May 1905

“New Light and New Sight” The Medical Missionary 14, 5.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... In him was life; and the life was the light of men; ... which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:1-9.MEDM May 1905, page 130.1

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; .., that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.” 1 John 1:1, 3.MEDM May 1905, page 130.2

We often hear people talk about “new light.” Some people are said to have, or claim to have, new light; and the question whether or not “new light” should be accepted is discussed with great earnestness by many. But the truth which the scripture states, and which is so plain as to be really self-evident, is that there is not and can not be any such thing as “new light.” All the light that there is, or ever can be, has been from the beginning. Christ, who is the Beginning, is the light of the world; and he is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for-ever.” “God is light,” and the source of all light in the universe, and he is “from everlasting to everlasting” the same.MEDM May 1905, page 130.3

But all men have not recognized the light. All have been blinded, and the light has been obscured. When a man’s eyes are opened, or “the vail that is spread over all nations” is to some extent removed, then the light shines in, and it seems new to those who have been in darkness. To them it is indeed new, as all light must be, but it is in reality only “that which was from the beginning.” The so-called “X-rays” have been in the world since light first shone at the command of God, “Let there be light;” but it is only recently that they have been discovered by man. In the Dark Ages the Iight was shining just as clearly as it is to-day but men were in dark dungeons where they could not see the light, or the light was covered up so that it could not shine forth. Luther, Wyclif, and others tore away the covering, allowed the light to shine out, and those who loved light rejoiced in it.MEDM May 1905, page 130.4

The part of the gospel teacher is to take away the vail that is over the faces and hearts of men, and “to turn them from darkness to light.” He has nothing to do with the manufacture of light; he has only to point men to it, and to help the near-sighted and diseased to recognize it. And, on the other hand; the duty of all men with relation to light is summed up in the exhortation from the Source of light: “Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”MEDM May 1905, page 131.1

“The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” Therefore every one who has his eyes open must necessarily see the light. But light is infinite, since God is the light, and he is infinite. Men are finite, and can never, even in eternity, exhaust the fulness of God; they can never know the Almighty to perfection, so that there will be no more to be revealed; but ever and forever the perception and reception of light will only make possible still greater revelations. And so the one who knows most of the light of life will be the one who both here and hereafter will acknowledge that there is yet much more to be revealed, much more to learn, and will continually rejoice in the things new to him, which the light that was from the days of eternity will make plain to him.MEDM May 1905, page 131.2

There is one case, however, in which it is allowable to look back. We may recall the years of the Most High, and talk of all his wondrous works. It is well to tell what God has done, for whatever he has done, is a prophecy of what he will do. Recounting his glorious deeds, therefore, tends to progress, for, as the Father works, even so must all the sons do likewise. Looking backward upon what God has done is really the same as looking forward; for that to which we should continually be pressing is the beginning. Such looking makes us see that we have done nothing, and thus excludes boasting, and impels us forward.MEDM May 1905, page 131.3

E. J. W.

“Looking Forward” The Medical Missionary 14, 5.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

A recent number of the World’s Work contained a little incident concerning a prominent business man, now dead, which is very suggestive. The gentleman in question, Mr. Baldwin, besides being a successful businessman, was interested in many philanthropic enterprises, and at a meeting of the directors of one of them, charges of diminished efficiency were made, against the manager. One after another the directors charged mistakes and short-comings against him, until it came the turn of Mr. Baldwin to speak, who said:-MEDM May 1905, page 131.4

“I have no direct charge against him, as the rest of you have. My reason for thinking with you that we ought to let him go is simply that he enjoys looking back over his past.”MEDM May 1905, page 131.5

When asked what he meant, he continued:-MEDM May 1905, page 131.6

“He is an able man, and has done some excellent work; but the trouble with him is that he has become proud of what he has done. That is enough to show me that he has reached the end of his usefulness in this particular field.”MEDM May 1905, page 131.7

“Aren’t you passing sentence without evidence? Isn’t this a snap judgment?” asked one of the directors.MEDM May 1905, page 131.8

