The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-21
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
THE WORLDS LIGHT PRIVILEGES
OF MAN BECAUSE THEREOF.
By the Rev. John b. Wakefield, ID. D.,
Rector Emeritus Trinity Episco-
pal Chureh, San Jose, Cal.

upon this word light" in its application to
the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that
He came to do. 1t was of His coming that
the prophet Isaiah wrote when he said in
the above text: Thy light is come" 1t
was of Him that the older Balaam fore
told, as ''the star that should arise out of
Jacob" 1t was to Him that the prophet
Malachi applied the glorious title of THE
Sun of Righteousness" 1t was of Him
that Saint John spoke as 1.-THE true Light
that lighteth every man. Even in His
babyhood the aged Simeon was taught of
God TO rejoice in Him as "a light to tighten
the gentiles." When He was born God set
in the heavens the lesser light of a mys-
terious star to guide wise men from the
East into the presence of the greater light.
When He came to manhood and entered
upon the work of His ministry He spake
of himself as the light of the world.
Light and arkness are used as synonyms
of good and evil to-day. The good man is
said to walk in the light, and the bad man
to walk in darkness. BY those who lived
before the coming of Christ. and who knew
nothing of the law that in so many things
prefigured Him, light was taken as the
figure of what was pure and good, and
darkness as that of what was evil and
needed in shame to hide itself. There is
some element of truth and goodness in
most of the old religions. When men wor-
SHIPPED the sun and the stars there was in
that worship something that was inspiring
and ennobling. Degradation did not come
to a man through religion until he began
to defy his own vices and to make a god
of himself and of the things that he could
make subservient to his own desires.
In the worship of light there was an ele-
ment Of truth. a yearning after something
higher than had been already attained, to
which yearning God gave heed when He
sent His Son into the world to become
mans light.
LESSONS TO BE GATHERED.
What, then, are some Of the plain and
practical lessons that We can gather from
this word 'Iight?" Well, whatever mys-
ferrous things can be said about light, and
these are many, we can say this plain thing
about it. that Ii is the medium through
which we see all things. Light is the great
revealer. We can never know the beauty
Of the beautiful things with which Gods
universe abounds except through the me-
dunn of the Light. The part of Christ's
work to which the word light more espe-
cially points is the teaching part of that
work. With His work of willing sacrifice
the word "love" is more fifty associated,
but every enlargement of knowledge
wrought by Him, every new truth taught
US, and every old truth brought more close
ly home to us, is a part Of His work as the
light Of the world.
And by common consent even of those
who do not choose to walk in His light, If
they have in them anything of truth and
candor, He is acknowledged as pre-eminent
among the worlds teachers. They were
not disciples of His, but enemies, who
came back to their masters with the testi-
mony: Never man spake like this man"
and enemies as we'll as friends nave con-
tinued to echo that testimony down to our
own times.
1.-The Light of the World He called him
to come to His light should be debarred or
forbidden; that 10 come into His light is
not the peculiar privilege of one nation or
people, but the common privilege of all men
who will to come.
When we note how nearly coterminous
are the words civilization and Christianity
1t would seem almost as IL the light of
Christ had Illuminated all the paths Of
knowledge, as II He had taught men
science and philosophy, as well as religion.
There may be something in the thought
that God is more willing to unlock the
secrets of science to those who seek to pen
citrate them in reverent spirit, giving glory
to Him; and that men are more likely to
find a true philosophy when they give to
Him His place Of pre-eminence in that sys-
TEN. But there are irreverent scientists
enough to keep us from making overmuch
Of that thought; and there is enough of
corrupt and goddess civilization to keep us
from accounting civilization and Christian
ity as words of the same meaning.
So the word light" as applied to our
Lord. needs some limitation. He did not
come to guide men into the mysteries of
physical science. He brought no revela-
ton about these mysteries to put a check
upon human effort and research, and a pre-
MUM upon human Incidence. What man
can find out, or does not need to find out,
Christ leaves him to seek for, or to do
without. What man needs for the right
working out Of his destiny, to make him
the sort of man that God wants him to be-
that Christ came to teach him. Sc the
word light. in it's application to Christ,
is joined with and limited by the word
life" I'm Him was life, and the life was
the light of man," He that followeth me
shall have the light of life"
1t is upon our human life, upon its ORR
gin, its destiny, and its pathway of duty
and privilege, that the Christ came to shed
His light.
NO EVOLUTION.
The origin of human life-what is that,
according to the light of Christian teach
ing? Did man struggle up by a slow de-
there be a difference between him and
other living things, it Is a difference made
by his own toll and effort, and he may
pride himself on having realized the sur
vival Of the %fittest, and in that pride may
know no need of other religion than that
Of rehabilitation? Nay, man came from
the hand of God. bearing the stamp of the
divine image, pre-eminent over all other
creatures from the very start.
And what Is mans destiny, according 10
the light of Christ? Is it TO die like dumb
beasts and be forgotten, and to know no
life beyond death? Nay. 1t Is to 60 back
to the God who made him, clothed upon
with a glorious and unfading body, such as
we know not how to picture in this earthly
life.
And what is mans privilege. In this life
that he now lives? 1t is to walk this earth
In the thankful consciousness of HE divine