atisfaction to
know that we wished to do right, even if we discover we have blundered;
and it is also a satisfaction to know that God can use us for good in
any position, even in that we have blundered into, although meanwhile we
have lost some present good.

The light which Christ brought to the world was the light "of life."
This additional description "of life" He commonly appended to
distinguish the real and eternal good He bestowed from the figure by
which it had been hinted at. He calls Himself the Bread _of life_, the
Water _of life_, to point out that He is really and eternally what these
material things are in the present physical world. All this present
constitution of things may pass away, and the time may come when men
shall no longer need to be sustained by bread, but the time shall never
come when they shall not need life; and this fundamental gift Christ
pledges Himself evermore to give. And when He names Himself the light
_of life_ He indicates that it is on the true, eternal life of man He
sheds light.

There may, then, be many things and important things on which Christ
sheds no direct light, although there is nothing of importance on which
He does not shed light indirectly. He brought into the world no direct
light upon scientific questions; He did not hasten the development of
art by any special light thrown on its objects and methods. There was no
great need for light on such matters. These are not the distressing
difficulties of human existence. Indeed, men find stimulus and joy in
overcoming these difficulties, and resent being told nature's secrets,
and not being allowed to find them out. But the darkness that settles on
the life of the individual, and upon the condition of large classes of
people through what is human, personal, and practical is often
overwhelming, and compels men to cry for light. The strange miscarriage
of justice in the life of many individuals; the compulsion put upon them
to sin and to disbelieve through the pressure of unceasing failure and
privation; the triumph of cold-hearted villainy; the bitterness of
separation and death; the impenetrable darkness of the future; the
incomprehensible dimness, in which the most important truths are
involved--all this men find no pleasure in, but rather a torment that is
sometimes maddening, often destructive of all faith, and always painful.
This is the kind of darkness that causes men to sink; they run upon the
rocks, and go down in