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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 2
Heaven.” In these words Jesus taught his disciples that if they wished
to direct others in the path of righteousness, their own example should
be correct, and their acts reflect the light of truth.
Moral disease abounds, and darkness covers the earth; but the
disciples of Christ are represented as lights shining amid the gloom of
night. Those rays reveal the dangers that lie in the sinner’s path, and
point the true way to righteousness and safety. If those who profess to
be Christ’s followers, and to have the light of truth, are not careful to
present that truth to others in a proper manner, those who are in the
darkness of error will see no beauty in it. In carrying a lantern on a dark
night, to light the way for one who is following, the bearer sometimes
becomes careless, and permits his person to interpose between the
light and the one whom he is guiding, and the darkness of the way
is rendered more intense to him from the temporary light that has
been shed upon it. So with many who essay to present the truth of
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God to others; they hide the precious light with their own defective
characters, which stand out darkly conspicuous in their deformity, and
turn many from the truth. The characters of the professed followers
of Christ should be so admirable, and their deeds so exemplary, that
the world will be attracted toward a religion that bears such fruits of
righteousness. They will thus be led to investigate and embrace its
principles from the fact that the lives of its representatives shine forth
with such holiness that they are the beacon lights of the world.
The Pharisees shut themselves away from the world, and thereby
made it impossible for them to exert an influence over the people of
the world; but Jesus names his disciples the “light the world.” Their
teachings and example are to scatter the clouds of error, and all nations
and people are to feel their influence. The religion of the Bible is not
to be confined between two covers nor within the walls of a church. It
is not to be brought out only occasionally simply for our own benefit,
and then carefully laid aside again, but it is to sanctify the daily life,
to manifest itself in every business transaction and in all the social
relations of life. Such a religion was in marked contrast with that of
the Pharisees, which consisted only in the hollow observance of rules
and ceremonies, and shed no ennobling influence over their lives.
Jesus was closely watched by spies, who were ready to seize any
unguarded word that might drop from his lips. The Saviour was well
aware of the prejudice existing in the minds of many of his hearers.