"The path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. 4.18).

How many times that verse has been used to justify the institution of a new "break-through" in Christian thought, leading the more adventurous of Christ's disciples into widening and lengthening vistas of understanding! The promise of Jesus was to the effect that the Holy Spirit would "guide you into all truth and show you things to come". This is a guarantee that the society of the faithful must expect to experience advancement and progress in their perception of the things of God. In fact it would be intolerable in this our day, when knowledge on any conceivable subject is so manifestly increasing, to think otherwise in respect of the most important subject of all. In the gloom and obscurity of the Dark Ages it was held and believed that no possible addition to the Divine revelation could possibly be made, and religious thought was static. The perennial striving of the human spirit is for something clearer than has been attained, and in this the seeker after Divine truth has been following a right impulse.

The entire emphasis of the New Testament is upon a continually increasing and deepening understanding of the Divine purpose in creation and of God himself. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out" cried the Apostle Paul to the Romans (Rom. 11.33). Truly the shining pathway of the Christian leads straight forward into the illimitable distance and there is no end to its prospect but away on the horizon the golden light shines in splendour, beckoning the eager traveller onward and ever on. This is the promise of the Christian faith, the prospect of increasing light, increasing scope, increasing ability, and increasing achievement throughout the everlasting years of all future time.

However, we are still at the beginning of the way. This three score years and ten of human life is our babyhood, as it were, our first introduction to the wonders of sentient sharing in God-given life in a God-given environment, the first perhaps of many of a consistently widening range. For us the light is only just beginning to break through the gloom. And because we are still so immature and undeveloped in our powers of perception, it is difficult to comprehend the full sweep of this theme into eternity. Much easier it is to picture the shining light as encompassing the span of our earthly life with our fellows, and to think only of the community with which our associations and activities are bound up and the impact of that light upon that community. Especially is it true to think of that increasing light as the radiance of the knowledge of the Divine plans in history, coming to truly dedicated Christians in this, the closing years of the Age. It is destined to become so still further in brilliancy and clarity until it merges at last with the greater glory of the Messianic Kingdom. That is a true application of the scriptural allusions in Prov.4. But there may be a purely local time of recession when, in the particular community, the light ceases to increase because the earlier impetus of that fellowship has spent itself. The passage of years, the non-fulfilment of expectations fondly held, the realisation that there is much more in the problem of existence and of God than was at one time thought, bring doubt and uncertainty to some as to the validity of the fellowship and its predominant theme.

That is not an unusual sequel. It has happened so many times in Christian history. It comes from interpreting the promise of the shining light purely in a community sense. Do we do right in expecting Prov. 4.18 to be so interpreted? Our Lord is not interested so much in communities as in individuals. We are so apt to be dazzled by the sight or thought of some spectacular work being carried on by a fellowship of zealous and dedicated Christians that we fail to remember the ultimate purpose of such things. The community is only useful to our Lord as a nursery for his disciples and in every case it is discarded when it has served its purpose. None of our organised arrangements, useful and helpful as they may have been here on earth, will be carried into Heaven with us at the end. Just as surely as flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, just so surely must all the imperfect creations of our hands, means of grace though they may be now, be forbidden entrance to that celestial world where the whole conception of worship, of service and activity, of growth in knowledge, must be on a totally different plane. So we need not mourn the passing of an old order which no longer has the power to enthuse and inspire as it once did. Neither do we well to spend time and energy endeavouring to recreate or resuscitate a system of service or of instruction that can never do again what it did at the first. For its work had been done in the hearts and lives of those who have seen the golden vision by the ministry of that work and have retained the radiance in their own hearts and will retain it until the end of their days. The organisation may be no more, the fellowship may seem to be in process of dissolving, but the individuals who are the true fruitage of such a work are progressing still in the light of that vision "unto the perfect day" as each follows his own pathway to the stars and receives his own illumination from on high.

Standing on the seaside promenade at night, one sees the path of the moonlight across the waters, ending right at one's feet. Twenty yards farther along, one's companion also sees the moon-track, also pointing straight towards his own self. No two observers ever see the same pathway in the waters; yet it is the same moon light and from whatever vantage point leads still to the same moon. So every disciple follows in the same way to the end of the path where, like Jacob's ladder set up from earth to heaven, God waits. In the selection of those to whom He is to entrust the work of the life to come, He is exercising infinite care and patience, and each one receives individual treatment. There is no such thing as mass production in the Almighty's methods.

