TEXT: MATT. 4:16
''The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.''
''The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.''
All, who have not made Christ their hope and stay of eternal salvation, sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of death: these stand in need of a 'great light' in order to end the reign of night and death over them. The coming of Christ, is the dawning of a cloudless day, and the dispelling of the shadow of death from the realm of men. When Christ arrives, light is seen, for He is that great light that lights every man that comes into the world. Dear saints, you are the light of the world; our presence here should dispel darkness; it stands not with light that at its arrival any jot of darkness should still remain: that is not light that chases not darkness away nor makes not manifest the true appearance of things. No man was born with the true knowledge of the state of things: man was born blind; full of lies and vanity: man sees the world with a carnal lens, wherewith, that which is crooked, seems straight; and that which is straight and proper, this Lens makes crooked, with the result that he who trust to his own seeing and sight, goofs and miscarries until the true light finds him. Herein lies the duty of the Church: she is to make the people which sit in darkness see great light; by the church, light is to spring for all who sit in the region and shadow of death. Oh saints, if we are truly light, confusion in our community should be at an end by now. Let all believers consider, that great burden of being great light to those that sit in darkness, has been rolled upon us all. Blame not the dismal state of the world on the governments of the Nations, but on the Church. For the continual unpopularity of the true saving gospel of Christ amongst the Nations, let all saints bow their heads in shame and say, 'put the blame on us!' Let us arise and put away this gospel of spoon and plate, wealth and health! Oh arise to the gospel which demand our belly crucified and our cravings mortified! To pant after a good life alone, is brutish and places a man with a senseless creature in the zoo.