The First Day Of Creation

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, AUGUST 29, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And God saw the light that it was good." Genesis 1:4.

WE shall, this morning, leave all discussion as to the creation of the
world to those learned Divines who have paid their special attention to
that subject, and to those geologists who know, or at any rate think
they know, a very great deal about it. It is a very interesting
subject, but this is not the time for its consideration. Our business
is moral and spiritual rather than scientific. We justify our present
discourse by quoting that remarkable parallel text which the Holy
Spirit has given us in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, fourth
chapter and the sixth verse, where Paul says, "God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ."

The creation was an instructive type of the new creation. God's methods
of forming the old creation illustrate His ways in preparing and
perfecting His people who are new creatures in Christ Jesus. So we
shall gather light from an analogy which is evidently warranted by the
New Testament. We trust we shall not be guilty of inventing things
fanciful, strained, or merely curious–our objective is edification and
consolation–and not a display of ingenuity. May the eternal light of
the Holy Spirit shine upon us, now, that by His light we may see light.

Man's fallen nature is a very chaos, "without form and void," with
darkness thick and sevenfold covering all. The Lord begins His work
upon man by the visitation of the Spirit, who enters the soul
mysteriously and broods over it, even as of old He moved upon the face
of the waters. He is the Quickener of the dead soul. In connection with
the Presence of the Holy Spirit, the Lord sends into the soul, as His
first blessing, light. The Lord appeals to man's understanding and
enlightens it by the Gospel. The heavenly light reveals to man his
obligations to God and his forgetfulness of them. It shows him the evil
of sin, his own guilt, consequent danger and the impossibility of his
escaping from that danger by any efforts of his own.

That same light, also, reveals to man God's way of salvation–shows him
the Person of Christ, His work, its suitability and its freeness–and
lets him see how he may obtain an interest in redemption by the simple
act of believing. It is a blessed thing for any man when the Lord God
says concerning him, "Let there be light." If you keep your eyes upon
the chapter you will observe that the light came into the world at
first by the word–"God said, 'let there be light.'" It is through the
Word of God contained in this book, the Bible, that light comes into
the soul. Let me correct myself–it is by Him who is called the Logos,
THE WORD, that light is poured into the heart of man, for, "in Him was
life, and the life was the light of men."

This is that true light which lights every man that comes into the
world. The Spirit, you see, is engaged in the new creation–He broods
over the soul. The Son of God is the Creator, also–He is that WORD
without whom nothing was made, and by whom light came. And the Father
unites in the same sacred work, for it is He who speaks and it is done.
It needs the Trinity to new-create a soul. Oh, Triune God, our souls
which are new-created worship You with the trinity of their
nature–spirit, soul, and body! The light which broke in upon the
primeval darkness was of a very mysterious kind, and came not according
to ordinary laws, for as yet neither sun nor moon had been set as
lights in the firmament.

Can we tell how spiritual light first dawns on nature's night? It darts
upon some souls without the aid of apparent ministries, immediately
from God! Indeed, though the Lord sends light by this means or by that,
yet in every case the light is His own work, and the means are, in
themselves, so evidently powerless that the whole glory of the work
belongs to the Lord alone! How He removes darkness from the
understanding and illuminates the intellect is a secret reserved for
only Himself. Mysteriously, then, the light enters into the soul of
man. But one thing is clear concerning it–however it comes, if it is
true light, it is always God-given and comes, alone, from the great
Father of lights.

No gracious light ever will or can come to any man except directly from
God Himself. There was no latent light in the chaotic mass of world.
There was no brilliance to be developed out of the primitive darkness.
It was necessary that Jehovah should interpose and that His fiat should
pour in light firm above. O heart of man, you are darkness itself, but
in the Lord is your light found! The light came instantaneously. Six
days were occupied in furnishing the earth, but a moment sufficed for
illuminating it. God works rapidly in the operation of regeneration–as
with a flash, He darts light and life into the soul.

