OW treacherous is the darkness! How full of ambushes! How fearful in its terrors, its dangers and its crimes! How useless the keenest vision amidst its rayless gloom! How unavailing in its entanglements the struggles of human power! How secret, too, are its approaches! How silently at eventide, when

does she steal forth to pursue the retreating footsteps of the day! With faltering pace and shrinking fear, she follows in the distance, seeking the shelter of each shadowing object, creeping along the eastern mountain slope, or reaching forward beneath the dusky mantle of a favoring cloud! [127] How she shuns the high summits, where the sun's bright banners continue to float, and seeks to gain the victory--not by brave assault, but by cowardly stratagem! And how do her dark legions tremble and retire before even a straggling parting ray from the western heavens?

      Light, on the other hand, how aggressive! How quickly, at the reveille, she marshals her forces and speeds across the vast abyss of space upon her mission of glory! How speedily she puts to flight the powers of darkness! With what rapidity she assails their fortresses and their towers! With what facility she surmounts their bulwarks, levels their defenses, exposes their secret machinations, discovers their ambuscades, and reveals their guilt! How she sheds brightness and beauty over the earth, where brooded the blackness of darkness and despair! How she opens the prison-doors, breaks the chain of the captive, and replaces the silence and the desolation of death by the joyous songs and blessed activities of life!

      It is thus, in the moral world, that the sun of righteousness shines forth out of Zion upon the [128] darkness of the soul. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." And it is from the mount of his holiness, from Zion the joy of the earth, that he sends forth the light of life. It is here he displays his power and his glory. It is here he hath "commanded the morning" and "caused the day-spring to know his place." From hence he hath ordained that his arrowy rays of light shall "take hold of the ends of the earth" to put to flight the hosts of darkness. Here is known "the way where light dwelleth," and here alone are the "paths to the house thereof." For the church of God is the "light of the world." To it are committed those precious oracles which alone can illuminate the dark places of the earth, and to it appertains the mighty work of spreading abroad the life-giving truth--"the grace of God Which bringeth salvation!"

      How sad the condition of a world lying under the dominion of the Prince of Darkness! How feebly we may realize its sorrows, its sufferings, its hopeless despair! How imperfectly we may comprehend its mysterious enigmas, or by human reason explore the secrets of its wretchedness! [129] How vainly seek relief for its miseries in the impotency of man's devices! And oh! how great that sacred trust, that priceless boon--the divine commission which alone can open the blind eyes and turn men from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, and which God has given into the hands of his people! What duties, what responsibilities are theirs in presence of the awful facts of the present and of the hastening future! How deeply should they meditate upon the obligations which rest upon the church as the pillar and support of the truth! How appropriate that in this hour, when these sacred memorials are before us, and that precious sacrifice which takes away the sin of the world is set forth in these expressive symbols, that we should dwell on the unspeakable gift of God, and ponder the lessons which it teaches! Have our own souls been clothed with the light of its truth? Have our hearts been divinely impressed with its significance? Has our nature been renovated by its power and clothed with the beauty of holiness? Are we walking in light as the children of light? And, in fulfillment of our [130] mission, are we reflecting that light upon others, and striving to dissipate the ignorance and darkness of the world? Are we seeking to deliver precious souls from the bondage of priestly power, and rescue helpless victims from the debasing slavery of sin? Are we, emulous of our Divine Exemplar, laboring to destroy the works of the devil, to expose the mysteries of iniquity, to raise the fallen, cheer the faint, support the feeble, and diffuse the glorious light of the Gospel throughout the benighted abodes of ignorance, superstition, and cruelty?

      Alas, how many there are who fail to fight the good fight of faith! How many who obstruct the progress of light and truth! How many who mutiny against the Captain of Salvation! Else why have we around us these battalions arrayed against each other? Why these different standards, these opposing counsels, these conflicting orders? Why do the mists of error which the night has gathered conceal true allies both from each other and from the sunshine of heaven? Why these party names, these unkind dissensions, these rivalries and ambitions? Where is that [131] concentration of resources which can alone supply the means of warfare? Where is that unity of power which can alone give victory? Surely it is the hour when the followers of Christ should awake from the lethargy which ages of darkness have imposed. Surely it is time that all who have entered into His holy covenant, should hearken to his voice, and assemble themselves together for the great final conflict of righteousness and truth.

      It is here within these sacred precincts that we should realize that divine spiritual unity which can be preserved only by the bond of peace. Partakers of one bread, we are one body. Animated by one Spirit, cheered by one hope, led by one Lord, sustained by one God and Father of all, it is here we should ever feel the eternal ties which bind us to each other. It is here amidst the light of life and the joys of salvation that we may renew our vows of fealty. It is here we may put on the armor of light, and prepare to contend together "against principalities; against powers; against the rulers of the darkness of this world; against spiritual wickedness in high [132] places." It is, from the heights of Zion we must go forth, marshaled beneath the banners of our heavenly King, in compact array, aggressive, invincible and victorious, to scatter the legions of darkness and fill the earth with the glory of the Lord. [133]

[CITS 127-133]