St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-12-13
found in the eighth, ninth, eleventh
and twelfth chanfers as we'll.

anu JWeuCl chapters dS WcAAs
Natural and Spiritual Light.-The
same hand which hung the great sur
in the heavens to give light and life
to the earth sent His Son into the
world to become the light and life
of the soul of man. Jesus calico
Himself the Light of the world be
cause His relations to the soul close
ly paralleled the relations which the
sun sustains to the earth, and thus
things and conditions in the natura
sphere illustrate and make plain pro
found spiritual truth. a. ..s...
The sun is the one universal source
of light to theworld. AS it rides In the
heavens it sheds its beams of light
upon every land and every people OF
the globe It wakens this land to the
activity of another day as its first rays
touch the mountain peaks and its ad.
vancing light chases away the dark
ness; from the easternmost tongue OF
land as it stretches out into the At.
lantic to the jutting promontories
cleaying the waters of the Pacific. II
sparkles on the waves of the rolling
ocean until their waters kiss the
shores of far-of Asia. It climbs the
table lands of China and penetrates
the Businesses of Tibet, where white
mans foot has never trod. It shines
above darkest Africa" and reveals
the sad scene of desola ton in the land
our Lord loved and where He declared
Himself the Light Of the world. II
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. 1t 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 its best
work or in the most benighted land
Every ancient nation, China, japan.
India, Egypt, Persia, has its gods and
its own religion, but each is peculiar
to its 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 jewellers in every land meet on
common ground in Christ and rejoice
in His light.
The sun gives life. Let the scien.
fist tell you what this world would
be without the sun. Take your health
lest and hardest plant and place it
in cold, dark, damp cellar. Visit it
in the course of few days, and be-
hold what change. The leaves have
turned from healthy green to sick
ly yellow, the stalk appears wilted and
unsteady. But take it out to the sun
light and let it drink in its lifegiving
heat and light, and in 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 GOODNESS 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. I'm 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
pel the darkness and call it into life.
Into the home at Bethany where
death had come and the beloved broth
er 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 whatsoever believeth 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
how the landscape appears grotesque
and misshapen, and nothing seems in
it's right proportions, but as the full
light of the sun bursts above the hori-
zon, revealing the landscape in all its
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 ma
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. Tn the dim. uncertain light of
mans natural mind nothing is seen
in it's right proportions. Human rea-
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-
sopal Devil, can Danish to oblivion the