darkness, no living soul hearing their cry. This
is the darkness which wrings from many a heart at this moment the
question of despair, "What has become, of God?"

The darkness regarding conduct in which men are involved has largely a
moral root. Men are blinded by their appetites and passions, so that
they cannot see the best ends and enjoyments of life. It is the strong
craving we have for gratifications of sense and of worldly desire that
misleads us in life. As some creatures have the faculty of emitting a
dark and turbid matter that discolours the water, and hides them from
their pursuers, so it is a self-evolved and home-made darkness that
involves us. False expectations are the atmosphere of our life; we live
in an unreal world created by our own tastes and desires, which
misinform us, and bid us seek the good of life where it is not to be
found.

It is then this light that Christ is and brings, light upon human life,
light upon all that most intimately concerns human character, human
conduct, and human destiny. What each of us chiefly needs to know is,
what is the best kind of human life--how can I best spend my energies,
and how can I best sustain them? Are there any results of life which are
satisfying and which are certain; and if so, how can I attain them? Do
not all things happen alike to all; is it not with the wise man and the
righteous as with the fool? Is life worth serious devotion; will it
repay what is spent upon it? Is not cynical indifference, or selfish
caring for present interests, the most philosophical as well as the most
pleasant and easy attitude towards life to assume? These are the
questions which we find answered in Christ.

The expression, "the light of life," may, however, have a somewhat
different meaning. It may mean that he who follows Christ shall have
that light which accompanies, and is fed by, the life which Christ
gives. At the outset of the Gospel John declared that "the Life was the
light of men." And this is true in the sense that they who accept Christ
as their life, and truly live in Him and by Him, walk in light and not
in darkness. The clouds and gloom which overhung their life are
dissipated. Their horizon is widened, their prospect cleared, and all
things with which they have presently to do are seen in their true
dimensions and relations. They who live with the life of Christ have a
clear light regarding duty. The man who has entered into the life Christ
opens to us