The Treasures of Darkness
“It have pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.” 2 Cor. xii. 10.
Tuts is one of the strange paradoxes of the Apostle Paul. He takes the most unlikely and unfriendly things, and he brings them into vital union. You can find them everywhere throughout his life and teachings. Words like these : — ‘‘ Having nothing, yet possessing all things”’; ‘“We glory in tribulation’; ‘‘ When I am weak, then am I strong.” It is like the marriage of two quite opposite personalities. It is like marrying summer and winter, or midnight and noon. It is the reconciliation of things which are seemingly incompatible. And yet it is only a fulfilment in human experience of one of the beatitudes of our Lord. Did not our Lord say to His disciples, ‘‘ Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you.... Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” Paul is almost quoting His master in the sentence I have taken from his letter to the Corinthians; only he is quoting the word as a living experience, for in him the word has been fulfilled. ‘‘ When men shall persecute you’... rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” It is the Master’s word; it is the disciples’ experience. This sort of joy is like the leaping of a spring in a desert waste, it is like the sound of wedding-bells in a graveyard.
The New Testament is full of the strains of this extraordinary kind of joy. Let us listen to just one of the strains. Here are
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two men, at one time fishermen at the lake of Galilee, and they have been witnessing to the resurrection of their Lord. And they have been arrested. And they have been scourged. And with their backs still bleeding they are going forth into the world again. Now then: — ‘“And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name!” That is the Lord’s beatitude in action. But where does such joy come from? Where are its springs? This sort of song, leaping forth in the midnight, where is it born?
It surely is a very extraordinary kind of rejoicing. What do these men and women find in their dark experiences which makes them sing like nightingales in gloomy woods? Do they make any discoveries in the darkness which explains their joy? Yes, that is the secret, they have some supremely precious findings which make reproach and persecution seem like nothing. What do they discover? ‘They have the wonderful joy — of discovering God in more and more of His se 92 The Treasures of Darkness
glory. The dark places become the home of vision. They find their eyes in the night, and they penetrate the veil of the darkness and see the Lord. Here is one of them; he is surrounded by men who hate him; they are gnashing upon him with their teeth; the stones are even now in their hands with which they will destroy him. How now? “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, ‘ Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.’?”” That is a typical discovery of apostolic life. The blocked road is wedded to the open heavens. When the apostles are shut in by the enmities and antagonisms of men their spiritual culture becomes more intensive, and the fruits of the spirit appear in their life in amazing strength and glory.
But there is another discovery which they make in their darkness, They have the joy of discovering other souls, and winning them to the Lord. There are some folk
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who are only found through the medium of dark experiences. If we never suffered they would never be won. The revelation made through suffering becomes a constraint which they cannot resist. What I mean is this; we see some man’s noble bearing under reproach, and the splendid testimony lays its grip upon us. A brave and radiant endurance makes conquests of many men who would be unmoved by words spoken in sunny circumstances. It is the encircling gloom which makes the testimony glorious. I verily believe that Stephen’s magnificent bearing in the night laid hold of Saul of Tarsus and would not let him go. Saul never got away from it, and it coloured his thought and life to the very end. When he himself was stoned at Lystra a young fellow was looking on, and looking on with awe-inspired admiration, and the constraint - won him to the Lord. It was in the night-time that Paul discovered Timothy, the strong and vital comrade in the labours of his latter years. No wonder he gloried in tribulation!
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And surely it is in antagonism that we discover the joy of battle. To be hit, and yet to go at it again! Is there no deep joy in that? To be stoned in Lystra, and yet to go back again! Coming out of hospital and voluntarily going straight back to the front. With that sort of courage there goes a strange joy, and it is the joy of the Lord.