tians in the
measure in which the conscious activities of our daily lives, and the
deepest energies of our inward being, are bathed and saturated with this
love of, and effort after, righteousness. It is vain, says John, to talk
about fellowship with God, unless the fellowship is rooted in sympathy
with Him in that which is the very heart of his Being, the perfect light
of perfect holiness. Test your Christianity by that.

Then, still further, there is implied in this great requirement of
walking in the light, not only activity and effort, and progress and
purity, but also that the whole of the life shall be brought into
relation with, and shall be moulded after, the pattern of the God in
whom we profess to believe. Religion, in its deepest meaning, is the
aspiration after likeness to the god. You see it in heathenism. Men make
their gods after their own image, and then the god makes the worshippers
after his image. Mars is the god of the soldier, and Venus goddess of
the profligate, and Apollo god of the musical and the wise, etc., and in
Christianity the deepest thing in it is aspiration and effort after
likeness to God. Love is imitation; admiration, especially when it is
raised to the highest degree and becomes adoration, is imitation. And
the man that lies before God, like a mirror in the sunshine, receives
on the still surface of his soul--but not, like the mirror, on the
surface only, but down into its deepest depths--the reflected image of
Him on Whom he gazes. 'We all with unveiled face, mirroring glory, are
changed into the same image.' So to walk in the light is only possible
when we are drawn into it, and our feeble feet made fit to tread upon
the radiant glory, by the thought that He is in the light. To imitate
Him is to be righteous. So do not let us forget that a correct creed,
and devout emotions, ay! and a morality which has no connection with
Him, are all imperfect, and that the end of all our religion, our
orthodox creed and our sweet emotions and inward feelings of acceptance
and favour and fellowship, are meant to converge on, and to produce
this--a life and a character which lives and moves and has its being in
a great orb of light and purity.

But another thing is included in this grand metaphor of my text. Not
only does it enjoin upon us effort and activity and progress in the
light and the linking of all our purity with God, but also, it bids us
shroud no part of our conduct or our character ei