The Frost-Bound Lamp
WHILST returning home one Lord's Day evening, after preaching the gospel at the distance of some miles from my house, my way led me along a dark road. As I neared the village where I lived, I could see the lamps giving out their gleams of light. Those lights seemed to represent the Christians spoken of in Phil. 2: "Ye shine as lights in the world." Yes, there they stood in the dark winter's night, shining brightly, showing the traveler his way. But, on coming close to them, I observed that several lamps gave no light at all, and was told that they were frost-bound! Now there was the same power to feed one lamp as much as the other; but one shone, and the other gave out no light.
There is a picture here for the people of God, for whilst some are by the power of the Holy Ghost shining lights in this world, too many are like the frost-bound lamp. Oh, how many a believer in Christ is frost-bound by reason of the influences of the world upon him! Oh, how many have mixed up themselves with the world, and hence do not shine for Christ!
Fellow Christian, has this been your treatment of your Lord and Savior? If so, is not the frost-bound lamp a picture of you? Where is your testimony for Christ?—where your light ? A. E.