Walking in the Light

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1: 7). 

We often wonder why souls are run aground in their experience and dried up. We see preachers and workerss who at one time made earth and hell tremble. They preached and prayed in the power of the Holy Ghost. Those very workers have become dead, dry and powerless. And yet they seem to be living clean, upright lives.

What is the trouble Does God only give us power and unction in the early part of our experiences, and then take it away from us later on

No, the trouble is this-they fail to "walk in the light."

It is to be remembered that we are saved on conditions, "If we walk in the light."

So we only keep saved as we meet the required conditions.

You may ask, "What is light"

Light is that which makes "manifest"-that which reveals new duties, new phases of the Will of God.

How is it obtained

It comes in diverse ways; sometimes through the preacher, sometimes through a testimony, sometimes through a religious book or paper, etc.

Light always calls one to more sacrifice, more self-abandonment, etc.

When people are new in their experiences they are very simple and childlike. They are ready and willing to give up any idol, lay aside anything that the Holy Spirit condemns, no matter how dear or precious it may be; therefore they keep filled and running over. But by and by they will let the devil or some one reason them out of that willing, tender attitude, and they will not give up things so easily as before; or they will return to some of the little things they gave up, etc. They do not seem to know that what was once light is always light, "from the altar to the throne." So in one little thing or another they will gradually let down, perhaps in not fasting as before, or in praying, or in putting on some little thing they once laid aside, or on insuring their life, or talking worldly business on the Sabbath, or mentioning the faults of absent persons, or on many other lines, they let down and lose the fire and power. The first effect of not walking in the light is, they lose the keen edge off their experience. They lose that glow, that running over in prayer and testimony.

The next effect of not walking in the light is, they lose their freedom in God. There is some difference in having the "keen edge" and in being "free." A soul can have an amount of spiritual freedom who has lost the "keen edge." The soul who has the keen edge is always in perfect trim, whereas the soul who has an amount of freedom has to be primed or wrought up a while by the meeting before he is heated. When spiritual freedom is lost, the soul testifies, prays, sings and takes part in the meeting, but is somehow tied up. They shake themselves as usual, but still are tied. They use the same language in testimony or the same texts in their sermons, they used when they had the fire, but they do not strike fire. It sounds nice and rhetorical and orthodox, but somehow or other it makes you feel like hanging your head.

The next effect of not walking in the light-the soul gets into a confused place. It does not know where it is-whether it is saved or not. The individual still comes to meeting and testifies, prays, etc., but is in a confused place. All of their joy is gone; all of their assurance, all of their spiritual comfort. Darkness seems to envelop their whole being. Why is this Their "light has become darkness." They did not "walk while they had light," but became slack and careless. Oh, wretched state of soul!

The next effect of not walking in the light is, instead of praying and pressing their way back, the individual commences to get slack and reckless. Since all of their joy is gone, all their peace and assurance gone, they get slack in prayer and in attending the meeting, etc.

The last and most deplorable effect is, they become completely discouraged and rush headlong into open sin, and become skeptics or infidels.

O friend, "Walk while you have light, lest darkness come upon you."