r at evening to the darkness; the obscuring of the
light through eclipse or mist and its recovery--these {197} universal
appearances present themselves naturally to human consciences
everywhere as being experiences analogous to the moral strife within
between good and evil. Light is thus the universal symbol of good, and
darkness of evil. The symbolism passes out of early native myths into
the spiritual phraseology of many religions; but especially into those
of the Persians and the Jews. 'In thy light shall we see light' is the
cry of the devout heart towards God. And the whole of Christian
language is possessed by the symbolism. Christ is 'the light of the
world': His disciples are 'the children of light,' they are to be
clothed in 'the armour of light,' bathed in 'the light of the glorious
Gospel': they are the children of the God who 'dwelleth in the light
which no man can approach unto': who 'is light and in whom is no
darkness at all.'

St. Paul, like St. John, specially loves the metaphor of light. And it
is somewhat startling to notice how different is his conception of
enlightenment from that common in modern times, or indeed, from that
held in the schools of philosophy of his own day or by the Gnostics
just after him. This latter class of men, who can be taken as typical
of many others at very {198} different epochs, meant by 'the
enlightened' a select few who had a special capacity for intellectual
abstraction and contemplation, and who by such qualities of the
intellect were believed to attain to a knowledge of God which was
beyond the reach of the ordinary men of faith. But St. Paul, following
his Master, is quite certain that the root of true enlightenment lies
in the will and heart. The love of the light is first of all simply
the pure desire for goodness; and anything that is not this first of
all is a counterfeit and a sham. And the true enlightenment is thus
not the privilege of a few, but is open to all who will come to Christ.
'Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing
that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it
was God's good pleasure, through the foolishness of the preaching, to
save them that believe.' 'If any man thinketh that he is wise among
you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with Go