Shadow and Substance

“Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” — i Chron. 29: 15.

A Shadow is Nothing.

It is the absence of something. Take away light, and the nothing that remains is shadow. Put ten thousand shadows together, and you have nothing. Nothing multiplied by billions is nothing. And our days on the earth are as a shadow in that they are nothing in length compared with the great substance, eternity, that lies before us. A bird comes to this world every thousand years and takes away in its beak one grain of sand, and after the entire globe has been removed, a grain at a time every thousand years, eternity has just begun. An angel strokes with a feather a ball of steel as big as

this earth, once in ten thousand years, and

r6i after the -size ball of steel has been worn

away by the feather-stroke, eternity has just begun. We cannot grasp the illustrate

we can see how as n is the little

speck of time that marks the limit of human life.

Treated as an end of living this little time is nothing in importance; but, as a means to an end, it is everything, because it is all we have. As the means of preparing for eternity, who can estimate the importance of these few years’ A general has just fifteen minutes to put his disordered army in line of battle before the enemy marches against him. Let him be quick about it — his honor and happiness for all the future depend upon the issue! A nation in chains or a nation free will be the result. The general sits down to a -game of cards, declaring that he must enjoy the fifteen minutes at his disposal. Fool! fool!! you say. and we agree with you. Those fifteen minutes as a means to an end were all-important. Every second of them was of diamond worth. But as an end. used for the little pleasure they could give. they were a shadow indeed. Shame upon any general who would try to gather up the shadow while he forgets the substance to which the shadow leads. In condemning him, we do but condemn the men and women who spend time in seeing how much pleasure they can get out of it — while they forget eternity, to which time is leading. We laugh at the poor fool whom David Crockett found fighting his shadow in a freshly ploughed field as a preparation for the fighting he expected to do on the following election day; but it is too serious a matter to laugh about when we see immortal men treating the shadows of life as if they were the only true substance. The sight made our Lord weep, and we may well mingle our tears with His.

The Days of the Wicked are as a
Shadow in that they are Poisonous,
Dark, and Gloomy.

The plant that grows in the dark generates poison. Continuous darkness depresses, withers, kills. I have read of some cruel experimenters in science who kept a poor boy in a dark cell from the age of five to twenty. When he came out he was blind, emaciated, tremulous, and idiotic. Whether the story is true or not, it might be true. It is sadly true, morally and spiritually, with those who prefer the darkness of unbelief to the light of faith. And when they take time to reflect they must be conscious of it. The sins of the past are darkness. The sinful nature of the present is darkness. The future with its terrible results is darkness. Not a ray of hope pierces its gloom. The future grows darker and darker till it strikes the “blackness of darkness forever” of which Jude speaks. A busy life may make you forget it, the whirl of pleasures may drive it from mind; but in moments of reflection you must admit that gloom gathers about you. Thoughts of God and eternity sadden and depress. A life spent in sin is a shadow of worse than Egyptian darkness. Truly it can be felt, for it pierces the soul like black daggers.

The Days of a Christian, on the other Hand, are as a Shadow in that they are Refreshing and Pleasant.

See that caravan toiling across the desert! Their water-supply is out. Weary, foot-sore, with parching lips and heated brows, they trudge along almost ready to drop down and die. But look yonder in the distance! On the horizon there is an appearance like trees. Is it a mirage? They quicken their pace, hope and fear struggling for the mastery. The outlines of the trees are more distinct. Strength returns, while they run in their eagerness to reach the cool, refreshing spot. Now they are in the shade, lying on the green grass and drinking from the crystal spring that gurgles up before them. They look out upon the desert about them with gratitude that they have escaped its scorching rays and blistering sands. How refreshing the shadows that now protect them, only those who have had their experience can conceive.

Do you not remember a time when you were trudging through the desert of your sins, the scorching heat of conviction blistering your soul? Weary, thirsty, fainting, ready to die, you caught a glimpse through some promise in the Bible of rest and refreshment beneath the atoning merit of Jesus Christ. You hastened to Him and found rest for your soul. Your thirst was quenched, and you have the assurance that no thirst will ever return that cannot be quenched in Him. Safe, you now look out upon the desert of sin, through which you have come, with exultant gratitude. You are under the shadow of “a great rock in a weary land,” with the trees that bear sweetest fruits growing about you. From their boughs you pluck, eat, and rejoice. Yet you will find some in the blistering desert of sin sagely telling those who live in the refreshing shades of God’s love and mercy that they do not think the Christian’s life is a happy one. How do you know? Did you ever try it? You have never for a moment known what it is to repose under the shadow of God’s wing. You are a blind man criticising color, a deaf man criticising music. You have no right to an opinion until you have tried the service of God as faithfully as you have the service of sin. Those of us who have tried both are of David’s opinion, that it is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

It is better to have one hour of the pure joy Christ gives than years of the pleasures of sin. You are not a competent witness until

Shadozv and Sitbstancc. 167

you have tested Christ. Give Him your heart and life; and, if He does not treat you better than the Devil has, then say so. But don’t express any opinion until you can know from personal experience what you are talking about. There are some who call themselves Christians whose faces look like a funeral procession. But their funereal character is caused by their lack of what God would have them possess.

