9. For with thee is the fountain of life. This
verse is made of simple words, but like the first chapter of John’s Gospel, it
is very deep. From the Lord, as from an independent self-sufficient spring, all
creature life proceeds; by him it is sustained; through him alone can it be
perfected. Life is in the creature, but the fountain of it is only in the
Creator. Of spiritual life this is true in the most emphatic sense (see John 6:63; Colossians 3:3). In thy light shall we see light. Light is the glory of life. Life in the dark is
misery, and rather death than life. The Lord alone can give natural,
intellectual, and spiritual life. In spiritual things the knowledge of God
sheds a light on all other subjects. We need no candle to see the sun: we see
it by its own radiance, and then see everything else by the same light. We
never see Jesus by the light of self, but self in the light of Jesus. No inward
intelligence of ours leads us to receive the Spirit’s light, but the rather, it
often helps to quench the sacred beam; purely and only by his own illumination,
the Holy Ghost lights up the dark recesses of our heart’s ungodliness. Vain are
those who look to learning and human wit. Faith derives both life and light
from God, and hence she neither dies nor darkens.
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