Article September 11, 1937 Issue

Signs of the Times

Topic: The Path of Light

with contributions from Thomas Mackay, Leonard A. Barrett, J. L. Newland, Willsie Martin

[Thomas Mackay, M.A., in the Christian World Pulpit, London, England]

"And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth. And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising." Now that might very easily be regarded as a mere physical matter, a matter of physical direction, a matter of geography; but there is more in it than that. It may look like prose, but it is also poetry. It may look like history, but it is also promise and prophecy. It brings to our vision a multitude of people making their way through an inhospitable, forbidding, uninspiring land, and upheld by one thing, and by one thing only—the hope of tomorrow morning, the hope of a brighter and a better day. Traveling towards the sunrising! Is not that a beautiful expression? Is there not symbolism there? . . . Is there not inspiration there? Is not that the way to travel? The desert all around, yes, but hopes are fixed on the promised good that lies before and beyond, and we are resolutely and steadily directing our steps towards that. Is that not true living? Is there any better emblem or symbol of the Christian life on the higher plane? In the wilderness, yes; but journeying towards the sunrising.

Journeying towards the sunrising always suggets this: that the light will grow clearer as one travels towards it. Doubts and questionings may lie thick about the path of the man who sets out on the quest of the better life; but if he looks at himself he becomes discouraged; and when he looks around he becomes perplexed; but when he looks up there is always a gleam of light. Follow the gleam, and it will lead to the light. Those whose faces are turned Zionwards, those who travel towards the sunrising, shall come to the full light at last, for "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." For God's way is not our way. God does not reckon as we reckon. We say the morning, and then the night. God reckons the other way. With Him it is the evening and the morning that make His day.

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