The Ground for Spiritual Anxiety
‘¢ Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light?” — Amos v. 20.
HE prophet is speaking to men who have a
good religious creed but are living a bad life. They are committing every vice under the sun and praying for the day of the Lord. Amos says they are praying against themselves — asking something which, to them, would be darkness and not light. He does not mean that when the day of the Lord comes the wicked will be prevented from seeing it. His words imply the contrary. He says distinctly that if the day of the Lord came to-morrow it would embrace under its dome the bad as well as the good. ‘But he says that to the bad and to the good it would have a different appearance. Both would look on the same thing, but they would have a contrary perception; what was light
to the good would be darkness to the bad. We all feel this to be true. To a selfish man there would be no place in the universe so miserable as heaven. What makes heaven day to Jesus would make it night to Judas — the reign of love. I have been often struck with the question Hosea puts to selfish people, “What shall ye do in the day of the feast of the Lord?” He does not say they will get no place at the table; he asks what interest they will have in the proceedings when they sit down. How will they appreciate a banquet where every sentiment proposed will be commemorative of sacrifice, and every plaudit raised will be a tribute to the Lamb that was slain! It is not enough to be free from so-called adverse circumstances. The deepest adversity is solitude of soul — the want of harmony with one’s environment. It is not enough that Iam untouched by the lightning; I must be touched by the sunbeam. I would rather be struck by lightning than struck by nothing, for the soul is dead that slumbers, and the chords that never vibrate are the saddest chords of all.
My Father, prepare me for the place of Thy rest! I often speak as if the question were whether Thou wilt let mein. O no, that is not, that never was, the question! Thou hast never separated the good and the bad by locality. I doubt not that the wise and foolish virgins entered by the same outward gate; the door that was shut upon the foolish was an inward door. Hast Thou not told me that the man without the wedding garment got in with the white-robed multitude! It was after his entrance that he felt his want. I have no fear that I shall ever be driven from Thy presence; but I wish to enjoy that presence, to bask in it, to sing init. I fear to stand by the crystal river and have no eye for its clearness. I dread to walk in the green pastures and have no sense of their richness. I am afraid to be at the concert of multitudinous voices and have no ear for their sweetness. I tremble to be enrolled in the league of pity and have no heart for its kindness. I dread not the thunder nor the earthquake nor the fire; I dread the circumstances of the blessed without their spirit of blessedness — the harp without the heart, the wing without the wish, the song without the soul, the labour without the love. Save me, O Father, from an uncongenial heaven!