gure of the lamp: 'Neither
do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, and
it giveth light to all that are in the house,'

Here let us meditate a moment. For what is a lamp or a man lighted? For
them that need light, therefore for all. A candle is not lighted for
itself; neither is a man. The light that serves self only, is no true
light; its one virtue is that it will soon go out. The bushel needs to
be lighted, but not by being put over the lamp. The man's own soul needs
to be lighted, but light for itself only, light covered by the bushel,
is darkness whether to soul or bushel. Light unshared is darkness. To be
light indeed, it must shine out. It is of the very essence of light,
that it is for others. The thing is true of the spiritual as of the
physical light--of the truth as of its type.

The lights of the world are live lights. The lamp that the Lord kindles
is a lamp that can will to shine, a soul that must shine. Its true
relation to the spirits around it--to God and its fellows, is its light.
Then only does it fully shine, when its love, which is its light, shows
it to all the souls within its scope, and all those souls to each other,
and so does its part to bring all together toward one. In the darkness
each soul is alone; in the light the souls are a family. Men do not
light a lamp to kill it with a bushel, but to set it on a stand, that
it may give light to all that are in the house. The Lord seems to say,
'So have I lighted you, not that you may shine for yourselves, but that
you may give light unto all. I have set you like a city on a hill, that
the whole earth may see and share in your light. Shine therefore; so
shine before men, that they may see your good things and glorify your
father for the light with which he has lighted you. Take heed to your
light that it be such, that it so shine, that in you men may see the
Father--may see your works so good, so plainly his, that they recognize
his presence in you, and thank him for you.' There was the danger always
of the shadow of the self-bushel clouding the lamp the Father had
lighted; and the moment they ceased to show the Father, the light that
was in them was darkness. God alone is the light, and our light is the
shining of his will in our lives. If our light shine at all, it must be,
it can be only in showing the Father; nothing is light that does not
bear him witness. The man that sees the glory of God, would turn sick at
the th