How to Search for Truth
1 John i. 5 v.
“God is light.”
Light; what is it? It is not something to search for; it is something to search by. No man by searching can find out God; but, if he take God without searching, he will find everything else. My evidence for God is what He shews me. I must have a torch to begin with. The room is dark and I have lost something — the key to my own nature. I cannot find it till I have struck a light. There must be light in my hand before I come in — light on the threshold, light at the very door. My progress must not be from the
dark into the clear but from the clear into the dark I mast take the wings @f the morning ere I set out on my pilgrimage. It is one thing to travel to the uttermost parts of the sea in search of morning; it is another thing to go there on the wings of morning. If there is light beforehand, it will reflect itself upon the sea. The children of the day are those who meet the day before the night. God is His own interpreter; in God’s light shall we see light.
My Father, come to me in life’s dawn. Help me to find the lost key. All things without Thee are mystery, nay, they are impossible; how shall they prove Thee when Thou art needed to prove tit em? The manger will not lead me to the star; but the star can lead me to the manger. If Thou art love, then, Thy best gift must be sacrifice; in that light let me search Thy world. It has pains wrapt up in every pleasure, and who shall explain them? Onty Thyself — the Spirit of sacrificial love. AVe make all things in our own image, and Thou hast made the world in Thine. It is not faultlessly fair; but its spots are from the plan of the Artist.
Let me see the Artist ere I gaze on the picture. Be Thou Thyself my light into every darkness. Go before me into Galilee. Illuminate the mystery of sorrow. Vindicate the rights of pain. Reveal to me that Elijah’s chariot must be a fire-chariot. Teach me that the Cross is Divine. Show me that the valley of the shadow belongs to the paths of righteousness. Meet me at the tabernacle door ere I begin the sacrifice. I shall go to life’s altar with exceeding joy when Thou shalt send forth Thy light.