The Kosciusko star. (Kosciusko, Miss.) 18??-1898, 1895-09-06
The Law of Openness.

ONNAN - |
the condition of the blessed, he
saw them standing on a sea of
glass. That is suggestive of the |
openness of their life there. The |
very ground under their feet, which
to us is Opaque and lightness, is
with them transparent, light |
transmitting, and clear. 1t cor
to Jacob Boehme's notion
that the world as God made it was
altogether transparent, and fit
channels for the light to flow
through; and that its darkness in
itself, and the dark shawods it
casts, are the effects of the sins of
angels and of men.
In the next life the divine light
will pervade all, even the very
ground beneath our feet. There
will be no need of a created sun or
stars, because the eternal Sun will
shine in and through it all, God
will not shine on his people SO
much as in them. and each of
them will be the channel through
which light will go forth to all
the rest. They will have come to
the light and into the light, that
their deeds and thoughts may be
made manifest that they are
wrought in God. They will lay
all their spirits open to him and to
one another, as a child comes to
have its mother look into its fresh,
clean face on a Sunday morning,
when it feels that there is not a
spot on skin or the clean clothes
which belong ITO the day OF rest
and worship.
Christian society on earth is
such in so far as it approaches
that which is to come in the here
after. 1t is distinguished from the
world by openness, frankness,
transparency of action and of
thought. Already its members
begin to find their footing on the
sea of glass. Already the light OF
the eternal Sun shines on them
and through them. They have
unit away not merely living. but all
its near and far-off kindred, the
children of darkness. They are
lovers of the light, which makes
all things manifest. They walk in
the light as children Of the day
and they have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness
All this is true of them just in IS
far as they are anticipating and
approaching that condition TO which
they are called of God in the lif'
hey ond death, and are having thei
conversation Cor citizenship il
heaven. The degree of their open
ness, of the CORE spondence of wha
men see in them to what they real
" are, is the degree Of their heav
eniy-mindedness, and of their tit
ness for that blessed estate to which
the children of the light are NOV
ing.
On the other hand, their failure
to attain to this is tho measure 0
their imperfection and their unfit
ness. With some of them thi
takes the shape of constitutions
shyness, bred of melancholy, which
they have not vet overcome, ant
vet which it is Gods purpose tt
set them free Of. By communion
with the noodles mind. they ar
to be raised oGt Of add made !. as
..e-a Ct the moods which distlss
themselves, aud make them shrin
from contact with others.
Less innocent than this is tn
openness which comes of certain
duplicity Of life. Even those who's
prevailing purpose in life is t
serve God and do his will may We
be short of the dedication of SOU
spirit, and body to him. A pal
only of their complex natures ha
been given up to him. For tn
other part they are fighting, witt
various fortune. to reduce it to tn
obedience of Christ.
Base desires and grOveling imag
natiors cling to them, althoug
they are not given over to obeyln
them. But this makes their inns
life a scene Of conflict, which the
: dare not lay bare to their fellow
I Christians. So they live two live
not in any hypocritical sense, q
though their professions were III
true, or their loyalty to their Ma