That night succeeds day with unfailing regularity does not admit of controversy. That it should be otherwise would entail the reconstruction of the physical universe. Nevertheless, that will be compassed by God's intervention in manifest power. But the statement in Rev. 21:25, and repeated in Rev. 22:5, implies more than circumstances in the physical realm. It has also a moral bearing. "Men love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil" (John 3:19). Night conceals many wrong actions which would be inadmissible under the searchlight of the sun! But darkness is the realm of the author of evil. The Colossian Christians were delivered from the power or authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. The strangers scattered abroad were addressed by the Apostle Peter as a royal priesthood to God who had called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. So that darkness is absolutely opposed to love and light, the great features of God's sphere. The Apostle Paul addressed the Thessalonian believers as sons of the light, i.e. , the teaching of Scripture in the power of the Holy Spirit, and sons of the day (i.e. , the future glory of Christ). They were not of the night nor of darkness! "The light" is the present value of "the day to come." Hence the conduct of the Christians should be in keeping with the light and the day and in strong contrast to the character of the darkness and night exhibited by the world. That the time left for our testimony is brief is impressed with peculiar point at the side of an open grave! Many in this large company are getting old. Many have possibly no thought of God and the real issues of life and only respect for the deceased has led to their attendance here. This moment is of all importance, fraught with eternal significance. The night of eternal loss is coming for the careless man of the world. It will be infinitely better to choose now the path of light which will issue in eternal day with Christ and where night will have vanished for ever! T. OLIVER.
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