The operations of Grace are gradual, but its entrance is instantaneous.
Although instantaneous, it is not, however, shallow and short-lived.
The light did not depart because of its rapid coming–it was a
permanent blessing which earth received in that glad hour. The light
remained, increased and though in every spot upon the globe there are
necessary interludes of night, and though there has been an evening as
well as a morning to all succeeding days, yet our globe has never been
forsaken of the blessed light since the day when first the eternal Word
flashed it forth upon the face of the deep! Even so, when God sends
Grace into the soul of man it comes in an instant, but it does not so
depart. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance."

The darkness struggles for the mastery, but the light, once given, none
shall quench–it must and shall shine forth more and more unto the
perfect day. All this is worthy of our careful note, but the point
which we are about to dwell upon is this–our text concerns only the
first day of creation and the Lord's consideration of that first day's
work–and His approval of it. The first day of creation fairly pictures
the commencement of our spiritual life, our conviction, conversion and
first faith in Jesus.

My objective shall be to speak words of comfort to beginners, that I
may cheer those upon whom the true light has only lately begun to
shine. And I shall, also, give a few words of advice to older people as
to their duty to these newly-enlightened ones.

I. Our first observation will be this–THE LORD SEES WHATEVER HE
CREATES. "The Lord saw the light." He was the sole observer of it.
Neither eyes of man, nor bird, nor beast was there to behold the golden
glory, but God saw the light! Newly enlightened one, it may be you are
pained because you have no Christian companion to observe your change
of heart. Cease from your sorrow, for God beholds you! Have you seen
yourself a sinner and do you, therefore, weep in secret places? Have
you begun to see the Savior and do you look to Him in loneliness of
spirit and find in Him a joy with which a stranger intermeddled not?

It is but a small matter that no human eyes have seen your repentance
and your faith, for He beholds them, even He who gave them birth! It
may be that neither father nor mother has perceived the change and,
perhaps, had they perceived it they may be such that they would not
have rejoiced in it. But let this be your comfort–your heavenly Father
sees you and His heart pities you. When the prodigal was yet a great
way off, his father saw him, and even thus, your heavenly Father sees
you! And as this was enough for the prodigal, so it is enough for you.
Upon your tears of penitence He has fixed His eyes, and upon your
glance of faith He has turned His gaze. "The Lord saw the light"–this
grand Truth of God should be very sweet to those whose faith is lonely,
who meet with many discouragements, and little or no sympathy.

Like Hagar in the desert you should rejoicingly say, "You, God, see
me." "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are
open unto their cry." David said, "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord
thinks upon me." Oh, young beginner, the Lord sees the work of Grace
that is in you! Though it is but in its first day, He does not turn His
eyes from the light which He has kindled! And as long as this is the
case, you need not fear. The orator of old thought Plato, alone, quite
enough for an audience! Much more, then, may you consider that the
Lord, alone, is all that you need by way of observation and you may
joyfully pray with the Psalmist, "Look You upon me, and be merciful
unto me, as You use to do unto those that love Your name."

That light had come into the world in a noiseless manner, yet the Lord
saw it. The entrance of God's Word which gives light is effected in
"solemn silence of the mind." If men make an illumination, we can hear
the crackling of their fireworks all over the city. But when God
illuminates the earth with the sun, the orb of day arises without a
sound! The ancients talked of the chariot of the sun, but whoever heard
the sound of wheels or the hoof beats of horses in the sky? The
health-bearing wings of the morning cause no tumult in the air when
they are spread abroad. "When morn her rosy steps in the eastern clime
advancing, sows the earth with orient pearl," her footsteps are not
heard.

True, the birds salute her coming with glad songs, but she, herself,
steals onward without voice. Even thus Grace enters the soul and not a
whisper is breathed, yet the Lord sees the light. Light is its own
advertisement, it needs no trumpet to announce it. And it is the same
with Divine Grace. Dear young Friend, in you the work of Grace has been
a very quiet one. Perhaps you remember no remarkable sermon, no
horrible dream, no sick-bed experience, no grim terrors of the Law as
have happened to others of God's people. You have been treated as Lydia
was whose heart the Lord opened, or like Timothy, you have known the
Scriptures from your youth.

