Subject: "Sons" of perdition? |
Bible Note: I like the devotional that C. H. Mackintosh gives in his Notes of the Pentateuch about the sons of the day and the sons of night . . . p.18 "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night." Here we have the two great symbols so largely employed throughout the Word. The presence of light makes the day; the absence thereof makes the night. Thus it is in the history of souls. There are "the sons of light" and "the sons of darkness." This is a most marked and solemm distinction. All upon whom the light of Life has shone—all who have been effectually visited by "the dayspring from on high"--all who have received the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ all such, whoever and wherever they may be, belong to the first class, are "the sons of light, and the sons of the day." [p.19] On the other hand, all who are still in nature's darkness, nature's blindness, nature's unbelief all who have not yet received into their hearts, by faith, the cheering beams of the Sun of Righteousness,—all such are still wrapped in the shades of spiritual night, are "the sons of darkness," "the sons of the night." Reader, pause and ask yourself, in the presence of the Searcher of hearts, to which of these two classes do you, at this moment, belong. That you belong to either the one or the other is beyond all question. You may be poor, despised, unlettered; but if, through grace, there is a link connecting you with the Son of God—"the light of the world," then you are, in very deed, a son of the day, and destined, ere long, to shine in that celestial sphere, that region of glory, of which "the slain Lamb" will be the central sun forever This is not your own doing. It is the result of the counsel and operation of God Himsclf, who has given you light and life, joy and peace, in Jesus and His accomplished sacrifice. But if you are a total stranger to the hallowed action and influence of divine light, if your eyes have not been opened to behold any beauty in the Son of God, then, though you had all the learning of a Newton, though you were enriched with all the treasures of human philosophy, though you had drunk in with avidity all the streams of human science, though your name were adorned with all the learned titles which the schools and universities of this world could bestow, yet are you 'a son of the night," "a son of darkness"; and, if you die in your present condition, you will be involved in the blackness and horror of an eternal night. Do not, therefore, read another page until you have fully satisfied yourself as to whether you belong to the "day" or the "night." (Notes on the Pentateuch) p.18,19 |