The Armour of Light

“Let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” — Rom. xiii. 12.

HERE is a strange spectacle, the children of light wearing the armour of darkness! They are fighting the devil with the devil’s weapons. Satan is seeking to cast out Satan. The soldiers of Jesus are harbouring the very spirit they are out to fight! No wonder that their warfare has no conquests, and that they spend their strength in vain. The sharpest sword becomes a painted lath when our spirits are defiled. In these realms a man’s most fearful foes are they of his own household. The indwelling things of darkness infest and weaken all our powers.

A man can no more entertain sin and be virile than he can entertain a cancer and be healthy. Cancer sends its deadly trail throughout the entire currency of the blood; and indwelling sin deposits its deadly sedi-

46 The Armour of Lightment on every power of mind and soul. And, therefore, the first requisite of an efficient army is the mobilisation of moral and spiritual resources. The most perilous of our weaknesses is an unclean spirit; the most vulnerable of all unpreparedness is that of the inner man.

The Apostle bids us get rid of those deadly besetments. ‘‘ Cast off the works of darkness!” He seems to speak of them as if they were a loathsome garment, as something that we are wearing which is more a hindrance than a help. But can we throw them away like a coat? Evil becomes a second nature. What was at first like a loose garment becomes at last like a skin. And we are not going to divest ourselves of the evil thing by an act of even fervent resolution. No man can accomplish it in his own strength, and it will be vain for him to try. The great Apostle teaches that this form of disinvestiture is not an act of will, it is a work of grace. To strip us of the sin which doth so closely cling to us demands the infinite forces of salvation. The Cross is

The Armour of Light Ay

still needful to remove my shame and stain.

But when the soul has been rid of its defilements, how bright and gleaming is its armour! The cleansed soul is shining in all the translucent purity of the children of God. It is “light in the Lord.” It has armour for its own defence, for a character which is possessed and illumined by God’s holy grace and love is gloriously immune. “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day.’ And it has armour for all its noble offences, for what is so arresting as light, what so penetrating, so convincing, so overwhelming? ‘‘ The light of Israel shall be for a fire.” ‘‘ Let us put on the armour of light.”