Be not, therefore, led to suspect your sincerity, or to doubt the
reality of the work of Grace. Although the work in your soul has been
so quiet, so hidden from the eyes of men, so unremarkable and
commonplace, yet take comfort from our text, "The Lord saw the light."
No trumpet proclaimed it, but the Lord saw it! No voice went forth
concerning it, but the Lord saw it and it was enough! And in your case
it is the same. The earth itself could not recognize the light, yet the
Lord saw it. Poor dull chaos, what could it know? And as for primeval
night, the light shone in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it
not.

How often does the young Believer stand in doubt as to himself! How
frequently does he enquire, "Is this light or is it not?" Nor is he
alone in such great searchings of heart, for there are times with some
of the more advanced of us, when we are very glad to think that the
Lord sees the light, for we cannot see it. There are times when,
through doubt, fear and a keen sense of sin, we begin to question
whether the Lord has ever shone upon us at all! And if this happens to
full-grown saints it is not much wonder if it occurs to babes in Grace
in the first morning of their life. If it should occasionally prove a
very serious question–"Am I in the light or not?"–we need not marvel,
for often have sincere children of God put up the anxious inquiry, "Is
this light, or only darkness visible?"

How often do we mourn that we have scarcely more light than suffices to
reveal our darkness and make us pine for more! Oh, troubled one, lay
this home to your soul–the Lord saw the light when earth, herself,
could not perceive it! Let us not forget that besides the light there
was no other beauty. The earth, according to the Hebrew, was "tohu and
bohu," which, in order to come near to both the sense and sound at the
same time, I will render, "anyhow and nohow." It was confusion,
emptiness, waste. Matter was discordant and disorganized. And so God
fixed His eyes on the light, not on the chaos!

Even so, beloved Friend, your experience may seem to be a chaos, nohow
and anyhow, exactly what it should not be, a maze of unformed
conceptions and half-formed desires, and ill-formed prayers–but yet
there is Grace in you and God sees it–even amid the dire confusion and
huge uproar of your spirit! What He has, Himself, created in you He
beholds, considers, and delights in! And, as for the sin that dwells in
you, He only regards it as covered from His sight by the atoning work
of His dear Son! Remember, too, that when the light came it had to
contend with darkness, but God saw it, none the less.

So, also, in your soul, there still remains the darkness of inbred
corruption, ignorance, infirmity and tendency to sin. And these cause a
conflict, but the light is not hidden from the eyes of God. What a
mercy this is that our God keeps His eyes on the light rather than on
the darkness. Oh, how I bless Him for that! If He were to ignore the
light that is in us because it is feeble, and look only at our sin
because it is abundant, He would certainly utterly destroy us! But
instead of that He casts our sins behind His back, while upon the
new-born Grace He fixes His steady gaze and says, "I the Lord do keep
it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it
night and day."

For many reasons the Lord sees the light, but chiefly He sees it
because He made it, and He forsakes not the work of His own hands. God
can see Grace in men where you and I cannot, because He knows where it
is, seeing He, Himself, hid it in the soul. There is never a grain of
Grace in the world but what God has a register of it. All the Grace in
men's hearts calls God, "Father," and God hears its voice and turns His
eye that way. He knows His own children and His eyes and His heart are
towards them continually for good. He knows the light which is of His
own creating–there is not one stray sunbeam in the universe, nor one
forgotten ray of light.

Neither is there a spark of forgotten Grace, or a grain of salvation
which has got out of its course. God cannot but remember His own Grace,
seeing that the giving of it is a work so dear to His heart, and the
effect of that work is so precious in His esteem. To sum up what we
have said, you who have been converted to God may lament that in your
soul there is no order and that everything is tossed about. You may
perceive no growth, no fruit, no virtue in your life because you have
not known the Lord long enough to produce much.

