The Illuminating Power of the Shadow
“In the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.” — EzEK. XVII. 23.
Why in “the shadow” of the branches? Why not rest on the branches themselves? Would not such a foothold be an adequate sense of safety for a human soul? Yes — too much sense of safety. It is not desirable, even for the pleasures of life, that there should be no memory of shadow. How often we are told that we ought to realise our privileges. What does that mean? Simply this, that we ought to look at the shadows around us. To realise our privileges is to consider the possibihty of another state of things. It is not every prosperous man that appreciates his prosperity. I think, to appreciate my prosperity I must see a shadow. There is a phrase often used in colloquial language, “You do not know you are born.” It is commonly spoken by struggling people to those who are supposed to have no struggle. Well, if there be any who “do not know they are born,” they are of all men
most miserable. They are like guests at a splendid banquet who have no sense of physical taste; they are like spectators of a lovely scene who have no sense of beauty. If you would teach me my light, you must bring me under the shadow. “What would you do without her?” is a question which was once put to me concerning a very near relative. It was the invitation to imagine a shadow. And I think it was the suggestion of that shadow that first wakened me to the worth of my possession. I saw its glory in my imaginary gloom; I learned its riches by my fancied poverty. And ever shall I bless the day that placed in my sunshine the image of a possible shade. It has made me, not relax — as some would think — but intensify, my hold. It has deepened my sense of the light and my desire to keep it for ever.
My brother, always carry the shadow beside the glory! — not to dim the glory, but to make it more dazzling. Not by sunlight canst thou test the value of thy gold; thou must behold it by the shades of evening. At thy warm fire, remember that there are hearths which are cold! On thy downy bed, remember that many a Jacob has his pillow of stone! At thine ample board, remember that the beggar Lazarus is still sitting at the gate!
In thy circle of home affections, remember the Abrahams to whom it is said, “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house “! Say not that the shadow will obscure the shining; it is the shining that is obscured without the shadow. Thou canst not know thy day but through thy brother’s night; thou canst not hear thy music but through thy brother’s silence. Hast thou pondered these words, “At the evening time there shall be light”? When the joys of thy life have become commonplace, walk in thy neighbour’s evening! Dwell in fancy under a sky where these things are absent I Spend an imaginary hour in some garden of withered roses — where thy flowers of every day appear on no day! Practise the privation of the pleasures thou deemest stale! Figure thyself without them for a single morning! Fly from thy familiar mountain to spend a moment in another’s valley! And his fires shall cleanse thy gold; his clouds shall brighten thy chain; his evening shall bring thee light. Pity shall fill thee with praise; compassion shall teach thee thy comforts; sympathy shall make known to thee thy sunbeams. Thou shalt see thy rainbow through a brother’s tears; in the vision of his shadow thou shalt clasp thy joy.