Quiet Talks on John's GospelGordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Religion
Quiet Talks on John's Gospel
Gordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
That rugged old Hebrew prophet of fire and storm, Elijah, standing in
the grey dawn, in the mouth of an Arabian cave, had the whole of a new
God--a God of tender gentle love--packed into an exquisite sound of
gentle stillness, that smote so subtly on his ear, and completely melted
and changed this man of rock and thunder. It's a new man that turns his
face north again. The new God that had compacted Himself anew inside the
ruggedly faithful old man is revealed in the prophet's successor. This
is the new spirit, so unlike the old Elijah, that comes as a birth-right
heritage upon young Elisha. Great packing work that.
That fine-grained young university fellow on the Damascus road, driving
hard in pursuit of his earnest purpose, had the whole of a God, a new
God to him, packed into a single flash of blinding light out of the
upper blue. He had the whole of a new plan, an utterly changed plan for
his life, packed into a single sentence spoken into his amazed ears as
he lies in the dust.
And if this Holy Spirit may have His way--a big if? Yes: yet not too big
to be gotten rid of at once: God puts in the if's, that we may get the
strength of choosing. We put them out, _if_ we do. _If_ He may have His
way He'll pack--listen quietly, with your heart--He'll pack _the whole
of a Jesus_ inside you and me. Much in little! Most in least! And the
more we let Him in, the bigger that "most" prints itself to our eyes,
and the more that "least" dwindles down to the disappearing point.
God gives us His own self in Jesus. Jesus comes to live inside of us. He
doesn't give us things, but Himself. We talk about salvation. There's
something better--_a Saviour_. We talk about help in trouble. There's
something immensely more--_a Friend_, alongside, close up. We talk about
healing--sometimes, not so much these days; the subject is so much
confused. There's something much better--a _Healer_, living within,
whose presence means healing and health for body and spirit.
Then John says, "the light shineth _in the darkness_." This is God's way
of treating darkness. There are two ways of treating darkness, man's and
God's. Man's way is to attack the darkness. Suppose this hall where we
are were quite dark, all shuttered up, and suppose we were new on the
earth, and not familiar with darkness. We want to hold a meeting. But
how shall we get rid of this strange darkness that has come down over
everything? Let's each of us get a bucket or pail or basin, and take
some of the darkness out. So we'll get rid of it, and its inconvenience.
And if the suggestion were made seriously there might be talk of putting
the suggestor in a certain sort of institution for the safety of the
community. Yet this is the way we go at the other darkness, the worse
moral darkness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account