But if there is light enough to reveal Christ in you as your only hope,
be of good cheer, for the Lord does not look for the fourth day's work
on the first day! He sees that in you which is of His own giving and
creating–and he calls it good! Seeing the light in you, He will
perpetuate it so that you shall never walk in darkness! And He will
increase it till the glory breaks upon you! Do you repent of sin? God
sees the light. Have you bemoaned your shortcomings? God saw the light.
Have you begun to pray? "Behold, he prays," says God, for He sees the
light. Have you believed in Jesus Christ with even a trembling faith?
God sees the light. Have you begun to hope in His mercy? He sees that
hope, for the God that gave you its light still looks upon it!

II. It is time for us to pass on to a second head, which is this–THE
LORD APPROVES OF WHAT HE CREATES. "God saw the light that it was good."
He took pleasure in it. Now, as far as this world was concerned, light
was but young and new–and so in some of you, Grace is quite a novelty.
You were only converted a very little while ago and you have had no
time to try yourselves or to develop your Divine Graces, yet the Lord
delights in your new-born life! There are some older folk who are
suspicious of the dawn of Grace and look very dubiously upon new
converts, but in this they have not the mind of God.

The old members of our Churches in the country, 20 years ago, used to
say, "We must not take in young converts too soon. We must summer and
winter them before they are baptized." This they called prudence. I
wonder what they would think of prudent farmers who summered and
wintered the lambs before they took them into the fold? Or prudent
parents who summered and wintered their babes before they pressed them
to their bosom? We ought right gladly to take the little babes in Grace
and nurse them for the Lord–and by no means despise their youth. The
Lord did not leave the light to itself till it had been tried for
years, but on the first day He smiled upon it and pronounced it good!

He took delight in it because it was as much His creation and as truly
good as if He had made it ages before. Light is good at dawn as well as
at noon. The Grace of God is good though but newly received! It will
work out for you greater things, by-and-by, and make you more happy and
more holy, but even now all the elements of excellence are in it and
its first day has the Divine blessing upon it. Grace in the bud is
pleasant unto the Lord–let this Truth of God fill the newly converted
with intense delight!

Here we must mention again that it was struggling light, yet none the
less, for it was approved of the Lord. We do not understand how it was
that the light and the darkness were together until God divided them,
as this verse intimates, but as John Bunyan says, "No doubt darkness
and light, here, began their quarrel," for what communion has light
with darkness? The black darkness was in possession, but the arrows of
light pierced it through and through. It strove to hold its own, but
before long it could be said, "the darkness is past and the true light
now shines."

Do you remember how it was with you when the light invaded the little
world within you? I remember well the inward battle and sore conflict
in my own case. What struggles! What contentions! What conflicts my
soul endured when the light first broke in upon nature's night! My
darkened heart rebelled against the light, hating to have its deeds
reproved. But the light would not be extinguished or turned aside.
Backed by the Divine fiat, it pierced its way until I joined the
company to whom it is said, "you were sometime darkness, but now are
you light in the Lord."

My Brothers and Sisters, I am sure you are no strangers to this
conflict, nor is it to you altogether a thing of the past. You are
still in the conflict. Still Grace and sin are warring in you, and will
do so till you are taken Home. Let this help you, O you who are
perplexed! Remember that struggling as the light is, God approves of it
and calls it good! Even the repentance which cannot repent as it would
is good! The faith which cannot believe as it would is good! Life which
smolders like fire in damp wood is good–and the Lord so esteems it! "A
bruised reed He will not break, and the smoking flax He will not
quench."

