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The Desire of Ages
“Ye are the light of the world.” The Jews thought to confine the
benefits of salvation to their own nation; but Christ showed them that
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salvation is like the sunshine. It belongs to the whole world. The
religion of the Bible is not to be confined between the covers of a
book, nor within the walls of a church. It is not to be brought out
occasionally for our own benefit, and then to be carefully laid aside
again. It is to sanctify the daily life, to manifest itself in every business
transaction and in all our social relations.
True character is not shaped from without, and put on; it radiates
from within. If we wish to direct others in the path of righteousness,
the principles of righteousness must be enshrined in our own hearts.
Our profession of faith may proclaim the theory of religion, but it is our
practical piety that holds forth the word of truth. The consistent life,
the holy conversation, the unswerving integrity, the active, benevolent
spirit, the godly example,—these are the mediums through which light
is conveyed to the world.
Jesus had not dwelt on the specifications of the law, but He did
not leave His hearers to conclude that He had come to set aside its
requirements. He knew that spies stood ready to seize upon every word
that might be wrested to serve their purpose. He knew the prejudice
that existed in the minds of many of His hearers, and He said nothing
to unsettle their faith in the religion and institutions that had been
committed to them through Moses. Christ Himself had given both the
moral and the ceremonial law. He did not come to destroy confidence
in His own instruction. It was because of His great reverence for
the law and the prophets that He sought to break through the wall of
traditional requirements which hemmed in the Jews. While He set
aside their false interpretations of the law, He carefully guarded His
disciples against yielding up the vital truths committed to the Hebrews.
The Pharisees prided themselves on their obedience to the law; yet
they knew so little of its principles through everyday practice that to
them the Saviour’s words sounded like heresy. As He swept away the
rubbish under which the truth had been buried, they thought He was
sweeping away the truth itself. They whispered to one another that
He was making light of the law. He read their thoughts, and answered
them, saying,—
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I
am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Here Jesus refutes the charge