Newport weekly independent., 1902-11-07

IllmSeII the Light or the WOTlu. It sees the unrest of Europe and follows the shiploads of emigrants as they crowd into the gateway of the western world.
 Take the wings of imagination and mount up to the chariot of the sun, and ride with him over all the face of the earth. Peep into every land, mark every city as you pass, behold the teeming millions as they surge hither and thither; step from mountain peak to mountain peak and skip over the isles of the sea. The sun is known everywhere and welcomed right heartily. It is the only source of light.
 Jesus as the Light of the world is the one and only universal light illu- minating the moral darkness of the world, Where the Light of Jesus is not permitted to shine it is darkest America, and darkest Europe, and darkest Africa, and darkest Asia. Where the Light of Jesus is allowed to penetrate, there is the brightness of Eternal Life, whether it be in the enlightened land of America or in the iungles of India; whether in the places where civilization has wrought it's best work or in the most benighted land. Every ancient nation, China, Japan, India, Egypt, Persia, has it's gods and it's own religion, but each is peculiar to it's own land and people and can gain no foothold in other lands, but wonderful it is that the Light of Jesus shines for all. The most learned and the unlettered, the rich and poor, the dwellers in every land meet on common ground in Christ and rejoice in His light.
 The sun gives life. Let the scien- tist tell you what this world would be without the sun. Take your health jest and hardest plant and place it in a cold, dark, damp cellar. Visit it in the course of few days, and be- hold what a change. The leaves have turned from healthy green to sick ly yellow, the stalk appears wilted and unsteady. But take 1t out to the sun light and let it drink in it's lifegiving heat and light. and in a few days the plant regains it's vigor. What is the lesson of the fall and winter days in the northern climes? The trees are bare and lifeless, the grass is brown and dead and the flowers of the sum- mer time have faded and passed away. Why? Because the sun in his strength has ceased to shine and coldness and death follow. The life-giver has passed to the south and nature for the time being is dead.
 Jesus as the Light of the world gives life. "ln Him was life and the life was the Light of men," And as there is no other source of life for the nat ural world but in the sun, so in the spiritual realm there is life in none other than in the Light of the world. The natural condition of the soul of man is one of darkness and death, and only the Light of the Christ can dis pei the darkness and call it into life. Into the home at Bethany where death had come and the beloved broth CT lay rotting in his tomb, Jesus en- tered and the Light of His presence penetrated the tomb and called back to life again the one who three days before had died. And He who raised the physically dead declared that He was the resurrection and the Life and that whosoever belieyeth in Him should not taste death, but was passed from death unto life.
 The sun reveals. Did you never no- tice in the faint early morning light l. +I I, toe and misshapen, and nothing seems in its right proportions. but as the full light of the sun bursts above the hori- zon, revealing the landscape in all it's fullness and beauty. every tree and bush, every swaying branch and nod ding flower, stands out for just what it is. The light of the sun reveals na ture in all her attractiveness. But night settling down upon the scene shuts out all the detail and paints the landscape in one black, shapeless mass.
 Jesus as the Light of the world re- veals. In the dim. uncertain light of mans natural mind nothing is seen in its right proportions. Human req son distorts and changes. and every shade of belief, every misconception is made to appear clothed in righteous ness and truth. The human mind can argue away personal God and per sonal Devil, can banish to oblivion the reality of hell and throw open wide the gates of Heaven, and turn the broad road into universal thorough fare leading thereto. But it takes the Light of Jesus to dispel mental and moral misconceptions and to reveal things in their true relations and pro portions. The way is rough and un- certain. and the precipice is on either hand to those who walk in the dark ness of the world, but the Light which streams from Jesus presence leads on and on in plain path straight up to the throne of God. The human mind can store away Gods Word un- til it's reading is known from Genesis to Revelation. but without Jesus the Light to Illuminate it's truths it is shut book. The Devil can quote ScriDture with the most blatant in