The Power of Darkness

‘* Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.” Cot. i. 18.

In his book, Polar Travel, Admiral Peary makes a very striking statement on the greatest trial in Arctic exploration. He says that whereas to nine out of ten people the word “polar’’ is synonymous with cold, to one who has spent a year within the Arctic or Antarctic it is more likely to be synonymous with darkness. ‘“‘ A man of the most sanguine temperament cannot avoid entirely the effects of months of polar night, and there are those of a nervous temperament whom a night in the Arctic would drive insane.”’

There are other zones beside the Arctic where the power of darkness is appalling. If the darkness be unrelieved, a long night-time in the soul can break a life to pieces. Indeed, that is a phrase which we frequently use to describe the condition of people whose sorrow clings about them like a heavy night without a star, and without a friendly glint of coming dawn. We say they are “going all to pieces!’ Their finer faculties become anemic; they whiten and sicken like plants imprisoned in a dark cellar. Their emotions become burdensome weights when they were purposed to be wings. They are weighed down when they should be lifted up. Sweet things in the soul turn sour, like a room which is shut up from light and air. The whole life loses its healthy balance and fine proportions, and all because the darkness has deprived it of the sense of space and far horizons.

I think that one of the great perils of the present time is in this paralysing power of darkness. The world is full of sorrows. Millions are walking in the gloomy shadow of death, or in the almost equally oppressive gloom of the fear of death. The terrible gusts of our day are blowing out many friendly lights! How, then, shall it be with the darkness? Shall it be a hostile darkness which induces spiritual paralysis, or shall it be a strangely pervaded darkness which is the servant of a sovereign hope and peace?

There is here a great call for the saving ministries of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Never was the believer in Christ more privileged with opportunities of service. It is our ministry, in Christ Jesus, “to give light to them that sit in darkness.” We are called to go here and there as lamp-lighters on dark roads. ‘“‘ Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” We are to retell the old story of redeeming love and grace. We are to tell it with quiet confidence as those who know and believe it. And it is amazing what one can do, who has the assurance of faith, in steadying doubtful and trembling hearts! It is amazing what one confident soul can do among a whole shipful of panic-stricken folk when he quietly says, “Sirs, be of good cheer, I believe God!” The watchman on the mountain, with his good news of breaking day, gives heart to everybody in the darkened vale. ‘‘ In Thy light have we seen light.”