omes a clear and strong
illumination, by which we may read something of the heart of God
towards us, and understand that in the spiritual world, as in the
natural, the order of this providence is, "More light, more light."
Light, that we may know our way more accurately; light, by which we may
work; light, by which we may read; light, by which we may help others
to walk and work and read; for "ye are the light of the world, and
'Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves.'"
God makes one man a lamp for another. Every saint should be like a
cranny in the walls of heaven or translucent crystal in its
foundations, letting the glory through. There is a glory within such a
one, because God has shined in his heart: there is a glory without him,
for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon him. Not once nor
twice has the Church historian to record, "They beheld his face, as it
had been the face of an angel."
Now in any improved system of illumination we have a right to expect
that one of its characteristics will be its capability for a general
application. It must not be as great a blaze as one's eyes can bear in
the principal thoroughfares, with thick darkness in the back streets
and lanes. The improved light must become more sun-like, more
catholic, that is, more for everybody, must rise upon just and unjust;
and while it participates in the universality of the sun, it must share
also the steadiness of the stars. Such, too, must be the better life
to which God calls us, not narrowing its sphere from day to day, nor
fitful, like a star of the first magnitude at one moment and of the
ninth a fortnight after, but burning with a steady patient zeal towards
all men that God has made. The light of love will survive the light of
enthusiasm, as Christ outlasts John the Baptist; enthusiasm must be
swallowed up of love.
A lighted lamp is no respecter of persons; it shines in all directions
and upon all people and things, being an imitation, within its measure,
of the sun, concerning whom it is said, "There is nothing hid from the
heat thereof." Is there this property of radiation about the light
that God has given you? Have you learnt and practically entered into
the truth that the supreme love is also the universal love, and that
God is no respecter of persons? "It gives light unto all that are in
the house": every soul truly won for God is marked with this token,
"For the sake
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