“Anything but a snap judgment,” said Mr. Baldwin. “I am judging by a rule that experience has taught me is correct. It is a rule that I have used for years in my business, and that has not once led me astray. It is this: Whenever I discover one of my men looking back with pride over his accomplishments, instead of keeping his eyes forward, that’s quite enough for me. I don’t wait for any positive offense. No matter how capable he may have been, put a cross against his name, and he goes out at the first opportunity. When a man gets to looking back on his record, his usefulness is past.”MEDM May 1905, page 132.1

There is a world of truth in these words, and they are worth serious consideration. When a man is continually telling about what great things some of his ancestors did, it is generally taken for granted that he himself has never done anything worth talking about; and when a man spends much time talking about what he himself has done, whether it be boastfully or merely in a reminiscent manner, that is equally good evidence that he has almost, if not quite, ceased to do such things. He either does not see anything more to do, or else he lacks the energy to do it.MEDM May 1905, page 132.2

The characteristic of youth is progress-looking ahead to new enterprises; new things to learn, new things to accomplish. A new world is continually opening up before him, and he sees new fields to explore, and feels eager to enter them.MEDM May 1905, page 132.3

“So many worlds, so much to do;
So little done, such things to he.”MEDM May 1905, page 132.4

When a man does not see infinitely more ahead of him, drawing him onward, than he can see behind him-when he is no longer so eagerly pressing on to that which is before that he has no thought of looking back,-that is a mark of senility, no matter what his age may be.MEDM May 1905, page 132.5

This is just as true in the spiritual world as in the world of business. Not only must a man receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, but he must ever live as a little child. Two prominent features of childhood are wonder and growth. Every day the child sees something new, something to wonder at and examine; and thus his mind, as well as his body, is growing. Now just this will characterize the inhabitants of the world to come. New wonders will continually greet their sight, not only in new things that come before them, but in those things with which they are most familiar; and so their minds will always be active and eager, like those of children. If there should be one who ceased to look ahead with eager, youthful enthusiasm and wonder, and who fell into the habit of contemplating and talking about the great amount that he had learned and accomplished, that would show that the new earth had become old to him, and that he himself was falling into decay. This, of course, can never be in that world.MEDM May 1905, page 132.6

Neither ought it ever to be in this, world; for Christians are to live in this world as in the world to come, tasting its powers, and beholding the invisible things that are eternal. Each day, as he continues looking at the new world that the Spirit reveals to him, he becomes more conscious of the insignificance of his present attainments and achievements, and less inclined to talk about them. And this holds as true of the church or any branch of it as a working body as it does of the single individual. As we learn more of “the work of God,” we are more conscious of its vastness; we see that it is a thing not of time merely, but of eternity; and as our sense of its immensity increases, we shall forget the things that are behind, in our eagerness to press onward to the things that are before. This looking forward with the eager, wondering, mind of the child just introduced into a new world, has no small influence in keeping the body young and’ active: Witness the case of Moses, who continually saw wonders that were invisible to the multitude whose eyes were not opened. A young man at one hundred and twenty!MEDM May 1905, page 132.7

It is a sad confession of weakness when one says: “I am too old to learn.” It is true that the common tendency is for people to fall into certain grooves, and to become fixed in their habits of thought and speech and action; but it need not be so. A person is never too old to learn, if he takes the Lord Jesus for his teacher. There is no wrong habit of any kind whatever that such a one may not break; no line in which he may not make improvement. Christ, the Eternal One, is ever the same, and his years do not fail. He is as young to-day as when he walked the streets of Nazareth; and when He dwells in the heart by faith, the man, even though he be fourscore years old, is transformed, and, being born again, he may learn as readily as any other child. Alas, how few ever realize fully what possibilities there are in a new creature in Christ.MEDM May 1905, page 133.1

If all Christians had from the beginning continued “little children” in the Lord, there never would have been any apostasy; the world itself would long since have become new. The failure to realize that the life and immortality that has been brought to light through the Gospel, means eternal youthful progress, is the reason why every reform that has hitherto begun in the church has soon come to a standstill. The followers of the reformers, and even the reformers themselves, have become stereotyped. After running well for a season, they have turned around to see how far they have come, and that marked the end of progress. True, they have put forth more or less vigorous efforts to induce other people to make as much progress as they have made, and equally strong efforts to restrain them from going any farther. This is not saying that those who have thus fallen into decay and contemplation of the past are lost; far from it; but they themselves have lost much that they might have had.MEDM May 1905, page 133.2

E. J. W.