As yet the light had not been divided from the darkness and the
boundaries of day and night were not fixed. And it is so in young
beginners–they hardly know which is Grace and which is nature, what is
of themselves and what is of Christ– and they make a great many
mistakes. Yet the Lord makes no mistake of that which His Grace has
placed in them! They have so little discernment that they see and do
not see, for they see men as trees walking, but God sees them clearly
enough. It is neither day nor night with them–they are in a fog and
lack power of discernment–but the Lord discerns them, for He knows
them that are His. Let this be their joy that the Lord can analyze
their condition and He knows what is light in them and approves it.

As yet the light and darkness had not been named–it was afterwards
that the Lord called the light, "day," and the darkness, "night." Yet
He saw the light that it was good. And so, though you do not know the
names of things, God knows your name! Though you do not understand the
doctrines so as to speak of them correctly, yet He understands you.
Your ignorance of terms and names, your confusion of mind and childish
misapprehensions will not provoke the Lord or make Him overlook the
Grace which He has worked in you. The sooner you can distinguish
between things that differ, the better, but meanwhile the Lord
distinguishes what is in you and loves the light which He has given
you, for He never made a Grace which He did not love, and never worked
a work in the soul of man which He did not approve!

The light of the first day could not reveal much of beauty, for there
was none, and so, dear Friend, the light within does not yet reveal
much to you–and what it does reveal is uncomely, but the light,
itself, is good–whatever it may make manifest. If the Grace given you,
my young Friend, only reveals the depravity of your nature. If it only
shows you the cage of unclean birds within you and the wild beasts that
rage and rave within your nature–if it only makes these growl in their
dens more fiercely than ever because their reign is coming to an
end–still it is light!

If it displays your nature as tossed about in sorry tumult and wretched
disorder, yet the light is good, and God takes delight in it. When no
varied landscape of land and sea, mountain and lake, meadow and forest
charmed the eyes, yet the Lord approved the light which shone over the
formless mass. Let this cheer and comfort you, that in the same manner
you have the approbation of God upon whatever of Grace His hands have
created within you. But why did God say that light was good? I suppose
it was because its creation displayed His attributes. The instantaneous
coming of light revealed His power, His sovereignty, His goodness, His
wisdom and His love.

He is not a God whose glory consists in darkness, but, "He covers
Himself with light as with a garment." Grace is a still more glorious
manifestation of the Divine Character and in it God glorifies His name.
The Grace that is in you has sufficed to show you the power and the
justice of God–and something of His mercy and His love–and angels
from Heaven have beheld the same sacred attributes in the Divine work
within you. Therefore God loves Grace because it makes Him known in
many of His glorious attributes. He loves the light, too, because it is
like Himself, for "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

Light is ethereal and almost spiritual, and therein like He who is a
Spirit. Light makes manifest the Truth of God and therein is like the
God of Truth. The Grace that is in you, if, indeed it is Grace, is yet
more truly of the nature of God, for it is that living and
incorruptible Seed by which you are made partakers of the Divine Nature
and are enabled to escape the corruption which is in the world through
lust. Satan is the Prince of the powers of darkness, but another
principle, even that of the light of God dwells in the man who believes
in Jesus–and this principle must be good–for it is of God.

Light is eminently good, for the Lord spent a whole day in creating and
arranging it–a whole day out of six! This shows that He attaches great
importance to it. Moreover, He gave it the front rank by occupying the
first day of creation's week upon it. Even thus the plan of Grace was
early in the mind of God. It was and is His masterpiece and He has
never yet placed it in the background. His eternal wisdom devised it
from old and that same wisdom continues to dwell upon it all through
this long day of Grace. The little Grace which is in you is approved of
God, for it is the fruit of His thoughts of old, and by it He has begun
His new creation in you.

I suppose that the Lord approved of the light because it was a
seasonable thing. It was what was needed to begin with. Not but what
God could work in the dark, for, as to natural light, in that respect
darkness and light are both alike to Him. We can all see that the works
of His creating skill needed light, for how could plants, animals and
men live without it? Assuredly the sanctifying operations of the Spirit
of God require light in the soul–the understanding must be
enlightened, for true religion cannot flourish in ignorance–and until
there is some knowledge of God none of the Graces can blossom.