This is where another catch-phrase, familiar to many, comes to mind:

"a people for a purpose". That expression is the key to much of the apparent mystery in God's dealing with man. Why is He so long in dealing with evil? Why is the Kingdom so slow in its appearance? If Jesus died for man two thousand years ago, why is it that the world still groans and suffers, waiting for that which Jesus died to give them? The answer lies in this phrase. God is developing, in this life, a people to serve his purpose in the next. And so the whole conception of our calling and our life in Christ must be set against the background of our place in the Divine purpose. The way in which we walk and the light that shines upon that way, contribute to that ultimate purpose.

Away in the Central American country of Yucatan there lie the remains of a great ceremonial road built by an ancient people, the Maya, something like two thousand years ago. Along that road there passed, in olden time, youths and maidens who had dedicated themselves and their lives to the sun-god. Leaving all the hopes and aspirations and ambitions of life behind them, they pressed along the road, day after day, until at length they entered a gloomy tunnel leading down into the bowels of the earth. That tunnel took them into an underground cavern deep below the Temple of the God, and in the middle of the cavern, a yawning abyss at the bottom of which was a deep subterranean lake. As each one of those youths and maidens reached the edge of that gaping pit they unhesitatingly threw themselves in, a willing sacrifice to the god they served. Was it a useless waste of young life that might have been put to some good purpose?

Some Christian lives today are spent like that: a gloomy, morbid and sometimes ultra sanctimonious outlook that takes no account of the element of purpose in God's requirements with us. Given only to the maintenance of a pious mind and abhorrence of sin, there is nothing positive, nothing active, nothing that recognises the need for qualification for future work of service. Some lives like that, truly dedicated to God, are nevertheless as much wasted in his sight as were those of the Maya youngsters of long ago.

On the sandy plains of Mesopotamia, when Babylon flourished and Daniel administered affairs of State, there existed a road of another kind. The "Processional Way" it was called, and it traversed the principal districts of the city of Babylon from the gates of the Temple of the great god Marduk, past the king's palace, to the river. Once in every year there was a great festal occasion. The image of the god was brought out of his place in the Temple, placed upon a conveyance, and taken in solemn state along that Processional Way amid the cheers and admiration of the populace. He made gracious acknowledgements to the temples of the lesser gods as he passed them. He accepted the homage of the king before the entrance to the palace. He paid his respects to that very important lady the goddess Ishtar, Queen of Heaven, as he went through the great gateway dedicated to her honour. The image eventually arrived at the river Euphrates, was placed in the state barge, and continued his journey by river. He eventually arrived back at his own temple, was duly landed and restored to his accustomed position, where he remained for another year. He had a most interesting journey, saw a lot of interesting sights and met a great many interesting people. But at the end he was back where he started; he never got any farther.

Too many Christian lives are like that. They start out on the road that is to lead them to the heavenly kingdom but the realisation of purpose is lacking. They learn a great many things and they see a great many things and they do a great many things, but at the end it has all added up to nothing so far as their own fitness for a future Divine purpose is concerned. From God's standpoint they have just gone round in circles and got nowhere. We need to remember ‑ "A people for a purpose." The road we are treading will continue to shine more and more brightly until the perfect day if we remember all the time that we are called for a definite purpose that awaits us in the life to come for its full accomplishment. There is a goal toward which we are pressing and it is not attained in this life. The road we travel commences in darkness but it ends in light. That, after all, is the principle of God's creation. In Genesis the earth is without form and void, and darkness is upon the face of the deep; but in Revelation the holy city is all radiant in the light of the glory of God and of the Lamb, and there is no night there. Isaiah told of the people who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, upon whom a great light shined and John announces the Lord Jesus as that light of the world which shone in darkness and the darkness could not contain it, and so the darkness was overpowered and swallowed up by it.

So it will be with us if we resolutely press forward along this path of the just upon which our feet were once firmly planted. We are secure in the knowledge that no matter what may befall us in our earthly circumstances or our earthly fellowship, the light will continue to shine for us more and more brightly, "unto the perfect day".

AOH