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Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today's reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
Bible Verse
"Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee" (Song 2:17 NIV).
Devotional
God's withdrawal is a shadow that often imparts an aspect of dreariness to the path we are treading to the Zion of God. "How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?" says Psalm 89:46. "For a brief moment I deserted you," says God to the church. "In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you" (Isa. 54:7–8). Ah! there are many who have the quenchless light of life in their souls, who yet, like Job, are constrained to take up the lamentation, "I walk in gloom, without sunlight" (Job 30:28 NLT). There are no shadows darker to some of God's saints than this.
Many professing Christians dwell so perpetually in the region of shadows. They so seldom feel the sunshine of God's presence in their souls that they can barely discern when the light is withdrawn.
But others are accustomed to walk so near with God in the rich, personal enjoyment of their pardon, acceptance, and adoption that if even a mist floats between their soul and the sun, they are aware of it in an instant. Oh, blessed are they whose walk is so close, so filial with God, whose home is so hard by the cross, who, like the Apocalyptic angel, dwell so entirely in the sun as to feel the barometer of their soul affected by the slightest change in their spiritual atmosphere. In other words, blessed are those who walk so much beneath the light of God's reconciled countenance as to be sensitive to his hidings even "for a brief moment."
Then there comes the last of our shadows, "the valley of the shadow of death" (Ps. 23:4). There they all terminate. This may be the focal point where they all will meet, but they will meet only to be entirely and forever scattered. The sentiment is as true as the figure is poetic, "the shadow of death." Death is but a "shadow" to you, O believer! Jesus, the "Captain of our salvation," met the substance of that shadow on the cross, fought it and overcame it. By dying he so completely destroyed death, and him who had the power of death, that in the experience of the dying Christian the substance of death dwindles into a mere shadow, and that shadow melts into eternal glory.
Abide with me: fast falls the eventide:
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:
when other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me.
I need thy presence ev'ry passing hour;
what but thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r?
Who like thyself my Guide and Stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.
I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless:
Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.
Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes:
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies:
Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee:
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
(Henry F. Lyte, 1847)
Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.
Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.
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