February 28

I am the light of the world.—John 8:12.

LIGHT is one of the most beautiful creatures which God has created, and one of the most striking images of his glorious self. It is a fine emblem of the purity of his character, and of his boundless knowledge. Whatever glories belong to the Father, belong also to the Son. The Apostle says, "God is light, and in him dwelleth no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5.) Jesus here claims the same glorious distinction, and says, "I am the light of the world." The world was in darkness and ignorance. Ignorance covered the earth, yea gross ignorance the hearts of the people. Chaotic gloom brooded over the minds of all mankind. To dispel this, was one grand design of Messiah's appearance. Hence he was predicted as the Morning Star, and the Sun of righteousness who should arise upon our world, with healing in his wings. Thus he did appear, and by the glorious doctrines of his gospel, brought life and immortality to light. He made manifest man's state, and peril, and helplessness, and also revealed the only way, by which he might be delivered from perishing, and obtain everlasting life. The world was in the darkness of uncertainty. As men by mere natural wisdom could not find out the true character of God, neither could they obtain any certain ground of hope as to their future destiny. All before them was dark and gloomy, not a ray was thrown across the profound futurity. Christ became the light of hope to the world. He assured men that there was another, and a better world; and he laid a solid basis for all their hopes to rest upon respecting it. He positively declared, whosoever received him as the sent of the Father, should have eternal life, that where he was they should be also. As the consequence of ignorance and uncertainty, the world was in the darkness of wretchedness. Men possessed no solid good; they had nothing to cheer in life, nothing to comfort in affliction, nothing to support in death. Christ became the light of peace and joy. He came to annihilate the distressing fears of the heart, and to give peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; he came to illumine the mind, to sanctify the soul, to console the heart. How glorious is Christ as the light of the world; how universal his resplendent beams! What knowledge, and hope, and felicity, arise from his heavenly rays; how anxious we should be, that we be found, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and thus that we be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.