Heaven, our final home, is a very happy place; and our Father wants us to be happy every step of the journey thither. “Rejoice evermore.” “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” I tell you there is nothing funereal in the religion of Paul.

The Days of all on Earth are as a Shadow in that they tell us what the substance will be.

Shadow implies substance. If I see the shadow of a house, horse, or man, I look up expecting to see a house, horse, or man. The shadow outlines the substance. Tell me how you spend these days of shadow, and T will tell you on the authority of God’s Word how you will spend the substance, eternity.

This life is certainly an index to the life beyond. Is your life here one of faith in Christ, obedience to His will, struggle against sin, service to God and man, the substance that follows will be heaven. I cannot tell you all of it. Its golden streets, jasper walls, and pearly gates show that it is a place prepared in no niggardly way. It means love, holiness, harmony, perfect service, and the infinite joy that is sure to accompany these things. Put together all the words in Webster’s Dictionary that mean something good, and then write on a page by itself in large letters the word HEAVEN as equal to them all, and you have about the reality. It is surely worth while to spend the shadows of earth in God’s service with the hope of such a substance before us.

On the other hand, if your life is spent in unbelief, sin, and selfishness, the substance will be hell. It is a hard word, and a harder fact. Take all the words in the dictionary that mean something bad, and write opposite them in great black letters this one word HELL. It means the terrible results of sin — its guilt, pollution, penalty, and power; sin working in an immortal soul, and burning like a fire, hotter and more terrible than the fires that consume the body. Such will be the substance for those who spend the shadow to the end, forgetful of God. You have heard of the jester in an Eastern court whose king gave him a staff, with the request that he give it to the first man he might meet who was a bigger fool than himself. After several years the king took sick and was given up to die. He told the jester that he must soon leave him. “Where are you going?” asked the jester. “I am going on a long journey into the future, and I have made no preparation for it.” “Did you know that you were going to make such a journey?” “Yes.” “How long have you known it?” “All my life.” “And, knowing it all your life, you have made no preparation for it?” “None at all.” “Then you are the man,” said the fool, “to whom at your own request I ought to give this staff.” Whether the story be true or not, it brings home to us the folly of making no preparation in the shadow for the substance we are so rapidly approaching.

In the last Place, our Days on the Earth are as A Shadow in that there is None Abiding.

Shadows shift, and change, and disappear. One great shadow may absorb another. The shadow of the trees may be absorbed by the denser shadow of the clouds. And so death comes to the unbeliever like a greater shadow absorbing the shadow of his days. Death is simply passing from one shadow into another denser and darker. Another way of banishing shadows is to let in bright light with equal intensity from every direction. Such is the Christian’s experience as he passes from the shadows of earth into the light of heaven. There are no shadows there, because the light on all subjects is perfect. Mental light, moral light, spiritual light, light of knowledge as to God’s dealing with us and God’s laws in nature, will be so bright that the shadows of ignorance, through which we walk here, will flee away before it. Death is, therefore, to the Christian not a skeleton with drawn scythe, but a radiant messenger of light. To the unbeliever it is indeed a monster of hid-Shadow and Substance. I 7 1

eous mien, whose mission is to lead him into the “blackness of darkness forever.” Well may he shrink from its clammy touch!

An unknown poet has graphically sketched the feeling with which different persons come to the end of their life shadows:

There is a stream whose narrow tide
The known and unknown worlds divide,

Where all must go;
Its waveless waters, dark and deep,
‘Mid sullen silence downward sweep

With moanless flow.

I saw there at the dreary flood
A smiling infant prattling stood,

Whose time was come:
Untaught of ill, it neared the tide,
Sank as to cradled rest, and died

Like going home.

Followed with languid eyes anon
A youth diseased and pale and wan,

And there alone: He gazed upon the leaden stream And feared to plunge: I heard a scream

And he was gone.

And then a form in manhood strength Came bustling on till there at length He saw life’s bound:

He shrank, and raised the bitter prayer: Too late — his shriek of wild despair The waters drowned.

Next stood upon the surgeless shore
A being bowed with many a score

Of toilsome years: Earth-bound and sad he left the bank, Back turned his dimming eyes, and sank

So full of fears.

How bitter must thy waters be,

0 death! how sad a thing to me

It is to die!

1 mused — when to that stream again
Another child of mortal man

With smiles drew nigh:

“‘Tis the last pang,” he calmly said;” To me, O death, thou hast no dread:

Saviour, I come; Spread but Thine arms on yonder sh pre-I see. Ye waters, bear me o’er:

There is my home.”