When God the Holy Spirit new-creates a man, the first essential thing
towards it is the illumination of his soul in knowledge and holiness,
to know the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Because it is so
essential, the Lord pronounces it good. So, then, dear Brothers and
Sisters, I have shown you that God took delight in His own work, and I
have given you some reasons why He did so. Now, you trembling
beginners, I want you to feel that if God approves of the Grace which
He has worked in you, He will preserve it! He will not suffer the light
which He kindles to be quenched by the world, the flesh, or the devil!
Yes, He will improve it and cause your twilight to brighten into
perfect day! I would to God

that some poor, troubled one could catch this thought, for I remember
well the time when it would have been exceedingly consoling to myself.

When I compared myself with older saints I feared that there was little
of the Divine work in me. But if I had known, as now I rejoice to know,
that God's work, even at the beginning, is approved by Him–that even
the rudiments and elements of Grace in the soul are looked upon by Him
with Divine complacency, I think my heart would have greatly rejoiced!
I want you lambs of the flock to feed on this tender grass! It is sweet
food, suitable to your young days. Fear not, little flock! Your Great
Shepherd takes delight in you!

III. But now, thirdly, let me give you what will seem to be, but is
not, the same thought–THE LORD QUICKLY DISCERNS ALL THE GOODNESS AND
BEAUTY WHICH EXISTS IN WHAT HE CREATES. The Lord did not merely feel
approbation for the light, but He perceived reason for it–He saw that
it was good. He could see goodness in it where, perhaps, no one else
would have been able to do so. Let us note, then, that light is good in
itself and so is Divine Grace. What a wonderful thing light is! Just
think of it! How simple it is and yet how complex. Scarcely have the
students of light been able, as yet, to discover a tenth of its various
qualities!

Wonders have burst upon them, but there are many more to follow. What
intertwisted colors go to make up the simplicity of the white light in
which we rejoice? Grace, too, is simple yet complex. The Grace that
quickens, the Grace that convicts of sin, the Grace that consoles, the
Grace that instructs, the Grace that sustains, the Grace that
sanctifies, the Grace that perfects–it is all a very simple matter,
but how varied are its operations! How marvelous is the "all Grace"
which God makes to abound unto us! Think of the triple ray which we
find in Grace–the Grace of the Father in election, the Grace of the
Son in redemption, the Grace of the Holy Spirit in regeneration!
Consider, admire, and adore the manifold Grace of God!

Light, too, how common it is! We see it everywhere, and all the year
round. The most despotic monarch cannot enclose the light for himself.
The meanest beggar takes a royal share! It cannot be monopolized, but
pays its gladsome visits to all alike. Even thus the Scriptures reveal
the freeness of Divine Grace–and experience shows that it shines on
the poorest and the simplest–it enlightens the foolish and the
ignorant. Yet what a precious thing is light! Those who are blind, what
would they not give to see it! And if you and I were confined in a
sepulcher, how earnestly should we long, once more, to walk in the
light of Heaven.

So is the Grace of God priceless yet free to every eye that is able to
drink it in. Light, too, how feeble and yet how strong! Its beams would
not detain us one-half so forcibly as a cobweb, yet how mighty it is,
and how supreme! Scarcely is there a force in the universe of God which
is more potent. The Grace of God, in the same manner, is contemptible
in the eyes of man, and yet the majesty of Omnipotence is in it, and it
is more than conqueror! Light, too, as we have said before, how
noiseless! You never hear its footsteps, and yet how effectual! So the
Grace of God comes not with observation, but its transformations are
unparalleled.

Light, too, how varied, as we see it in many phases and through
differing mediums, and yet, how uniform! How uniformly good! Grace
comes in many ways and works variously, yet it is always the same, and
its results are always pure, lovely and of good repute. Well did God
say that light was good, for who can make it otherwise? Who can defile
it? The sunbeam lights on a dunghill, but its purity remains snow-white
as the lily. Who can rob light of its beauty? Its excellence remains
undimmed, though it pierces the gloom of a dark dungeon, feverish and
full of loathsome filth. Light never ferments into darkness, nor decays
into gloom. The leaves upon the trees have, in successive autumn blasts
turned sere, and have fallen to the earth to rot, but no ray of light
has ever withered!

