eyeball is accidentally pressed in the blackness of midnight. But why do I speculate? Have ye never read in the Scriptures how that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, because of the glory of his countenance when the skin of his face shone (Ex. xxxiv. 29-35); how that the martyr Stephen's face, when he stood before the Council, shone as the face of an angel (Acts vi. 15); how that the Son of Man Himself, when He was praying, was transfigured, and the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His face shone as the sun, and His very raiment became exceeding white as the light, so as no fuller on earth can whiten (Matt. xvii. 1-8); how that Moses and Elijah also appeared with Him in glory (Luke ix. 30, 31)? Have ye never read in the Scriptures how that Gabriel declared to Daniel that they who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they who turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. xii. 3): or how that the Master Himself declares that in the end of the world the righteous shall shine forth as the sunay, shine forth-not in reflected light as the moon, but in original Light as the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father (Matt. xiii. 43)? Have ye never read in the Scriptures how that St. Paul tells us that when He, Who is our Life, shall appear, we too shall appear with Him in glory (Col. iii. 4): or how that we are to look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like the body of His glory-His effulgence (Phil. iii. 21)-thus translating us into the glorious liberty-the liberty of the splendor, of the children of God -even that hour of the manifestation, the revelation, the disclosure, of the sons of God-the hour of their shining apocalypse as God's Sons (Rom. viii. 21)? Ah, that is the blessed hour, O saint, when thou shalt indeed arise and

shine, thy light breaking forth as the dawn (Is. Iviii. 8). Ay, God is Light, and so also are God's children.

3.-Jesus Christ the Shadow of God.

Thirdly Jesus Christ Himself, as Incarnate, is the Shadow of God's Light. Infinite God, Deity as unconditioned and absolute, no man hath ever seen or can ever see, and live (Ex. xxxiii. 20). He dwelleth in Light which no man can approach unto (1 Tim. vi. 15), is Light itself. "Dark with excess of Light," we poor finite beings cannot behold Him except through the softening intervention of some medium. Therefore the Son of God, Brightness of His Glory and express Image of His Person (Heb. i. 3), Radiance of His Effulgence and Character or Impress of His Substance, became incarnate, that in the softer morning star and suffused dayspring of the Incarnation we might be able to look on the dazzling Father of Lights, and not be dazed into blindness. How bright Christ's inherent Glory was may be seen from the fact that when He had risen again, and appeared to Saul on his way to Damascus, His splendor was so effulgent that it actually smote the persecutor into blindness (Acts xxii. 11). The Eternal Word, Who in the beginning was, and was with God, and was God (John i. 1), laid aside for a while the Glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John xvii. 5), and became flesh (John i. 14), that through the mitigating veil of that flesh we might be able to gaze on the burning face of the Infinite One, and still live. The Incarnation was a benignant eclipse of the Light of Light, Christ's humanity casting its solemn, majestic shadow athwart the immensity of human time as His earthly nature swept in between Infinite God and finite man, thus graciously obscuring the otherwise intolerable, consuming Blaze. Wretched the man whom the god of this world has so

blinded that that eclipse becomes a total one! Blessed the man who, however profound the obscurity, still perceives the flashing corona of immortal Godhead! Yea, thrice blessed the man who abideth under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm xci. 1)! Thus Jesus Christ is the Shadow of God; and this in a twofold sense: a shadow of interception, and so obscuring God: and a shadow of representation, and so revealing God. Yea, that God, Who in the beginning commanded light to shine out of darkness, amid the night-palled chaos, saying, "Let Light be,” and, lo, Light was that same God hath shined in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. iv. 6).

the Light of the World.

Fourthly: But Jesus Christ is not 4.-Jesus Christ only the shadow or tempered image of God in the very act of becoming that shadow Jesus Christ also became the Light of the world (John viii. 12). Ah, how much the world needed His illumination! Verily, it was the land of darkness and the shadow of death-the land of darkness, as darkness itself, of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness (Job x. 21, 22). But, praised be Immanuel, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light; and they who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them Light hath shined (Matt. iv. 16). The Dayspring from on high hath visited us (Luke i. 78), and the Sun of Righteousness hath risen on us with healing in His wings (Mal. iv. 2). The Son of God is the true Prometheus, descending from the true Olympus, bringing down to this darkened, groping, chaotic world the blazing torch of Heaven's own fire. In His Light we see Light (Psalm xxxvi. 9). He is the true Light, which, coming into the world, is enlightening every man (John i. 9).

And He is enlightening every man through the manger in which He was laid, through the words He spake, through the works He wrought, through the example He set, through the character He was, through the death He endured, through the resurrection He won, through the throne He holds. This, in fact, was the secret of the Christ's mission into the world. The very purpose why the Spirit of the Lord God had anointed Him was that He might proclaim recovery of sight to the blind (Is. Ixi. 1) by becoming Himself the Light of men. True, the process of recovery has not been sudden: God knows it has been very gradual. In regaining our spiritual sight we, like the blind man of Bethsaida, at first see men as trees walking (Mark viii. 24). Saved though we are, Duty still calls us to delve as in mines of the earth. And so, as in the ancient Prophet's vision, for a long time it is neither day nor night but be of good cheer, O saint, at eventide it shall be light (Zech. xiv. 7). Yea, light is sown for the righteous (Psalm xlvii. 11): and, when in due time it is reaped, the harvest will be larger than the seed.

"We have but faith; we cannot know:

For knowledge is of things we see:
And yet, we trust, it comes from Thee,

A beam in darkness: let it grow." ("IN MEMORIAM.")

Ay, the path of the just is like the light of dawn, which shineth more and more till the perfect day-the meridian, eternal noon (Prov. iv. 18).

:

Fifthly As Jesus Christ is the 5. And so also is Light of the World, so also is His Church: He, clear as the sun, she, fair

His Church.

as the moon, both together resplendent as an army with

banners (Cant. vi. 10).

Little as the world dreams it, the

Church of the living God, everlastingly circling in the sweet gravitation of love around the shining Sun of Righteousness, and lustrous with His beams, is the world's true Pharos, majestically towering amid the wastes of time's immensity, flashing forth its rays,

"Like a shaft of light across the land,

And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Through all the circle of the Golden Year."

-(TENNYSON.)

Ah, there are times when you and I and the wisest of men, suddenly awaking to some great question concerning God, or Duty, or Eternity, feel the horror of a great darkness creeping over us (Gen. xv. 12). Whither shall we turn for guidance? To the phosphorescent light of Nature? Alas, it is but the dim lustre of the glow-worm, the transient sparkle of the firefly, the deceitful ignis fatuus of the marsh. Shall we turn to the artificial lights of the Academy? Alas, its flickering torches, and flaring flambeaux, and dazzling calcium lights, however brilliant and useful for this world, are quenched amid the spray of the surging billows of death. Whither then shall we turn for light? To that blessed halo, which, let down from the enthroned, radiant Son of God, encircles the head of the littlest of His babes. Ay, that is the Heaven-lighted aurora before which earth's most refulgent orb "pales its uneffectual fire." O children of the Eternal Father, hide not then your light (Matt. v. 14-16).

III.-In Conclu

sion.

Two thoughts in conclusion.

And, first, a word of cheer for the 1.-A Word of saint. Ye are sons of Light. Recall now how much Light means.

Cheer.

It means all that is most bright and clean and direct and open and unselfish and spotless and lovely and healthful and true