The Night by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 16.

The Night.

By Editor

The Night.—In the Word of God the night precedes the day. "The evening and the morning were the first day" "the second day," etc., is the record given us in the first chapter of Genesis of the creation week. There is not only a divine and blessed economy in this order as regards the natural day, but there are precious lessons in the fact to the weary children of earth and the pilgrims to the better land.

The Beginning of the Day, the complete cycle, is the sunset twilight. "At even, when the sun did set," "now when the sun was setting," "when the even was come," are scripture expressions of the beginning of the day. (See Mark 1:32; Luke 4:40; Matt. 8:16.) "From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath," was the law of the Lord through Moses. Lev. 23:32. The first day began to the primeval inhabitants of earth with the twilight glow of the setting sun in the western horizon. In this arrangement the children of earth may always greet the day at its coming as a new gift of God, to use to his glory. How unlike, and yet how much better than, the artificial days of man's division, in which the days come and go while the vast majority are locked in slumber.

The Twilight of Earth.—

Darkness, in the Word of God, is the symbol of sin, and night the time when sin reigns. Light is the symbol of righteousness, and day is the period when righteousness is triumphant. It was during the little period of the opening sunset twilight of earth's day that righteousness reigned. For a few moments, as it were, the innocent children of God, the beasts and birds, fields and flowers, grass and trees, lake and river, nature animate and inanimate, rested and reveled in peace, the fruit of innocence and righteousness. The impress of God's character was upon everything. From the gorgeous crimson and golden glow of the western sky, to the tiny flower, upon everything was written, "God is love." But not long did it continue. As the soft twilight glow fades to dusk, and the dusk to the dark of night, so did the blessed peace of innocence and joy, which ushered in the day of earth, soon give way to the darkness of earth's night of sin and sorrow.

Earth's Night of Weeping.—Nights, the nights of men, are more than the days, to a large class, the times of weeping and sorrow. The soul is more alone. The distracting business of earth, the whirling pleasures of sense, the surrounding influences of associates are in the majority of cases shut out, and the soul is alone with its woes, and troubles, and griefs. Many days see calm and smiling faces the previous nights to which witnessed pillows wet with tears, and heard groans of anguish and sighing. Alone in the darkness the feelings find unhindered vent, while in the day pride or self-sacrifice or grace holds them in restraint. To another class the night is a time of pleasure, revelry, debauchery, crime. Somehow mankind seems to feel that they can do

with impunity in the darkness what the light of day would forbid, remembering not the words of Inspiration, "Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee." But the nights of reckless pleasure, revelry, debauchery, and crime are surely followed soon or late by other nights of regret, remorse, bitter weeping, and oftentimes despair. Such is our world since the day that sin entered and its lord yielded himself and his dominion to the author of sin. The greater part of its inhabitants are among the revelers, the debauchees, those who look only to the present till, faced with the fruit of their sowing, they enter the realms of despair, sorrow, pain, helplessness, hopelessness, or if hoping, hoping in vain, resting on the arm of flesh, the breath of man. The death trains of earth's night, ending at the funeral pyre, the sarcophagus, the mausoleum, or the narrow house, are myriad, and the majority of those who die and those who mourn, mourn in stony sorrow and despair.

Breaks in the Gloom.—And yet the night of earth's sorrow is not entirely black in its darkness. Its blackness of darkness is not yet come. God in his goodness from the very beginning has rent the dark pall by which Satan would overspread it, and flashed through the thickened gloom rays of light from above. He has kindled "burning and shining lights" in all the periods of the night, to light the way. He has given the sure lamp to the feet and the light to the path to every traveler who longs for the land of light. Nay, more, he has given his own Son in all these blessings to be the Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world. Faintly it shines in some of the lands of earth, only the merest gleam of light, but it beats forth from the heart of the great central Sun of light, and he who welcomes it and follows its divine ray, will be led to the fulness of perfect day. Fellow-traveler, there is always light above. Do not look to the false lights of earth, the treacherous will-o'-the-wisps, kindled on the miasmatic marshes of false science, of reckless pleasure, of man-made religions, but look above, to Jesus, the Light of the world, to the Word of light and life he has given, to the torches lighted by the Light of heaven, which hold forth not themselves, but which shed light on the way of Jesus Christ. As God gives light, ask for more. Cry to him for light.

"Light of the world, we cry to Thee For light, more light to guide us all; The way is dark, we can not see; We think we stand, we know we fall; The world is darker than the night. Light of the world, more light, more light!"

Thus many weary, hungry hearts are praying. To such we wish to say, There is light, more light, yea, all light, in Jesus Christ. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him."

The Morning Cometh.—After the night, dawns the morning, the pledge of the coming day. Earth's night of evil will sometime be over. The time of sin, and suffering, and wo,

and anguish, and misery, and heartache, and fraud, and swindling, and deception, and strife, and war, and murder, and hope deferred till the heart is sick with despair, will pass away. "Watchman," call the waiting, weary, mourning ones of earth, "what of the night?" The answer is, "The morning cometh!" The darkness of the eastern horizon lightens from blackness to gray. Streamers of light, the heralds of day-dawn, gild the mountain top. The Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his beams, is about to rise. Christ is coming. The Day is at hand. The intensity of the powers of darkness, like the last hour before the day, is a sign of night's coming collapse. The crumbling of mundane forces, the war, the strife, the deepening misery in the midst of earth's plenty, are omens of the breaking of the night. The reign of sin is nearly over; it has broken the earth by its burden; righteousness must rule or the earth perish. Even the very mockers who sneeringly ask, "Where is the promise of Christ's coming? Where is the evidence of a change in this earth?" are themselves an evidence, in that they fulfil the word of the Lord which predicted their infidelity. 2 Peter 3:3-7. Now, while the day begins, God pierces the gloom with its light, and invites men to become "children of light, and the children of the day." 1 Thess. 5:5. We may have walked in the darkness of this life, but now by faith we may be "light in the Lord." And while we mourn because of the darkness, because of the blindness of those who walk therein, because of the condition and eventual misery and hopelessness of the deceived ones of darkness, because of the loss or pain of loved ones, yet in it all we may have light, and may rejoice. "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:5-7. Those who here choose the spiritual darkness of earth will perish with it before the glorious brightness of the coming dawn, destroyed by "the brightness of his coming" (2 Thess. 2:8), while those who walk in the light shall dwell in light and glory forever more.

Day Is Coming.—Christian, rejoice. The long night of warfare is almost done. Watchman, weary of ceaseless vigil, the Master will soon relieve thy toil. Mourner, the dawning day will break the bolted doors of the cruel grave, and the dead in Christ shall live. Weary, struggling worker for Christ, the day of eternal and universal freedom is at hand. Its sun will know no decline, its day no end, its light will not be dimmed. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Do you not see its brightening rays? Stand ready to greet it.

"O, we see the gleams of the golden morning Piercing through this night of gloom! O, we see the gleams of the golden morning That will burst the tomb."