Evening star., 1960-03-13
SPIRES OF THE SPIRIT
The Inner Liqht
BY DR.. FREDERICK BROWN HARRIS
Chaplain Of the United States Senate

ccdICIllISIlIS sweep Jne earCh
and the heavens, modern life
in a hundred ways tends to
give priority to the outer
glare rather than to the in
ner glow.
Lent, the sacred journey
on which all Christendom
has now entered, has to do
primarily with personal in
trospection. 1t deliberately
turns away from all external
glamour in order to empha-
size that which matters most
the light within on the
altar Of the inner shrine.
The great mystics, espe-
cially George Fox, the
Quaker, have spoken much
regarding the cultivation of
"the inner light"
In the days Of Rome's
grandeur and glamour, we
are told that there were
Christians even in Caesars
household. To them, and to
other members of those first
Christian churches, st. Paul
wrote again and again, BE
sure you maintain the spirit
ual glow" The maintenance
Of that inner light is really
the theme of the whole New
Testament. Lent leads its
pilgrims to the climax of the
New Testament revelation as
they follow the footsteps of
the joyful Man of Sorrows"
even to the Cross.
1t is as if every book were
one book. and every chapter
one chapter, and every verse
one verse-all summed up in
that urgent admonition,
Keep the spiritual glow"
The men and women to whom
that word was constantly
sent were very ordinary folks.
To be sure, some of them
lived in the Eternal City
whose glory filled the skies
OF a vast empire. But none
of the names of those keepers
OF the inner light were listed
in the Who's Who of Rome. 4"
They were an obscure COM
pany of paupers meeting sur
reptitiously, doubtless on a
back street in a gloomy gar
ret. What sort of a glow could
there be in a crowd like that?
All, but have you ever seen
the tinted glory of the set
ting sun flung back in efful-
gent Splendor, from the COM
mon windows Of some dilap-
idated house up there on the
hillside? Have you seen what
happens to ordinary panes of
glass in a humble cottage in
such an hour when they have
caught the glow?
The New Testament is the
story of human lives who
have the glow of the Sun of
Righteousness with healing
in His wings-and with that
glow in their faces went out
to change the world. For
them life grew into a new
opulence. 1t was a life re-
deemed, enlarged, and en-
riched.
AS we follow their jubilant
feet we see that inner light
which no hardship or cruelty
could extinguish, no dark
ness put out, that radiance
which flashes and flames
across all the years since the
sacred weeks Lent observes.
1t is the glow of men and
women who have actually,
as their possession, the be-
quest which the Lord of Lent
left to each of His disciples
when, in the very shadow Of
the gallows Of that day, He
said: MY joy I give unto you
that my joy may be in you,
and our JOY may be full"
When we realize how many
in this goth century are
counted, at least statistically,
as Christians, but whose lives
are devoid of any such glow
so characteristic of those to
whom the Master said. "Ye
are the light of the world"
Is 1t any wonder that a great
contemporary prophet of the
church coined a phrase
which has often been quoted
in attempts to diagnose