Many changes the world has passed through, but light is the same, the
glory of its youth is on it! The young sunbeams leap from the central
fire and visit us on wings unwearied. They, themselves, being adorned
with all the freshness of earth's birthday. Transfer all this to the
Grace of God and it will bear to be emphasized. Grace cannot be
depraved, it is always pure and good! It cannot be overcome, it will
effect its purposes! It never corrupts, it is the seed of God which
lives and abides forever! Oh, precious Grace, if you are in the
soul–if, as yet, it is but your first day–you are good!

Light is good, not only in itself, but in its warfare. The light
contended with darkness and it was good for darkness to be battled
with. Grace has come unto you, young Friend, and it will fight with
your sins–and your sins ought to be fought with–and to be overcome!
The light which came from God was good in its measure. There was
neither too much of it nor too little. If the Lord had sent a little
more light into the world we might all have been dazzled into
blindness,

and if He had sent less we might have groped in gloom. God sends into
the new-born Christian just as much Grace as he can bear–He does not
give him the maturity of later years, for it would be out of place.

Did not Jesus say, "I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot
bear them now." Dawn is good as well as noontide. A babe in Grace is
beautiful and the Grace in him is suitable to his condition. Do not,
dear Brother, judge the babe because he has not the light and the Grace
which belong to a full-grown man, for that would be unreasonable. Light
was good as a preparation for God's other works. The great Creator was
about to make plants. What could plants do without light? He knew that
He would soon make fowl that fly in the open firmament, and beasts that
graze the meadows–is not light needed by all these?

He knew that light, though it was but the beginning, was necessary to
the completion of His work. Light was necessary that the eyes of man
might rejoice in the works of God and so God saw the light that it was
good in connection with what was to be. And, oh, I charge you who have
to deal with young people, look at the Grace they have in them in
relation to what will be in them! Think not so much of the weakness of
it as of the fact that it is only the green blade! Let your faith see
the golden ear which will come from that tender shoot! See the oak in
the acorn, the man in the child–and call them good!

What a mass of thought one might raise from this one Truth of God of
the goodness of light and the goodness of Grace, as to their results.
Light produces the beauty which adorns the world, for without it all
the world were uncomely blackness. Light's brush paints the whole and
even so all beauty of character is the result of Grace. Light sustains
life, for life, in due time, would dwindle and die out without it, and
thus Grace, alone, sustains the virtues and blessings of the Believer.
Without daily Grace we should be spiritually dead! Light heals many
sicknesses and Grace brings healing in its wings. Light is comfort,
light is joy, the prisoner in his darkness knows it to be so. And so
the Grace of God produces joy and peace wherever it is shed abroad.

Light reveals and so does Grace, for without it we could not see the
Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. O to walk in the light as God
is in the light so that we may have fellowship with Him! O Lord, "send
out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me! Let them bring me unto
Your holy hill." You see, now, that God perceived in light a mass of
latent good and, in the same manner, He perceives, in the first work of
Grace in the soul, an amount of good which the soul, itself, knows
nothing of, and which even Christian observers, with kindly eyes, would
not be able to detect.

IV. This leads me to close with a practical observation, namely, that
GOD RECORDED HIS ESTIMATE OF THIS

FIRST DAY'S PRODUCT. Here we have His judgement expressed–"God saw the
light that it was good." This leads me to say to the young Christian,
the Lord would have you encouraged. You have been looking at yourself
since you have been converted and, perhaps, you have grown desponding,
and have cried, "Alas, I am vile! I did not know all that was in

me!"

