shows up any dust we had not noticed before. So when the light of God
shines into our hearts it reveals what we never saw before.

Have you ever watched the battleships on a dark night, anchored a little
way off from the coast? Suddenly the bright dazzling searchlights are sent
out from the ship. They seem to sweep over the ocean with their sparkling
light and then to wrap you round, as you stand there on the shore. The
sight fills you with wonder; you feel as if the eyes of all on board ship
can see you.

It is the same when the Holy Spirit shines into our hearts; it is almost
overwhelming; we can only cry, "Woe is me, for I am undone."
[Footnote: Isa. vi. 5.] We stand condemned under the searching eye of God.
All our self-righteous excuses are swept away. We can no longer take
refuge in the fact that we are as good as others and a great deal better
than some of our neighbours. The dazzling light of God's Presence has
searched us through and through and turned us inside out. Is this
searching necessary for every one? Yes, for it is the only way we can
learn to know the evil of our hearts.

Sometimes the light of the Holy Spirit comes to us in a quiet moment and
shows us what we never saw before. Sometimes it comes like a flash. It
flashed out on the road when Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus.
He described it when he was being tried before King Agrippa, "At midday, O
King, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the
sun, shining round about me. And I fell to the ground and I heard a voice
saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he tells us also
that he could not see for the glory of that light." [Footnote: Acts xxvi.
13, xxii 17.] Whenever the light comes it is a revelation, a moment never
to be forgotten: Darkness conceals, light reveals.