November 4

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. - 1 John 1:5.

LIGHT is perhaps the most perfect image of the Supreme Being. Light illuminates; it derives its name from its discoveries:-“ That which makes manifest is light.” Then may God well be called “light,” for he it is who makes us “wise unto salvation.” He it is who, by his Spirit, leads us into all truth, as it is written:-“But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

Secondly, Light rejoices the eyes. “Light is sweet,” says Solomon, “and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” David says, “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance, in thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.”

Thirdly, Light is pure. Of all bodies light is the most pure. Other things are polluted. The air, the earth, and the water are all contaminated; but the rays of light are uncorrupted. Let the light shine upon a dunghill, or upon a dead body, or on any putrid mass, and it contracts no pollution from it. Well, therefore, may God be called light. “He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” “He is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” And, though his providence is universally exercised, infinite wisdom is combined with infinite holiness throughout the universe of God. Observe, also, that this message excludes all darkness; for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

This shows the supremacy of God and his sovereign perfection, in distinction from all orders of his creatures. Christians are all “children of the light and of the day;” but we cannot say of any of them that in them “is no darkness at all.” Angels are proverbial for their wisdom and rectitude; but, says Elihu, “He charged his angels with folly.”

There is none holy as the Lord; therefore says Job, “Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer thee?” Therefore says Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”