No, and you do not know all that is in you now. "But I am so bad." Let
me assure you, you are a great deal worse than you think you are.
"Alas, Sir, I see enough to drive me to despair." Yes, but if you could
see the whole truth about yourself, you would be driven to self-despair
10 times over! You are so bad as to be hopeless! And you had better
know it, too! I often thank God for teaching me early that my old
nature was dead and corrupt, so that nothing has surprised me since. I
commenced as a penniless bankrupt and I have, therefore, never become
poorer! I began naked and, therefore, I have never lost a rag! I was
dead, utterly dead, and therefore I have lost no strength!

It is a necessary thing for you to know that in your flesh there dwells
no good thing. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the Law of God, neither, indeed, can be." Put that down at
the first, as an ascertained fact, and then nothing will amaze you
afterwards! Your nature is incorrigible and incurable! But there is
gracious light in you which God has put there and God delights in you
because of it. Though you may have been born to God but a week ago and
are a poor little crying baby in the nursery of the Lord's house, yet
your Father loves you and sets great store by the Grace He has given
you! Now, do not be downcast! Say to yourself, "The Lord has said that
the faith which He has given me is good. He has said that this little
love that I have for Him is good. I will be encouraged, for if He has
begun a good work in me, He will carry it on."

My last word is to older Christian people. If the Lord says that His
work in the first day is good, I want you to say so, too. Do not wait
till you see the second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day before you
feel confidence in the convert and offer him fellowship. If God speaks
encouragingly so soon, I want you to do the same. A few words to a
young Christian

will be greatly helpful to him and his weakness craves them. Those of
us who have been a long while in the Lord's ways ought to be ashamed if
we are gruff, and sour, and critical. You know it was the elder
brother, not one of the younger ones, who said, "This your son has
come, who has devoured your living with harlots," and so on.

Do not degenerate into the elder brother's spirit, I pray you. You must
grow older in years, but endeavor to remain young at heart. There is a
tendency to look for far too much in young converts and to expect in
them a great deal more than we shall ever see. This is wrong. We shall
not do them much good by criticizing them, but we may greatly benefit
them by encouraging them. We have all read in the papers this week
about Captain Webb's swimming across the channel, and we noticed that
every now and then his friends gave him a cheer. Would that help him?
No doubt it did! There is nothing like a cheer to a fellow when he
feels faint and weak.

Give the weak brother a cheer, I say! When you meet with a young
Believer who is tossed about, give him a cheer! Give him a hearty
cheer! Tell him some choice promise! Tell him how the Lord helped you.
Your few words may not be much to you, but they will be very much to
him. Whereas the black look, which, perhaps, you really did not mean,
may chill him to the very marrow of his bones! Many a poor young
Christian has been frostbitten by the coldness of stern professors. Let
us make a rule to encourage the young and help them forward, for that
work of encouragement may affect the whole of their future history.

As the Lord said the first day was good, so He said the same right on,
till at last He declared that it was "very good." In this way I trust
it will be "good" with young converts from beginning to end. That early
blessing which you may be the means of bestowing upon the young
Christian may be the first of thousands of commendations which shall
culminate in, "Well done, good and faithful servant." At any rate, if
you do this, my dear Brothers and Sisters, it will reveal in you a
God-like disposition. The Lord said that the first day's work was good!
Be as God is, ready to see the good, if it is ever so little, and ready
to speak well of it! It will be for your own comfort to see and commend
the young work of Grace.

If you have an eye to spy out what is good, either in young people or
old people, it will be a very happy faculty. Those who have a keen eye
for others' faults are wretched beings. They look at the sun and they
say, "He has spots." Then they gaze at the moon and observe that its
light is very pale. Better be blind than see in this fashion! Let it
not be so among you! But as God saw the light that it was good, so do
you look for it and rejoice in it. Be on the side of weak Grace and
your own Grace will grow stronger. Comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak, be patient towards all and in holy charity think no evil, but
rejoice in the Truth of God.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Genesis 1. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK."–104, 205, 891.