shrunk from reading some portions of the Bible, or from some of the plainest and most direct portions of the testimonies of His Spirit? How many are there who have not, at times at least, felt nervous lest some particular sin should be pointed out in plain terms by the servant of God? Such ones are dreading the light, lest the evil that they are cherishing deep in their hearts, scarcely acknowledging to themselves, should be reproved. The Lord desires "truth in the inward parts." It matters not how much truth one may possess, how firmly one may hold the theory, if he cherishes evil in his inmost heart, so that he dreads the searching light of God's word, he is resisting the truth just as surely as was Pharaoh, who said, "I know not the Lord; neither will I let Israel go." He is serving gods of his own devising, just the same as Pharaoh was. Having thus briefly noted how one may resist truth, let us look at the danger of such a course. Said Jesus:— "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." John 12:35. The opposite of light is darkness. It needs no argument, therefore, to show that when one rejects light, he chooses darkness. God is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness, yet his Spirit will not always strive with man. He will plead with a man, will stretch out his hands a long time, but when the man hugs his sin to his bosom, persistently refusing to see the light that would show its deformity, the light will be withdrawn. The man who, in the face of the light which God gives, cherishes impure desires and imaginings, and refuses to let them go, is getting ready to shut the last ray of light away from himself. And what will be the result? He will soon walk in darkness, and will not know whither he goes. The light that is in him will become darkness, and then how great his darkness will be. All this will come to the man whose eye is not single; that is, who has not one aim and only one thing before him, namely, to serve God in spirit and in truth. When a man has thus shut light away from him, there is nothing bad that he may not be expected to do. How can he be expected to distinguish between truth and error when he is walking in darkness of his own choosing. He may be, in a certain sense, sincere; that is, he may think that he is doing just right, because he is in the dark and all things look alike. There are men to-day in the ranks of blaspheming Spiritualists and blatant infidels, who once preached the plain truth of God's word, and they are as earnest in their advocacy of error as they were once in their defense of truth. They cannot by any possibility see that which once looked so plain to them. It is now impossible for them to believe truth. Why? Because they received not the love of the truth. They cherished some secret sin which the light of truth condemned. They yielded themselves to the service of Satan, and now they are led captive by him at his will. Yet such an one will talk about morality, and will imagine that he is continually rising higher in the scale. How is this? Simply because his standard of truth and morality is constantly being lowered. He is continually drawing nearer his ideal, and so becoming nearer and nearer satisfied with himself, because as he sinks in the scale of morality, his ideal is lowered to a still greater degree. Terrible delusion! Fighting God and his truth, yet imagining that he is serving God; and what is worse than all, having no power ever again to know what is truth. How can those upon whom the truth shines as clear as the noonday sun, avoid this fate? Only by cherishing every ray of that light. Let it light up every corner of the heart. Say, with the psalmist, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Then shall your path be as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day.